Because of a recent heart attack and other health issues, I’ve had to suspend my genealogy research — temporarily I hope!
I’m also have to discontinue my upkeep of this blog, including responding to comments and email.
I’ll be back as soon as I can and we’ll continue to explore the fascinating story of the Bigham / Bingham / Biggum family trees!
Barbara Bigham
Headstone of Frank and Alma (Gober) Bigham
I searched for months to find any shred of information on my great-great grandparents, Franklin M. and Alma Gober Bigham, but ended up with little to show for my efforts. I hit brick walls at every turn and know less about them than I do about my fourth great grandfather, William.
I suppose I should be glad to have been able to — at the very least — determine who their parents and children were. Still, it feels as though that whole part of my family history is shrouded behind a thick mist. They were links in the Bigham chain, but they had to be so much more than that.
Interestingly (or should I say ‘ironically’?), a sorrowful pattern repeats itself in the Franklin’s life. He was just four years of age when his father was killed in the Civil War, and his own children were between 6 and 16 years-old when he died.
I’ve posted what little I was able to find out about Franklin and I’ll continue to do research in hopes of learning more. As always, if anyone has additional information about him, Alma or any other Bighams in this line, I invite you to contact me. Together, we may piece together the puzzle that was their lives.
I want to give everyone the heads up that the page on Leonidas Bigham is posted. In a family where most males lived long and procreated much, Lee was the exception. He was killed during the battle of Chickamauga in the Civil War, at about age 24, leaving only two sons behind to carry on the line.
As I turn my attention to one of those sons — my great-grandfather Franklin Monroe Bigham — I realize that in some ways it’s easier to research more distant ancestors than it is to find out about fairly contemporary relatives. There are dozens (probably hundreds) of people doing genealogical research on William Bigham, the first generation American Bigham who fought in the Civil War and had at least six children. They’ve scoured land deed records and searched out every gravestone.
The next generation — William’s son, Hugh Braly Bigham — was a goldmine of legacy, since Hugh fathered at least 19 children. If each of those kids only had an average of 5 children of their own (and knowing the Bighams, that’s a very conservative estimate!), we’re talking 95 grandchildren for Hugh. Carry that down through to the current generation and there are about 60,000 direct ancestors of Hugh Bigham alone. That’s a lot of potential family researchers accumulating and sharing information.
But by the time I get to my more immediate ancestors, the pool is thinning down. In fact, at all the major genealogy sites I use (ancestry.com, footnote.com, archives.com, oneworldtree, etc.) I am the ONLY person I’ve been able to find who’s tracing the Bigham line through Leonidas!
I was recently lucky enough to make a connection with a woman who’s researching my paternal grandmother’s lineage and actually had some information on my grandmother, grandfather and some of their family members. Yet, this is as close as I’ve gotten so far. Perhaps that’s the real challenge of genealogy: learning about the people who have been all but forgotten by “history.”
I’ve got my work cut out for me with Franklin Monroe Bigham, Leonidas’ son! I have found almost no information about him other than a gravestone with the date of his birth and death (and that of his wife, Alma Gober). Talk about hitting a brick wall. But, as I’ve found out from doing this research on my family tree, I come from strong and perserving stock. My ancestors didn’t give up in the face of adversity — and neither will I!
I’ve just finished the page on Hugh Braly Bigham, my great-great-great-grandfather. With 19 or so kids to keep track of, it was a real challenge (as I’m sure it was for him and their mothers) but also very interesting. He lived during a fascinating era of American history, part of the western pioneer movement that expanded the borders of our nation. I could picture him traveling in wagons with his family from the half-settled state of Tennessee to the true “wilderness” of the brand new state of Arkansas, using a raft to carry the wagon and all his belongings — including his prize rosewood piano — over the river.
Still, despite the information we DO have about Hugh Braly and his family, he remains a somewhat shadowy figure since very little is known about him personally. I’ve delved into as many family histories as I could find, and received a wealth of information from many generous “cousins” online, but what we know about Hugh Braly is mostly dry dates and places: where he lived, the names of his children, what land he bought.
Can you imagine coming up on a stack of letters like these from Hugh Braly or his family? What a treasure that would be!
I envy those people who clean out their attic and come across an old diary from their great granny, or a stack of letters from some almost-forgotten ancestor, or even some dusty daguerreotypes.
Until we discover more personal facts about Hugh, we have to do a lot of “supposing” … but that can be part of the fun. Based on what we know of the times in which he lived, we can make some interesting guesses about his life, and then take wild leaps of imagination to fill in the blanks.
I think my theories as to why the 1860 census is so filled with errors … and my speculation about the cause of his death … are both within the realm of possibility. But we may never know the truth!
If you see any errors or have any info to add, PLEASE leave a comment or e-mail me. I’d love to hear from you.
While doing research on William, I came across an interesting — but mysterious — reference to two Bigham women who ran a hotel in York Spring, Penn., some time between 1740 and 1830. Who were they? I don’t know, but I have enjoyed creating scenarios about them. The story about them doesn’t belong in any of the set categories for my family tree, but it’s just too good not to pass on. So, I’ve started a page called “&tc.” where I’ll put these stray tales and tidbits. Feel free to send me any oddball stories you’d like to feature on the page. It doesn’t matter if the people are in my particular branch of the tree — as long as it’s about Bighams (or even Binghams, Biggums, et. al.).
