Surname Saturday - Perkins

A line in my family tree that I continue to neglect is that of my Rome Ancestors

For the time being, I’m still focusing on trying to penetrate the 1870 brick wall of Jasper and Jane Pierce, 2^nd great grandparents via my maternal grandmother, and the 1870 brick wall of my 3^rd great grandparents, Frank and Venus Everett, via my paternal grandmother. However, when I’ve temporarily exhausted ideas of where to turn next to bring those walls down, I usually begin to focus on other areas of my tree, wondering what became of the various collateral lines.

One of those collateral lines is Great Grand Aunt Penny Rome, my granddad’s, LC Hosch, maternal aunt.

Aunt Penny was one of my Great Grandmother’s, Sally Rome Hosch, younger sisters. Aunt Penny married Wesley (Wes) L. Perkins in Walton County, GA on 22 March 1894.

The 1900 Federal Census, which was the first census after they were married, shows them living in Walton County, GA with the following children: Ruf, Ennis, Wayman, and Maud.

The 1910 Federal Census shows them still to be living in Walton County, GA.

Aunt Penny and Uncle Wes now have nine children: Rufus, Ennis, Wayman, Maud, Calvin, Clifford, Annie, Ophelia, and Ruth M.

After the 1910 census I lose track of Aunt Penny, at least in Walton County, GA, but thanks to Ancestry’s shaking leaves, I’ve long suspected that Aunt Penny migrated to Arkansas. About a year ago, I saw the shaking leaf. My first thoughts were it had to be Aunt Penny. It was just too much of a coincidence that there was a Wesley and Penny Perkins on the 1920 census living in Pulaski County, AR, who were born in GA around the same time as Aunt Penny and her husband Uncle Wesley Perkins and whose children had the exact same names as those listed on the 1900 and 1910 censuses for Walton County, GA and who were also born in GA.

As I focused most of 2010 on trying to bring down those monumental 1870 brick walls on the lines mentioned above, I put Aunt Penny on the back burner. Recently though, my curiosity with regard to Aunt Penny was aroused when I came across another tree on Ancestry that contained the suspected Aunt Penny and unlike a lot of trees I come across on Ancestry, this one actually made sense. As this could possibly be one of my Great Grand Aunt’s descendants, I desperately wanted to make contact, but I needed to be sure that the Penny Perkins that appeared in the 1900 and 1910 censuses in Walton County Georgia was indeed the same Penny Perkins in 1920 Pulaski County Arkansas.

I initially thought about sending away for the SS-5 Application of a Wayman Perkins who died in 1980 in Conway, Faulkner, AR. This could possibly be her son but I decided against ordering the SS-5 and instead went a different route after finding what appeared to be Aunt Penny listed in the Arkansas Death Index. This Penny Perkins died in 1937. As death certificates usually cost less than SS-5 applications, I checked out the Arkansas Department of Health website to get all the particulars on ordering a death certificate. Per the website, death records that are more than 50 years old can be released to the public. Thankfully, this death certificate met the criteria. The cost for a death certificate was $10.00.

When Aunt Penny’s death certificate arrived the week of Sept. 12, 2011, I had literally forgotten about my request for her death certificate. I was excited and didn’t even wait until I got in the house to open the envelope. Sometimes, before you even open an envelope of requested documentation, you just know you’ve scored one for the ancestors. This is how I felt as I ripped open the envelope containing Aunt Penny’s death certificate. Never the less, I still braced myself just in case the information I sought, the names of her parents, was not on the death certificate.

There it is. Her dad is Wyatt Rome. The informant was her son Calvin Perkins. I’m so thankful that Calvin knew the name of his grandfather, my 2^nd great grandfather. I’m also grateful that he saved his 1^st cousin twice removed the expense of having to write for an SS-5 application.

Now that I’ve confirmed the relationship, my next step is to contact the owner of the tree, and try to connect with this forgotten / unknown branch of the tree. Hopefully, I’ll finally be able to record a successful reaching out experience. So far, I’ve not had much success in this department. Wish me luck.