Even though Amanda Warren Goodwin had only a short presence in our family tree, she had a very important one, since she is the mother of John Thomas Goodwin, who would later have his own son, Franklin Lee Goodwin....and for that we are forever grateful to Amanda.
As I mentioned in my last post, information on our great grandmother is very limited. She was the daughter of John H. Warren and Mary Elizabeth (Benson) Warren. I have not been able to find any documentation of her birth, we can only "assume" the year of her birth by looking at the census reports and making logical assumptions.. I am also going to guess here, just because many women during that era did it, that she named our grandfather, John Thomas Goodwin, after his grandfather, John Warren.
The first time that I find actual documentation on Amanda Warren, she appears in the 1870 census report in Humphrey's County, Tennessee, Civil District 3. She is listed as the 6 year old daughter of John and Mary Warren, which would roughly put her birth year around 1864. She lives in the home with her seven siblings: William (20), Henry (18), John (16), Sarah (12), Samuel (10), Mary Jane (8), and Cordelia (2). Another sister, Viola, would be born after this census. As a side note, Amanda's older sister, Mary Jane would later grow up and marry Felix Goodwin's older brother, Robert Carroll Goodwin.
Amanda shows up again in the 1880 Census, and she is listed as age 14 which would put her birth year at 1866. So really, we are just making deductions on her actual birth date. We can guess roughly between 1864 and 1866. However, when I look at her marriage bond, I have to assume she is 18 since she didn't have a parent sign consent for underage (which would have been required). Since she married in the year 1884, I am going to guess that she was born sometime in 1866. I am told by other genealogists that census takers during that time were notoriously inaccurate when recording members of the household, so it would not be surprising if the wrong age was put down on one of the census reports.
There were four children born to Felix and Amanda during their short time together. First was daughter Bertha (1885), Harry W (1888), Lura Belle (1893) and John Thomas (1895).
Sadly, there are no 1890 census records available for this area. I went looking for the reason why I was unable to locate anything and I found the following information:
"A federal census was taken in the United States in 1890, but a large percentage of the records were destroyed by a January 1921 fire at the Commerce Building in Washington, DC. Many organizations, including the National Genealogical Society and Daughters of the American Revolution petitioned that the remaining damaged and waterlogged volumes be preserved. Despite this public outcry, however, thirteen years later the Census Bureau destroyed the remaining 1890 schedules. In the 1940s and 1950s a few bundles of surviving census schedules from 1890 were discovered and moved to the National Archives. A devastating tragedy for U.S. genealogists, just 6,160 names were recovered from these surviving fragments of a census which originally counted nearly 63 million Americans."
So, all we know as facts are that Amanda gave birth to her last baby, John Thomas, in November, 1895 and that by May 28th, 1899 Felix is married to his second wife, Nora Shaver. In the 1900 census report, Nora is listed as a wife of one year and mother to Amanda's four children in the home.
As with her birth, Amanda's death is even more of a mystery. Some guesses? Well, there were many epidemics present during the mid- 1800's through to the early 1900's and the practice of medicine was relatively primitive. There was an outbreak of cholera during the late 1800's in the Tennessee area; influenza was widespread and deadly; both Yellow Fever and Scarlett fever were common, and as I mentioned, with medicine not very advanced, there is always the possibility of death from complications from childbirth (Amanda would have still been in her childbearing years).
While I would really love to find a death certificate, I am not holding out too much hope of that happening. At this point, this is the extent of my knowledge about our great grandmother Goodwin. I did notice in the 1900 census, Felix and his new wife, Nora, appear just before the census report of Amanda's older brother, William Warren and his family, meaning that they were neighbors. How awkward would that be? I am guessing Nora Goodwin would not have been too anxious to go knock on that door to borrow a cup of sugar!
What I wouldn't give to have an hour....now wait, lets make that a day, to sit down and talk with some of these ancestors and ask all of my questions. To know how they lived their daily lives would be incredible!
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