On Nov 19, 1857, Henry S. Randolph married Eliza Bateson in Fulton County.
On Jul 28, 1859, the same Eliza Bateson (now Mrs. Eliza Randolph) married Daniel Lybarger, also in Fulton County.
Eliza had at least two children. One of them, Nancy Jane, was my paternal great grandmother.
Nancy has left a trail of clues, but for the life of me I can't figure her out.
She had a total of (at least) six children...to my knowledge...it's her marriages I can't figure out. She may have been married twice...and possibly three times.
She appears in the 1860 Census, in Oakland Township in Schuyler County, in a household comprised of four persons: the head, Daniel Lybarger (age 60), Eliza Lybarger (age 37), Nancy J. Lybarger (age 1/12), and Robert Randolph (age 8). It would appear that Nancy is the daughter of Daniel & Eliza and that Robert is the son of Henry Randolph & Eliza. No problem, right?
When Nancy grew up & married...it begins to get complicated. When she married my great grandfather (Thomas Grundy Myers) on Jun 23, 1892 in McDonough County, she was Mrs. Nancy Jane Randolph, not Nancy Jane Lybarger.
That's right...Randolph. Just like her step-father...or was he actually her father?...
Thomas & Nancy had five children, among them my paternal grandmother, Goldie Pearl Myers.
Nancy also had another son...Charles Aubrey Lyberger.
If she was already Mrs. Randolph when she married Mr. Myers, who was Mr. Lyberger?????
I can find no record of another marriage.
Charles Aubrey Lyberger, the son in question, was born on May 17, 1889 in Macomb in McDonough County. Nancy's other five children were all born later. Her marriage to Mr. Myers occurred on Jun 23, 1892, and their first child, Dwight Myers, was born Dec 28, 1893.
So, I can't figure out: did she marry a relative...twice? Was it a coincidence that both of her married names were the same as the names in her own family? Did she have a child before she married, and was his name the same as her own for that reason? (Doesn't really seem so...keep reading...)
I have the records from the funeral home for Charles Aubrey's death and burial. The information they had was all supplied by my grandmother, Goldie Pearl. (If something needed to be "fudged" she would have been able to do so...) Goldie Pearl took care of Charles in his later years. He was her half-brother...he was probably mildly retarded...I remember him from my childhood. He was very gentle and simple. The funeral records list, as his father, Ray E. Lyberger. Other than the funeral records, I find no other trace of him. I find no birth record, no marriage record, no death, no burial site, no military service, no census listing, nothing. If they were married, it had to have been her first marriage, then Mr. Randolph and Mr. Myers would have been husbands # 2 & 3.
It has always been understood, in our family, that my grandmother (Goldie Pearl) grew up in a "Yours, Mine & Ours" family...and that it was "complicated"...
If Nancy did, indeed, marry him, it would have been a case of Nancy Jane Lybarger marrying Ray E. Lyberger. Were they cousins? Or was it just a coincidence...
In searching for information, I have found many individuals whose names are Lyberger or Lybarger. No one ever seems to fit into the right time frame and family group at the same time. I was hoping that someone in Fulton County or the surrounding area could shed some light on this subject for me. There's probably a very simple, uncomplicated explanation...
