BEGATS AND BEQUEATHALS

Or, Subtitled: “Died at the ripe old age of 85 years at the residence of her son, J. C. Harville”

As the previous posting states, the combined succession documents of James G. Birdwell and his wife Aletha Leonard give us the names of the six youngest children of James and Aletha: Dewitt Clinton, Thomas, Camilla, Frances C., Sophronia, and Mary Ann. Proof that James and Aletha had a daughter Elvira (who was their oldest child) is found in a Natchitoches Parish court case filed by Elvira’s second husband Samuel Kerr Green; that case is discussed in the linked posting. Proof that Hannah Birdwell, who married 1) Hardin Harville and 2) Ezekiel Samuel Green, was another of James and Elvira’s daughters is found in Hannah’s marriage contract when she married Hardin Harville, which states that she was James Birdwell’s daughter. And proof that John B. Birdwell was James and Aletha’s son is found in a permission note John wrote on behalf of his family when his sister Camilla married Ezekiel Samuel Green. As the posting linked above also notes, Thomas Dunlap Leonard’s “Biography of the Leonards” indicates that James and Aletha had four sons, none of them grown when James and Aletha died, but I have found information about only three sons.

In what follows, I’ll share information about the first three children of James G. and Aletha Birdwell , with postings to follow about the next six children: