Big Surprise Waitin’ For You!

Today, March 7, 2025 would be my mother's 99th birthday. She learned to be a caretaker starting in early childhood.

Here's a photo of the Snyder family about 1935 in the front yard of their farmhouse on Pleasant Home Church Road, Millers Creek, Wilkes County, NC.

Back row: Tom (W.T. Snyder) and Neil (age 13).
Front row: Nora holding Ralph (age 3), Carrie (age 9) holding Bette (age 1), Kathy (age 6).

Neil was the oldest child but gender roles were strictly enforced. As Tom and Nora’s oldest daughter, Carrie’s chores included looking after her younger siblings. First Kathy, born when Carrie was 3. Three years later, Ralph came along. The other children could play outside after dinner, but Carrie had to rock the baby until he closed his eyes. She blew lightly on Ralph’s eyelids, then dashed outside. Sometimes it worked!  Bette arrived in 1934; Carrie was 8. Carrie wrote:

I remember the nights after supper, we all played “Ain’t no bears out tonight, Papa killed them all last night.”  At dusk we were scared. Mama usually made me sit on the back porch and rock the baby to sleep. I would hurry to put the baby into bed so I could play. If I quit rocking too quick the baby cried and Mama would call me back in. By the time the baby was really sound asleep, I was too scared to go into the yard.

While walking home from school in the spring of 1936, a neighbor lady called out “Carrie Mae, you better hurry on home! Your mama and daddy got a big surprise waitin’ for you!” Carrie then walked as slowly as she could because the last time that lady said there was a big surprise, Bette was the surprise. So Carrie figured there was another baby for her to take care of. Instead, they got a radio!  All the neighbors came over to hear it. Tom told them it didn’t work at night so they would go home and not stay for dinner. Carrie loved the music and comedy and stories. The radio was much better than another baby! 

Charlie and Lily's Story

My grandmother Nora told me a story she heard from her mother Eva Jarvis. Eva said that when she was a little girl, her older brother Charlie and younger sister Lily died the same week from diphtheria.

Eva was born in 1873, long before birth and death certificates were required in North Carolina (1913). I don’t have the family Bible. No newspapers in Wilkes County have survived prior to 1890. So where could I turn to prove or disprove this story?

Everyone is familiar with the U.S. census population schedule. But did you know that there are additional schedules? In 1880, the “mortality” schedule listed all people who died within the year prior to the census enumeration day. In other words, it listed the people who died between June 1, 1879, and May 31, 1880. In Wilkes County, I found Charlie and Lily’s deaths on the mortality schedule!

From left to right in this image:

• 11 is the household number on the population schedule for the Richard F. Jarvis household. Richard was the father of Charlie, Eva, Lily, and many other children.
• Jarvis C.C. was Charles Clinton Jarvis, age 9, male, white, unmarried.  
• He was born in N.C. as were his father and mother.
• The occupation column has a dash.
• He died in September (1879) of diphtheria.
• The next line shows Jarvis L.P. (Lily Prudence), age 4, died the same month.

It’s always a good idea to look for all possible records for a family. Charlie and Lily were born after the 1870 census so the 1880 mortality schedule is the only record of them. They must have had gravestones (their father was a Baptist minister) but I have not found them.

By checking the mortality schedule, I was able to confirm this sad story. It must have been so hard for my great-grandmother Eva, age 7, to lose her closest siblings. They are gone but not forgotten.

Source:

1880 U.S. census, Wilkes County, North Carolina, non-population schedule, Mortality and Manufacturing, Wilkesboro, enumeration district (ED) 214; digital images, Ancestry.com (http://www.Ancestry.com : accessed 22 Apr 2012); citing National Archives and Records Administration microfilm M1805, roll 5, lines 2 & 3, C.C. Jarvis and L.P. Jarvis.

2025 Genealogy Goals

My number 1 goal is to join lineage societies including the

• National Society of the Daughters of the American Revolution (DAR)
• United Daughters of the Confederacy (UDC)
• National Society United States Daughters of 1812
• First Families of Tennessee

I’m 99% sure I can join these societies immediately. I will keep an eye out for more societies.

Why join? They will preserve the documentation I send as proof of my lineage. Other relatives will be able to use this documentation for research and possibly to join the society themselves. Also, they have local meetings where I can make friends with people with similar interests.

2. Write my next book! So far, I’ve only published one book – about my grandparents (Tom and Nora Snyder). I’ve researched and written chapters for the Whittington, Faw, Wagner, Stout, McNeil, Nichols, Jarvis, and Pardue lines.  I need to gather them and create an index. My plan is to upload them to Lulu.com where relatives and others can buy them. I will donate copies to several libraries.

3. Scan family photos and documents and upload them to websites including Ancestry.com, FamilySearch.org, Find-a-Grave.com, and others. This is a great way to preserve and share the documents.

4. Teach genealogy! I’ve taught 7 classes (from 3 to 6 weeks each) at the lifelong learning institute at N.C. State University. I’d like to continue that as long as it’s fun and they want me to continue!

5. Serve on the board of the Wake County Genealogical Society (currently, I am the President).

6. Keep learning about DNA, my DNA matches, and participate in the DNA SIG of the Wake Co Gen Soc.

7. Learn more about genealogy by attending webinars and local events. My favorites are Legacy Family Tree Webinars, the Tennessee Genealogical Society, the N.C. Genealogical Society, and of course, the Wake County Genealogical Society here in Raleigh!

8. My final goal for 2025: Post more on this blog!