As I search the records of my ancestors I notice that there are times I get quite frustrated. The records before 1750 are confusing and rarely are women even mention. Maryland genealogy is the most frustrating for everyone is fighting to be related to a certain group of people. Why even do the genealogy, I thought, since for hundreds of years no one yet has figured out the people of Colonial Maryland? So many people have researched Colonial Maryland so why should I give it a try?

I was reading a biography on Chaucer and then I realized that history, including family history is never dead.  The book is written by a Chaucer scholar and in the preface he explains that he thought all of the information on Chaucer was aready found and the biographies were already written by the 1960s. As the years went on, mistakes have been found, years were seen as incorrect and new discoveries just in the past 40 years have opened up new information on Chaucer. I also did some reading on the Pipe Rolls of England. Officially the records begin in 1130. Recently, however, more rolls were found back to 1124 opening up new information.

So that is why family history must continue. New items might be found, and common stories passed down through the generations will be seen as myths. Reading the biography of Chaucer gave me new hope. I plan to start back over with the Maryland genealogy with what I know as fact and research the gaps that currently have been filled with myth.

This is what I know

Alexander Magruder had a wife named Sarah. They were good friends with the Bealls, Clagetts, and Taylors among others. Alexander died in 1677. He had sons named James, John, and Samuel. Sons Alexander and Nathaniel and a daughter Elizabeth had a different mother named Elizabeth. He was a Magruder who lived on Drummond lands in Scotland not a MacGregor that we can see at this time.

Samuel also married a woman named Sarah. After Samuel’s death, Sarah was still active in her comunity and appears in court several times. There are business transactions (with slaves) between herself and several other prominent men in Prince George’s county. I just read one between Sarah and Thomas Clagett concerning the birth of an illegitimate child by one of her servants. Thomas Clagett received the child in his care. Sarah and Samuel Magruder’s  children married into the prominent families of Maryland and her daughter married the son of Col. Ninian Beall. Her grandchildren by this daughter were very dear to her. She also cared for another granddaughter, Sarah Clagett. I just found records showing that her mother Mary Magruder Clagett had died and her father, George Clagett was in prison. (for debt?) Sarah Clagett is mentioned in Sarah Magruder’s will.

Sarah and Samuel Magruder had a son named Ninian Magruder named after his family’s good friend, Ninian Beall. He married Elizabeth Brewer who is related to the Brewers, Ridgely’s, and possibly the Howard’s and the births of their children are well recorded. They had a son, Samuel. Samuel Magruder married Margaret Jackson and granddaughter of an Alexander Beall who so far I cannot connect to Col. Ninian Beall. This continued the Beall/Magruder friendship.

They had Joseph Magruder who name has passed down through my family. He married Catherine Fleming who was related to John Burgess. They had Catherine Magruder who married Thomas Watkins. They had Joseph Magruder Watkins who lived in Tennessee. Joseph Magruder Watkins married Margaret Linster whose mother was a Campbell. They had Annie Watkins who married William Tucker. They had Joseph Magruder Tucker who married Ida Majors. They had Frances Tucker who married Charles (Keith) Lee. They had Charles Lee Jr my father. He named one of his sons Joseph.

I also found other ways of connection. Joseph Belt married Ninian Beall’s daughter Hester who was the sister-in-law to Elizabeth Magruder daughter of Sarah and Samuel Magruder. Jospeh Belt’s mother was Elizabeth. This Elizabeth remarried a Lamb. Their daughter married Nicholas Watkins the grandfather of Thomas Watkins who married Catherine Magruder.

My grandfather Charles Lee might also have a connection to the Maryland families. There is a theory he might be related to the Keene family who later came to Virginia. Also, there is a theory that Moses Tucker was from Prince George’s County before moving to Virginia.  There might be another connection to a Maryland colonist John Neville, but I think that has been now disproved. Our Nevilles first show up in Virginia not Maryland. If there are anymore family in Maryland, I do not know. We haven’t gone back that far in all of our lines. (Moses Tucker being an example)

I found out a little more about the Webb School, where the Tucker boys went to high school. It is a boarding school near Bell Buckle, TN and was found in 1870. A wikipedia article says that many of the graduates went to Vanderbuilt. Several of my relatives did indeed go on to Vanderbilt. So my great grandfather went to boarding school during his late teen years. A good way to research is to find old yearbooks to see what my great grandfather was like in High School, etc. From all of the stories I have heard, my great grandfather loved to have a little too much fun!

My grandmother also went to a boarding school, but I can’t remember the name or if it was a private girl’s college.

Notable alumni-

TRAPPER JOHN!! He later went to Princeton University and is from Alabama. Didn’t know that!

A good way to organize your research is through making an outline or a chronological chart of your ancestor. I guess it is sort of a resume. Here is an outine of Joseph Magruder Tucker based on a biography written by my grandmother, Frances Tucker Lee.

BORN- 14 June 1883 in Ripley, Lauderdale, Tennessee on Fain Springs Road

PARENTS- William Tucker who was 43 years old and from Virginia and Annie Elizabeth Watkins, 31, from Murfreesboro

SIBLINGS- He had two older brothers and two older sisters Will, Harry (Wat?), Daisy, and Annie.

MOVED- Tucker Hill in 1884

SIBLINGS- Two more brothers Russell Aubrey and John Randolph, mother became ill, maternal grandmother and uncles moved to home

SCHOOL- Elementary in Ripley then went to Webb School in Bell Buckle, Tennesse. Mother wanted him to be a minister and a gentleman so he was sent to Bethel College where he was a member of a Fraternity.

DATING- Courted several girls and began to court Ida Pope Majors who was a sheltered girl whose family came from Georgia. Her father asked when Joe was ever going to get married.

MARRIAGE- Ida Pope Majors who was 21, Joe was 23. They had 6 children, Joe Jr, Landrum, Marshall, John, Matthew, and Frances.

WORK- Mail Carrier Ripley, TN

Farming, Ashdown , Arkansas

Clerk Watkins Tucker Hardware Store

Owner- Lumber Business and a Car Lot

CHURCH- Deacon of Ripley Baptist Church

SERVICE- President, City Club

Executive Board, Hospital for Crippled Adults

Treasurer- Lauderdale County Red Cross

Mayor- Ripley, Tennessee 6 years

Alderman- Ripley, Tennessee 4 years

Chairman- War Fund Drive

AWARDS- “Silver Beaver” Boy Scouts of America

ILLNESS- heart disease

TRAITS- Brown eyes, dark hair, playful, gentle, sense of humor, prankster, servant of his community, loved card games

NOTES- Here you can put references to documents like the US Census and Newspaper Articles and what you have of his like pictures and other items. We have several pictures of him and some newpaper clippings. If you have furniture or heirlooms take pictures of them and say who has them. You collect of these items and put it in your genealogy notebook on “Tuckers of Ripley, TN” for example.

This is the family of William Tucker and Annie Elizabeth Watkins and their spouses.

William Tucker was born in April 20, 1840 in Madison County, Virginia and died on February 18, 1921 in Ripley, TN. He is the son of John Roberts Tucker and Isabella P.Tatum. On February 26, 187, he married Annie Elizabeth Watkins.

Much about William Tucker’s life is in what we call the “red book”, a genealogy book written by Virginia Tucker Oliver. Next time I visit my mother’s house I will type up the details of his life. He grew up in Virginia and some time before the Civil War moved to Tennessee. He fought for the south during the Civil War. My mother has his record I believe. He was wounded and was later taken prisoner. He survived the war and started working as a merchant. He had a brother move with him to Tennessee from Virginia. He lived in a boarding house and met his wife who was also living at the boarding house. He began investing in stores in the 1870s and eventually owned a grocery store in Ripley, TN. He was not listed as one of the “prominent” men of Ripley in Goodspeed’s biography, but was listed as one of the businessmen of the area and his children married into the “prominent” families of Lauderdale County. He later built “Tucker Hill”. We have a picture of his home as well as pictures of him as an older man. He had dark graying hair and a beard. He died at the age of 61 in Ripley, Tennessee. He lived at his daughter’s home and his son Aubrey right before he died. He was buried at Maplewood Cemetery in Ripley, TN. He had seven children with Annie Watkins.

1. William Tucker 03 March 1874-10 Feb 1935 Ripley, TN Married Leila Sue Scott His daughter ,Virginia, wrote the “red book”

2. Harry Watkins Tucker 26 May 1876- 29 March 1925 Ripley Tennessee Married Nerissa McCallum

3. Daisy Tucker 06 March 1878- Dec 1969 St. Louis, Missouri Married Halley Kirkpatrick

4. Annie Isabell Tucker 15 Sep 1880- 20 dec 1929 Ripley, TN Married Gordon Moore

5. Joseph Magruder Tucker, my great grandfather, born 14 June 1883- 23 Aug 1951 Ripley, Tennessee Married Ida Pope Majors

6. Russell Aubrey Tucker 18 June 188- 10 April 1945 Ripley, Tennessee Married Martha Pierson

7. John Randolph Tucker 18 Jan 1890- 12 Jan 1933 Ripley, Tennessee married Sarah Palmer