The Poarch Connection

It’s been a while since I posted. No family member has brought any new details to me since my last entry, except for the following—which, I’m sort of ashamed to say, was a year and a half ago.

What can I tell you. Things were busy.

I’d Facebook-messaged a person I’ll just call “Sue”, based on a Find-a-Grave memorial. I won’t give her real name, because she didn’t outright say I could do that. But she’s a Thead descendant.

In a post from 2018 I’d asked if any reader knew what to make of the graves I’d located in the New Home Poarch cemetery in South Alabama. After several Thead relatives had DNA analyses that showed not an iota of Native American in them, I was stunned to find those graves. Generally, you aren’t buried in a NA cemetery without holding tribal membership. So what to make of these burials?

https://theadsnotthreads.blogspot.com/2018/08/cant-deny-your-dna.html

In August of 2022 “Sue” responded to my Facebook message this way:

My dad married a Native American. She lived on the reservation in Poarch. Her name was Isabel. [My note: Isabelle McGhee.] She and my dad had three sons–Winston, Steve, and Marlin. Steve died at 16. Isabel passed about 5 or more years ago. There are Theads in and around Atmore, and Robertsdale, AL. These came from my dad’s side and his first wife, Evelyn (Pate) Thead. 

Steve Thead died in a car accident, I learned later. And here’s an edited summary of Isabelle’s life from Find-a-Grave:

***

Isabelle McGhee Thead
Mrs. Isabelle McGhee Thead, 90, passed away on Monday, June 21, 2010. Mrs. Thead was a native of Poarch, AL. Preceded in death by her Husband, Melvin H. Thead, a Son, Steve Adam Thead, 3 Brothers, Cassie McGhee, Sam McGhee, and Kinzie McGhee, and 3 Sisters, Inell McGhee, Evelene Manning, and Mary Flurnoy. Survivors include: three Sons, Hubert and Lenna Rackard of Atmore, AL, Winston and Jean Thead of Bristol, TN, and Marlin and Jeannie Thead of Poarch, AL

---------------------------------------------------

Emma Jean Thead
Mrs. Emma Jean Thead, 63, passed away on Saturday, June 20, 2015, in Pensacola.
Survivors include her husband of 32 years, Marlin Thead.

***
So at least the mystery of the Native American burials has been solved: Isabelle was the mother of Steve; Jean was Isabelle’s daughter-in-law…the wife of Marlin. Those three were allowed burial in the Poarch cemetery through Isabelle’s tribal membership.

A quick check of census records brought me this information, too, from 1950, Escambia County, Florida:

The only thing I see not necessarily correct here is that Melvin Hall is listed as “Ind,” when I am pretty sure HE wasn’t. His father-in-law David (two lines above) is correctly identified “Ind,” the letter “W” being crossed out.

In most other Thead descendants, though, there’s no Native American.

On another note, a newspaper notice about a train accident is pretty horrifying:

If any of you recall having heard this story, please find out what you can. I have no idea about the date this happened.

To end this post on a funnier note (is it funny, though?), I include a clipping my cousin Jan Wilson found some years ago. This one was in the Times-Democrat from January 30, 1913. Interesting stuff here: Co-ed convicts, Mrs. Bessie shooting a guy in his own bed, Miss Emma courting her half-brother–Lord have mercy!

And then there was the man who was “too much married.” I had no trouble finding THESE people; Zadie and Nettie were indeed sisters, daughters of George Thead in Alabama. In my own records, which I assembled partly from face-to-face interviews with a couple of very elderly people in the late 1970’s, I have one of those sisters listed as “never married.” Since I’m certain I wrote that down after one of those conversations, maybe it was just a polite way of reminding me that one of the marriages wasn’t quite legal. Mr. Clarke seemed willing to take responsibility for being a fool. His words, not mine.

Anyway, enjoy! Scandalous news from small towns seems always to have delighted us. Am I wrong?

Ælfwine