Who Are The Parents of Timmie Smith?

Finding a glaring error in your genealogical database is never a pleasant experience. Earlier this week I received the following E-mail from a friend and fellow genealogist.
“Look at Find A Grave memorial 97670571 Timanda Smith and Find A Grave memorial 60843664 Timmie Smith Brock and give me your opinion about these. You might notice that both include a copy of death certificates. Also note that on Timmie Smith Brock it lists father as Isom Smith. Thank you.”
After a day trip that I had to take, I returned home to dig into these two memorials to see what  had triggered the e-mail from my friend.

Find A Grave memorial 97670571 - Timanda Smith
The accompanying death certificate on this memorial shows that Timanda Smith was the daughter of Isaac Smith and Jane Boatwright.  

The 1860 and 1880 Census for Anson County also shows that Timanda is in the household of Isaac Smith and his wife Jane.

1860 CENSUS: Gulledge, Anson, North Carolina; Roll: M653_887; Image: 134; Family History Library Film: 803887,  Page: 287; Line 40, Dwelling 1034, Family 994; Isaac SMITH, male, age 47, born in NC; Jane SMITH, female, age 38, born in NC; Sarah SMITH, female, age 12, born in NC; Elizabeth SMITH, female, age 10, born in NC; Druella SMITH, female, age 9, born in NC; Margaret SMITH, female, age 6, born in NC; Rosanna SMITH, female, age 4, born in NC and Fernanda [Timanda] SMITH, female, age 2, born in NC.

1880 CENSUS: Court House, Chesterfield County, South Carolina; Roll 1225; Family History Film: 1255225; Enumeration District: 005; Page: 317C; Line 19, Dwelling 136, Family 136; Isaac SMITH, male, age 67, born in SC; Jane SMITH, Wife, age 52, born in SC; Temanda SMITH, Daughter, age 21, born in SC; A. V. SMITH, Son, age 16, born in SC; R. F.  SMITH, Son, age 14, born in SC; Leora SMITH, Daughter, age 12, born in SC and Isaac B. SMITH, Son, age 7, born in SC.
With her presence in the Isaac and Jane Smith household and her death certificate there seems to be little doubt that Tamanda Smith is the daughter of Isaac and Jane Smith.

Find A Grave memorial 60843664 - Timmie Smith Brock

I went into this one thinking this will be easy. I’m very familiar with Timmie Smith Brock and Michael, her husband, because they are my great Aunt and Uncle.

Right away I ran into problems. The first reference of Timmie Smith is in the 1880 Census where she is enumerated as Timmie Brock, wife of Michael Brock.

1880 CENSUS: Cheraw, Chesterfield County, South Carolina; FHL Film 1255225, National Archives Film T9-1225, Enumeration District: 002; Page 287B, Line 15, Dwelling 530, Family 534; Michael BROCK, Farmer, age 24, born in SC, parents born in SC; Timmie BROCK, Wife, age 17, born in SC, parents born in SC
.
Now add to that information the fact that she is listed as being age 17.  That leaves one Census (1870) that Timmie may have appeared in before her marriage. This is real problematic.

The 1870 Census in South
Back in the 1870, the Southern people had lost the war and there were many bureaucrats trying to tell them what to do. So the people develop an attitude to minimize the bureaucrats impact whenever possible. When the Census takers appears in the South in 1870 the attitude was we’ll give them our first name initials, middle initial in some cases and last name.  Thus you have an 1870 Census that looks like this:


Back to Timmie
We know  that Timmie is going to appears in only one Census and that census is the 1870 Census containing limited data with only initials listed for the first and middle names. A search of the census revealed only one possible family containing a female that might be Timmie Smith. That family is the family of William B. Smith and his wife Abigail Elizabeth Crawley.

1870 CENSUS: Mount Croghan, Chesterfield, South Carolina; Roll:  M593_1491; Family History Library Film: 552990, Page: 335B (stamped); Line 2, Dwelling 206, Family 206; W. B. SMITH, male, age 47, born in SC; A. C. SMITH, female, age 41, born in SC; G. W. SMITH, male, age 16, born in SC; S. J. SMITH, female, age 15, born in SC; A. J. SMITH, male, age 12, born in SC; T. E. SMITH, female, age 8, born in SC; B. B. SMITH, male, age 5, born in SC; E. D. SMITH, female, age 3, born in SC and S. SMITH, male, age 1, born in SC.

Could T. E. Smith be Timmie Smith wife of Michael Brock?

One thing I do know, Timmie death certificate shows her parents to be Isom Smith and Jane Boatwright.  Isom seems to be a shorten version of Isaac Smith or a nickname. The informant on this death Certificate is listed as Alexander Knight, a non-family member. I am of the opinion that this is mis-information.

For now, the parents of Timmie Smith, wife of Michael Hezekiah Brock, are unknown.