A Time Line for Elizabeth Rebecca "Becky" Page Tapley (1844-1924)

 Our connection:

Liz (that's me!)

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Gilbert Earl Tapley, 1928-2008 (my father)

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Lusion Keman Tapley, 1870-1935 (my grandfather)

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Elizabeth Rebecca "Becky" Page, 1844-1924 (my great-grandmother)

Time Line for the life of Elizabeth Rebecca "Becky" Page:  

1844 Age 0	Birth	September 8 Emanuel County, Georgia, USA
1850 Age 5	Residence	Emanuel County, Georgia, USA
1859 Age 14	Historical Event	Johnson County is formed from parts of Laurens and Emanuel County.
1860 Age 15	Residence	Johnson County, Georgia, USA
1860 Age 15	Death of Parent	Father, Solomon Page, Jr. (1800-1860) passed away in Washington County, Georgia, USA.
1861 Age 16	Historical Event	Civil War
1864 Age 19	Marriage	Married Harrell Samuel Horton (1844-1908) on January 31 in Johnson County.
1866 Age 21	The First Civil Rights Act	The first federal law that defined what was citizenship and affirm that all citizens are equally protected by the law. Its main objective was to protect the civil rights of persons of African descent.
1866 Age 21	Marriage	Married James Madison ‘Jim’ Tapley (1847-1912) on February 18 in Johnson County, Georgia, USA.
1867 Age 22	Historical Event	Sorry Mr. President, you can’t do that. This Act was to restrict the power of the President removing certain office holders without approval of the Senate. It denies the President the power to remove any executive officer who had been appointed by the president with the advice and consent of the Senate, unless the Senate approved the removal during the next full session of Congress. The Amendment was later repealed.
1867 Age 22	Birth of 1st Child	Franklin Morgan “Frank” Tapley (1867-1938) was born on April 7 in Johnson County.
1868 Age 23	Birth of Child	A second boy, James L “Jim” (1868-1941), was born July 17 in Johnson County.
1870 Age 25	Residence	District 1201, Johnson County, Georgia, USA
1870 Age 25	Birth of Child	A third boy, Lusion Keman (1870-1935), was born on March 31.
1872 Age 27	Historical Event	The Amnesty Act. A Federal law which reversed most of the penalties on former Confederate soldiers by the Fourteenth Amendment. The Act affected over 150,000 troops that were a part of the Civil War.
1873 Age 28	Birth of Child	A Girl!  Elizabeth Virginia “Lizzie” (1873-1959) was born on February 12th.
1874 Age 29	Birth of Child	Their second daughter, Magdaline (1874-abt 1886), was born.
1875 Age 30	Historical Event	A Treaty with Hawaii. In the Mid 1870s, the United States sought out the Kingdom of Hawaii to make a free trade agreement. The Treaty gave the Hawaiians access to the U.S. agricultural markets and it gave the U.S. a part of land which later became Pearl Harbor.
1875 Age 30	Birth of Child	A daughter, Tabitha “Bosch” (1875-1956) was born on March 10.
1876 Age 31	Historical Event	The Battle of Little Bighorn. An armed conflict between the Lakota, Northern Cheyenne, and Arapaho tribes and the 7th Cavalry of the U.S. Army. The battle was the most significant action of the Great Sioux War of 1876.
1876 Age 31	Birth of Child	George Washington Sentell “Tell” (1876-1944) was born July 5th.
1878 Age 33	Birth of Child	On April 10, Bennett Olin “Ol” (1878-1955) was born.
1880 Age 35	Death of Parent	Her mother, Elizabeth Caroline Scoggins Page (1802-1880) passed away.
1880 Age 35	Birth of Child	A girl, Marry (1880-1885), was born February 10.
1881 Age 36	Birth of Child	Solomon (1881-1971) was born on March 5.
1885 Age 40	Death of Child	Daughter, Marry, died on February 25, at age 5.
1886 Age 42	Birth of Child	Vianna Bell (1886-1965) was born October 4th.
Abt 1886 Age 42	Death of Child	Daughter, Magdaline, passed away when she was about 12 years old.
1889 Age 45	Birth of last child	On August 5, Bascom Bishop Tapley (1889-1967) was born in Johnson County.
1890 Age 46	Birth of 1st Grandchild	Frank Tapley, son of Becky’s oldest son, Franklin Morgan ‘Frank’, was born during this year.
1893 Age 48	Historical Event	The Last Public Hanging in Georgia. The last public hanging in Georgia was on September 28, 1893. The General Assembly prohibited public executions in December 1893. Prior to this law, Georgians commonly traveled to witness scheduled public executions.
1900 Age 55	Residence	District 1203, Johnson County, Georgia, USA
1910 Age 65	Residence	Powell, Johnson County, Georgia, USA
1912 Age 68	Death of Spouse	Jim passed away on November 5 in Johnson County, Georgia, USA.
1918-1919 Age 74-75	Grandson AWOL from Army	Gordon Wesley Tapley (1894-1959), the eldest son of James L ‘Jim’, went AWOL from the Army and hid at and around his Grandmother Becky’s house for just over a year.  When he wasn’t plowing his grandmother’s fields dressed as a woman, he was down in the woods, camping on the Ohoopee.
1923 Age 78	Historical Event	Amendment of Equal Rights. In a proposed amendment to help guarantee equal legal rights for all citizens of the United States. Its main objective is to end legal distinctions between the two genders in terms of divorce, property, employment, and other legal matters. Even thought it isn’t the 28th Amendment yet, it has started conversations about the meaning of legal equality.
1924 Age 79	Death	Becky passed away on May 18 in Johnson County, Georgia, USA.

 Many records contain the information that Becky's first husband, Harrell Solomon Horton, died in 1864, leading to the assumption that he was killed in the Civil War.  However, much to my surprise a few months ago, I found out that Solomon lived, came back home to Georgia, married someone else, and had children.  He lived to the age of 64!  I can find no documentation of a divorce between my great-grandmother and him.  He married Nancy Price the same year that Jim and Becky got married - 1866.  So I have a few possible theories:  (1) There is a divorce record somewhere that I have not located yet; (2) He was missing during the war and presumed dead. So Becky though she was widowed and married someone else about the same time her husband reappeared.  Still does not explain the lack of a divorce record; or (3) They just bypassed the divorce process and moved on with their separate lives for whatever reason.  I would imagine that in war-torn Georgia in 1866, verifying a couple was divorced was not so important.  So I will continue to research.

Checking In

Hello and welcome back to my genealogy blog.  I have been away for almost 4 months!  Time does fly by.  I did not realize it had been so long.  I apologize for the hiatus, but hopefully I can come back with more interesting stories about the "family" I have discovered.  Tonight, though, I want to talk a little bit about the family I have known - the ones I have lost in the last year.  It's been a lot of loss, and I don't believe that I have fully processed it.  

Back in late February or early March, I received a call from my niece.  She asked me if I knew "Aunt Patty" had died?  Her Aunt Patty was my sister.  No, I did not know she had passed.  Turns out she had passed 4-5 months earlier on October 11, 2021.  Pat had not spoken to me in over 10 years, but my mom still spoke with her from time to time.  I would think her family would have at least let my mom - Pat's stepmother - know.  Or her niece. They didn't.  

Then almost immediately after receiving this news, I heard again from my niece.  This time her father - my brother - died on March 21.  Now I had not spoken to my brother in probably 25-30 years; neither had my mom.  I tried to be supportive and helpful to my niece - even stepping in and finding my other niece (her sister) and giving her the news.  I spent hours trying to find her, and when I did, it was another disappointment for me in this dysfunctional family.  She was only interested in what she could get, and I did not hear from her again when I wouldn't give her anything.  My oldest niece, the one I was trying to support and help in this difficult time, hasn't spoken to me since her father's funeral.  I have no idea why.  

Now what you may be thinking here is why don't I just call her?  I gave up chasing her many, many years ago.  I haven't seen her since I left Georgia in 2011.  We talk very rarely.  I used to try... a lot.  After a while, I got tired of being the one calling and trying to stay in touch.  So I gave up.  The (not so) funny and ironic thing is that she said to me after her father died that she didn't not want us to end up like the rest of the family - not talking or seeing each other - and dying without making things right.  And I haven't heard from her since.  

Yes, I was estranged from my brother and sister.  Our relationship has always been complicated.  First of all, they were 20 and 18 years older than me - my father's children from his first marriage.  He was 38 years old by the time he had me.  I was raised by my father.  He practically abandoned Harry and Patty.  He showed up in their lives very sporadically and did not support them at all.  My brother was in the military so he only visited occasionally when I was growing up.  I worshipped him, but he was a liar, a user, and an abuser.  I saw that once I became an adult.  So I cut off contact once my youngest niece was grown herself and out of his house.  

I didn't even meet Pat until I was 5 or 6 years old.  She had a lot of resentment toward my father.  I can remember many cards and letters he sent her over the years that would come back marked "Return to  Sender." I honestly believe she was jealous of me for having him in the house my entire childhood.  There were a couple of times as adults we tried to forge a relationship, and I told her then that growing up with our father was no picnic, and she didn't have a reason to be jealous of me.  In the end, my sister could not or would not accept who I am, so she cut off contact.  

Yet, it hit me hard when they both passed.  They were my brother and sister.  No matter what happened between us, they were family.  We had the same blood flowing through our veins.  My sister and I looked alike, talked alike, walked alike, and had the same sense of humor.  We both were like our father.  My brother used to write me cards and letters when I was young.  He was fun.  He could be kind, like when he bought me my first pair of contacts. Yes, I regret not having things right between us before they left this earth.  While my brain knew I wasn't at fault, my heart still hurt for the loss and what might have been.

On June 27, my Aunt Evelyn passed away.  She was 90 years old and tired.  She had been suffering for a while. I am sorry I didn't get to see her one last time.  She was a beautiful person, full of love and care.  She accepted me completely and loved me unconditionally.  She was my mother's sister, and the last aunt I had. I miss our talks. I miss the many times she would repeat how much she loved me before we hung up the phone.  Another pain to my heart.

Then on September 21, my first cousin, Ronnie, passed away.  Ronnie was the son of my favorite uncle, Hugh, and had been a part of my life my entire life.  He loved the genealogy work I did, and would drive all the way up from Jacksonville, Florida, to meet me in Johnson County and visit family cemeteries.  Ronnie was grumpy, hard-headed, a loner, and most likely depressed.  In other words, he was a typical Tapley!  And losing him has taken another piece of my heart.  

Mom and I are headed to Jacksonville this week for Ronnie's memorial service.  I will get through it, but I expect it will be difficult.  Life is very short.  This is brought home to us as we get older and begin to lose those we love.  While it is inevitable, it is not easy.  No matter the complications in the relationship, it still hurts me.  

So 2022 has not been particularly kind.  As always, I deal with it.  I have a roof over my head, food to eat, cats to love, and an unbelievably kind, sweet, and wonderful mother.  And I do genealogy "stuff" every chance I get!

Harry Earl Tapley 1946-2022

Patricia Elaine 'Patty' or 'Pat' Tapley Strickland 1949-2021

Ronald Hugh 'Ronnie' Tapley 1947-2022

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