This is the gravestone of Maria, one of my 3rd great grandmothers. I am so glad to have found her gravestone next to her husband John TOURGEE. Yes, I know it reads, Maria, wife of John TAUGEE but the TOURGEE family's name is spelled so many ways, I honestly don't know how people ever found any records at all! [Tourgee, Tourjee, Taugee being the most used]
Even though John married again, and had more children and was step-father to his second wife's sons, they buried him next to his first wife Maria and with [his named but dead] babies behind them.
Maria was the mother of Hannah Josephine TOURGEE, her only surviving child, who was the wife of my Civil War ancestor, James Albert Barber [Medal of Honor]. Because of naming conventions, Hannah Josephine must have been named Hannah because her grandparents on the Tourgee side were John TOURGEE, Sr. and Hannah GOULD.
Sadly, Hannah Josephine Tourgee, wife of James A. Barber has no gravestone and according to the cemetery records, her burial was paid for by her father. When I asked why Hannah was not buried with her ("famous") husband, the cemetery didn't know he'd had a wife! They had to go back to the old handwritten ledgers to find her and they showed me the spot where she was buried.
I guess we will never know any more about Maria. All I have is a church record of she and John from a South Kingstown Church.
Makes you want to cry.....
No comments:
Post a Comment