The Stoudenmire Connection

I have dragged my sister, Anna, on many an ancestor hunt in Alabama mostly chasing the Stoudenmire and Batton family.  We approached one lady’s home who felt the need to keep repeating that her husband was a lawyer in town (Anna and I must have looked menacing).  We’ve traipsed through another lady’s backyard that was both a blueberry farm and a graveyard.  We have ridden down the back, back dirt roads of Autaugaville. It was “suggested” we pull over by a man in a pickup truck.  Why this day I chose to wear tight leopard print pants and high platform heels, I don’t know.  He wanted to know what we thought we were doing. 

“Looking for the Stoudenmire Cemetery.”

“The white one or the colored one?” He asked.

“Umm, the white one today, thanks.”

(I hadn't heard the word "colored" used in a long time so this threw me a bit.)

He gave us directions and off we went to the “white” Stoudenmire Cemetery.  As we started to explore, the clouds rolled over the sun and a light mist fell.  I, still being a bit of a goth girl at heart was loving this.  Anna, not so much.  As I am frolicking from one grave to another taking photos of the Stoudenmire family headstones Anna was looking a tad nervous.  As the rain started to fatten up a low “Maaaaaaooooooooo” sound arose from the headstone behind my sister.  Anna has never been a particularly tan person but at that moment there wasn’t a stitch of pigment left in her face. She was White (not pinky skin color either) White!  Her eyes were so round, I’d ever seen anything like it.  For one split second I truly believe she thought an ancestral ghost was rising up to say, hello. 

Back in reality, a cow had just wondered over to see what we were doing. 

She stood behind Anna just chewing some grass. It was time to go home after that.

The visit to the cemetery was great but I was trying to make a connection between Willie Anna Stoudenmire’s father, William Seth and the rest of the Stoudenmire family.  I wasn’t sure if the people I had dragged Anna out to see were actually our relatives or not.

Last year I again recruited Anna along with Matt and Buddy for some more ancestor hunting.  Off we went to Sylacauga trying to find the home of some Averiett cousins.  William Seth Stoudenmire married Dora Ann Averiett in 1851 which is the link between the two families. 

We followed the little driving directions computer thing to a house that was having a garage sale.  Anna popped in and was told

“You’re looking for Uncle Travis.”

Painting of Benjamin Averiett's house

 We went down the road a bit to Fayetteville and found Mr Travis Wesson on the Averiett/Branch Farm. 

He was absolutely delightful.  He and his wife, Averiett Wesson, live in the house that was originally Benjamin Averiett’s (Willie Anna Stoudenmire’s grandfather) home.

He showed us the house, read us some family history while we sat on the front porch and showed us the family cemetery where William Seth Stoudenmire is buried. Buddy got to ride on the back of the pick up out to the cemetery.  He liked that. Mr Wesson was telling us some family members get together for a cemetery clean up once a year.  They like to eat brownies and drink beer which he says go together better than champagne and gingerbread. 

Willie Anna Stoudenmire (far left) on the steps of the Averiett House

 He also mentioned there is a spoken family history that Sarah Moore Grubbs, wife of Benjamin Averiett was part Native American.  I have yet to find any proof but there is substantial research linking the Grubbs family of Mississippi and Alabama to the Choctaw Nation, so it’s possible.

Buddy and me on the steps of the Averiett House, 2013

 I still hadn’t found any link between William Seth Stoudenmire and the rest of the family in Alabama but I was convinced he had to be related somehow.  I posted some photos of the headstones on the Averiett/Branch farm to a Stoudenmire Genealogy group on line and explained to the moderator the trouble I was having linking my ancestor to the rest of the family.  Larry (the moderator) did some digging and came up with a theory based on the 1840 census.  He gave me clues and I started putting the pieces together. 

William Seth Stoudenmire's Headstone

The clincher was the copy of a photo of Sarah “Aunt Todie” DeBardeleben from Willie Anna Stoudenmire’s photo album that Uncle Lionel had made notes on years ago.  He noted that Sarah was the sister of Dora Averiett and she helped bring up Willie Anna and her brother, Benjamin after their father died.  Just as a side note I had always heard that Dora had died young as well but she didn’t.  There were a few more marriages (at least 2) and a few more children, but I digress.  Back to Sarah.... Dora did in fact have a sister named Sarah but she married a Mr Dempsey Oden.  When I did a little more digging I found that Sarah Stoudenmire married Frank Debardeleben and Voila!  Sarah was William Seth’s sister.  All the pieces fell into place. The cemetery that I made Anna drive to just to scare her half to death was in fact the final resting place of our Stoudenmire ancestors.

Sarah Stoudenmire Debardeleben (middle)

For more information on the early Stoudenmires
click HERE