My Own Research is Better Than What My Family Members Were Told

George Anderson Tucker (1882-1932)

I want to let you know that if you research your ancestry for yourself looking at documents for yourself you can be sure you are on the right track. I do not look at other people's trees. I also do not take other people's advice or oral history without proving it to be false or true using factual historical documentation. If I find it documented somewhere, I also look for other pieces of documentation.

If you depend on other people's work, you can have the wrong person as your ancestor or miss him or her entirely. The person pictured is my great grandfather, George Anderson Tucker(1882-1932). He lived his whole life in Buffalo, Union County, South Carolina. He was married to Daisy B. Chick Tucker (1883-1941). His oldest child was my grandmother, Otis Edna Tucker Vance (1905-1996). Upon his death he was in Columbia, Richland County, South Carolina.

George's father was George Epps Tucker (1859-1927) who had dies a few years before him. Epps was on the 1880 Census with James Anderson Tucker (1805-1885). You might assume that that is his father. My family had. At least three generations of my family thought this was the case. You see that he is listed as the son of James A. Tucker.

A 78 year old male with a 21 year old male seemed to me to be a grandfather and a grandson. I went to the South Carolina Department of Archives and History where I found the answer, the 1871 Request of Guardianship of George Epps Tucker:

To the Honorable T. J. Greer, Probate Judge of said county---

The humble petition of James A. Tucker, respectfully showeth that his son, George A. Tucker, late of the county and state aforesaid, departed this life on the eleventh day of November A. D. eighteen hundred and sixty, possessed of considerable real and personal estate and leaving him surviving, his widow, Annie Tucker, and his son Epps Tucker, an infant, then about one years old; that letters of administration upon all and singular the goods and chattels, rights and credits that were of the said George A. Tucker are granted by the Ordinary of Union District unto the said Annie Tucker, and that no guardian has ever been appointed for the said Epps Tucker. Your petition further shows that the said Annie Tucker, since the death of the said George A. Tucker, has intermarried with one Dr. William F. Holmes, who contemplates removing at an early period to Barnwell County in this state. Your Petitioner further shows, that in consequence of the emancipation of the slaves, the value of the personal estate of the said George A. Tucker has been greatly reduced, not amounting, as is supposed to more than dollars. Your Petitioner further shows that the said Epps Tucker from his tender years is wholly unable to take charge of, and manage his interest in the estate of his father, the said George A. Tucker deceased, that it is absolutely necessary for his rights in the premises to be protected, and that his mother and step-father are willing for your Petitioner to act as guardian for the said Epps Tucker.(as appear___ by the letter of Dr. W. F. Holmes hereto attached). Wherefore your Petitioner humbly prays that he be appointed guardian of the person and property of the said Epps Tucker, with the usual powers as such, and that it may be referred to the Clerk of this Court as to ascertain and report the gross value of the estate of the said Epps Tucker and as to the fitness of your Petitioner to be appointed the guardian of the said Epps Tucker. And your Petitioner will ever pray as duty bound. James A. Tucker

This document was indexed in the Union County Ordinary/Probate Judge Index to Estate papers 1787-1963 held in the SCDAH in Columbia, SC

James Anderson Tucker was appointed guardian of George Epps Tucker, so we no longer were missing a person in the family tree. James Anderson Tucker had George Anderson Tucker who had George Epps Tucker who then had George Anderson Tucker, my great grandfather. George Anderson Tucker (1827-1860) was no longer missing.

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