Elizabeth Ann Bruce

Audited 26 Jul 2026 - Bass pedigree collapse PROVEN. Nottoway Co. Order Book 7 (1814-1817) partitions Lemuel Bruce estate and allots to Edwd B. Fowlkes & Eliza A his wife formerly Eliza A. Bruce her equal share of his land under his will, with Agness Bruce administratrix with the will annexed as his widow. Edward Bass Fowlkes (son of Tabitha Bass) therefore married his first cousin, and John Bass Sr x Tabitha Hatcher stand twice in this line. See ancestry/bass-clay-junction.md sec.3d-ii.18 AUG 2026 - THE STORED 10 MAR 1858 DEATH (E3810, uncited) IS NOW CONTRADICTED FROM TWO INDEPENDENT DIRECTIONS: (1) she is ABSENT from Edward B. Fowlkes's household in the 1850 census (Spring Hill Twp., Hempstead Co., Ark., p. 270, dw 5, enumerated Dec 1850 - the household is exactly Edward 65, Mary E 21, Abner D 17, Louisa M 11; register K221); (2) the Hempstead Court of Probate distribution order of January Term 1854 names NO widow among the petitioners (register K199). Census absence alone is not death, but together they argue she was dead before Dec 1850. The 1858 date carries no citation; her only citation is an unread Find A Grave index row (C5185) - a dated stone would settle it. Date NOT edited; the grading call is Owen's.19 AUG 2026 - THE FIND A GRAVE ROW (C5185) IS NOW READ, AND THE STONE REVERSES THE PARAGRAPH ABOVE: her gravestone at Hervey Cemetery (FAG memorial 18496046, grave photo read at zoom - register K226) reads 'ELIZA A. FOWLKES / BORN Oct 17th 1798 / DIED Mar 10th 1858' - the stored 10 Mar 1858 death (E3810) is STONE-BACKED, not uncited. The two contradictors above are absence-inferences, and the Jan 1854 jaw (register K199) is the weak one: an Arkansas DISTRIBUTION order runs to children and heirs, the widow's dower being a separate proceeding. The Dec 1850 household absence (register K221) STANDS as the unexplained anomaly - recorded, not smoothed. CAUTION: FAG's memorial header reads 1878 against its own photographed stone; do not import 1878. The stone names no maiden surname; the identification rests on the exact birth date and burial beside Edward (memorial 18496029). Decisive named-next: the Hempstead FINAL SETTLEMENT (record 794390 + Probate Vol K-L 1854-1863, register K198) - a settlement of 1854 or later naming or paying the widow would confirm the 1858 death in a court record. No date edited; the grading call stays Owen's.20 AUG 2026 - THE THIRD JAW: THE WHOLE RECORDED ESTATE CORPUS WAS READ AND NO WIDOW APPEARS ANYWHERE (register K229; evidence ancestry/sources/fowlkes-estate-settlement-hunt-2026-08-19/). Positively read on the images: the administration grant (K196) - the appraisers' oath 24 Oct 1853 and the appraisement certified 25 Oct 1853, total abt $7,899.30, incl. the estate's enslaved people listed by name and age (FS 'Probate Administrator Bonds 1850-1863' imgs 811-816) - the sale bill certified 20 Mar 1854 (purchasers include Ethelbert B Faulkes and Calvin M. Henry; NO widow purchaser) - the abstract of demands, abt 16 claims filed Jan 1854 to mid-1855 (Ancestry record 794390; NO allowance claim) - the Jan 1854 distribution (K199). An Arkansas widow was entitled to a statutory selection of personal property and to dower; NONE is recorded, and the 'having her selected' formula appears in OTHER estates in the same volume. So the absence evidence now stands THREE-fold (K221 census + K199 distribution + K229 corpus) against the photographed stone's 10 Mar 1858 (K226, the paragraph above) - the 19 Aug 'the stone REVERSES the reading' assessment is itself weakened. The conflict is recorded, NOT resolved; caution: phrase-negatives on this OCR are inadmissible (K199 rule) - this negative rests on positive image reads of each record class, not on a search zero. The estate was still open at May Term 1857 (the Washington H. Wynn chancery ordered an account against it for plantation rent; Court Records 1839-1855 img 402). DECISIVE NAMED-NEXT: the Hempstead Co. LOOSE probate file of Edward B. Faulkes at the Arkansas State Archives (rides the standing ASA order - queue rider 19 Aug 2026); a widow's relinquishment or selection paper, or the settlement vouchers, would survive there. Also queued: an anywhere-1850 census hunt for an Eliza A. b. abt 1798, and a hostile re-read of the stone's death-year digits. No date edited.