The Family › Woodall–Ramsay › Barrett
Mary E. Barrett
✦ direct ancestor — my children's 3×-great-grandmother
· Holder line, the Woodall–Ramsay side
— their mother's people
Parents
Marriage & children
Emma Holder (1878–1982)
Records behind this page
1860 U.S. census, population schedule, Precinct 3, Butler County, Alabama, post office Oakey Streak, page 149 (NARA M653 roll 3; image via Ancestry coll. 7667)
1860 census, Precinct 3, Butler Co., Ala., p. 149, dwelling 1092, family 1092, lines 8-15; Ancestry coll. 7667 image 4211176_00151 (11 of 16), rec. 12810566
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[Read on the image 8 Oct 2026 (register K966): lines 8-15, columns name, age, sex, occupation, real and personal estate, birthplace, school. No relationship column in 1860.] Dwelling 1092, family 1092: B. J. Barrett, 36, m, Farmer, real estate 1200, personal 500, birthplace BLANK on the image; E. Barrett, 32, f, born Georgia; W. S. Barrett, 13, m, born Alabama, at school; M. F. Barrett, 11, f, at school; T. J. Barrett, 9, m, at school; S. Barrett, 7, f; J. T. Barrett, 5, m; A. J. Barrett, 2, m (birthplaces after W. S. by ditto).
1870 U.S. census, population schedule, Township 8, Butler County, Alabama, post office Greenville, page 17 (NARA M593; image via Ancestry coll. 7163)
1870 census, Township 8, Butler Co., Ala., p. 17, dwelling 148, family 160, lines 9-16; Ancestry coll. 7163 image 4257479_00058 (17 of 38), rec. 12189646
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[Read on the image 8 Oct 2026 (register K965): lines 9-16, columns name, age, sex, color, occupation, real and personal estate, birthplace; the parentage, school and civil columns not read. No relationship column in 1870.] Dwelling 148, family 160: Barrett, Elizabeth, 42, F, W, Keeping House, real estate 200, personal 100, born Ga.; Martha, 21, F, W, At Home, Ala.; Thomas, 19, M, W, Ala.; Sarah, 17, F, W, Ala.; James, 15, M, W, Ala.; Andrew, 13, M, W, Ala.; Hicks, 11, M, W, Ala.; Mary, 8, F, W, Ala. (birthplaces after Martha's by ditto).
Texas Comptroller of Public Accounts, Confederate pension application no. 1499 (widow), Elizabeth Barrett, Franklin County, filed 3 July 1899; Texas State Library and Archives Commission, Confederate Pension Applications, roll 387 (image via Ancestry coll. 1677)
Texas Confederate pension file 01499, Mrs. Elizabeth Barrett, widow of B. J. Barrett, 1899; Ancestry coll. 1677 rec. 218542, images 32241_1020703347_1206-00298 and -00299 (299-300 of 469)
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[Read on the images 8 Oct 2026 (register K967): the jacket and the first page of the sworn application, to the company question; the later pages, the affidavits and the county judge's certificate not read. The applicant's surname is written Borrett throughout.] Jacket: Elizabeth Barrett, Franklin County, post office Mt Vernon, Tex.; Comptroller's file no. 1499; approved 28 Sept 1899. Application: she is a resident citizen of Franklin County, Texas, the widow of B. J. Borrett, deceased, a Confederate soldier. What is your name? Elizabeth Borrett. Age? 71 years. County? Franklin County Texas. How long resided, post office? 26 years, Mount Vernon Texas. Applied before? No. Physical condition? I am debilitated by age. Name of your deceased husband? B. J. Borrett. Married to him before March 1, 1866, and where? yes, in Apr. 1846 in Butler Co. Ala. Date of his death? Killed in 1863 in last days Battle of Chickamauga. Unmarried since? I am, I have. Company and regiment? Company B, 4th Bat. [rest not read]
Texas Department of Health, standard certificate of death, file no. 41628, Mary Elizabeth Holder, d. 14 Sep 1943, Precinct One, Mt. Vernon, Franklin County (image via Ancestry coll. 2272)
Texas death certificate no. 41628, Mary Elizabeth Holder, 1943; Ancestry coll. 2272 rec. 21884623, image 40394_b062242-02491 (Franklin, 1943, Jul-Sep, 24 of 25)
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[Read on the image 8 Oct 2026 (register K963): items 1-15 and 17-18; item 16 (undertaker) not read. Typed, faded.] 1. Place of death: Franklin County, precinct One, Mt. Vernon. 2. Full name: Mary Elizabeth Holder. Residence: Mt. Vernon, Franklin, Texas. 3. Female. 4. White. 5. Widowed. 6. Date of birth: Feb. 5, 1862. 7. Age: 81 years 7 months 9 days. 8a. Housewife. 9. Birthplace: Alabama. 10. [Father's] name: J. T. Barrett. 11. Birthplace: Alabama. 12. Maiden name [of mother]: Elizabeth Pitts. 13. Birthplace: Alabama. 14. Signature [informant]: Sam Holder; address Mt. Vernon, Texas. 15. Place of burial: Mt. Vernon Cemetery; date Sept. 16, 1943. 17. Date of death: Sept. 14, 1943. 18. Physician's entries handwritten (cause read as organic heart disease, contributory: age); signed J. M. Fleming, M.D., Mt. Vernon. Filed Sept. 21st 1943. The social security number box is blank.
Texas State Board of Health, standard certificate of death, registered no. 20 (stamped 15788), Thomas Jefferson Barrett, d. 18 May 1919, Mt. Vernon, Franklin County (image via Ancestry coll. 2272)
Texas death certificate, Thomas Jefferson Barrett, Mt. Vernon, 1919, stamped 15788; Ancestry coll. 2272 rec. 40124496, image 33154_B061856-00387 (Franklin, 1919, Apr-Jun, 4 of 6)
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[Read on the image 8 Oct 2026 (register K964): items 1-14, 19-20 and the physician's signature; the medical items read only for the cause.] 1. County: Franklin; city: Mt Vernon. 2. Full name: Thomas Jefferson Barrett. 3. Male. 4. White. 5. Married. 6. Date of birth: November 15th 1851. 7. Age: 67 years 5 months 27 days. 8. Occupation: Farming. 9. Birthplace: Butler Co. Alabama. 10. Name of father: Benjamin Barrett. 11. Birthplace of father: [blank]. 12. Maiden name of mother: Mary Elizabeth Pitts. 13. Birthplace of mother: Georgia. 14. Informant: Nannie Barrett, Mt Vernon, Tex. 16. Date of death: May 18, 1919; cause general senility; physician J. M. Fleming, M.D. 19. Place of burial: Providence, 5/19/19. 20. Undertaker: M. L. Edwards & Co., Mt. Vernon, Tex.
Research notes
Working notes from the research, kept verbatim — what was read, what it proved, what stays open. Many open with a line grading the parentage; what the grades mean.
Research note · 8 Oct 2026
PROOF CLASS: FATHER = ARGUMENT (Owen, 8 Oct 2026) - her certificate gives "J. T. Barrett"; Benjamin J. Barrett is shown by the 1860/1870 households, her brother's 1919 certificate and the widow's pension. Register K963-K967.
PROOF CLASS: MOTHER = DIRECT (Owen, 8 Oct 2026) - her own 1943 Texas death certificate no. 41628, item 12, gives her mother's maiden name "Elizabeth Pitts". Register K963.
INFORMANT: item 14 'Sam Holder, Mt. Vernon, Texas' - relationship not stated on the certificate. He was born long after her father's death in 1863, so on the father's name he cannot have been speaking from his own knowledge.
AUDITED 8 Oct 2026 - BOTH PARENTS ENTERED: Benjamin J. Barrett, farmer of Butler County, Alabama, killed in 1863 in the battle of Chickamauga, and Mary Elizabeth (Pitts) Barrett, born about 1828 in Georgia, who brought the family to Franklin County, Texas, about 1873. Mary Elizabeth Barrett was born 5 Feb 1862 in Alabama, married Thomas A. Holder, and died 14 Sep 1943 at Mt. Vernon, aged 81.
THE QUESTION. Who were the parents of [3423] Mary E. (Barrett) Holder, mother of [161] Emma Holder?
THE EVIDENCE, each read on the image 8 Oct 2026. (1) Her own Texas death certificate no. 41628, 1943 (K963): born Feb. 5, 1862, Alabama; father "J. T. Barrett"; mother's maiden name "Elizabeth Pitts"; informant Sam Holder. It names the mother outright; it does not name Benjamin. (2) The 1860 census of Precinct 3, Butler County, page 149 (K966): B. J. Barrett, 36, farmer, with E. Barrett, 32, born Georgia, and W. S. 13, M. F. 11, T. J. 9, S. 7, J. T. 5 and A. J. 2. No relationships stated, and Mary is not yet born. (3) The 1870 census of Township 8, Butler County, dwelling 148 (K965): Elizabeth Barrett, 42, born Ga., with Martha 21, Thomas 19, Sarah 17, James 15, Andrew 13, Hicks 11 and Mary 8. No husband and no relationships stated. (4) Her brother Thomas Jefferson Barrett's Texas death certificate, Mt. Vernon 1919 (K964): born November 15th 1851 in Butler Co. Alabama; father "Benjamin Barrett"; mother "Mary Elizabeth Pitts", born Georgia; informant Nannie Barrett. It names the couple, but for him, not for her. (5) Her mother's Texas Confederate widow's pension, file 1499, filed 3 July 1899 in Franklin County (K967): Elizabeth, 71, 26 years in the county, post office Mount Vernon, widow of "B. J. Borrett", married "in Apr. 1846 in Butler Co. Ala", husband "Killed in 1863 in last days Battle of Chickamauga". It names no children.
THE CORRELATION. One family runs through all five. The T. J. Barrett aged 9 in 1860 is the Thomas aged 19 in 1870 and the Thomas Jefferson Barrett born November 1851 in Butler County. The 1860 J. T., 5, is the 1870 James, 15, and A. J., 2, is Andrew, 13. The E. Barrett of 1860, born Georgia and aged 32, is the Elizabeth of 1870, born Ga. and aged 42, and the pension's widow of B. J. Barrett, aged 71 in 1899 and married in Butler County in 1846. The Mary aged 8 in the widow's house in 1870 fits Mary Elizabeth's birth on 5 Feb 1862, which falls inside the marriage and before B. J.'s death in 1863. Her certificate's "Elizabeth Pitts" is the mother on her brother's certificate. The widow had been 26 years in Franklin County, Texas, in 1899; Mary died there in 1943 and Thomas in 1919.
THE CONFLICTS. (a) Her certificate gives her father as "J. T. Barrett". J. T. is the initials of her brother James, aged 5 in 1860, not of the head of the house. The informant, Sam Holder, was a generation too young to have known a man killed in 1863, and every other record gives the father as B. J. or Benjamin. This is read as an informant's error and not as a second father. (b) Her certificate gives her mother's birthplace as Alabama. The 1860 and 1870 censuses and Thomas's certificate all give Georgia, so Georgia is carried. (c) The mother is called E., Elizabeth and Mary Elizabeth. These are fuller and shorter forms of one name, and Mary Elizabeth, from her son's certificate, is the form carried. (d) Benjamin's birthplace is blank in 1860 and on Thomas's certificate, and it is not supplied. Find a Grave gives him 1825-1863 and the mother as Mary Ann Elizabeth Pitts, 1828-1910 (register K253). That is a compiled source and is not adopted.
THE CONCLUSION. Mother: DIRECT, from her own certificate. Father: ARGUMENT, Benjamin J. Barrett, shown by correlating the two censuses, her brother's certificate and the widow's pension against her certificate's error. What would overturn it: a record placing the Mary born 1862 in a different Barrett household, or one showing that Elizabeth's husband in 1861-62 was not B. J. Barrett.
Elsewhere
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