Start this thing over

I met Ken Clark several years ago while researching my wife's Longacre family. He contacted me and joined our Longacre Yahoo email group.

His connection was to Thomas Jefferson Longacre, born March 30, 1860 in Erath County Texas who was the son of John Longacre and Lieu Hamby Caraway. Thomas was the brother of my wife's ancestor Benjamin Franklin Longacre. Ken was his grandson, or so he thought.

Ken's research indicated Thomas moved to Washington state and actually changed his last name to Clark. He worked for the Northern Pacific railroad in several western states before settling in Washington and marrying Floy Leone Cary. I didn't know anything about Thomas at the time. The story of him changing his name sounded reasonable especially coming from a grandson. I recorded all the information Ken gave me but actually kept a separate record in my database, with the original Thomas Longacre record being unchanged.

Recently I came across a document that blew holes in the story. Texas put old death certificates online and surprise, surprise there was one for Thomas Jefferson Longacare. It showed his parents name and the fact that he died in Dallas, Texas in 1948. His occupation was listed as a Policeman and was married to Dorothy Jones.

So the whole story of him working for the railroad, moving to Washington and marrying there is not true. Ken will have to start over again in the search for his grandfather's family. His grandfather may have been born a Longacre but not the one in our family.