Sometimes you get lucky

Luddie Garner was the sister of my great grandmother Sallie Adams Fulford. Her parents died when she was young and she and her brother Owen Dewitt Garner were raised by Capt. John Fogarty and his wife in Bradenton, Florida.The only thing I knew about her when I started doing family research was her name, the fact that she was left an orphan at age 10 and that John Fogarty named a boat after her.

Luddie Garner Bahrt

I found information about her marriage and her husband Carl William Bahrt in the Manatee County Florida Archives and with the last name Bahrt figured it would be difficult to find much else. Actually the last name turned out to be a big help.

There aren't too many people with the name Bahrt. In fact findagrave, with a listing of the final rest of over 81,000,000 million people only has 34 with the name. It is often misspelled but I've found that if you locate someone in the USA with it, they are probably related to Luddie Garner or know someone who is.

Luddie was born in 1885 in Carteret County, North Carolina and died in 1964 in Tampa, Florida. Her parents were Elijah Meadows Garner and Hope Jane Foreman.

Her husband Carl William Bahrt was a ship captain. In fact, he was known as "Captain Billy" just like the husband of her sister Sallie.  He sailed on merchant ships for a while like his father and then became a Pilot for the Port of Tampa.

Luddie and Captain Billy had three sons but only two lived to adulthood. Robert was only 31 when he died in Tampa, Florida. The other son, Carl William Jr. graduated from Georgia Tech and was an Engineer in Galveston, Texas.

About 10 years ago I sent letters to all the Bahrts I could find an address for, email and snail. It wasn't many and I got a response from several who were related to the family. There were two William Bahrts who wrote me back and both have been helpful in providing information. The photo of Luddie was provided by one of them who is her nephew.

My wife and I took a trip to Oregon this summer and enjoyed meeting Luddie's great niece who is building a house on the coast. Her grandfather Arthur Bahrt was also a Mariner and later in life a Ship Pilot so I guess she couldn't get too far from the water.