It seems odd to have a grandmother who is so evasive that I can't find find any information about her or her parents. Did she have siblings? Could she have gone by another name? There surely must be a great story about her if only I could locate it!

This evasive person is my paternal grandmother, Savannah LAVENDER. On the 1900 DeKalb County Tennessee she is 31 years of age and married to my grandfather, William Lafayette GILREATH, age 32. Also in the home was their children, Porter, age 8; Mozier, age 7; Alvie, age 3; and Lotie, age 1. They had been married 12 years.

The census shows she was born in Tennessee. My father (Porter)and his siblings always said their mother was from Kentucky but searches have been futile in both Tennessee and Kentucky material.

On an insurance policy my father obtained, he stated his mother died from complications of childbirth. If this is correct, Savannah probably died after the birth of my father's sister, Fannie. Another discrepancy is Fannie's birth date: the Social Security Death Index gives the birth date as 6 Jan 1901; her delayed birth certificate gives the date as 6 Jan 1902. Therefore, Savannah probably died either in January 1901 or 1902. My grandfather married again in 1903.

I would be grateful to any information anyone could give me about Savannah.
Patsy Gilreath McHaffie
patmchaffie@mchsi.com