Re: William Thomas Aliff-b. 1878-VA
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In reply to:
Re: William Thomas Aliff-b. 1878-VA
Anita Williams 2/14/00
Anita:
My name is Frank A. Phillips. I live in upstate NY, but just spent a day in Beckley/Prosperity/Cranberry, WV area looking for graves of Phillips (and related Treadway) relatives. I saw your information on the Phillips line (PhillipsMNyla.pdf) and wanted to supply you with some missing information. My father is Frank R. Phillips, his father was Frank Phillips, born in WV as son of William E. Phillips (although his older brother Charles Wilbur's (also shown as Charles Wilburn elsewhere) draft registration shows W. M. Phillips (he perhaps just meant to abbreviate William?), who was at that time living in Cranberry. My grandfather's mother was Irene Treadway Phillips. I found her stone in the old family plot in the middle of the Blue Ridge (mega) Cemetery, by chance. She is not listed with the office, as they do not administer the old (Trail?) family cemetery up there. I have a picture of her stone if you are interested, but her name on it is spelled "Irine Tredway Phillips". I've seen her listed elsewhere as Irene, Renie, and Renia... I suspect she was called Renie. Anyway, I believe that my ggrandfather William E. Phillips is your missing child of Joseph Phillips / Emily Stover. My grandfather Frank left home early to join the army, after his father remarried after Irene died, possibly shortly after Frank's birth - her stone says 1914, which matches a verbal account of his lying to the Army about his age (officially shown birth as 1910) to get in early. I don't yet know who his father was re-married to, but he didn't apparently live long afterward, as I've seen 1914 as the date of his death in some other online record.
Having never been to WV before, I did well stumbling on Irene's stone, as well as some other relatives(like America Phillips) at the Prosperity site, which I just happened on while driving out of Cranberry. (I also spent time in Georgia researching the "Native American" side of my mother's family (Chavis/Chavous), which was pretty fascinating.) If you have info on the old family cemetery on the hill in the Blue Ridge Memorial Gardens, please let me know. I see that there are still lots of Phillips and Treadways in the area there... I suspect I have lots of cousins and aunts and uncles there. I had heard family rumors of "Cherokee" blood on my Dad's side (his Mom's side is Stewart clan from SC/GA) - any clues there?
I hope you get this, and it is still useful to you. Feel free to drop me an email.
Frank