Letter from Fay Rudd Chiles to Charles Avis about Rudd Family
(C. Avis Catalog entry #127)
<The Alice and Dwight mentioned are Fay's son and daughter-in-law. Cousin Alice's married name was Suggs>
Mrs. C. Dwight Chiles
1509 Rainbow Bend
Austin, Texas 78703
July 2, 1970
Dear Charlie,
You may recall that I told you that when my sister Mildred Ragsdale was here with us in February she was asking me about Mother's genealogy papers and I told her that you were interested in genealogy and that we had tried to get some information on our father's Rudd side and that you and I had run the 1860 census records of Madison County, Madisonville, Tenn. and that you had found the record of J. R. Rudd and wife R. C. Rudd and five of their seven children. I had kept this page I am enclosing in your handwriting as it starts - evidently I had erased the other initials and substituted the names of some I remembered. The two missing from this census are an older boy and a girl named Sarah. I knew and loved my Aunt Sarah who was married to a Dr. Bailey that I called Uncle Doctor when I used to visit them in Pittsburg when I was very young, probably five or six. Aunt Florence, who was a widow lived with them and Aunt Sarah and Uncle Doctor had several married children living in Pittsburg with children older than I.
Now the reason I'm sending this to you. Mildred and I had absolutely no luck in finding this record on the 1860 census records at the archives. What that (pg 134) written in my handwriting means I don't know. We ran this record several times and found nothing on the Rudds. Could it have been another date 1850 or what. The war came after that and I know the family left for Dalton, Ga. Mildred says she remembered being told that grandfather was buried in Dalton, Ga. I think but not sure Grandmother Rudd was buried in Pittsburg. She died June 7, 1893, so the records show. I want you to have the three pages enclosed. This is the information that Cousin Alice gave my mother on the Rudd-Maples-Reynolds family. Cousin Alice was my father's first cousin. Her mother was Alice Jane Maples who married a Pridmore. Martha Malinda Maples married a Cate. This is how Alice and Dwight are related (their great grandmothers were sisters).
Now if you can't find the 1880 Census records in Ft. Worth then you could write and ask what a search would cost. I will get the $4.00 back in time and you could use this. Also the $1.00 that the Gen. Ser. Adm. returned.
I thought while I had this on my mind I would get it to you for your vacation project.
My love and good luck
Nana