Mary Eloise (Shaw) Whittington (1935 - 2001)

Born 9 Dec 1935 in Claiborne Parish, Louisiana

Ancestors

Died 3 May 2001 at age 65 in Jackson, Hinds County, Mississippi

Problems/Questions Profile manager: Deborah Shaw [send private message]

Biography

Much of the information in my records on the descendants of John Shaw (1763–1847) and Mary Wilson Wagner Shaw (1768–1851) comes from the research of Eloise Shaw Whittington, who did it the hard way, pre-internet, by sifting through documents in dusty courthouse basements and such activities.

We are very grateful to Eloise.

Eloise sent summaries and reports to Chester's daughters, who had contributed research funds, but her original research may be lost to us. Anita, who was her primary correspondent, died in 2000 and in 2010 we (my cousin Carol and I) didn't know how to contact Eloise to thank her for the summaries and reports she sent to my aunts, her first cousins. We have since learned that Eloise lost her husband in 2000 and then died herself in 2001 at 65.

I tried to locate her children in 2011, but I was only able to find the ex-spouse of one of them. The ex had Eloise's files in storage but refused to release them without permission and couldn't, or wouldn't, tell me how to contact any of Eloise's children. A few months later I found a vituperative message on my voice mail from this ex-spouse addressed to Eloise's child. I suppose my phone number had been written down with the spouse's name.

Without Eloise, we wouldn't know about the ca 1948 Family Data form filed by our grandfather Chester at the Claiborne Parish courthouse, in connection with the estate of D.F. Shaw, which lists D.F. and Dora's living descendants as of that date.

Without Eloise, we wouldn't know about the 1871–1881 lawsuit the children of John Thomas Shaw filed against their court-appointed tutor (guardian).

Without Eloise, we especially wouldn't know that the parents of John Shaw (1763–1847) were Weymouth and Anne, not the James & Jane Shaw it says on compilations all over the internet, which have replicated like Hufflepuff's cup in the Lestranges' vault. Eloise, who'd heard the same story that I did from our respective fathers, identified the port of entry for our immigrant Shaw as Baltimore (my father thought it was Savannah) and realized that John hadn't moved directly from Baltimore to Greene County, but had served in the North Carolina militia during the Revolutionary War. She found Weymouth there and in Baltimore.

I took Eloise's research, which included John's 1832 Revolutionary War Pension application and its 1833 affidavit, and analyzed it. I'm the one who recognized the name Hethcote Picket in his application, the draftee John substituted for in his first RS tour, as Heathcote Pickett Jr of Baltimore. I'd seen it in a ca 1999 post by the two Lemon sisters on RootsWeb, which is where I'd first read the name Weymouth Shaw. Heathcote's mother Elizabeth had purchased the child Weymouth's indenture during her second marriage. (Heathcote's father was her third husband.) White, male children who were indentured at birth were freed at age 21, but Elizabeth died when Weymouth was about 16, so he spent the last few years of his indenture in the home of her widower, Heathcote Pickett Sr. Heathcote Pickett Sr, a miller, was hanged in 1777 for selling flour to the British ships patrolling the Chesapeake. That's likely the reason Heathcote Jr fled to North Carolina, where he hired the son of his former servant as his substitute.

Anyone know how to get in touch with Eloise's children?

———— Deborah

• Married James Whittington of Jackson, Mississippi, who was born 17 Sep 1929 and died 20 April 2000 in Ocean Springs, Jackson, Mississippi. They had two children. I've sent a private message to the profile manager of a possible match and am awaiting reply before adding him to Eloise's profile.

Sources

• Birth and death dates for Eloise are from the SSI, which gives her last residence as Jackson, Mississippi. However, I think Eloise died while visiting one of her children in Minnesota or Wisconsin. She may have lived there for a few months after her husband died. I cannot find a grave site for her.

• Information on her husband is from my cousin Carol's well-sourced tree on Ancestry.

• Information on Eloise's character and genealogical expertise inferred from notes and annotations she made in her research summaries and reports.