Can Someone Familiar with African American Research Help Me?

Question

I'm researching the Perkins family. I created profiles for all the children, and now I'm going back to try and dig up more information.

I found this record of a marriage. It's in the right place at the right time, but I'm not certain it's THE Frank Perkins.

Can anyone familiar with researching African American records tell me if this is him?

https://www.familysearch.org/ark:/61903/1:1:Q28D-D7K7?treeref=GXMZ-6KP

Comments

It's difficult to know when race isn't indicated. Lots of Perkins families in Fayette County in that time period. I usually just search for similar names on Census records that indicate race, but even those aren't always accurate. Your Frank is certainly an interesting character!

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I searched for newspaper articles but found nothing. Without more corroboration, I'm not comfortable saying that the source refers to Frank Perkins, son of John Jacob Perkins.

Answer 1

I found these two articles about his murder and the trial of the murderer. The first says he had a wife named Eliza Perkins, but the second describes her as Eliza Dixon who had lived with Frank for 10 years. The second also describes another witness, Jennie Moore, as being the daughter of the first witness, who seems to be Eliza Dixon.

None of that is conclusive about the marriage to Hattie Clark, but it seems unlikely that he'd be marrying her in 1893 if he had been living with Eliza since about 1890.

Comments

Thank you, Christie. I somehow missed those.

Answer 2

You can request assistance here:

https://www.wikitree.com/wiki/Project:US_Black_Heritage#Family_Builders:_Family_Tree.2FResearch_Help

Comments

Thank you, Peggy. I did.

Answer 3

I found Eliza in the 1900 census by searching for James Brown, one of the people listed in the newspaper article that was found by Christy Melick.

She was listed as Eliza Dicks, age 32. She rented 296 East Short St. Her daughter, Jenny age 13, lived with her. She was a widowed mother of 4, 2 children were still living. She may have been first married 18 years ago. Frank Perkins was not listed in her household. If she was married to Frank Perkins, this record indicates the marriage took place between June and October 1900.

Comments

Amazing. That never would have even occurred to me.