Would the Real Tom Burge Please Stand Up Since I began my research in 1998...I have made some pretty big leaps in my genealogy. I make no claim that what I have put together is the rock hard truth...if at some later date I find something more to disprove what I have here.....I will correct it. When I started research on my great-grandfather, Thomas Wilson Burge, it was with the facts that I had at hand. Which is the dates of birth and death on his Confederate headstone, his Confederate Pension application, and a newspaper article that was written about him in 1932. I searched for a very long time for a Thomas W. Burge who was born in 1842 and kept coming up against a brick wall. The longer I searched, a "gut instinct" started to emerge. Thomas W. Burge claimed to have been "brought to the Republic of Texas from Alabama as an infant to Lavaca County Texas". There is indeed a Thomas Burge on the 1860 Lavaca Co Texas census, but this could not be him as it would make him even older than he already claimed to be. There are no other Thomas Burges as head of household in Texas for any subsequent censuses.....until the 1880 Fayette County census which is the first time you find him and know it is him. I asked myself "WHY isn't he listed in any census records before that? If he was born in 1842 and SAID he lived in Lavaca County and then later moved to Fayette County...WHY isn't he on a census in one of these counties??". Thomas Wilson Burge's death certificate lists his father as a Tom Burge and mother Fannie Ray. I went to the World Connect Project in Rootsweb.com and typed in "Fannie Ray" in the search field. This led me to a gedcom file entitled "The Rays of Fayette County Texas" whose author is James Ray. In this gedcom there was a Thomas Berge who married a Sarah Ray (her father was WILSON Ray) in Muscogee County Georgia in 1848.......they are on the 1850 Muscogee County Georgia census...the gedcom says that both Thomas the father and Sarah the mother died in Texas....Thomas in the "Civil War and his wife shortly after". The gedcom also lists two children of this couple--Sarah born in 1853 in Texas and Thomas born after 1853 in Texas. This gedcom brought me in to contact with several researchers. According to a book written about the Ray family and its branches by Sue Nite Raguzin the Ray family were all in Texas by 1860. This leads me back to the 1860 Lavaca County Texas census. It lists a Thomas Burge as head of household, born approximately in 1833.....a wife MARY age 18, a daughter Jane age 7, daughter Sarah age 5 and son Thomas age 3. There has to be some tie between Lavaca County and Thomas Wilson Burge and I believe the 1850 census is the tie. There is a marriage record for a Thomas Burge and a Mary Edwards in Lavaca Co. for 1858. Thomas Burge signed a paper swearing that Mary Edwards was 18 years of age...you then come to the 1860 census and on the census she is 18...so she was only 16 when they married. Now...this leads you to the children listed on the 1860 census....none of them could have been hers...she and Thomas had only been married two years and the youngest child is 3. I believe this youngest child to be my greatgrandftaher, Thomas Wilson Burge. I believe the info, from Sue Nite Raguzin, about the elder Thomas Burge and his wife dying shortly after.... the SECOND wife was confused with the first, Sarah Ray Burge. I think Sarah Ray Burge died probably after giving birth to my greatgrandfather. I cannot prove this but this is what I believe to be true. Also, Thomas Burge did not die in the Civil War. Regimental papers have him in a Houston hospital with gonorrhea and he was discharged from the Confederate Army for reasons of ill health. I believe he died shortly after coming home probably from complications of the gonorrhea and his second wife died shortly after that.......the book by Sue Nite Raguzin states that "the children were farmed out to family members after the death of the parents. The next census year of 1870 there is a "Thomas BIRGH age 14" (making his birth year 1856) listed in the household of Robert Harris who is his first cousin....their mothers were sisters......Thomas Birgh's sister Sarah Burge married their first cousin Robert Harris...making his first cousin his brother in law. T. W. "BIRGH" married F. E. Baker in Fayette Co. in 1878. Thomas W. Burge AGE 22 is on the 1880 census with his wife Fannie and son John. Each census year after that, Thomas W. Burge, gets a little older than he should have been. I believe that he augmented his age for a purpose. The purpose being so that he could pass himself off as his father, Thomas Burge. The Confederate Pension program did not come in to being until 1899....our Thomas Wilson Burge did not file for a pension until approximately 1931. I believe that he probably had his father's papers in his possession. Another factor that leads me to believe that Thomas Wilson Burge was connected to the Ray family is......some court records that I recently obtained for criminal charges filed against him in Fayette County Texas has a BENNETT RAY (Sarah Ray Burge's brother) as one of the people who posted bond for him on a charge of murder. He was acquitted on this charge and left Fayette County shortly after. The next census year is in 1900 and he is in Hill County Texas. I want to give a big thanks to the author of the gedcom "The Rays of Fayette County Texas", Mr. James Ray. I personally spoke to him and I explained to him who I was and my theory. He also felt that I had enough proof to be able to say that my Thomas Wilson Burge was indeed the child of Thomas Burge and Sarah Ray. He gave me his permission to merge his gedcom with mine. I also want to thank Shara Hatcher, another researcher with Rays in her line. She helped me with alot of information. Last but not anywhere near least, I want to thank my cousin Gloria Terry. I got to go spend some time with her in her home which is not far from Fayette County Texas. We spent several days doing research in Fayette and Lavaca Counties. |