-Bruce Howard responds:

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Chris: Family tradition is great, isn't it? Unfortunately sometimes it gets a little confused and twisted over time. Your Martha Pace was born in 1866 in Kentucky, my nose tells me that it might be Harlan County. She was not an orphan, however. She was still living at home with her widowed mother, Arvina Pace, in Letcher County in 1880 and her mother was still living in 1900 in Leslie County. Martha had at least six brothers and three sisters, William, Samuel, Robert, Elizabeth, John, then Martha, Charley, Leonard, Sarah and Mary Pace.

One of her siblings may have married into the Craft family and she lived with or around them, but I doubt that she was taken in by the Craft family. Arvina and most of her children moved into Lesley County and lived near Haden, the county seat, and between there and Cutshine Creek. A couple of them were in Clay county, which is where Robert married. There is also a marriage of a Martha Pace to Mr. William W. Hubbard on Feb. 14, 1885. I do not know if this is your Martha, but it would be worth checking into. The area where all of them lived is very close in proximity.

If you can not get microfilm records for these areas on interlibrary loan then it may require a trip up to that area to get the answers you need to solve the puzzle. Also, if you have a CD-ROM drive on your computer you might want to invest in PhoneDisc directories put out by Digital Directory Assistance, Inc. and find all of the living Pace's in the areas of your search and make contact with some of them. You never know, you might get lucky. The answers are not going to come and land in your lap, you are going to have to keep digging and you will find what you want. Bruce.

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Phil: You asked for some help on your grandfather Benson Pace. Well, here is some help for you. Your grandfather was one of several children of Mr. Nelson Alexander Pace and his second wife Mary "Polly" Scruggs of Owasso, Indian Territory (now Oklahoma), in the Cherokee Nation. He was born in the year 1892 in Indian Territory.

If you will go over to Oklahoma City and visit the archives sometime ask the librarian for the Gurion Miller rolls of the Eastern Cherokee Claims. If they have them on microfilm, you will want claim number 36283, which will be your family. Polly Pace's claim was rejected but the information was preserved. It will be well worth you time and effort to search this file out. While there you might want to check the census of the Indian rolls for the territory. They were not included in the regular 1900 census of the whites in Oklahoma.

Once you have as much as you can gather on the Oklahoma material, then I would suggest you turn your attention to Buchanan County, Missouri, which is where Nelson A. Pace came from prior to his move to Indian Territory. Also check the surrounding counties of Vernon, Bates, etc.

You also have a relative who knows something about the family, and she also descends from Nelson and Polly Pace of Oklahoma. You might want to write to her at some point, Mrs. Ruth Pace Stockham, Rt. 1, 18837 N. Lewis, Skiatook, Ok 74070. I have not heard from her in five or six years, but it might be worth you while and you would have an ally to work with. Good luck. Bruce.

Click here to go back to Phil Pace's query on the queries page

I have traced my background on the Pace side back to FREDERICK PACE (b. in Wales bef. 1860) and ELIZABETH ?   using the "Pace Your Family and Mine" books Vol. I & 2. It goes like this:

Me: Steven Craig PACE, b. 6-9-1966 in Dallas, TX Wife: Dana Anne BARNES, b. 3-15-1969 in Houston, TX

Father: William Berg PACE, Jr., b. 10-29-1939 in Camden, Ark. Mother: Eva Lavern HARNER, b.3-27-1943 in Midwest City, OK

Grandfather: William Berg PACE, Sr., b. 6-13, 1919 in Camden, Ark. Grandmother: Ethel WILLIAMS

G Grandfather: William Samuel PACE, b. 1-29-1878 in Camden, Ark. G Grandmother: Mary Frances MOON, b. 4-4-1881

GG Grandfather: William Winfield PACE, b. 7-1-1848 GG Grandmother: Mary E. AVERA, b. 12-27-1849

GGG Grandfather: William PACE, b. 1807 in Kentucky GGG Grandmother: Sarah YARBROUGH, b. 1-6-1811

GGGG Grandfather: John Pace, b. 1760 Wales. GGGG Grandmother: Elizabeth Jones, b. in South Carolina

GGGGG Grandfather: Fredrick Pace, b. in Wales. GGGGG Grandmother: Elizabeth ?

I'd like to fill in the gaps here and continue to go back as far as I can. I would appreciate any help that you or any of the readers can give me.

Thank you,  Steven C. Pace

To: Steven Pace = scp@fiscal.tamu.edu From: Bruce Howard

Steven: The man who wrote the book Pace Your Family and Mine was a fine old gentleman, just as many of the old members of the Pace Society were. It wont be many years before someone will probably say the same about me, who knows! But, he could never find the answers he wanted - no one could. My advice to you is to check the records of North Carolina and South Carolina for yourself. Be as diligent as you can possibly be in your search for Frederick Pace and when you find him let me know and I will send you my personal check for one thousand dollars. You know which one I am talking about, the Frederick who was supposed to be born in Wales and came to America with a wife Elizabeth and sons John, Frederick, William and Dempsey, those that turn up in Chesterfield County, South Carolina in 1800. Good hunting. Bruce.

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Important links:

I wrote a beautiful song for the 50th wedding anniversary of my in-laws 20 years ago. It is now available on CD and I havae set up several Internet sites to sell it. Go to any of the following:

Golden Love site at http://goldenlove.att.net
Golden Love site on SchnakeNet http://freepages.genealogy.rootsweb.com/~schnake/goldenlove.htm
Golden Love site on Pace Network http://freepages.genealogy.rootsweb.com/~pace/goldenlove.htm
Golden Love on FortuneCity http://www.fortunecity.com/skyscraper/cern/1343/  or http://www.nav.to/compu-tutor1

Rick Schnake has an interesting hobby/part time business. He collects and sells authentic historic signatures on original documents. He has US Presidents and many other historical figures represented. Why not check it out?

Rick's main site

at "http://www.historyinink.com"
Mirror site on Schnakenet at http://freepages.genealogy.rootsweb.com/~schnake/HistoryInInk.htm
Mirror site on Pace Network http://freepages.genealogy.rootsweb.com/~pace/HistoryInInk.htm