Re: AYERS in TENNESSEE/late 1800s - note on Bertie Haynes

Hi Linda,
My wife is also interested in Bertie Haynes.Thomas Robertson and Bertie were her paternal grandparents.We've found very little evidence of her.She survives for us in 2 snapshots (the later of which dates from the early 1920s) that are not closeups.In the 1920 and 1930 censuses she appears as Thomas's wife "Bertie V."In '20, they are in Shelby TN; in '30, Union MS.

We have a very faded original print of the posted Robertson family picture you mention.We're very pleased that the site provides these people's identities, but I believe the ID of Bertie to be incorrect.I'm confident of the ID of Thomas; it complements the portrait photo elsewhere on that site, as well as a portrait from his old age that we possess.

But the well-documented death date of Lucinda Robertson (not to mention the clothing) dates this picture as preceding mid-1897.Thomas (then aged 43) and Bertie were married in 1915, and their oldest (surviving) child - my late father-in-law, Thomas Jr - was born in 1919.

It's possible that the elderly woman is mis-ID'd as Lucinda, but we would still question whether that would likely be Bertie because of the well-documented death date of Laura Lila Robertson, in 1908 - still quite some time before the marriage of Thomas and Bertie.It's just a guess, but I suspect the woman could be Thomas's younger sister, Addie.

I hope I am adding enough to maybe make up for my having cast doubt on "knowledge" about Bertie.Thomas Sr was a school teacher, and the family of 4 were pretty desperately poor, living in a dirt floor shack.Thomas Jr, who eventually taught at Anderson College in IN, died in 1985; his sister, Anne - who was childless - passed away a few years later.My wife, Anne, and her brother, Thomas III, are descendants of the Robertson - Haynes union, as are our two sons.Let me know if you would like, and I'll send scans of the 2 snaps that we are confident are of Bertie (although as I said before, neither provides much of a likeness.)

Paul Cramer