Re: Descendants of Eula Lee Corbett and Joseph Benjamin Holladay

Pamela,

I am thrilled to find this posting. I am the great granddaughter of Ada E. Holladay; Joseph Benjamin's half sister. I have been seeking information about my great grandmother, having just begun my ancestral journey in 2009.

Ada married Asa Beuregard Rhame and together they had 12 children. One was my grandmother Margaret "Maggie" Rhame. She died before I was born. Maggie married my grandfather Clarence Herbert Murray, and together they lived in Holly Hill, SC. Clarence died at the age of 33 in 1925. A few months later, Maggie placed her three children--my uncle Charles Herbert Murray, my aunt Margaret Elizabeth Murray and my father Quintin Arthur Murray--in the Charleston Orphan House where they lived for about 10 years. Very sad.

I have received some orphanage documents pertaining to my father and his siblings, including letters Maggie wrote to the director for permission to visit their grandmother, Ada, during the holidays. This is the only reference I have of Ada.

As you can imagine, after living away from family in an orphanage for 10 years, those kids lost touch with pretty much everyone the grew up within Moncks Corner and Holly Hill. Charles became a Merchant Marine. Margaret went to school and then married, my father joined the CCC and then the Coast Guard. He married my mom in NYC, where my brother and I grew up.

My father, my aunt and my uncle did not speak of their time in the orphanage or growing up in SC. Until I began my genealogical research, the first cousins in the family (me, my brother, and my aunt's two children) only thought that my grandmother had one sister and that my grandfather had one sister and one brother (there were 14 Murray siblings).

So as you can see, I'm somewhat excited to find you. I hope to hear from you very soon. Any information you can share with me about Ada, her brothers, sisters and ancestors, would be very welcome.