Most family histories start with a family bible. While the family bible comes later for me, my Smith family history starts with the book, “The History of Craighead County Arkansas” by Harry Lee Williams. Talking about family with my Granddad Smith one weekend, he asked me, “Have you ever seen this book?” In the book he showed me his grandfather (my third great grandfather) Jesse Robin Smith and his brothers:
In the book were some details of the family:
page 553-556:
J. R. Smith and Mary E. (Nisbett) Smith’s children: Clifford married Robert F. Calvert, Jesse Earl died in 1902, Bertha Lillian married Everett R. McDonald, Clyde Vernon married Blanche Veran, Howard married Laura Schisler. Bessie Dean died age 3
R. F. and Clifford (Smith) Calvert’s children: Mildred married George W. Cook, Jessie Davis married Harry E. Carr, Erie Elise, Mary Lillian married Elbert Lindley, Roberta Florence, Richard Spencer died age 1. Mrs. Calvert has been a teacher in the Craighead schools for 12 years. Her husband is a farmer and resides six miles north of Jonesboro near New Hope.
Everett and Bertha (Smith) McDonald’s children: Lauren Russell, Wilma married A. Cothern, Hazel.
Howard and Laura (Schisler) Smith’s children Evelyn, Joyce, Harold.
…
J. R. Smith was born near Rome, Ga., in 1851, and died in Jonesboro, October 7, 1919. He was the son of Elisha and Elizabeth Smith. There were four brothers, Thomas, James B., Yancey Brown and John. J. R. Smith came to Craighead County with Tom and William T. Nash in 1872. He located first at Greensboro, where he conducted a store. When the new town of Brookland was located in 1883 he was the first merchant in the tow. He also conducted a store at Ridge Station, and spend the latter years of his life in Jonesboro, where he opened a store after returning from Ridge, and also conducted a lumber yard, furniture and undertaking business. His brothers, J. B. and Y. B. came to Craighead County a few years after J. R. settled here. J. B. married Martha Williams in Alabama. He died in 1911 and his wife in 1923. Both were buried in Old Trinity church yard near Bono. The children of J. B. and Martha (Williams) Smith: Joseph married Mattie Ivy, Betty married Will Dickson, Ida married Robert Kirksey, Mary married Henry Isom, Jenny married Robert Johnston, R. L. married Ruth Isbell, Carrie married George Weaver, Rev. Albert married Ida Little, Grover married Geneva Scarborough. Y. B. Smith came to Craighead in 1879 from Tennessee, where he married. His wife died and he then married Betty Ann McIntire, mother of Pearl McIntire who married Zeb Ballew. There were four children to this union: Ell and Della, twins, Elmer and Mann.
This leaves us with a pretty complicated looking descendant chart:
Elisha Smith’s dependents per History of Craighead County
While it’s not pretty, it’s a big start on my Smith family branch. Over the years I’ve filled in a few of the details, but I’ve never extended past Elisha and Elizabeth. That’s the focus of this blog: Displaying the data that builds up my Smith family in hopes that I can figure out new leads. I’ll be carefully documenting each step in RootsMagic and building a well sourced tree at the same time.
Smith Genealogy 
For those of you who are curious as to how I document in RootsMagic, I created a General Book source with the following footnote: Harry Lee Williams, History of Craighead County Arkansas (Little Rock, Arkansas: Parke-Harper Co., 1930), 553-556. I created a research note of basically the entire caption above. Using RootsMagic’s memorize function, I attached it to every single persons name, marriage and other events (birth, death, burial, residence, occupation, etc).
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Your history of the Smith family is interesting. I am the great-granddaughter of James B and Martha Williams Smith. They were married in Giles County, Tennessee, and moved soon after to Craighead County, Ark. James B. was the second son of Elisha and Elizabeth Smith. Elisha and Elizabeth were married in Rabun County, GA. “History of Craighead County Ark” lists one son as John but that is incorrect. John was the brother of Elisha, not his son. Elisha and Elizabeth had
5 children; Elizabeth, Thomas, James B., Yancy, and Jesse Robin.. The mother, Elizabeth Middleton died when Jesse Robin was 2 years old and Elizabeth looked after the younger children as Elisha never remarried. Thomas remained in Limestone County, AL. Elisha was visiting Tom when he died of an injury to his foot.
My name is Lynn Garrett, My parents Norman and Esther Hendrix Smith. Esther was the daughter of Sallie Annis (Annie) Smith who married Walter Hendrix. Annis was a daughter of James B. and Martha Williams Smith.
Hi Lynn! Thanks for the info! I started this blog as a way to start over with my Smith info and re-build everything from scratch, hopefully to break through my brick wall at Elisha. Then life got busy and I haven’t had as much time to continue the journey. I’ve got more info that I haven’t processed on here yet but I think I need to get started on that again!