Laura Mehetible Denby

b. 1888 · Texas

Born 1888, Texas

Children include Robert

Laura Mehetible Denby, known as Hettie, was born in Texas about 1888. The death record of her daughter Bessie Inez gives her birthplace as Kirbyville, in Jasper County. On 24 December 1903, in Jasper County, she married Houston Gray, Samuel Houston Gray of Newton County, the record giving her name as Hettie Denby. She was about fifteen. Their children were Bessie Inez, born on 20 April 1905, Mildred about 1909, Robert Woodrow on 22 October 1916 at Beaumont, Doris about 1918 and Reid about 1920. In January 1920 she was 31 and keeping house in Sabine County, Texas.

She is missing from the family's 1930 census in New Orleans, where Samuel was recorded as widowed, and he was recorded as a widower again in 1950. Her son Robert's Social Security application names his mother as Hettie Denby, the 1964 death record of her daughter Bessie Inez names her Heddie Denby, and Samuel's death record in 1959 names his wife Laura Denby. When and where she died has not been found.

Her parents are not yet proven. The 1900 census of Justice Precinct 7, Newton County, the same precinct where the Gray family lived, lists a Laura M. Denby born February 1888, daughter of Frank Denby, a Texas-born farmer of 42, and Sarah E., 42, with Francis E., 16, John M., 13, Sarah E., 8, and Cassey M., 3. The age, the name and the neighbourhood all fit, and she is the most probable Laura. A descendant's family tree instead gives her parents as Samuel Henry Denby and Mary Martha Dorcus Sanders, but that tree has Mary Martha dying in 1884, four years before Laura was born.

Children

Robert Woodrow Gray 1916-1998

Sources

United States Census, 1920, Sabine County, Texas, through FamilySearch (ark 1:1:MHT6-RVK).

United States Census, 1930, New Orleans, Orleans Parish, through FamilySearch (ark 1:1:XMR3-2PD).

United States, Social Security Numerical Identification Files (NUMIDENT), 1936-2007, through FamilySearch (ark 1:1:6K7C-74VB); Louisiana, Orleans and St. Tammany voter registration records (arks 1:1:DD19-M9N2, 1:1:68MV-B9ZW); Louisiana first registration draft cards, 1940-1945 (ark 1:1:KC1B-3QF).

Louisiana, Deaths, 1850-1875, 1894-1960, through FamilySearch (ark 1:1:QLQV-KN2S); Louisiana, Orleans and St. Tammany voter registration records (ark 1:1:D6H1-BDPZ and others).

United States Census, 1900, Newton County, Texas, through FamilySearch (ark 1:1:M3PT-JHL).

1920 census Sabine County (FamilySearch 1:1:MHT6-RVK); Texas county marriage index, Houston Gray and Hettie Denby (1:1:VXGZ-GYS); Social Security NUMIDENT of Robert W. Gray (1:1:6K7C-74VB); Orleans Parish death record of Bessie Inez Gray Prevost (1:1:QPRR-B3HB); Louisiana death record of Samuel Houston Gray, 5 January 1959 (1:1:QLQV-KN2S); 1950 census Tangipahoa Parish (1:1:6X2J-1WCX); 1900 census Newton County, household of Frank Denby (1:1:M3PT-JHL); 1860 census Newton County, household of William Denby (1:1:MXFT-CMC); FamilySearch tree L6Y6-9T2.

If Laura Mehetible Denby is in your family, start your own tree.

Cite: Heirology, "Laura Mehetible Denby (b. 1888)", https://heirology.com/ancestors/laura-mehetible-denby-1888-3b81a4.