January 17 - The Research Begins

Got up at 7.  Breakfast.  Left hotel at 8:45. The temperature was about 15 degrees. 

Arrived in downtown Ft Worth at 9:30. We went to Tarrant County Archives.  Looked for land records for George K and Mattie Ann Taylor Johnson.  They lived on land and paid taxes from 1876 to 1887.  The land was originally owned by J. Rendon, the original grantee.   We found location of the street that TT Brown and family lived in the 1910 census in Ft Worth.

11:00 went to Tarrant Co Clerks office looking for vital records.  The clerk (Sylvia) did an online search looking for the children of Bertie and DC Redding’s children (infants that must have died between 1894 and 1900) and the death record for George K Johnson.  Sylvia was unable to find anything, but said she likes a challenge and will continue to look.  She took contact information if she can find anything. (Sylvia called back on Friday.  It turns out what she found was not an ancestor).

Then went to the Fort Worth Library genealogy section.  There reviewed Footprints records for possible vital or other record information.  Found a record book that contains the marriage records for George K’s daughters (Bertie, Emma and Josie (Bonnie grandmother)).

Stopped at Subway for lunch at about 1:00 … then on to the Tarrant County Historic Courthouse to see if original records were available.   The records there have all been digitized and are available online (got the website for searching). 

While at the Courthouse Bonnie was admiring the door ornamentations.  While she was in one of the rooms getting information, the clerk said: “That man is taking pictures of our doorknobs”.  It was Kent.

Went across the street to the Tarrant Co Administration building to get more land record information.  We got good information about land records that should assist in tracking the transfer of the property in Rendon.

We then went to the Fort Worth Stockyards Museum around 3 pm.  The museum was interesting.  We learned about the stockyards and some of the development of Fort Worth.  Armour and Swift set up plants in 1902.  This is about the time that TT Brown worked as a meat cutter in Ft worth.  He and his family appear in the 1910 census in Ft. Worth at 1500 Lawrence Street.  

While at the museum we saw some longhorn cattle and watched them drive down the street in front of the museum.

On the way back to our hotel we drove through the neighborhood where TT Brown and family lived in 1910.  The street they lived on (Lawrence) is now gone … Interstate 35W is now where the street used to be.

Dilapidated Home on Rendon property

Drove to Rendon to see the property where Mattie appears on the land records and where she paid property taxes.  This property still had not been developed significantly.  There is a mix of businesses, a few homes and several acres of undeveloped property.

We had dinner at Jambos BarbqueShack that is located on the old Rendon property.  Great BBQ.

Got back to the hotel at about 6:30 pm