Background on the collaborations between Winnie Bailey, Melba Woods, Marie Matlock Harris and others
Please take into account that I, Winiford Sheila OHLEGSCHLAGER BAILEY, am not a blood relation in any form of the MATLOCK's or their kin. I married into the BAILEY branch back in 1939, when I married Jack Raymond BAILEY never realizing I was marrying into several huge Family Trees. Over the years I have become a collector and recorder of his large family, the "MATLOCK's" being just one part.
This MATLOCK BOOK is to be used more as a resource or reference book as it is a collection by and from many researchers, skilled and not so skilled, therefore you will discover considerable repeatings. It is just as accurate as the information given me and as I interpeted or copied it. I come in all conditions.
So! sharpen your pencils, start your own research and enjoy. WSB 10 Mar 2000
In March of 1994 I answered a query put forth by Marie Matlock HARRIS in 1992 or 93 asking for MATLOCK information. I had my MATLOCK manuscript ready for xeroxing in preparation for the_ RINEHART Family REUNION in June of 1994. I told Marie the manuscript was based on Melba WOOD's lifetime work - (Melba was a working nurse) along with the help of several other MATLOCK's, Marilynn Matlock PRICE and Lois EBBERT ..to name a couple.
23 March 1994
"Dear Mrs. BAILEY I was so pleased to get your letter, to find a new name in the MATLOCK RESEARCH, is always a pleasure. I was so happy to have your printout on the family .... over the years so many MATLOCK's would never share their information with me ... often never acknowledging or answering my letter. "
" I tell you from the start-> [Marie said] Mrs. WOOD has so many mistakes, I would be certain to check any of her material that you use. I was in England, during WW2 ........ what I gathered, was just a happenstance affair. I was there with Uncle Sam and little time to spare for searching. It was only through the meeting of one from the Giles area, that sent me on that trip to the GILES PARISH, and there I saw the MATLOCK name. I then (personally) checked the Parish Register of the Old Giles Church for further detail." MMH
[Needless to say after hearing from Marie - I held back my manuscript and it is still pending. JAN 1996 .... May 1999 WSB]
In a letter Melba told me that she and a man, who lived in Salt Lake City, did their best to organize the early Matlock history, by laying out a big chart, fitting together by association with family members, places and counties, dates and births, and then using the chart, lined them up the best they could & she printed up their results .... and she NEVER in all my short contact with her ... ever claim it to be a cut and dried fact. I cannot feel in my heart that Melba made very many mistakes. WSB ]
+++++++++++++++++++++++++++
[the initials MMH represents MARIE MATLOCK HARRIS, of Pima, Az. ~ WSB represents myself, WINIFORD SHELIA BAILEY of Scio, Or.]
I (WSB) have come to the conclusion that I will leave my manuscript alone. I have there an accumulation of over 200 years of previous research by Melba, as well as others. I have had help from any number of researchers.
[At the age of 77 I do not have the time or energy to search for, recheck or prove Melba's work, Marie's, Jesse's or even Edgar's ]
Melba, was near death when I became acquainted with her as was Marie, each told me that they had boxes and boxes of material stored away, unorganized & not in any order, that no one in their immediate family was interested, didn't know what would become of their life's work .......
My solution (as to whom is correct, Melba or Marie ) is to insert an extra chapter to my manuscript for the material that Marie so graciously shared in the year I knew her and keep my Melba manuscript intact.
Marie, in and out of hospitals, a smoker ... was on Oxygen 24 hrs. a day, a Diabetic, and nearly blind. Died May 27, 1995
Hopefully younger researchers will find a clue in this manuscript that will untangle those very early years. A visit to Old Giles Parish in England seems a must, but Marie had no love for the English administrators or librarians.
BACK