Margie Odell Caldwell Ruble

Correcting Genealogical Errors

From doing online genealogical research on my family, I've learned that there are lots of errors and stumbling blocks. One of them involves the name of my great-grandmother on my Ruble side.  I've blogged about her before— on "The Ruble Connection" on my Naces of  Lithia blog and on this blog back in 2014: "Tangled Ruble Roots." Thus, some of the info in this post might be a bit redundant, but I'd like to get the word out on what her real name was.

 My great-grandmother's full name is Margie Odell Caldwell Ruble, but a lot of sites—as well as several trees on Ancestry.com—mistake her for her older sister Maggie. Or they think her name is Margaret or Marga or Margie Logan. Or they get her birthdate confused with Maggie's. (Margie and Maggie's parents were Alexander Gibson Caldwell and Marcellus Surber.)

This picture of Margie and her husband George William Ruble was taken before 1935, because that's the year he died.

I know the picture was taken at their son Howard Ruble's house on Watts Avenue in Roanoke because the background still looked like that in the 1950s when I was a kid. I also remember hearing my grandmother Blanche Nace Ruble refer to her mother-in-law as Margie. 

I think a lot of problems with her correct name might have started when someone got it wrong and a lot of others copied the error. When doing genealogy, it's best to work with primary sources rather than heresay.

My Aunt Leona—Margie's daughter—wrote this note for me when I was a child so I would know who my family was. Aunt Leona was off a digit in her grandfather's birthdate, but the names of his children look correct. Also, I'm not sure about Caroline Surber—I think she was an aunt rather than a grandmother—but, according to census records, she lived near Marcellus's father Henry Surber.

Notice that Maggie L. Caldwell—Margie's older sister—was born on May 9, 1859, before her father—Alexander Gibson Caldwell—went to war. Margie O. Caldwell and her twin sister Montra were born on February 25, 1866, after the war was over. (Note: To add to the confusion, on her Find-a-Grave site, Montra's name is spelled Mauntra and her birthdate is a year off.)

The Ruble family bible is another primary source. According to this page from it, George William Ruble was born on June 17, 1861, and his wife Margie Odell Ruble was born February 25, 1866. A note at the bottom says they were married October 14, 1884.

Another piece of evidence is this 1920 census where Margie O. (age 53) is the wife of Geo William Ruble (age 58). Their sons Kenneth, Bertranse, Stewart, and Eugene are still at home:

Their tombstone is hard to read, but you can see the name is Margie. It's not Margaret.

Margie's death certificate clearly identifies her as Margie Odell Ruble.

Her husband's death certificate identifies her as Margie Caldwell Ruble.

So, from looking at some good primary sources, we know that her name was Margie—not Maggie, not Margaret.

Perhaps this blog-post will help folks who are researching the wife of George William Ruble learn that her real name was Margie Odell Caldwell Ruble.

UPDATE: Thanks to ancestry.com, I was able to find out what happened to Margaret/Maggie Logan Caldwell. On June 21, 1888, she married E.D. Broughman in Alleghany, Virginia (FHL Film number 30523, Reference ID  p37L28). She was a widow when she died on March 31, 1926, at Little Sisters of the Poor, 16 N. Harvie Street in Richmond. Her death certificate notes that she was formerly of Clifton Forge, Virginia, but had been in Richmond four years.

Her parents are listed as "Alex Calwell" and "Marcella Serbert," which is close to Alex Caldwell and Marcellus Surber, but both are listed as being born in "England" instead of Virginia. Was someone trying to hide something, or did they just not know? And why was she in Richmond? If she were living with a child, wouldn't that child have given information for the death certificate instead of Sister Catherine? Perhaps she had no children, and thus ended up in a home for the "elderly poor."

Little Sisters of the Poor
(now Warsaw Condominiums)

Some things still remain a mystery.

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Tangled Ruble Roots

If you're not kin to me, this post probably won't interest you.

I think I'm having an ancestral identity crisis, at least where a great-grandmother and a great-great-grandfather on the Ruble side are concerned. It started recently when I noticed that my Naces of Lithia blog, which I rarely update anymore, was getting a lot of traffic. Then I received two emails from distant Ruble cousins I'd never met. They also descended from my great-grandparents, George William Ruble and his wife Margie Odell Caldwell, who were married on October 14, 1884, and they'd read "The Ruble Connection" post on the Nace blog. They were also  interested in Ruble family history.

My intro to Ruble history started with a note my Great-Aunt Leona wrote when I was a child. She wanted me to know where I came from:

Aunt Leona was probably in her late 50s-early 60s when she wrote down this info for me. She made one error: For her grandfather, Alexander G. Caldwell, she wrote his birthdate as 1882. She meant 1822, since Alexander  "Died August 21st. 1900—age 78 yrs. 4 mo & 21 days." On the page above, she listed the children that he and his wife Marcellus Surber Caldwell had:

1. Anna B. Caldwell: born Dec. 17, 1850
2. Wm. C. Caldwell: born May 9, 1852
3. John B. Caldwell: born Aug. 15, 1854
4. Tilman E. Caldwell: born Nov. 11, 1856
5. Maggie L. Caldwell: born May 9, 1859
6. Alexander J. Caldwell: born June 10, 1862
7. Montra A. Caldwell: born Feb. 25, 1866
8. Margie O. Caldwell: born Feb. 25, 1866
9. Larence O. W. Caldwell: born May 5, 1869.

Leona added a notation that Montra and Margie, who were born nine months after the Civil War ended, were twins. Their father  was a private in Company B, 28th Virginia Infantry Regiment, and he was living in Craig County in 1894 when his pension was granted. However, on one site, he also has a death date of 1865—his regimental history apparently though he died as a POW. So, there's the first tangled root: my great-great grandfather has two death dates: 1865 and 1900. UPDATE: The site giving this info has been removed. Regardless of when he died (I'm favoring 1900), he's buried in the Looney Cemetery in Craig County, VA, with his wife "Cynthia Marcella Sarver Caldwell."

And there's another tangled root. Marcellus Surber Caldwell is Cynthia Marcella Sarver Caldwell. On a Virginia Marriages site, she's Marcella Surber, daughter of Henry Surber. According to Ancestry.com, she is Marcella Surber, married to Alexander Gibson Caldwell and mother of Margaret Ann Caldwell (1864-1941). 

And it gets more tangled: according to Ancestry.com, Margaret Ann, born on Feb. 25, 1864, is the one who married George William Ruble (but Margaret didn't!). (Margaret supposedly died on the same date as Margie—Nov. 4, 1941, and had two of Margie's children—Clara E. Ruble and Stewart Webster Ruble. But Margaret actually died in 1926.) 

. . . which brings us to the Ruble family Bible. This page lists the children of George William Ruble and Margie Odell Ruble:

• Howard Rufus Ruble Born August 29, 1885
• Clara Edith Ruble Born February 25, 1887
• Leona Francis Ruble Born March 17, 1889
• Harry Leffel Ruble Born April 23, 1891
• Ruth Gladys Ruble Born March 10, 1896
• Taylor Everette Ruble Born October 15, 1893
• Rossie Faye Ruble Born April 9, 1899
• George Kenneth Ruble Born February 27, 1901
• Bertranse Ryland Ruble Born April 1, 1905
• Stuart Webster Ruble Born June 1, 1906
• Eugene Barber Ruble Born February 1, 1909

G. William & Margie Ruble

In the 1900 census, George Wm is listed as 39 and Margie O. Ruble is listed as 34. That makes her birth date 1866. Living at home with them are Howard (age 15), Clara (13), Cora (11), Harry (9—he'd die two years later), Taylor (7), Ruth (4), and Rossie (1). The others hadn't been born. "Cora" must have been a misspelling of Leona, who would have been 11.

In the 1910 Census, George Wm is listed as 48 and Margie O. Ruble is listed as 42. If the age is correct, she should have been born in 1868. (Did she lie about her age? Or did the census taker write down the wrong age?) The children at home were Leona (21), Taylor (16), Ruth (14), Rossie (11), George (9), Bertanse (7), Stewart (3), and Eugene (1). Howard and Clara would have left home; Harry would be dead.

But, to tangle things up, there are websites, such as this one, which says that "Margaret Ann Logan Caldwell" was the one who married George William Ruble, and lists their nine children: Clara, Leona, Taylor, Ruth, Bessie, George, Bertanse, Stewart, and Eugene. It leaves off my grandfather Howard, his brother Harry who died as a child, and my Aunt Ross, but adds a Bessie. (Bessie and Rossie have the same birth year. Perhaps someone miscopied.)

Anyhow, I doubt the accuracy of that site. I remember Aunt Ross, who visited my grandparents when she came up from Texas. For my high school graduation, she sent me a brown and white striped blouse that matched perfectly a brown skirt I had.

The Find-A-Grave site says George William Ruble was married to Margaret Odella Caldwell Ruble. Another site says his wife was Marga Logan Caldwell. But his wife was actually  Margie Odell Caldwell.

So, I'm confused. Is "Margie" actually short for "Margaret" but nobody thought to put that in the family Bible? But wouldn't it be more likely that her older sister "Maggie A" is "Margaret Ann"?  Could folks posting to some of the genealogy sites have confused the two sisters? But where did the "Logan" come from? Is that another person altogether?

Can anyone untangle my roots?

Update: Margaret  Caldwell married E.D. Brougham on June 21, 1888. She died a widow in 1926 in Richmond Virginia at Little Sisters of the Poor:

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Looking Back, Looking Ahead

Yesterday I looked into the past.

My cousin Judy and her daughter Kara came from Roanoke to look at the family things I had—many old photos, old letters, some linens (mostly things crocheted by my great aunts or embroidered by my mother), a few pieces of furniture (such as the dining room set that my mother bought in the early 1930s; she paid a dollar a week for it from her seven dollars a week she earned working at Heironimus). These things aren’t investment quality antiques—alas, no Duncan Fyfe or Sheraton—but they’re remnants of a farm family from days gone by. Their value is sentimental and maybe historical.

My mother was her mother’s only daughter, so family things passed to her. My grandmother’s two sons wouldn’t have been interested in them. Household goods don’t interest boys.

Since I am my mother’s only daughter—and only surviving child (my older brother died the day he was born), the family things passed to me. Since I am childless, I need to pass them on. Of my three female first cousins, only one has a daughter. And that daughter has now a daughter. The female line continues. Someday I will decide how the family things will pass on—either to family or historical society.

And here’s what’s weird: two-and-a-half-year-old Maddie looks just like I did when I was her age. And her birthday is the same day as my mother’s, which was the same day as her paternal grandmother’s.


We looked at things that Judy and I remembered from our visits to Grandma's house over fifty years ago. We remembered these dishes, but we couldn't remember them ever being used, though. They were always in the china cabinet. We remembered that the pitcher and glasses always sat on the server in the dining room; again, we never remember them being used:


A picture of three nymphs hung in the parlor. There was a matching picture opposite it, but another cousin has that. The other picture had swans.



We spent time looking at old photographs. Many were identified, but some were mysteries. Were the people in the pictures family, or were they acquaintances? We’ll never know.


We looked at pictures of ourselves when we were kids and gathered around the dining room table at Grandma’s house—the same dining room table that we gathered around yesterday. We looked at our pictures of our ancestors—the people who made us who we are.

Our granddaddy, Howard R. Ruble, when he was a young man.


Grandaddy is at the lower right. Most of his fellow railroad engineers are unidentified.
The picture is dated 1914.

We are who we are because our ancestor Peter Nafzger and his brothers Rudolph and Matthais—Mennonites from the Swiss-German border—stowed away on the Phoenix and landed in Philadelphia on September 15, 1749. Their story is on the Nafzger website. In America, the Nafzgers became Noffsingers/Nofsingers/Noftsingers (or one of the many variant spellings).

We are who we are because of our ancestor William Nace, overseer of Mount Joy Plantation in Botetourt County. We looked at a copy of his will and the inventory of his estate. When William died in the summer of 1863, his son (and our ancestor, John Christian Nace) had leave from the 22nd Virginia Infantry to settle his estate—and thus missed the Battle of Gettysburg. John Christian Nace married Mary Ann Nofsinger.

William Robert Nace, the son of John Nace, married Sulmena Frances Spence, who came from the Big Island section of Bedford County—just across the mountains from where the Naces lived. Her parents moved to Buchanan when she was in her teens. We talked about the few things were knew about her, but much of her life is mystery. (Two decades ago, I rode my mare through the Big Island area. Did I ride past family land? I'll never know.)

Sulmana Frances Spence, daughter of Andrew Frederick Spence and Mary Lucy Goff.

Our Nofsinger ancestors (as well as some of our Nace Ancestors) lie in the Nofsinger-Styne Cemetery in Pico (near Buchanan in Botetourt County, Virginia). I’ve visited twice on family reunions. Other Naces lie in Lithia Baptist Church Cemetery. I've been there many years ago. One of the Nace graves at Lithia Baptist is that of our great-aunt Annie Pearl, who died mysteriously when she was in her early twenties:

Annie Pearl Nace, with her boyfriend Otha Young.

We looked at pictures of other ancestors, too. They made us who we are—and who we will become.

See my Naces of Lithia blog for information about the Nace line.

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Old Family Recipe: Spoonbread

I just finished reading Mom’s Family Pie, Peggy Shifflett’s wonderful book of family recipes and the stories behind them.

Unlike Peggy, I don't have many family recipes, but I have a couple. One came from Aunt Leona.

When I was a kid, my great aunt Leona Ruble Davy (maybe it's spelled Davey) and her husband (she called him Buddy, but I don't know his real name) would come from their new Castle home to visit us aound Easter. She usually brought me a fruit-and-nut chocolate-covered egg. Sometimes it had my name in icing on it.

Supposedly Leona, the youngest child of G. William Ruble and Margie Caldwell Ruble of Botetourt County, was known for the beautiful clothes she made herself. This photo from her youth isn't in very good shape, but it shows how pretty she was. She still had her red hair in the 1950s.

Aunt Leona never had kids. I don't know when she died, but I can vaguely remember driving my brand new 1967 Firebird from Roanoke to New Castle to take my mother to visit Aunt Leona.


Besides the picture, I have her recipe for spoonbread. Here it is:

Leona's Spoonbread

1 cup boiling water
one-half cup corn meal
1 tablespoon butter
one-half cup sweet milk
one and a half teaspoons baking powder
one-half teaspoon salt
2 eggs, well-beaten

Pour one cup boiling water over one-half cup corn meal. Beat in 1 Tbs. butter, one-half cup milk, one and a half tsp. baking powder, a half teaspoon of salt, and 2 beaten eggs. Pour into a greased baking dish. Bake until set. This would be at 400 degrees for 20 or 30 minutes in a modern stove. Serve hot with butter.

I'm not much of a cook, but I've made this spoonbread before and it is wonderful.

I wonder how much more wonderful it would be baked in a wood stove?