Barnfield and Rodriguez Family Trees

Family situation for the children of Bessie F. Overby Witt Nina Estelle Witt "My mother, Estelle, celebrated her birthday on Jan. 3 always. She called 1920 her birth year. She said the people who she was "given" to gave her a choice of birthdays to use, either Jan. 3 or March (I can't remember the day). She chose Jan. 3. On the 1920 census, it looks like Jan. 21, 1920 was the date they took the Cass County census. Mother is not listed. If she had been born on Jan. 3, wouldn't she have been listed by the census taker? Our story goes that she was 10 or 11 mos. old when she was "placed" with a young couple named Pate and I believe the Pate lady convinced her to choose Jan. 3 because that is the date they got her. I teased Mother about that date when I discovered this. She was already in her 80's. She said she had hard enough time getting her social security because she didn't have a birth cert. so she wasn't going to mess with changing it."

"We do not know how Mother [Nina Estelle Witt] was placed with the family she was. Someone told them they thought it was the Salvation Army. Before Dad passed away, they went to the Cass County area and asked about it. I don't know how well records were kept but when they checked into it, the Salvation Army said they had no record of it."

Ida Belle Witt "Aunt Belle [Ida Belle Witt] was put into the foster care system. She could remember only one Christmas where she got gifts. Evidently, there were several moves and homes. She was mistreated in one and her dad placed her in the Knights of Columbus home in Weatherford, TX. She ran away at 15 when she learned where her mother was living where she connected with Mary and they left Texas. A lot of things happened to her but in her last years, she had a loving family and I believe was as content as most in her old days."

"I [Vera Lee Potts] always thought my mother's [Nina Estelle Witt] story was the worst of the Witt/Overby children but Aunt Belle [Nina Belle Witt] wrote a letter to both her sons that one of the daughters in law shared with me after we became "acquainted" following Aunt Belle's death of April 1, 2002."

"The last I [Vera Lee Potts] heard about him [John Thomas Witt] was in a letter Aunt Belle [Ida Belle Witt] wrote telling that when he was "leaving", he came by the orphanage where she was living to say goodbye. When he found she was not well and coughing a lot, he left to go buy her some cough syrup, brought it to her and she never saw him again."

Robert Taylor Witt "Robert, Uncle Bob, [Robert Taylor Witt] was playing in the edge of the street when a farmer and his daughters (I don't know how many ) came into town on their wagon. The girls saw Uncle Bob at 2 or 3, thought he was cute, begged their dad to "Let's take him home" They looked up his dad and he said Sure so Uncle Bob lived with them until he was about 15 or old enough to go into the CCC (I think that is the right intitials). I [Vera Lee Potts] met him for the first time in Nov. 2003 and asked if he was treated well. He said he was."

"My mother [Nina Estelle Witt] saw Aunt Belle [Ida Belle Witt] and Uncle Bob [Robert Taylor Witt] 3 times each in her lifetime.(in memory anyway) and her mother [Bessie F. Overby Witt] twice, her father [John W. Witt] a few times and wrote a few letters to Mary [Witt] and Preston [James Preston Witt]. She was never adopted. That is a story of it's own."

"I have always thought she [Bessie F. Overby] had a mental problem. Her mothering was very unusual or at least, I hope so."