Dollie Pile’s Middle Name

Back in August, I wrote about my Grandma Gert’s Bible. Grandma’s notes provide clues and point me in the direction of my maternal ancestors.

In particular, I’ve been thinking about Grandma’s maternal grandmother, Dollie Pile (1870-1955). At FamilySearch.org, I even started a discussion thread. No one has joined me in answering the question of:

What was Dollie’s middle name?

Confessions of a Tree Climber

In order to answer my own question, I returned to my earliest genealogy notes. Almost 40 years ago, I added “Dollie M. Pile” to my family tree.

Back then, I was primarily interested in linking further and further back in time. I paid little/no attention to the sources of the names I collected. Where did I get the M. in Dollie’s name?

Did I trust the information from an online tree?
Perhaps it came from a shared GEDCOM file?
Was it a mistake in transcribing?
Was it sloppy genealogy?
Am I guilty of passing along the letter M?

YES (to all of the above).

The last time I checked ancestry.com,¹On August 15, 2023 Karrie searched for Family Trees containing Dollie Pile/Pyle who married James E. Garentt. There were 82 trees in which Dollie Pile Garnett was a member. 60 online trees showed Dollie’s middle initial as ‘M’. None of them had sources for that tidbit of information. For many years, Dollie’s Memorial Page on Find A Grave also listed her middle name as ‘M’.

Lots of people copied the middle initial ‘M’ with no source documentation.

Getting Serious about Sources

In the early 2000s I corresponded with Pile family cousin, Vicki (Moore) Buchanan Ringer. She sent copies of her work to me and included many source references. In an email December 10, 2001, she admonished me:

“Remember…it’s a work in process and not guaranteed to be correct in all instances. I inherited a great deal of the data and haven’t confirmed most of it for myself but it’s still good for clues.”

Looking back, I note that Vicki did not have a middle name for Dollie. I learned that by collaborating with other, more experienced researchers, like Vicki, source citation was (and still is) key to genealogy. So, I searched out primary source documents for Dollie Pile’s name, like her father’s consent for her to marry.

“This is to certify to the County Clerk of Adair Co. that it is agreeable with the parents of the bride that a Marriage License be issued between J. E. Garnett and Dollie Pile.” Dollie’s father, Oscar, signed this note. Perhaps if he had composed the note, he may have included her middle name. [Look at the different handwriting of the surname Pile: Oscar signed his name, but someone else wrote “Dollie Pile.”²Adair Co KY Marriage Book 12, pages 462-463. Garnett-Pile, 1888.

Sources for Dollie’s name:

Primary Source Documents with No Middle Name or Middle Initial:

• 1880 Census Kentucky: Dollie Pile
• 1888 Parental Consent note: Dollie Pile
• No digitized newspapers of 1888 marriage
• [1890 Census was destroyed by fire in 1921]
• 1900 census Arkansas: Dollie Garnett
• 1902 Adair Co KY Deed book 13, pg 327-328: Dollie Garnett
• 1910 Census Oklahoma: Dolly Garnett
• 1920 Census Oklahoma: Dollie Garnett
• 1928 Harper Co OK Mortgage Book 7, pg 612: Dollie Garnett
• 1928 Harper Co OK Mortgage Book 8, pg 5: Dollie Garnett
• 1930 Harper Co OK Oil Lease Book 38, pgs 434-435: Dollie Garnett
• 1930 Census Oklahoma: Dollie Garnett
• 1937 Harper Co OK Deed Book 26, pg 347: Dollie Garnett
• 1950 Census Oklahoma: Dolly Garnett

Secondary Source Documents with No Middle Name:

• “Judge James Garnett” booklet (James Garnett, 1934, page 42) : “… James E., who married Dolly Pyle…”
• Granddaughter, F. Gertrude Rector Gentzkow’s undated notes in her Bible: Dollie Pyle³Gertrud [Rector] Gentzkow Bible. Dollie Pyle – the i in Pile is overwritten with a y making it Pyle.

Middle initial ‘E’

• 1940 Census Oklahoma: Dolly E. Garnett⁴1940 U.S. Census. Oklahoma, Harper County, Lavern. SD 8, ED 30-11. Sheet 4B, line 46. Dolly E. Garnett. The Circled X indicates who provided the information for the household; the informant was John E. Garnett.

Middle initial ‘P’

• Dollie P. is on her grave marker [Pile is her maiden surname. Often women used their maiden name as their middle initial.]

Middle name Pettris

• Dollie Pettris Garnett is on her death certificate (information supplied by her son)
• Obituary Laverne Leader Tribune September 22, 1955, pag 1, col 6: Dollie Pettris Pyle (unknown informant).

Conclusions

During her lifetime, Dollie never used a middle initial.

Dollie lived during a time when a woman’s identity was tightly bound to her marriage partner. When she married, she became Mrs. James E. Garnett. Even after her husband died, Dollie continued to be known as Mrs. J. E. Garnett.

The middle name of Pettris is a great curiosity to me. The only place that this name is used is on her death certificate. This information was supplied by her son, John. Pettris was the middle name of Dollie’s eldest daughter Mae Pettris Garnett Rector. Is it possible that Dollie had the same middle name? Yes, it is possible. But I would like to have corroborating sources.

My hesitation to accept Pettris as Dollie’s middle name is because I have long believed that Pettris was an alternate spelling of Peatross which was a surname from the Garnett side, not the Pile family: Mary Anziana P. [Peatross] Haden (1801-1862) was James E. Garnett’s grandmother. I have no documentation to support this supposition other than notice that Dollie’s descendants have creatively-spelled names: Dorithy, Margret, Edmon.

Finally, there is documented evidence that Dollie’s son, John provided information for the 1940 census (see the yellow highlighted area) and for her death certificate. He provided conflicting information. For the census, he gave his mother’s name as Dollie E. For her death record, he said her name was Dollie Pettris. Because of his contradictory information, I do not trust that either is correct.

Additional Research

When more newspapers are digitized, perhaps we’ll find additional evidence of her middle name.
If Adair County church records become available, we may find her full name.
Maybe one of Dollie’s siblings had a family Bible.

SOURCES

• 1
  On August 15, 2023 Karrie searched for Family Trees containing Dollie Pile/Pyle who married James E. Garentt. There were 82 trees in which Dollie Pile Garnett was a member.
• 2
  Adair Co KY Marriage Book 12, pages 462-463. Garnett-Pile, 1888.
• 3
  Gertrud [Rector] Gentzkow Bible. Dollie Pyle – the i in Pile is overwritten with a y making it Pyle.
• 4
  1940 U.S. Census. Oklahoma, Harper County, Lavern. SD 8, ED 30-11. Sheet 4B, line 46. Dolly E. Garnett. The Circled X indicates who provided the information for the household; the informant was John E. Garnett.