William Calloway Essary first married Lucinda Leonard on 21 September 1867 in Perry County, Alabama.1 He and Lucinda had two children, John Silas and Molly.2 However, in 1899, William remarried Almarinda Rebecca Martin in Hale County.3 Since Lucinda lived until 1910, a divorce or official separation likely occurred between 1880 (when they were last recorded together in the census) and 1899.
Table of Contents
Research Goals for William Calloway Essary
The goals for this research session were to find:
- Evidence for a potential separation or divorce between William Calloway Essary and his first wife, Lucinda Leonard.
- Locate a death certificate to confirm William’s exact death date and cause.
Methodology
To narrow down the time and location to search, a timeline can be used. FamilySearch and Ancestry provide auto-generated timelines based on the records linked to individual profiles. The auto-generated timelines are a quick and easy tool that can be used to narrow down on a time frame and location of events.
For example, the 1880 U.S. Census provided a starting point to begin searching for William and Lucinda’s potential divorce. William and Lucinda were recorded together with their children in the census. The family was living in Hale County, Alabama. William remarried to Almarinda in 1899, in Hale County. A potential divorce would have occurred between 1880 and 1899 in Hale County.
William Calloway Essary died in 1930 in Hale County, Alabama. Alabama has multiple death record indexes that could be checked for a death certificate.
Hale County, Alabama
Before jumping right into the Full Text search, knowing whether Hale County records have been included in the Full Text database or not can save time and temper expectations. To date, not all Alabama county records have been added to the database due to rights restrictions. Reviewing the FamilySearch Research Wiki article for Hale County before beginning a search can save time and temper expectations of what might be discovered.
Hale County began recording birth and death records in 1881, but statewide registration officially began in 1908. General compliance for births was 1927, and deaths in 1925. Marriage records began to be recorded in 1868. There is no known history of record loss in the county.4
FamilySearch did not include any specific Hale County court records in the Research Wiki article. However, there were probate, will, land, marriage, and divorce records. The records, except the court records, appear to be included in the Full Text search.
Finding divorce records proved difficult. Divorce records were typically recorded at the county level within general court records before 1900. Unfortunately, a search of the FamilySearch catalog and the Full Text Search revealed that court records for Hale County are not currently digitized or available online.
More Probate Records
While the initial goal to discover divorce records for William Calloway Essary and Lucinda Leonard remained elusive, other discoveries shifted the focus of the research to William’s probate case file. A search of FamilySearch’s Full Text returned several results for William’s probate case file that proved very interesting.
The file folder contained a handwritten death date for William Calloway Essary of 6 February 1930. A previous analysis of William’s will identified his heirs. The file folder included a list of heirs extracted from documents within the folder that listed three generations of family members. The folder contained notices sent to family members for the reading of the will. A detailed list of the heirs was on a typewritten document submitted by L. M. Griffin, an attorney.5 L. M. Griffin listed all possible heirs, even though the amount of money in the estate was limited.
Death Certificate
A search of Alabama Deaths, 1908-1974, found a death certificate for W. C. Essury. Indexed data for the birth and death dates, and his spouse, Marinda, matched known information. William’s father was listed as William Essury, which conflicted with his known father’s name of James. The information reported on the death certificate was supplied by an informant, who could have been a family member, friend, neighbor, or associate. The informant gave incorrect information about William’s father, but all the other details matched what was known about William Calloway. The certificate can be viewed at a Family History Center.6
Sources
- “Alabama, U.S., County Marriage Records, 1805-1967,” entry for Calloway Essary – Lucinda Rhone, 2 September 1867, Perry County, Alabama; digital images, Ancestry (https://www.ancestry.com : accessed 22 January 2026). ↩︎
- 1880 U.S. Census, Hale County, Alabama, population schedule, Beat 2, enumeration district (ED) 56, sheet 275B (stamped), p. 11 (penned), dwelling 96, family 94, William C Essary household; digital image, Ancestry (http://ancestry.com : accessed 22 January 2026); citing NARA microfilm publication T9. ↩︎
- “Alabama County Marriages, 1711-1992,” entry for W. C. Essary – A. R. Griffin, Marriage Records, 1893-1916, Marriage Record C, page 157, 8 October 1899, Hale County, Alabama; digital images, FamilySearch (http://www.familysearch.org : accessed 22 January 2026), image 447 of 668, film number 007316885; citing Hale County (Alabama), Judge of Probate. ↩︎
- “Hale County, Alabama Genealogy,” FamilySearch Research Wiki, accessed 22 January 2026, https://www.familysearch.org. ↩︎
- “Hale, Alabama, United States,” file for W. C. Essary, Probate Case Files, 8 March 1930; digital images, FamilySearch (http://www.familysearch.org : accessed 22 January 2026), image 1087-1089 of 1531, film number 007738129; citing Alabama, Probate Court (Hale County). ↩︎
- “Alabama Deaths, 1908-1974,” entry for W. C. Essury, cn 16297, 1930, Hale County, Alabama; index, FamilySearch (https://familysearch.org : accessed 22 January 2026). ↩︎
