Household #59: Avera, Lyman

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In the 1900 Barney census, Lyman Avera headed a 4-person household. The table below preserves the exact names, relationships, ages, birthplaces, and occupations recorded for the household.

Household Snapshot

Lyman Avera headed a 4-person household in the 1900 Barney census with 1 spouse or marital partner and 2 children.

Lyman Avera's listed occupation was Laborer Saw Mill.

All listed household members were reported as born in Georgia.

Newspaper and Public-Record Trail

This section flags public-record leads separate from the census table. The detailed discussion stays in the family narrative, research status, and source citations below.

1900 Census Household

Children and Later Trails

This section is reserved for later-life child evidence. No later spouse, death, burial, obituary, probate, separate household, or descendant-line identification has been added here yet from direct records.

Family Narrative

The 1900 Barney census captures a young family at an early stage. Lyman Avera was a saw-mill laborer, he and Bessie had been married five years, and they were renting their home while raising Arnold and Arley. That household can now be followed with much more confidence than the earlier stripped-down entry allowed.

The marriage record provides the cleanest starting point for the couple. Brooks County issued a marriage license for L. H. Avera and Bessie E. Tillman on 30 Aug 1895, and the return states that they were married on 1 Sept 1895. That record firmly identifies Bessie's maiden name and anchors the family in Brooks County just before the 1900 census.

The earlier identity evidence is now stronger on both sides of the couple, though not every point is equally secure. In 1880, Lyman Avera, age 11, appears in Berrien County in the household of Willis and Elizabeth Avera, and that record fits the later Barney and Colquitt County man well enough to serve as the likely earlier placement. For Bessie, the 1880 household of Harrison and Sarah A. Tillman includes a child entered as Berry Tillman, male, age 8. Based on the image itself, that appears to be an error made by the enumerator in the original census entry rather than a later transcription problem, and the child is very likely the later Bessie E. Tillman. Even so, that point is best stated cautiously.

By 1910 the family had moved into Colquitt County, where Lyman appears on the Moultrie and Adel Road with Bessie and children Arnold, Arlie, Alma, Amos, Henry, and Nellie. The 1920 and 1930 transcriptions continue the same family line through Colquitt County and then Lakeland in Polk County, Florida. The 1940 transcription and image review bring the family back to Colquitt County and also clear up an important relationship point in the household: Alma Sharpe should be read as daughter, not granddaughter, with Jeff J. Sharpe as son-in-law and Thelma P. Sharpe as granddaughter. The family surname in that cluster should be normalized as Sharpe; an earlier Shorpe reading was a transcription error.

Later records tie the household together across Georgia and Florida. William Franklin Avera's World War II draft card gives his birth as 21 Oct 1911 at Moultrie, Georgia, places him in West Palm Beach, Florida, and names his father as Lyman Henry Avera, then living at 315 S.E. 3rd St., Moultrie, Colquitt County, Georgia. A Tampa Bay Times death notice and obituary published on 15 Dec 1958 identify Lyman Henry Avera as age 87, state that he died the previous day at a Largo rest home, give his residence as 1256 Bermuda St., Clearwater, and say that he had moved there about four years earlier from his native Moultrie, Georgia. The obituary also links him back to Pleasant Grove and names children including William F. Avera of West Palm Beach and Mrs. Alma Sharp of Savannah.

The result is a solid household reconstruction from the 1895 marriage through the 1958 obituary, with the main caution now shifted away from the core family chain and toward the wider Tillman network. Compiled family-history material and memorials do suggest links among the Tillman, Avera, Killebrew, and Norman families, but those broader network claims should stay in the category of supporting context until they are built from direct records.

Open Research Questions

• Parentage audit: Keep head-of-household and spouse parentage as unresolved unless a cited direct record names the parents or the entry explains the census chain supporting the identification.
• Child census audit: Continue direct-record tracking for each child named in the 1900 household where later census, marriage, death, burial, obituary, or other parent-link proof is not already cited above.
• Other household member audit: Verify every non-nuclear household member, including in-laws, boarders, servants, laborers, uncles, grandchildren, and collateral relatives, before treating the stated relationship as part of the proved family structure.
• The 1880 Berrien County Lyman Avera is a strong earlier-life candidate, but the identification still rests on continuity rather than an explicit bridging record.
• The 1880 Berry Tillman entry appears to represent Bessie, but because the census records the child as male and under the name Berry, that identification should remain carefully phrased.
• Bessie's parentage as Harrison Tillman and Sarah Ann Duckworth Tillman is supported by compiled family material, but still needs direct-record support before being stated as settled fact.
• Find A Grave remains derivative support for Bessie's later-life dates and burial unless matched to direct cemetery or death-record evidence.
• The wider Tillman-Killebrew-Norman connection is plausible and worth preserving in research notes, but it should not be overstated in the household narrative without direct documentation.

Research Status

Well-researched household with a direct marriage record, a coherent 1900-1940 census chain, supporting military and obituary evidence for later family continuity, and a substantially clearer reading of the Avera-Sharpe branch than before. Remaining work is focused on tightening the earliest identifications and the Tillman parentage question, not on rebuilding the core household from scratch.

Sources

• 1900 U.S. census, Barney, Brooks County, Georgia, Lyman Avera household, dwelling 59, family 59.
• Brooks County, Georgia, marriage record for L. H. Avera and Bessie E. Tillman, license issued 30 Aug 1895, married 1 Sept 1895.
• 1910 U.S. census, Colquitt County, Georgia, Moultrie and Adel Road, Lyman Avera household.
• 1920 U.S. census transcription for the Lyman Avera household in Colquitt County, Georgia.
• 1930 U.S. census transcription for the Lyman Avera household in Lakeland, Polk County, Florida.
• 1940 U.S. census transcription and image review for the Lyman Avera household in Colquitt County, Georgia, including Alma Sharpe, Jeff J. Sharpe, and Thelma P. Sharpe.
• 1880 U.S. census, Berrien County, Georgia, Willis Avera household, including Lyman Avera, age 11.
• 1880 U.S. census image review, Harrison Tillman household, including Berry Tillman, age 8, used cautiously as possible earlier evidence for Bessie E. Tillman.
• World War II draft card for William Franklin Avera, naming father Lyman Henry Avera of 315 S.E. 3rd St., Moultrie, Colquitt County, Georgia.
• Tampa Bay Times, 15 Dec 1958, death notice and obituary for Lyman Henry Avera.
• Find A Grave memorial for Lyman Henry Avera, used as derivative support for burial and family links.
• Find A Grave memorial for Bessie E. Tillman Avera, used as derivative support for later-life dates and burial.
• Compiled Tillman family-history material and related memorial links, used as derivative support only for broader family-network context.

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