1817

     William and Arminta, started a journey from South Carolina were they were born as slaves. Moved up to Alabama with others with their plantation owners that helped start Midway, and continued on having a family. Ike’s parents were last listed on the 1880 census. February 14, 1855 Ike Ivery was born.

     1870, Ike was 17 and already was looking towards his future and starting his own family. Around the age of 22 or 24 he married Ms.Mary Haynes on 13 January 1875 on Mr. Finney's plantation, officiated by Andrew Harris.                   

      In all Ike’s years of living he was married for 60 years out of his 84 years of living.  Ike and Mary Haynes his first wife were married for 12 years, she passed away after her last child Abe in 1888.  Out of this union 5 children were born. She passed, her death is unknown. Give or take a year or two Ike was a Widower at the age of 35.

           

      He was diligently working and keeping his family strong he was blessed to meet another certain and determined young lady at the age of 30 his 2nd wife, Ms. Mary Henry and they  got married at church on 2 January, 1889 by S. W. Shields, when at that time of early 1900’s, might have been considered old maid or having no prospects, Ike made himself presentable to be  introduced to  Mary Henry in the proper way, being that her father Dock Henry was so prominent as a farmer in the community with lots of land.

 

    Now Mary Henry Ivery and Ike were thriving they were blessed to have 5 more children together giving them a total of 10 children by at least till 1895.  They were together for 14 years.  Her death is unknown.

 

   During the 2 years after Mary Henry passed away, Ike met his 3rd wife, Berta Hatcher were they were married in Aberfoil on 23 December, 1897 by Rev. R. H. Harris. She was 20 years old. Ike had lost 2 wives and had 11 children. Ike and Berta were married 40 years had 13 children together, making a total of 23.  4 children are lost or misrepresented that were recorded on census’s whom we haven’t been able to locate or find anymore documents on. Berta was someone who he got to spend the longest season with until his death in the spring of 1937.

 

    His sister Rosanna married the year before Ike did in 1870 to Charles Ford. No other information has been found on the rest of his siblings.

   Ike was a very upstanding, prominent man who contributed to his community and church and more importantly to his family.

   We see where he has bought property on 6 Jan 1912 from J.L. and Winnie Thomas, and also 2 months later with other deacons of Mt. Coney bought a parcel of land for 110.00 $  along with him were Joe Nobles, John Haynes, his first father in law, Isaac Robbins, Jerry McGilliary and Charles Hatcher, some relation to Berta. All recorded in the deed book of Bullock County, Alabama.

 

   1890 Bullock County census hasn’t been researched yet. There was a major fire in 1920 that burned in the National Archives.

 

   It was amazing to see his 2 sons John and Abe remain in Georgia were they raised families and were very successful and committed their selves to Houston County, Georgia. All 23 children had fruitful lives and we want them all to be focused on this website.

 

    As his descendents we all have plenty of stories to tell and get a sense of this man, just talking to my own Father, who is Ike’s 90 year old grandson can tell how he was, like it was yesterday, and I encourage the young un's in this family to sit and talk to your family member and get the same sense of fellowship and knowledge about this great family.

 

1860 -1930

  These years are the census's that are available to us now. We find many family and neighbors around Ike Ivery thru these years. Most born around Alabama, and some who came from South Carolina also or from our other home of Georgia.

    Most information we have after this time is oral history or thru our historical documents, which we hope many of the family will be able to contribute to keep growing our Legacy and to have it collectively in one place.

    Mt. Coney in Midway has a wealth of our people buried there. Midway is a close nit, isolated community who had its heyday when our people started there. We still have much family in that town. Merritt School started in around 1919 served this mostly black community and was started for the colored children. Jerusalem Baptist church in Georgia, is a family church with Tharpe Cemetery located in the back, and has a lot of our family there also.

 

     This web site is a Living Document of our family, which we will continue to mend and grow as the generations keep growing. During this journey it has myself asking more questions of our ancestors and I want to dig more to get to the bottom of it all. There are always answers to be found. The work is continual and we will continue to write history, it’s never ending.

 

     Some of our dates may be off or twisted around. Some of it has a grain of truth; many official and historical documents had inaccuracies in them as well. The challenge to us is to piece it all together even when they conflict. I relied on my own intuition and sometimes, gaps I filled were based on research into the events or mood of the time and place, and mostly from legal documents.   

 

     Interviews from relatives, whom we are grateful for letting us talk to them. Emailing back and forth with genealogy friends and relatives. Sitting beside the mailbox hoping for some document we sent off months ago to finally arrive.  I hope we captured the true essence of this family and everything I left out or misinterpreted will be forgiven.

 

    Please keep checking back for new info or updates and email your pictures or stories to be posted.

 

    This where we are..........The crown on our heads have been paid for, so put it on and wear it well with much pride. These are your People. Your kin, “Ivery”. Those have paved the way. Keep on keeping on family.

 

 

Provided by: TrueAnn Gee