Case · BT-PER-00533 · A living evidence case study
Clara Chess Smith
Named as the wife of George Smith on his 1936 Illinois death record, where her maiden surname is written "Chess" with a question mark. The Find a Grave memorial for George names her as Clara Chess Smith, 1878-1949, which is how the surname and her dates are carried here. Both readings come from the same family of records, so nothing independent yet confirms them.
- Claims examined
- 0
- Reached documented
- 0
- Sources cited
- 2
- Observations extracted
- 1
- Family accounts preserved
- 6
Case at a glance
Clara Chess Smith
about 1878 — about 1949
Documented in this archive
- No claim in this case has yet reached documented status.
Under investigation
- No open question is currently recorded.
Research & interpretation
Amberly R. Carter-Mills
Founder, Creator & Descendant Archivist
01
What the family remembers
Accounts held and repeated in the family. They are preserved as accounts — they are not treated as proof.
The eighty-acre place
Family Tradition“John and Laura acquired approximately eighty acres, with a house, barns, livestock, a blacksmith shop, wells, orchards, pastures, streams, gardens, trees, and poultry.”
Earliest known teller: Alma Smith Spearman · First written down in: Bibliographic details pending — family history by Alma Smith Spearman
BT-TRD-00097
Laura attended "Vicksburg College"
Family Tradition“Laura Tolliver, while yet a student of Vicksburg College, was given in marriage to John Smith, a country farmer.”
Earliest known teller: Alma Smith Spearman · First written down in: Bibliographic details pending — family history by Alma Smith Spearman
BT-TRD-00098
Bishop C. H. Mason in the Smith home
Family Tradition“Around 1897 John and Laura Smith welcomed Bishop C. H. Mason into their home, extended an ongoing invitation for him to stay when in the area, their son Joe cared for his horse and buggy, and their oldest grandson Mason Harrison Smith was named for him.”
Earliest known teller: Alma Smith Spearman · First written down in: Bibliographic details pending — family history by Alma Smith Spearman
BT-TRD-00099
The five-year separation
Family Tradition“Hilliard was sold to another enslaver in Arkansas and separated from Bettie. Bettie's grief was so constant that her enslavers purchased Hilliard back, ending a separation the family remembers as lasting about five years.”
Earliest known teller: Alma Smith Spearman · First written down in: Bibliographic details pending — family history by Alma Smith Spearman
BT-TRD-00195
Choctaw ancestry in Bettie's line
Family Tradition“Family memory identifies Choctaw ancestry in the ancestry of Bettie Alexander Taliaferro, born about 1837.”
Earliest known teller: Not recorded
BT-TRD-00604
Shawnee ancestry in Hilliard's line
Family Tradition“Family memory identifies Shawnee ancestry in the ancestry of Hilliard Taliaferro, born about 1823 in Virginia.”
Earliest known teller: Not recorded
BT-TRD-00605
02
What the records actually say
Every observation extracted from a source, grouped by the record it came from. Verbatim wording is shown where the record supplies it.
Find a Grave memorial 92711754 for George Smith (21 Apr 1881 - 3 Mar 1936), Lincoln Cemetery, Blue Island, Cook County, Illinois
BT-SRC-00041Contributor AR Jackson (member 47847137), memorial maintainer · Find a Grave (database and images), online · Index
The memorial names George Smith's spouse as Clara Chess Smith, 1878-1949. This supplies the surname the 1936 death record left uncertain as "Chess?", though both readings trace back to the same household rather than to two independent sources.
“Spouse: Clara Chess Smith 1878-1949”
BT-EVD-00554
03
Where they conflict
Conflicts are preserved, not resolved by preference. Supporting, complicating and contextual readings are shown side by side.
No conflicting evidence has been recorded in this case.
04
Amberly's current conclusion
Conclusions are versioned. Nothing is overwritten — a new reading supersedes the last and the earlier version stays on the record.
No conclusion has been published in this case yet.
05
What could change this
The records not yet located, and the questions still open. If you hold one of them, the archive wants to hear from you.
No outstanding research questions have been recorded.
06
Evidence trails
Follow any claim from the claim itself, through each observation and its source, to the conclusion it produced.
No claims have been attached to this case yet.
07
Historical context and how researchers read it
The world these records were made in, and the reasoning used to interpret them. Kept apart from the evidence on purpose: nothing in this section proves anything about this family, and nothing here can change the status of a claim.
09
Provenance, access and use
Every source this case rests on, with its provenance metadata and reuse terms. Compiled web pages, derivative transcriptions, oral histories and original records are labelled separately and never flattened together.
- Source creator
- Varies by record — see each source
- Who made the original record.
- Researcher of record
- Amberly R. Carter-Mills — Founder, Creator & Descendant Archivist
- Located, transcribed, weighed and interpreted the evidence.
- Publishing archive
- BEFORE TILL: The Living Evidence Archive
- Holds the object, its identifiers and its revision history.
Find a Grave memorial 92711754 for George Smith (21 Apr 1881 - 3 Mar 1936), Lincoln Cemetery, Blue Island, Cook County, Illinois
BT-SRC-00041- Creator
- Contributor AR Jackson (member 47847137), memorial maintainer
- Date created
- Undated online memorial; accessed 14 October 2021
- Repository
- Find a Grave (database and images), online
- Collection
- Find a Grave Memorial ID 92711754
- Record form
- Index
- Source type
- Cemetery
- Accessed
- 2021-10-14
Access and use
RESEARCH LEAD / DERIVATIVE SOURCE. User-contributed memorial content. Not treated as proof of parentage or birthplace unless supported by a monument photograph, death certificate, obituary, or burial record.
BEFORE TILL publishes description, transcription and analysis. Reuse of the underlying record is governed by the holding repository. Cite this archive by its persistent identifier when quoting our reading of the record.
Bibliographic details pending — family history by Alma Smith Spearman
BT-SRC-00040- Creator
- Alma Smith Spearman
- Date created
- Not recorded
- Repository
- Not recorded
- Collection
- Not recorded
- Record form
- Authored Narrative
- Source type
- Book
- Accessed
- Not recorded
Access and use
COMPLETE BIBLIOGRAPHIC CITATION NEEDED. Published family history / descendant-authored narrative. Title, publisher, and publication date have not yet been supplied. A valuable family source; it is not automatically contemporary documentary proof for events predating the author's lifetime.
BEFORE TILL publishes description, transcription and analysis. Reuse of the underlying record is governed by the holding repository. Cite this archive by its persistent identifier when quoting our reading of the record.
11
Research history of this case
Every logged research action against this case, in the order it happened. Conclusions supersede; they are never quietly overwritten.
No research actions have been logged against this case yet.
The archive-wide audit trail, including corrections, is in the research ledger.
For press, researchers & institutions
How to cite and verify Case
- Subject
- Clara Chess Smith
- Persistent identifier
BT-PER-00533- Researcher of record
- Amberly R. Carter-Mills, Founder, Creator & Descendant Archivist
- Publishing archive
- BEFORE TILL: The Living Evidence Archive
- Sources underpinning the case
- 2
- Discrete evidence observations
- 1
- Stable URL
- /case/clara-smith
Safe to report as documented
- Nothing in this case has reached documented status.
Must be attributed as unresolved
- No open question is currently recorded.
BEFORE TILL does not describe any finding as “proven” or as “fact.” Statuses are Documented, Corroborated, Family Tradition, Under Investigation and Corrected, and each is defined on the methodology page. Please carry the status with the finding.
Why this case matters
One life, reconstructed to a standard
For most people enslaved in the United States, the surviving record is a line in someone else’s ledger: an age, a sex, no name. Clara Chess Smith’s case shows that a life can still be reconstructed from those fragments without inventing a single detail — and that the gaps, the conflicts and the family memory can be carried forward honestly alongside what the records prove.
This is slow work. Every observation on this page was located, transcribed, weighed and attributed by hand. Support pays for archive access, image orders, repository travel and the research hours that turn a name into a documented life.