Emmett Louis Till

A descendant of the Smith-Tolliver family, born 25 July 1941 and died 28 August 1955. Those dates are well established in published accounts and are carried here on that basis. BEFORE TILL follows this family backward through the generations whose lives preceded 1955; this profile is genealogical and is not a biography.

No claim in this case has reached documented status.

• The eighty-acre place

  “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 · BT-TRD-00097

• Laura attended "Vicksburg College"

  “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 · BT-TRD-00098

• Bishop C. H. Mason in the Smith home

  “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 · BT-TRD-00099

• The five-year separation

  “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 · BT-TRD-00195

• Choctaw ancestry in Bettie's line

  “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 memory identifies Shawnee ancestry in the ancestry of Hilliard Taliaferro, born about 1823 in Virginia.”

  Earliest known teller: Not recorded · BT-TRD-00605

• Was Emmett Louis Till the son of Mamie Till-Mobley?

  Under Investigation

  Was Emmett Louis Till the son of Mamie Till-Mobley?

• What record establishes Emmett Louis Till's father?

  Under Investigation

  What birth record, military record or vital record examined by this archive names Emmett Louis Till's father?

• · Locate and examine a census enumeration, birth record, death record naming parents, marriage record, obituary, Social Security application, church record or probate file.
• · Order the Cook County birth record; review military and vital records; enter them with citations before any relationship is created.

1. Widely published account of the Carthan–Till family

   Various published accounts · Not yet examined by this archive · Abstract

   Derivative source · Original image: Citation entered — image review pending · BT-SRC-00265

2. Bibliographic details pending — family history by Alma Smith Spearman

   Alma Smith Spearman · Authored Narrative

   Authored family history · Original image: Publication details pending · BT-SRC-00040

1 discrete observations were extracted from these sources for this case.