Laura Elizabeth Marcus

Laura Elizabeth Marcus, Granddad J.C.'s mother.

I found this picture among Aunt Lois's Facebook albums. She got the pictures in the album from Uncle Bob.

Birth: August 3, 1894 in Rock Hill, SC
Marriage: April 11, 1914 to Broadus Robert Connell. They had 9 children, and here they are in age order, oldest to youngest:

Roddy Broadus, Norman Gonzales, Ivey Kibben, June Lucile, Stephen William, Dorthy E (I'm guessing the E is probably Elizabeth for her mother?), Julius Clyburn (J.C.), Douglas Marcus, and Betty Joyce. Granddad J.C. is the only one of his siblings still living.

Death: October 24, 1953 in Camden, SC

Here's what I found for her on census records:

1900 Census:

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 So this census record is a little confusing. It shows Henry W and Mattie Marcus as husband and wife, but it shows three Marcus children (Ivy, Lela, and Laura) as children of Harry Mattox. I am guessing that they are really children of Henry and Mattie Marcus and the census taker and those giving him information bungled the record. It will take additional research to find out. Aunt Lois has informed me that Laura's half brother is Ivey, so things fit together. This census shows that both of Mattie's and both of Henry's parents were born in South Carolina. It also shows that Henry worked as a blacksmith at at least one point in his life. They rented their house.

One neat thing about this census that I haven't seen in others is that it lists the birth month and year as well as the age of the person on the census.

1920 Census:

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Here's Laura a few years after her marriage to Broadus Connell. You can see that her name was spelled "Lora" on this census, just as Granddad would spell his first daughter's name when naming her after his mother. Laura was working as a house wife and Broadus worked on his farm. Their three oldest children had been born. At this point, they were renting.

Something really neat from this census, when you see the whole page this was taken from, is that there are four families of Connells on this sheet (Frank, Mary, Robert, Broadus) and a family of Sinclairs (we're related to them on the Connell side). There's a note along the side of the census that says, "These are all houses off from any road except country roads." I'm guessing that everyone in these houses worked on the same general farm. There are also a few African American families on the same census page, probably indicating that they were sharecroppers on the farm. Their last names are Taylor and Joye (or Jaye, I'm not sure). Granddad has told me that he remembers playing with a little boy whose parents were sharecroppers on his familly's farm.

1930 Census:

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Here you can see that the family has grown from 5 to 8. What isn't shown by these censuses is the birth and death of Dorthy, who was born prematurely in November of 1927 and only lived for 21 days.

On a more positive note, we see here that the family is no longer renting, but own their own home and live on a farm. Broadus was working as a laborer on a county bridge, probably to bring in some extra money for his family.

1940 Census:

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This census shows all of the family members, including Bettie Joyce, the baby of the family. We see that although the highest grade of school completed for both Laura and Broadus is only the fourth grade, but their oldest son has already completed two years of college. Granddad J.C. told me that when it was time for him to go to college, his parents had to sell a valuable horse in order to pay for it. Obviously they understood the importance of education, even then.

Another thing we see is that Broadus worked on the farm for his main occupation and Laura still stayed at home. All of their children old enough to go to school were attending a school of some kind.


Laura passed away before my mom was born, so there aren't many people currently living that knew her. I'm guessing that this picture was taken shortly before her passing, since the car in the background looks like the style that was common in the 40's and 50's. I sure am thankful for all the hard work she must have put into her family.