Contents
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Showing both families — every line on the page. Pick a side to hide the other
family's ancestors; Earl, Kristin and their three children stay on either way.
Person · Mattie Lee Caffey
The record
- HHomethe fan · what changed · open questions
- MMigrationbirths and deaths on a map, by decade
- TTimeline609 entries · 5 eras
- PPeople290 cards, by generationMattie Lee Caffey
- LLines13 surname pages
The evidence
- DDocuments896 thumbnails, filterable
- SSourcesS1–S1207, with where each is cited
The findings
- How the wall came downProeger line
- The glass patentsProeger line
- How the Caffey half was closedCaffey line
- What the DNA saysits own page
- Four routesMigration
- The asymmetryLines
- Open questions20 questions
- Add to this recorda form, read by Earl
How to read this record
Every claim is tagged
Most family trees flatten everything into the same confident typeface. This one does not.
The three research tags below are the whole point of the exercise: they say what a document
proves, what the weight of evidence suggests, and what nobody has found yet. A fourth marks
what the family stated directly, where no document has been retrieved at all — it is kept
separate on purpose and is never quietly promoted to confirmed. A fifth, added on
13 September 2026, marks biological evidence: a DNA result is not a document, and it is not
testimony either. Two further labels mark where this page withholds information
rather than lacking it.
ConfirmedAttested by a document that was actually retrieved and read — a census sheet, a
government index, a grave marker, a family-written obituary.
ProbableStrongly supported but not nailed down: a user-contributed tree, a masked index field,
or a chain of consistent circumstances. Believable, not proven.
Not foundSearched for and not located. This is a statement about the search, not about the
person — the record may well exist somewhere unsearched.
Family testimonySupplied by the family and recorded on their word — no document has been retrieved for
it. Note the diamond rather than the dot: this is provenance, not proof, and it stands
apart from the three record tags above S24.
DNA evidenceBiological evidence consistent with a claim. It corroborates origins; it does
not by itself establish a person or a link. Note the bar rather than a dot or a diamond:
no DNA result on this page is ever counted as confirmed, because no document
was read for it S46.
Living — withheldThe person is living. By the privacy rule for this page, name and relationship are
shown, and at most a year the family has already published. Full dates of birth, ages,
places of residence and record identifiers are held back.
Research in progressA branch that is actively being worked on. The node exists in the structure so the
shape of the family is honest; the detail is simply not in yet.
- Born
- 30 October 1898
- Parents
- Thomas Walton Caffey Sr. & Emma Rachel Ault
- Married
- Thomas Guy Collins
- Children
- Lucy Lee Collins
- Sources
- 8
Research status
Research status: CONFIRMED — added 24 September 2026 from a record that names the parents; entered in the family tree the same day.
Life in the order the records give it
Birth1898
Born 30 October 1898, Texas; the 1900 Bastrop County census names her parents Thomas W. and Emma R.
Census1940
🆕 By 1940 she had remarried: she is “Lee”, 42, wife of
Ewell F. Hughes, a Lee County farmer, with her children Ladell, Howard R. and Lucy Lee Collins
S538. added 25 September 2026.
Census1910
🆕 In April 1910 her future first husband,
Guy Collins, then 11, was living with his parents T. J. and Lucy Collins, his elder brother Roy and two younger children on a rented farm in Atascosa County, Texas, read from the census image
S1114. The family had moved there from Shelby County, where they were in 1900
S872. Lucy’s age is given as 31, which does not fit the 1900 census.
Family parents, marriages, children, siblings
Parents1920
Mattie, 21, in her father's household in 1920
S232Marriage1922
Married Thomas Guy Collins, 25 December 1922, Bell County; died 9 October 1988
Children1923
🆕 Her first child with Thomas G. Collins, a daughter, was born and died on
20 October 1923 and is buried at Beaukiss
S485. In 1930 they were farming in Precinct 4, Bastrop County, with sons Ladell J. and Howard R.
S486. added 25 September 2026.
Marriage1898
🆕 Her first husband,
Thomas Guy Collins, born at Tenaha, Shelby County, on 15 October 1898, a son of T. J. and Lucy Collins, died at Bustamante, Zapata County, on
12 January 1935 and was buried at Elgin
S676. added 26 September 2026.
Children1932
🆕 Her daughter
Lucy Lee Collins was born
16 July 1932 in Precinct 4, Bastrop County, recorded as her fifth child; the certificate, filed late, gives the father's birthplace as Panola County
S770. added 26 September 2026.
Marriage1900
🆕 Her first husband's parents were probably
Thos (Thomas J.) Collins and
Lucy Collins Probable confirm or correct →: the 1900 census of Precinct 5, Shelby County, Texas, read from the image, lists
Guy, son, born October 1898, in the household of Thos Collins, a farmer born September 1869 in Texas, and his wife Lucy, born April 1872, the mother of two children, both living, with an older son Roy
S872. Guy's own 1935 death certificate names his parents as T. J. Collins and Lucy
S676. What is weak: the 1900 census gives the boy only as Guy; Lucy's maiden name, given in family trees as Blake, the middle name Joseph, and the couple's birth days and death dates are on no document read. Accepted by Earl on 28 September 2026 pending more evidence. added 28 September 2026.
In the record
Generation 3 — Kristin's grandparents and their siblings
- S2321920 U.S. Federal Census — T. W. Caffey household, Precinct 2, Bell County, Texas. Ancestry record 80271873; ED 5, sheet 4B, lines 92–96. Read from the image at full resolution, 22 September 2026. T. W. Caffey, 44, farmer, renting, parents born Alabama; Meadie, 33; Mattie, 21; Osburn, 10; and Howard, 2 3/12. ⚠ Mattie is probably from an earlier marriage of T. W.'s (Medie had two children by 1917, [S233]); not assumed. A neighbour J. O. Caffey, 41, may be a brother.
- S485Texas, U.S., Death Certificates — infant daughter of T. G. Collins, Elgin, 1923 (no. 28304). Ancestry record 771712415. Image examined, read 25 September 2026. Confirmed An infant daughter of T. G. Collins, born and died 20 October 1923; mother Mattie Lee Caffey, born Elgin; father born Tenaha, Texas; buried Beaukiss.
- S4861930 U.S. Federal Census — Thomas G. Collins household, Precinct 4, Bastrop County, Texas (ED 11-12). Ancestry record 65796254. Image examined, read 25 September 2026. Confirmed Thomas G. Collins, 32, farmer, renting; Mattie L., 32, first married at 25; sons Ladell J. and Howard R.
- S5381940 U.S. Federal Census — Ewell F. Hughes household, Justice Precinct 3, Lee County, Texas. Ancestry record 159535790. Image examined, read 25 September 2026. Confirmed Ewell F. Hughes, 49, farmer; wife Lee, 42, born Texas; his stepchildren Ladell, 13, Howard R., 12, and Lucy Lee Collins, 7. All lived at Elgin, Bastrop County, in 1935.
- S676Texas death certificate, 1935, Zapata County, state file 5472. Ancestry record 23278225. Image examined, read 25 September 2026. Confirmed Thomas Guy Collins, husband of Lee Collins; born 15 October 1898, Tenaha, Shelby County, Texas; died 12 January 1935, Bustamante, Zapata County; parents T. J. Collins and Lucy; buried at Elgin. The mother's maiden name is given as “Collins”, probably the informant's error.
- S770Texas, U.S., Birth Certificates, 1903–1932 — Lucy Lee Collins, no. 128789, filed October 1933. Ancestry record 123521821. Image examined in the Stage 2 reading, September 2026. Confirmed Lucy Lee Collins, born 16 July 1932, Precinct 4, Bastrop County, recorded as the fifth child; father Tomas G. Collins, 34, farmer, born Panola County; mother “Mattie Lee Coffey”, 34, born Bastrop County. Filed late. It says both “5 living” and “2 dead”, which do not agree with each other. His 1935 death record gives his birthplace as Tenaha, Shelby County, which is next to Panola County.
- S8721900 U.S. Federal Census — Thos Collins household, Precinct 5, Shelby County, Texas (ED 90, sheet 5B, dwelling 77, family 78, lines 85–88). Ancestry record 44188220 (image 4118557_00337). Image examined, read 28 September 2026. Confirmed Thos Collins, head, born September 1869, 30, married 6 years, born Texas, parents born Mississippi, farmer; Lucy, wife, born April 1872, 28, mother of 2 children, 2 living; Roy, son, born 1895, 4; Guy, son, born October 1898, 1; all born Texas. Enumerated 7–8 June 1900. The boy is given only as Guy; Thomas Guy Collins's 1935 death certificate (S676) names his parents as T. J. Collins and Lucy.
- S11141910 U.S. Federal Census — T. J. Collins household, Atascosa County, Texas (S.D. 15, ED 6, sheet 6A, dwelling 111, family 110, lines 25–30). Ancestry record 143748243. Image examined in the Stage 2 reading, 25 September 2026. Confirmed Enumerated 27–29 April 1910: T. J. Collins, head, 40, first marriage, born Texas, parents born Mississippi, general farmer, renting; Lucy, wife, 31, mother of 4 children, 4 living, born Texas; Roy, son, about 14, farm labourer; Guy, son, 11; and two younger children whose names are hard to read (a son, 4, and a daughter, about 6). Same parents and the same two elder sons as the 1900 Shelby County household (S872). Lucy’s age, 31, does not fit the April 1872 birth given in 1900 (she would be 38); the reading of the precinct number and the two youngest names is uncertain.