In June of 2008,
Mr. James Gray sent me documents
that he claimed were sent directly to him from the State of Georgia Archives
that confirmed the military service of Robert Farmer in the 27th
GA; the Robert Farmer who was buried in Oak Grove Cemetery in
Brunswick, Glynn Co., Georgia and who was married to
Algenora Clubb.
Here are the documents sent to me via email by
Mr. Gray
(you can
click on the ones outlined in blue or purple to see a larger image):
Letter
from the state archives saying they found the records
requested, they DO NOT, however, mention that this is for an
Australian soldier.
1 |
This
document has allegedly been forged.
The original document does not have the handwriting saying
"Lewisville (Australian Soldier)"
2 |
Here is a thumbnail image of the same
document at Footnote.com, remember, you will have to have a
subscription to view the original document in full size. But even with this thumbnail image, you can clearly see that
no where on this document was it written "Lewisville
(Australian Soldier)"
http://www.footnote.com/browse.php#All|47756382 |
The
remaining documents in the file sent by Mr. Gray
3 |
Final document
4
Remember, all of these documents were sent
via email by Mr. Gray to me stating that he received
them from the State of Georgia Archives. He used these
exact documents to obtain a veterans marker from the
Veteran's Administration to be placed on the grave at Oak
Grove Cemetery. |
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Long before
Mr. Gray started his research, a few other persons
had already done research on Robert L. Farmer of the 27th GA
Company B. I have recently received copies of the said documents
concerning this Robert L. Farmer from one of the said
researchers. Now you might say, "What's to stop them from forging
those documents, what if Mr. Gray's are true?" I thought the
same thing of course, so I typed in Robert Farmer
27th GA in a
search engine and found the above records at Footnote.com. And
guess what? The original document does NOT have the handwriting
shown on document 2 above. Although I do not have a subscription
to this website, the image they preview is image #2 shown above in full
WITHOUT the handwriting "Lewisville (Australian Soldier)".
Someone wrote this on the document above.
According to
Mr. Gray AND the Georgia State Archives, an
employee DID forge those documents and send them to
Mr. Gray. So, what does this mean? It means that
Robert Farmer
buried here in Brunswick, Georgia was NOT the man who fought in the 27th
GA. Mr. Gray is still pushing his history though.
Robert L. Farmer was born 28 October 1845 in Jefferson County,
Georgia and he died there on 9 May 1902 according to online family trees. He was reportedly the son
of Rhesa Jordan Farmer and
Elizabeth Jane Matthews and
married first to Willie Arrington on 11 April 1878 then secondly
to Savannah Virginia Beal (widow of his brother) on 28 February 1887 in
Jefferson County. He spent his whole life in Georgia as did his parents
and nothing in family records suggest he had anything to do with
Australia. Robert's cousin
Rhesa E. Farmer also
served in the 27th and died in Jefferson County in 1924; he also had the
same birth date as Robert L. Farmer. I don't know if this
is a mistake by online researchers or if this is fact because I have not
personally researched public records to confirm the dates; however, you
can trace this family with ease through the census records.
How can
Mr. Gray assume that
Robert Farmer from
Australia was the man who served in the 27th GA, when there is a
Robert L. Farmer living in Jefferson County, Georgia where the man
named Robert L. Farmer enlisted in the 27th?
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