robert “bob” wesley evans
1930-1995
Life Story
Early Life in Newton County
Robert “Bob” Wesley Evans was born in Lawrence, Newton County, Mississippi, to Thomas Evans, Jr. and Armanda “Mandy” Harris Evans. He was one of the fifteen children born to Thomas and Mandy and grew up within the large farming family they established in east-central Mississippi.
Surviving records disagree slightly about Wesley’s exact date of birth. Records give both December 18, 1929, and December 29, 1930. The federal census records also contain variations in both his name and age, requiring the records to be considered together when reconstructing his early life.
In the 1930 Federal Census, he appears as an infant named Robert Evans, living with his parents and older sisters Willie Maude and Lela Mae in Beat 4 of Newton County.
Although the name Robert disappears from the family’s later census records, he did not disappear from the family. Robert was also known as Bob Wesley Evans, with “Bob” being the familiar form of Robert.
Robert Becomes “B. Wesley” in the Records
By 1940, Thomas and Mandy had moved their growing family to the Mogulusha area of Neshoba County.
The census presents two variations that initially make the family more difficult to follow. The Evans surname was incorrectly recorded as “Earns,” and Robert appears as “B. Welsey Earns.”
This was B. Wesley “Bob” Evans, the same child who had been recorded as Robert Evans in 1930.
Wesley was approximately ten years old and attending school. He had completed the second grade. By then, he was growing up among many younger brothers and sisters as Thomas and Mandy’s household continued to expand.
The transition from Robert in 1930 to B. Wesley in 1940 illustrates one of the challenges of reconstructing families through historical records. Individuals were not always recorded under the same first name from decade to decade, and enumerators frequently wrote names as they heard them. In Wesley’s case, comparing the family structure, age, and later records helps establish that Robert, Bob, and B. Wesley referred to the same person.
The Name Wesley Evans
As Wesley grew older, records increasingly identified him by his middle name.
By January 1947, documents identify him as Wesley Evans, the name he continued to use in adulthood. Social Security records also document his identity under the Evans surname and his application for a Social Security number in Mississippi before 1951.
Thus, the surviving records preserve several versions of his name:
Robert Evans → Bob Wesley Evans → B. Wesley Evans → Wesley Evans
Rather than representing different members of the Evans household, these names document the changing ways one individual was identified throughout his life.
From Mississippi to Omaha
As an adult, Wesley left the rural Mississippi communities where he had grown up and eventually established a home in Omaha, Douglas County, Nebraska.
His migration added another destination to the expanding geography of Thomas and Mandy Evans’s family.
The Evans children did not all follow the same path after leaving their parents’ household. Some remained in Mississippi, while others established lives in different parts of the country. Wesley’s journey carried him from the farms of east-central Mississippi to Omaha in the Midwest.
Later records place him in Omaha’s 68104 ZIP code, where he spent his later years.
Death and Burial
Wesley Evans passed away on March 16, 1995, in Douglas County, Nebraska.
Because his surviving records disagree about his exact date of birth, his precise age at death also varies depending upon which date is used. If he was born December 18, 1929, he was sixty-five years old. If the December 29, 1930 date is used, he was sixty-four.
He was laid to rest at Mount Hope Cemetery in Omaha, Nebraska.
Legacy
Robert “Bob” Wesley Evans’s life began in the large farming household of Thomas and Mandy Evans in Newton County and eventually extended hundreds of miles beyond Mississippi.
His records are also an excellent example of why family-history research sometimes requires looking beyond the name written on a single document. The infant called Robert in 1930 became B. Wesley in the 1940 census and was known in adulthood as Wesley Evans. Taken separately, those records might appear to describe different people. Considered together with the family evidence, they document different stages in the life of the same man.
Wesley’s journey also became part of the broader movement of the Evans children beyond rural Mississippi. Born into a family whose livelihood centered on farming, he eventually made his home in Omaha, Nebraska, where he spent his later years and was ultimately laid to rest.
From Robert, the infant recorded on a Newton County farm in 1930, to Wesley Evans of Omaha, his life represents another branch of Thomas and Mandy Evans’s family that carried its Mississippi roots into a new part of the country.
Resting Place
Mount Hope Cemetery in Omaha, Nebraska.
Photos/Albums
Sources
- 1930 U.S. Census, Newton County, Mississippi, population schedule, Thomas Evans household, Beat 4. Robert Evans was enumerated as an infant in the household of his parents, Thomas Evans and Armanda “Mandy” Harris Evans, with his older sisters Willie Maude and Lela Mae.
- 1940 U.S. Census, Neshoba County, Mississippi, population schedule, Thomas Evans household, Mogulusha. The family surname was incorrectly recorded as “Earns,” and Robert appears as “B. Welsey Earns.” He was approximately ten years old, attending school, and had completed the second grade. Comparison with the 1930 household and family records establishes that Robert Evans and B. Wesley “Bob” Evans were the same child.
- 1930 and 1940 U.S. Censuses, Thomas Evans households, Newton and Neshoba Counties, Mississippi. The disappearance of the name Robert after 1930 and appearance of B. Wesley in the corresponding position in the 1940 household, together with family identification of “Bob” as the shortened form of Robert, support the identification of Robert, Bob Wesley, and B. Wesley Evans as the same individual.
- Social Security Administration, Applications and Claims Index, Wesley Evans. Social Security records document his later use of the name Wesley Evans, his Mississippi origins, and his application for a Social Security number in Mississippi before 1951. Surviving records contain differing birth dates, including December 18, 1929, and December 29, 1930.
- Records dated January 1947, Wesley Evans. By this period, he was being identified in official records as Wesley Evans, documenting the transition from the Robert/B. Wesley forms appearing in his childhood records to the name he used as an adult.
- “Armanda Evans,” The Newton Record (Newton, MS), November 13, 1991, 2; “Armanda Evans,” The Union Appeal (Union, MS), November 13, 1991, 8. Mandy’s obituary identifies B. Wesley Evans among her surviving children. Comparison with census and family records establishes that Thomas and Mandy were the parents of fifteen children, although their son Albert “A.C.” Evans was inadvertently omitted from the obituary.
- Social Security Death Index, Wesley Evans, died March 16, 1995, Douglas County, Nebraska; later residence Omaha, Nebraska. Because surviving records disagree about his birth date, his age at death was either sixty-four or sixty-five.
- Grave marker for Wesley Evans, Mount Hope Cemetery, Omaha, Douglas County, Nebraska. The burial record documents his final resting place in Omaha.
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