Friday's Faces from the Past

James William Lee and Nancy Matilda (Wynn) Lee

James Washington Lee and Nancy Matilda (Wynn) Lee
This photo is from my private collection. 

When I was growing up in West Carroll Parish I heard the name Uncle Jim Lee quite often. I listened as daddy talked about his uncle; however, I never knew who Uncle Jim was until I began my journey into genealogical research over fifteen years ago. Over the years as I researched the Lee family, the name Uncle Jim became real to me and I realized he was a part my family. No, he wasn't a part of my immediate family, but the brother of my Granny Eley, Alice Lee.

James William Lee was the oldest child of William Alfred and Emma (Meadows) Lee, and he was born in Elmore County, Alabama July 3, 1869. He died 27 June 1929 in Oak Grove, West Carroll Parish, Louisiana.

Before the Lee family migrated to Louisiana about 1904 Uncle Jim married Nancy Matilda Wynn also born in Alabama. Uncle Jim and Aunt Nannie were the parents of sixteen children; and there were no twins or triplets. The oldest child, a son, James William was born in 1899 in Tallassee, Elmore County, and died in an accident in 1945 in Louisiana. They only had two sons of the fifteen children. Uncle Jim was a farmer. 

Uncle Jim and Aunt Nannie Lee have descendants who are living in West Carroll Parish, Louisiana, Chicot and Union Counties, Arkansas, Mississippi and parts unknown today. ■