WELCOME

Every journey begins with a single step. When I took the first step of filling out a simple pedigree chart I had no idea that I had just begun a marvelous journey. As I gathered together names, dates and places from my box of scraps and copies of old, musty family group sheets, I turned to my computer to aid me in the search. Computers and their search engines are amazing! Stories about our ancestors began popping up all over. Growing up with a storytelling father, I always knew we had an interesting family. In fact, the art of storytelling seems to run in the family. The stories I found about these ancestors brought them to life for me. Finding stories on the internet was like putting together a very large and complicated jigsaw puzzle. My quest took me to many small communities and their museums and cemeteries. As I searched for missing pieces, the picture became clearer. I began to know and love these people. I am inspired by their faith, amazed by their endurance and humbled by their sacrifices. They were also not perfect. I extend to them the gift of compassion and understanding that they did the best they could with what they had and what they knew and believed. It is my hope that you will enjoy learning about our family and find inspiration in knowing who they were and understanding who you are.


Reading documents in this Blog.


All of the documents that have come from my files have been published through Google Docs and it is necessary for you to subscribe to Google Docs in order to read them. It will require you to have a gmail address. You don't have to change your e-mail address--just use the gmail account to use Google's services. I apologize for the need for this extra step, but this is the best way I could find to make the documents accessible. It is relatively easy to sign up on Google Docs.
What's In a Name?

Documentation

The information presented here is well-documented for at least 3 generations beyond Coral & Percy and most often more. Some of the further generations reflect work done by others and were acquired through Ancestry.com & One World Tree. They should be viewed as a "guide" and not specifically as factual. I have tried to remove anything that seemed in error.

Black Family Pedigree Chart

Black Family Pedigree Chart
Clifton Lee represents all of Coral & Percy's children.

Percy and Coral

Percy and Coral Jakeman Black
Family Group Sheet

Percy Allen Black
(1874—1950)
Coral Ellen Jakeman
(1879—1936)
Marriage  26 Sep 1897

Clifton Lee Black
(1899 – 1951)

Percy Raymond Black 
(1904—1905)

Frank Clark Black
(1907—1978)

Glen Stanley Black
(1909—1973)

Dortha Black
(1912—1988)

Francis Walton Black
(1915—1969)

Paul Black
(1918—1918)

Bob (Junior Dee) Black
(1921—1979)

     Percy was born in Beaver, UT (1874) to Martin and Mary Lee Black.  He spent his childhood in Beaver.  In his teens, his family moved to Huntington, UT.  In 1887 Percy's family moved to Big Horn County, Wyoming.  They lived first in a town that became Burlington.  It was given that name in the hope that it would encourage the Burlington Railroad to put their railroad through their town and build commerce. It seems to be here that Percy began his work with the railroad.  His parents moved to nearby Meeteetsee, Wyoming where his father worked for Otto Franc on the Pitchfork Ranch.

Life in Greybull, Wyoming--Mormon colonization & pictures from early 1900's

Coral's Long Hair
     Coral was born in Beaver, UT (1879) to James & Ellen Lee Jakeman.  (Coral and Percy were first cousins, their mothers being sisters.) During her childhood, Coral lived with her family in several other Central Utah towns including; Richfield, Manti, Ephraim, Spanish Fork & Provo.  Her father was a newspaper editor, printer and publisher, and moved around to different towns starting up newspapers.  Around 1892-1893 her family finally settled in Provo. Coral attended BYU Academy. Her mother, Ellen, was active in the Women's Suffrage Association and also involved as a writer for the Deseret News and the Young Women's Journal for the LDS Church.  Coral and Percy married in Sept. 1897.  Their marriage certificate lists Percy as a resident of  Big Horn County, Wyoming.  Soon after their marriage he returned to Wyoming to work.  A family story indicates there was a rift between Ellen Lee & Mary Lee when their children married and that they never spoke to one another again.   In 1900, Percy and Coral were living in Provo with their baby Clifton Lee.  Percy worked for the phone company as a lineman.  He had an accident when he came into contact with a live wire and was knocked off the phone pole.  He received a large settlement for his injuries. Not long after that they moved to LaGrande, Oregon where Percy bought a coal and lumber company. He lost the business because of some legal technicalities in the bank contract (and possibly some gambling).  They moved to Portland with Percy working as a lineman in 1910.  By 1912, when Dot was born, they were living back in Provo. 
Percy
     Coral and Percy had a troubled marriage.  They lived apart for many years.  When the children were small Coral left with Lee & Clark trying to set up a life for herself and her children back in Portland.  When Dot got sick Coral returned to Percy and her other children (Stan & Dot).  The family ended up living in Salt Lake City across the street from West High School.  Coral and Percy separated for a final time, but never actually divorcing.  During the Great Depression Coral supported her family by running a boarding house and writing stories.  She also bottled her own "fizzy fruit drinks" to sell.  They lived in poverty.  Her children remembered times when there was nothing left to eat in the house and things seemed very dire, then a check would arrive in the mail for another story Coral had written.  In November of 1930 things were so bad for Coral that she took a job in Big Piney, Wyoming working as a housekeeper for the District Attorney.  She took Bob with her and Francis joined them in December.  It was extremely cold and she was sick the whole time.  Finally, in April, she was taken to the hospital in Rock Springs.  Dot writes that she didn't know where the money came from to send her and the boys home to Salt Lake in May and rent her quite a nice house just a half block from Lee's house.
Coral had a bad cold and sinus infection in the winter of 1936.  She was hospitalized in the County Hospital.  She did not like being there as a charity patient.  Some unknown benefactor had her transferred to LDS Hospital where she finally succumbed to the infection and died March 22 of a brain abscess.
     Percy was an alcoholic.  He was somewhat alienated from his children and died alone in a downtown Salt Lake City motel of pneumonia at the age of 75.

Lee, Stan, Dot & Clark
Coral, Rex (dog), Bob

Percy & Coral Black Timeline
Coral's Letters--Correspondence between Coral, Percy, her grandmother Eliza Foscue Lee, and others.
Dot's Remembrances--Family stories told by Dortha Black Chaffin
Coral's Patriarchal Blessing
Coral's Death Certificate
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