- The Starr Family Plot in Bonaventure Cemetery, Savannah, GA
The threshold to the plot
We had a little LawtonFest today, only it involved Starrs. You know how one thing leads to another. I was looking online at www.findagrave.com for Sugar during a gabfest about the Basinger and Starr families out of Pennsylvania and Virginia. I thought for sure I’d find some supporting evidence like tombstone pictures, death dates, family links, you know, that kind of fascinating stuff. There was a hole where there should have been stuff, so we decided to head out to Bonaventure Cemetery, the one mentioned in “Midnight in the Garden of Good and Evil”, where the Starr plot is.
We found folks we’d never heard of. I’ve been working on posting the pictures to findagrave and ancestry this evening, and I’ve spent far too long in front of the computer….
Adeline R. Starr, 1802-1887. Her occupation on one census was “Lady of Leisure”. This marker is in the left front of the plot.
William & Ann Starr. This marker is at the right front.
This plot in a plot has some illegible markers, along with the center headstone lying on its face. We debated what to do about the fallen marker. We think we might lift it up to see what it says, and we wonder if there are cemetery police who might frown on such actions.
Sarah Basinger, 1809-1816, only daughter of Peter & Elizabeth Basinger.
Starr unknown.
John G. Starr
Charles H. Starr
William Starr
Starr unknown.
Elizabeth Basinger, 11 months. Directly behind this marker is an outlined grave. Whose grave is this?
No memorial for this child’s grave.
In the back left corner of the plot is Edwin Pearson Starr, the son of Charles Henry Starr. This Edwin Pearson was named for his uncle Edwin Pearson Starr, who is buried in Charleston, SC.
Next we have Jane Starr Basinger, Sugar’s great-great-grandmother. Jane is the mother of William Basinger, a Savannah attorney, who married Margaret Roane Garnett from Virginia.
Lastly, we have Elizabeth “Georgia” Basinger. She is the daughter of Jane Starr Basinger and Thomas Elisha Basinger. Thomas died young after the two children William and Elizabeth “Georgia” were born, and his widow Jane never remarried. “Georgia” herself never married.
Tags: Georgia
Ruthrawls's Blog 
July 2, 2011 at 11:11 am |
The Edwin Pearson Starr, whose grave you found, is the son of Charles H(enry) Starr. Charles was the son of William and Ann Pearson Starr. Edwin’s uncle, Edwin Pearson Starr, (older brother of Charles) is buried in St. Philip’s Church yard in Charleston, SC. By any chance have you found the grave of Adeline Starr (Jane, Edwin and Charles’s sister) of Savannah, Ga.?
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July 3, 2011 at 3:45 pm |
Hi, Anne Starr! How do you fit into the picture?
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January 21, 2013 at 4:40 pm |
Edwin Pearson Starr, son of William and Ann Pearson Starr, was my great great great grandfather. My great great grandfather was his eldest son, Willington William Starr (married Caroline Eleanor Rivers) whose youngest daughter, Tallulah Star (married to Joseph Sydney Newlin, then John J. Stevens) was my great grandmother.
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July 24, 2019 at 7:53 pm |
Willington William Starr is my great great great grandfather.
Todd Garnett Starr
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July 24, 2019 at 7:55 pm |
Hello, Todd Garnett Starr, and welcome to the blog!
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September 28, 2011 at 12:01 am |
Hello, Anne Starr Hughes,
Ruthrawls sends me to you. I am hoping you might hold a key to the mystery of my great-grandmother, Georgia Ann Starr, b. 1863 in Savannah. I have her parents as William Starr b. 1830 in Savannah and Jane Jackson, b. 1838 and also of Savannah. Georgia Ann’s grandmother was also named Georgia Ann Starr.
This all product of my research, but I believe most of it is correct.
No one in my immediate family knows anything about Georgia Ann Starr. Odd, I know, but there you have it. I know she’s “ours”; the Starr name has been passed down (as a middle name) for generations. I can trace her as far as through 1910 (in census reports, when my grandfather was still living with her), but I hit a brick wall after 1910.
I have been searching for over six months trying to find out where and when she died. Any info, or ideas I could follow?
If you have anything, please leave here or email djohnson10@elmore.rr.com
Thank you very much,
– Deb Johnson
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July 2, 2011 at 11:36 am |
Oops, sorry, you did find Adeline. That’s what happens when not enough attention is paid by the reader, mea culpa. Thanks so much for the post. I thought, from the E. P. Lawton Book and the diary of William Starr Basinger, that many of the “family” were buried at Silver Stream, and thought Laurel Grove was the resting place of Adeline (probably something else I read, without attending thorougly… the source of manyfamily legends, I suppose). Again, thank you so much.
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July 3, 2011 at 3:47 pm |
Anne, is the E. P. Lawton known as Edwin Pearson or Edward Percival? If it’s Edward Percival, do you mean the book “Saga of the South”?
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September 27, 2011 at 7:53 pm |
Hello,
I am a descendant of William Starr b. 1765 in Lawrence County, Pennsylvania. He was my fourth great-grandfather.
I am searching — with no luck– for Georgia Ann Starr, b. 1863 in Savannah, daughter of William Starr b. 1830 in Savannah. Georgia Ann Starr was my great-grandmother, but I know next to nothing about her. In 1910 she was living with two sons in Queens, NY, but her end is a mystery. Do you have any information on her?
I have a 600-person tree with many, many Starrs, several lines that go back to 17th Century England. Be happy to share anything I have with you.
Thanks much,
– Deb Johnson, now living near Montgomery, Ala.
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September 27, 2011 at 8:30 pm |
Hi Deb! Welcome! I’ll ask Sugar what he knows. He has books and stuff.
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January 21, 2013 at 4:51 pm |
I apologize for not reponding sooner, have been out of communication for some time due to health issues. Georgia Starr sounds so very familiar, but I will not have access to my notes for awhile yet. If I find anything, I will forward to you. Good luck and don’t give up.
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January 21, 2013 at 5:04 pm |
Thank you! I am so sorry to hear you have been having health issues. Been there — I deeply sympathize.
I will be very grateful if you can send anything my way, anything at all about the Starr families of Savannah. I am especially hoping for a photo. I really can’t explain why Georgia Ann Starr b. 1863 is so important to me, but she is. I also really want to learn of her father, William Starr.
I have been considering a trip to Savannah to research, I just am not sure what I could find…something, or nothing, perhaps. But I have never been to Savannah, so it would be an adventure.
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March 8, 2013 at 12:40 pm |
[…] A couple of years ago, Sugar and I went to Bonaventure Cemetery to visit the Basingers and the Starrs. […]
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January 26, 2014 at 6:38 pm |
[…] three years ago I photographed the Starr family plot in Bonaventure Cemetery in Savannah, Georgia. It will perhaps be helpful to you if you click on the […]
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