I am trying to find Garvin family information. My grandfather, James Leonard Garvin, was first generation born here. He was born in 1886 in Tennessee. His father came over from Ireland, but we don't know when. We do know the father was a Confederate soldier in the Civil War, but I have no helpful information about them during that time.

James Leonard Garvin married a woman who was older than he and they did not have any children. He later divorced her (although they were Irish Catholic, so that seems unusual, but true) and he then married my grandmother in Texas. He fathered one child, Erin Margaret Garvin, born in Houston, Texas, September 25, 1925, and then committed suicide five months later.

My mother recalls a trip her mother took her on to go visit the Garvin family when my mother was very young -- probably in the 1930's -- and the family owned a lake house possibly in Arkansas, and one of James Leonard's brothers owned a pharmacy with a soda fountain next door to or across the street from the town's movie theater.

One story that was told to my mother on that visit was that her great aunt had married her great uncle (Garvin) because he was quite daring and dashing, and so insistent that she marry him that when he was ready to ride off to fight the Yankees, he rode his horse up the front steps of the church and down the aisle to propose before the congregation.

Any information about my grandfather or his family would be very much appreciated.