Per the death certificates of Jessee Garrett, next youngest son of Henry Garrett and his wife Aritha Garrett, the Garrett's were living in New River County as early as October 1858. By 1860 when their youngest child was born they had moved to Brooksville in Hernando County Florida. By 1870 Aritha is living in Orange County with her children, Henry a casualty of the Civil War. Faye and I had lots of difficulty in locating information on this family as the names we new them by were nicknames. We recently learned in August of 2013 their real names were John Lewis Garrett and Cynthia Luthentia Turner

Jessee was born in St. Mary's River Florida, a town which no longer exists. Jesse had the following known siblings; Sarah Frances Garrett, born 1851, Charney Hardeman Garrett, born 1853, Lewis G. Garrett born 1855, all born in Florida (most likely New River County) with the two youngest daughters, Mary Pency Garrett born 1859 and Elizabeth born 1860 having been born in Hernando County, Florida. Per the 1850 Census, Henry and Aritha had a daughter born about 1877 named Christy, but she does not appear in any other records of this family, thus we are surmising she died as a child

The majority of Henry and Aritha Garrett's descendants live in the central Florida area of Hernando, Lake, Orange, Seminole and Volusia counties. Henry was the son of Elizabeth Ivey and Charney Garrett, Sr. and Aritha was the daughter of Jessee Turner and was born in Georgia. Charney and Elizabeth had one other child, Charney Garrett, Jr. We have yet to discover her mother's name. We welcome any information that would shed some light on the origins of Henry and Aritha. Please contact Laverne Tornow or Fay Garrett Mercer if you have any information on Henry and/or Aritha Garrett.

Henry and Aritha are Fay's great grandparents,and Laverne Tornow's great great grandparents.