Meet in good times, not just the sad.

The Tines family began in the late 1800s. Grandma Wilson was the daughter of Frank and Winnie Alexander Melchoir was born on January 18, 1866, in Cahoma County city of Clarksdale and the State of Mississippi. In the year 1884, she was married to the late Thomas Dock Tines and 14 children were born. When Commie Melchoir met and married Thomas Dock Tines in Lyons, Mississippi, Thomas, one of eight children, was a former slave who had been separated from his family at the age of 13. We believe he came from Corinth, Alabama to Shelby, Tennessee, then to Lyons, Mississippi. There, one of his brothers found him and also settled in Lyons, Mississippi. His name was George Mims Tines who we believe also migrated from Corinth, Alabama. 

Commie was one of three children. She had one sister, Beatrice Gilbert and one brother, John Melchior. John was a man with no education and could fix and build anything. Grandma Wilson married a second time to Mr. Henry Wilson who died in May of 1937. Commie’s occupation was a midwife until she retired at 85 years old.

Thomas worked on Plantations in and around Lyons, Mississippi to support his family and what a family that was! He had a wife, fourteen children, and ten of those children lived to adulthood. They are Balium, Dock, Susie, Gertrude, Commie, Idella, Winnie, Lloyd, Charles, Henry, and Frank. Thomas died in 1926 and Commie died on April 12, 1976, in East St. Louis, Illinois. Her legacy continues eight generations later!