A life, recovered / 1853–1928
Martha Ann Bassham
The mother who connects the family lines
Martha Ann Bassham Marbut. Identified by Clayton Hollingsworth in the front row, far right of the Marbut family photograph.
01
A daughter of Levi and Sarah
Martha Ann Bassham was the daughter of Levi Sampson Bassham and Sarah Smith. Both supplied family histories give her birth as April 15, 1853, in Limestone County, Alabama, and her lifespan as 1853–1928.
She was Mary Amby Marbut Pritchett’s mother. That relationship connects the Bassham and Smith families to Mary’s daughter Mabel Marzelle Pritchett Birdwell and the generations that follow.
Sources: Levi Sampson Bassham — supplied Ancestry LifeStory, October 17, 2026 · Sarah Smith — supplied Ancestry LifeStory, October 17, 2026
Mary Amby Marbut is in the bottom row, fourth from left; Phillip Henry Marbut is at far left; and Martha Ann Bassham is at far right. Other people remain unidentified. Two men in the back row hold violins and bows.
View the source record →02
A face in the family photograph
Martha Ann is at the far right of the front row in the Marbut family photograph, with Phillip Henry Marbut at far left and their daughter Mary Amby also in the front row. Other people remain unidentified.
Her fuller biography will require her own marriage, household and death records. The family connections appear in the supplied parent profiles.
Look a little closer
The photographs
hold more of the story.
Open any image to see the complete photograph. Captions name the people and places in each photograph.
Martha Ann Bassham in the earlier HIM portrait retained from her family profile.
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One life leads to another.
Behind this biography
Sources & further reading
These sources support the biography and its continuing research.
- Levi Sampson Bassham — supplied Ancestry LifeStory, October 17, 2026 ↗
Six-page PDF supplied by Clayton. Compiled family-tree narrative, not independently verified original records. Pages 2–6 provide chronology; page 6 questions the middle name.
- Sarah Smith — supplied Ancestry LifeStory, October 17, 2026 ↗
Eight-page PDF supplied by Clayton. Compiled family-tree narrative. Pages 3–7 cover marriage, children, widowhood and death; the obituary entry is a research lead, not a reviewed transcription.
- Clayton Hollingsworth’s family archive ↗
Identified Martha Ann as Mary Amby’s mother and as the woman at far right in the Marbut family group.
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