Sentence Strip Timelines

Once again, I find myself with some unexpected time to work on some genealogy and I decided that I would work on creating something I’ve had in the back of my mind for a while.

Last year, I retired from teaching and I brought home a lot of teaching materials that I thought might be helpful in presenting or organizing my genealogy work. One of those things was a big stack of sentence strips. Elementary teachers use the 3” x 24” sentence strips to make games and flash cards and to help students practice handwriting, sentence structure and such.  I used mine to make labels around my classroom because they are very colorful. You can get these strips in packages of 75-100 for $5 – $10 depending on if you buy them online or at a teacher supply store. Even stores like Walmart carry them. (In fact, as I look at the website now, I see they have wipe-off strips. Hmmm…..)

I’ve looked at these strips for a long time and thought that they would be perfect for making timelines. The strips are different on the front and back and my vision was that the timeline would be on the multi-lined side and the side with 1 line only could be used for notes. So I played around with them last night and I like where this is going so far.

 

I decided to make the timelines in 10 year chunks – to go along with census records. I decided that the focus of my timelines would be locations. Could I discover an un-researched area that I should be spending more time looking at based on basic census information? Especially after comparing locations for various people at a certain time? Could I determine a migration pattern for various lines in my research?

I made marks 2 ½ inches apart and left a little extra room at one end to write the name of the person I was tracking. After writing some examples on some scrap pieces, I decided that the strip would be oriented vertically.  I have a column for the year, location, type of record and short notes. If I want to include a longer note, for example – more details on a land grant location, then I write a small arrow to show that there is more information on the back.

I like the idea that I can line up these strips to look for patterns and information that I might not have noticed otherwise.  I don’t think this will be the first time that I’ve mentioned that I’m a very visual learner, so this helps me a lot.

 

When I am not using the strips, I can clip them together with a binder clip and hang them on the bulletin board near my desk.

 

One simple example I can show is how I can determine the potential birth location for a person. When I place the strip for one of John M. Smith’s son-in-laws (Thomas Simpson) next to HIS father’s strip, I can see that it is likely that Thomas was born in Wayne County, Kentucky. Because I don’t have proof of that yet, I put the location in parenthesis. I certainly could have figured this out without the strips, but it is an easy example to show.

I decided that my goal for today’s project would be to try to determine the most likely location that John M. Smith was living for the 1820 census since I believe there is literally a John Smith in EVERY 1820 census.

 

First, I made my strip for John. I have a lot of information for John, but it only spans a 9 year time frame. Because I have found John listed near 2 future in-law families in the 1826 and 1827 tax records, I decided to make strips for 3 generations for each of those families plus the other 2 sets of future in-laws who I haven’t done as much research on. I kept the color for each family the same. Luckily, the package of strips contains 5 different colors, so I can have John plus the 4 in-law families.

 

 

When I line up the strips for the key people in the 5 families, I can overlap them so that I am only seeing the year and the location. I find it quite interesting that all 4 of the in-law families were living in Wayne County in 1820. Would it be out of the question to think that perhaps John M. lived in Wayne County at that time as well?

I believe there are 4 different John Smiths in Wayne County around this time. I’ve collected deeds and tax records for every John Smith in Wayne County between 1815 and 1825 (when a portion of Wayne County became the area of Russell County that John lived in) but I have not had the time to transcribe and really analyze them. Before this, I didn’t know if I wanted to put that much time into a wild guess, but it seems like more of an educated guess now and I’m anxious to see what kind of information might be hiding in the records that I scanned, but haven’t read. I think I’ll also go back and collect deeds for each of the “in-law families”.

My next goal will be to see if I can match land records to tax records to see if I can rule out any of the John Smiths in the area because based on tax records, my John did not own any land at this time. I can see that for that task, it will soon be time to fire up the Excel program!!

Wish me luck!

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Inch by inch

My John M. Smith (@1775 – 1835) appeared in the records I have found at a most inconvenient time. Russell County was formed in 1826. John bought his first tract of land which was half in Russell County and half in Wayne County in April of 1827. John’s sons were not old enough to appear in tax records at this time and he left no will when he died in 1835. I am certain of 6 children based on land records when they each buy or sell the land that was their part of John’s estate. But how can you move backward in time when the first land owned by a man comes that close to the formation of a new county? Especially with a name like John Smith! I know of no brothers or parents to follow and his children were too young to be listed in any records at this time.

Recently, I found tax records for Wayne County from which John’s part of Russell County was formed. I am pretty confident that my John was in Wayne County in 1826 and 1827 because the tax records for those years are organized by military company and John was listed in between 2 families who would eventually become in-laws. Henry Hardin Payne married John’s daughter, Sarah, in Russell County in 1828. Henry’s father was Philemon Payne. Thomas Simpson married John’s other daughter, Mary Jane, in Russell County in 1838. Thomas’ father was Reuben Simpson Jr and Abington was Thomas’ brother.

1826 Wayne Co Taxes

1827 Wayne Co Taxes

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Unfortunately, most of the county tax records are arranged “alphabetically” – based on the first letter of the last name. Luckily, Smith and Simpson both start with S! John M. owned no land at this time, but his future in-laws did – and it was on Beaver Creek where John would eventually settle.

Still guessing, but at least it’s a little more of an educated guess. Inching my way backward, I have found:

• John Smiths listed in 1825, but none of them are close to a Simpson.
• In 1824, the page is dark with lots of ink bleed through but I can see a John between Abington Simpson and an Edward Smith. It does not look to me like the John is a Smith, but it is so garbled, I can’t be sure.
• I can not find a likely candidate in 1823.
• In 1822, John is listed on the page 3 lines above a possible Reuben (hard to read the handwriting) with Abington on the next page.
• A John Smith (with no land, of course) is nestled nicely around Abington and Reuben Simpson in 1821 and 1820.
• No John Smith that looks like a match before 1820.

So could there be a potential 1820 census for John Smith in Wayne County? Yes, but only if I’m able to keep an open mind…

John should be about 45-50 years old in 1820. He should have around 4-5 boys and 2 girls at this time. I know that there are probably additional children who died before John died. At least 2 sons died before 1840 – but they received land when John died, so I know a little bit about them – but not the years they were born. I do not know when John’s wife died, but I have never seen a deed or a census record in which she was alive.

I can once again use the future in-laws as a finding aid. These images are the bottom of one page and the top of the next.

Looking for my “normal suspects”, starting on the first page above, I see Abington and Reubin Simpson Sr and on the next page, I see 2 John Smiths followed by Reubin Simpson Jr. The top John Smith does not have enough children and the bottom John has too many girls.  (The 3 is the beginning of the females.) I don’t see a woman who is old enough to be John’s wife, so I’m wondering if perhaps his wife has passed away and some family members are living with him to help raise the children? Or if some of the youngest girls passed away before the next census.

So these are certainly possibilities, but what will my next step be? I’ve looked for all court records with a John Smith in Wayne County and I find none. Records for the others I’ve been following are only records for roadwork. I can’t think of any other records that can help me know for SURE that I have the correct John.

I think I’ll try looking for land records for the Paynes and the Simpsons. Perhaps John was a witness for a deed. Other future in-laws in the county at this time are Peter Ellis and Andrew Meadows, so I’ll look for their land records as well. I’m also going to try to research a couple of Smith names that I’ve seen near John in the tax records – Christian, James and Edward/Edmund. Perhaps these men are brothers that can give me some clues. These are not names that I recognize from my research in other potential counties, but they did own land in Wayne County, so I will try to find deeds for these men to see what I can discover. I could also try to go through the tax records again to create a list of names who live on Beaver Creek. Perhaps those are deeds to look for as well.

I do feel like this path is much more likely than any other path I’ve tried for John, so for now, I’ll rejoice in the records that I’ve found and try to think “outside of the box” for my next step.  Any ideas you’d like to share would be appreciated!

FAN list – a 3 way connection?

Andrew Meadows:

There end up being 3 surnames tangled in this mess, so I’m going to try a bit of color with each surname to try to tie things together.

John M. Smith’s 2^nd son (that I know of) was Elias Smith – born about 1810. Elias married Elizabeth Meadows in 1834 in Russell County, Kentucky and Andrew Meadows was Elizabeth’s father.

Andrew was born 17 Jun 1791. I can find him in the 1820 census for Wayne County, Kentucky and Andrew’s father, James, is also in Wayne County in 1810. Andrew can be found in each census for Russell County from 1830 – 1870. According to his tombstone, Andrew died in 1873 and is buried in the Jamestown Cemetery in Russell County.

In Feb, 1833, John M. was made the administrator of the estate of John B. Smith.  I have never been able to found a record for “John B Smith” so I have not been able to make a connection to, but I suspect that he may have been one of John M‘s sons. Andrew Meadows is the security of the Administrator Bond. Interestingly, Hiram Rowe is listed on the Executor’s bond the same day, but Hiram’s name is crossed out and Andrew’s name written in on the Administrator’s bond.

On the “potential line” that I’m trying to connect to, there is a Mercer Co, Kentucky Guardian Bond dated Feb, 1833 for a deceased John Smith. I can only see an abstract for the bond (http://kymercer.heliohost.org/bonds.shtml), but it says that there was an orphan, Fanny – a bondsman, John Garr – and a guardian, John League. I have to wonder if the deceased could be John B. Smith? The timeline works – John M. Smith b. abt. 1776, m. abt 1800 could have had a son, John B. Smith who could have been of marrying age before 1833 and had a child. Is it too much of a coincidence that 2 men named John Smith both died in Feb, 1833 and that records for each appear in the exact 2 counties that I’m trying to connnect? The name “John Smith” is so common, maybe I’m trying too hard to make this work? The Garr surname does appear in a Meadows connection, described below. I’ve done just enough research on John League to know that he moved his family to Indiana, so I don’t expect to see his name again, but I will keep it in the back of my mind.

Andrew Meadows was listed as security along with John Cook for George A. and Elias Smith to be the administrators of their father’s (John M. Smith) estate in 1835.

I began filling in children of Andrew Meadows and doing a quick search on each child and found his youngest son, Andrew C. Meadows, married Mary Margaret Gaar in 1852. The 1900 census for the family included mother-in-law, Fitny. I continued to research and found that Fetnah Jane Smith had married Louis Proctor Garr in 1831. They were the parents of Mary Margaret Garr.

Will this link back to the 1833 Smith/Garr guardian bond?

I decided to create a chart to show how these families relate to each other and as I do research I will continue to look for these surnames in each time frame that I examine. I don’t have the break through yet, but here is the chart.  I tried to arrange the names to show who might have the potential to appear at the same time in the right records to help me narrow down what to look for.  Vertical lines show a parent/child relationships. I did not skip generations.

The only names I am taking on faith from someone’s un-sourced online tree would be William Smith and Mary Baber. While Fetnah’s mother in this chart would have been 41 years old when giving birth, William would have been almost 60. I see potential for a missing generation there, but I know that this scenerio is not impossible.

So where do I go from here? I’m not sure. I have a nice pension application file for James Meadows, so I will be checking those names and locations to see if I can find a Smith match. And the Garr/Gaar surnames is more unique than Smith or Meadows, so I’ll certainly be watching for that!

I would love to find out more about the John Smith who died in 1833.  I think I’ll be taking a look at the tax and land records of that time to see if that reveals anything. I’m also going to examine more Wayne County records to see if I can extend the Meadows and Smith association. I’m off to the library right now!

Eight Years is a lifetime?

Eight years.  That’s the entire timeline that I have documented for my 4th-great-grandfather, John M. Smith. And he has been my longest running brick wall in all of my genealogy research. I have 11 pages of notes for John, but the only information that I can prove spans an 8 year period from the time right after Russell County was formed until his death in 1835.  That means a significant portion of his life is still to be discovered!

His first proven appearance comes in a land purchase of 100 acres along the Cumberland River in April of 1827 followed by a listing in the tax records for that same year. Where did John come from before this?  Because it is such a common name and because I have no information on siblings, I have not been able to prove a family connection to take me back another generation.

So I’m turning to names in the “other” category.  Names which may or may not be related but which I hope can yield some clue that will help me break down this brick wall. So who do I have and what do I know about them? I’m planning to list each person one at a time in order to do some “quick” research on each man as I write to help keep me from getting distracted!

James Gilbert: On Dec 31, 1827 a land grant was given to John M. Smith and James Gilbert. The land straddles the Russell County/Wayne County boundary line. I’m unsure why a grant would be given to 2 individuals.  Does this mean it’s likely that they are related? Could James or his wife be related to John’s wife?

The following day, on Jan 1, 1828, another grant was given. In this grant, it says, “granted by the said Commonwealth unto John M Smith & James Gilbert assignee of said Smith who was assignee of Timothy Burgess assignee of Braxton Carter who was assignee of Elijah Hutchison”. So in this grant, John M. had the grant and he sold (I assume) a portion of the grant to James Gilbert but that the original grant was for Elijah Hutchinson who sold to Braxton Carter who sold to Timothy Burgess who sold to John M. Smith.  Timothy Burgess’s line is mentioned as a border of this land.

Doing a very quick search on Ancestry, I found an un-sourced family tree which says that James was born around 1788 and that he married Sally Decker around 1817 in Wayne Co, Kentucky.  The tree indicated that James was born in Wayne County, but it wasn’t formed until 1800, so that assumption is incorrect. In fact, Kentucky wasn’t even a state until 1792.  John Smith was born around 1775 and was married around 1800 based on the age of the oldest child that I am aware of.  Perhaps I should research James’ father – possibly Elijah Gilbert (the only Gilbert I see of the correct age in 1810 Wayne Co census. There is a John Smith in the correct age range on the same census page as Elijah. I will follow up on this.)

I can find James Gilbert listed in the 1820 Wayne County census living next to an Abner Decker. On the Kentucky GenWeb site for Wayne County, there is a transcription that only says “Gilbert, James m. Sally Decker 1817”. The only other Gilbert listed is Richard Gilbert who married Elizabeth Melbourne on 16 Apr 1822. There are several Decker marriages, but James and Sally are one of the earliest listed.  Wayne County was formed in 1800, but the transcribed marriage records begin with 1811.

I find James Gilbert, age 16-25, listed in the 1820 Wayne County census with a wife and a daughter under age 10. (Assuming relationships here.) By 1830, he can be found in Russell County, but both census lists are alphabetical and I cannot tell if he is living near John M. or not.

In 1826, the county boundaries changed and the north western sliver of Wayne County became the south eastern edge of Russell Co, so it’s likely that there was no moving involved between the 1820 census and the 1830 census. In the map below, the white boarder in the center of the map is the area that would become Russell County. This map is off slightly as I know that John’s land was just south of the Cumberland River and that the lower loop of the River was actually in Wayne County.  This is the area where the land grant land was located.

 

Image created at http://historical-county.newberry.org/website/Kentucky/viewer.htm

In 1835, James Gilbert and his wife, Elizabeth G. Gilbert (a second wife?) of Spencer County, Kentucky sell their share of the 1827/8 land grant as well as another parcel of land to John M. Smith. John M. died in the fall of 1835.

I can find a James Gilbert in the 1840 Spencer County census, but he is 10 years younger than expected.  In 1850, the census shows that his wife’s name is Elizabeth. By 1860, there is no wife listed, but in 1870, Elizabeth is once again shown.  Perhaps this is another marriage. James is found a final time in the Mortality Schedules indicating that he died in 1879 at the age of 80.  He was listed as a widow. At this time, I have found no probate records for James after doing a quick look at FamilySearch.

As I think through possibilities for gaining information from James Gilbert, I’ve decided to:

1) Search for a marriage record for James Gilbert and Sally Decker to see if there are clues from a bondsman or witness.
2) Search for land transactions for James Gilbert to see if there are any clues to relationships.
3) Continue searching for a will from James Gilbert.
4) Search the tax records for Wayne County to see when Elijah Gilbert died or possibly left the county.
5) I will try to analyze the tax records for Elijah AND the John Smith that I found to see if they arrived in the area around the same time. I’ll need to keep in mind:

• Wayne County would have been Pulaski County for 1 year just before its formation (1799)
• Green County from 1793 – 1799.
• Kentucky became a state in 1792 and at that time, this area was part of Lincoln County.

6) Continue researching Elijah Gilbert to see if I can find a will that might mention a child or grand-children to connect the Gilberts to John M. Smith.

Next time: Andrew Meadows.

First White Men in Wayne County, Kentucky

From “A Century of Wayne County, Kentucky, 1800-1900” on Ancestry

First white men of Wayne County – “Long Hunters” – summer of 1770.

James Knox
Richard Knox
William Allen *captured by Cherokee
Joseph Drake
Obadiah Terrell
John Rains
Uriah Stone
Henry Smith – even if this isn’t my direct line, perhaps this is a connection for why my Smith’s came to this area from Danville.
Edward Cowan
Christopher Stoph *captured by Cherokee
Humphrey Hogan
Cassius Brooks
Robert Crockett
James Graham
John Montgomery
Abraham Bledsoe
Richard Skaggs
Henry Skaggs
David Lynch
Kasper Mansco
Russell Hughes (book says Russell and Hughes)

In 1774, Colonel William Preston gave orders to Captain Billy Russell to warn settlers and surveyors in Kentucky of an Indian upraising.

In May, 1779, the Virginia Assembly enacted a law opening Kentucky to general settlement by survey, entry, and residence.  In the same year, the General Assembly of Virginia passed an act for marking and opening a road over the Cumberland Mountains in the County of Kentucky.  Richard Calloway and John Kinkead effected the opening of the road* by Dec 1, 1781.

From 1800 to 1810, each year brought a large number of families.  Grants under the “Headrights” provision were made to the following… Matthew and William Smith

* (Wilderness Road – from Wikipedia)

The Wilderness Road was the principal route used by settlers for more than fifty years to reach Kentucky from the East. In 1775, Daniel Boone blazed a trail for the Transylvania Company from Fort Chiswell in Virginia through the Cumberland Gap into central Kentucky. It was later lengthened, following Native American trails, to reach the Falls of the Ohio at Louisville. The Wilderness Road was steep and rough, and it could only be traversed on foot or horseback. Despite the adverse conditions, thousands of people used it.

In 1792, the new Kentucky legislature provided money to upgrade the road. In 1796, an improved all-weather road was opened for wagon and carriage travel. The road was abandoned around 1840, although modern highways follow much of its route.