#52Ancestors, Week 22: At the (Wilmington) Cemetery

These two "headstones" sit in the center of Wilmington Cemetery in Paducah, Kentucky.  They are the only remaining indicators of a city that once "lived" here. Currently, this small county burial ground is a type of pauper's cemetery - used for the burials of those who cannot afford to pay.  Once, though, the town of Wilmington existed in this space and was McCracken County's first county seat. Here is its brief history.

McCracken County was formed from Hickman County in 1825, and Wilmington became its county seat in 1827. The town of Wilmington was approximately 102 acres, and McCracken County Deed Book A (p. 22) indicates the sale of 42 lots of land in Wilmington in 1827. However, only 8 buildings were ever completed, one of them being the courthouse which was completed in 1830. Perhaps this modest success encouraged more people to buy here, as another spate of lots were sold in 1830 (pp. 102-103). A post office was opened in 1831. In 1832, extensive flooding occurred, and the county records were hastily removed from the Wilmington courthouse.  They traveled by skiff to what would eventually become the new county seat, Paducah. This event is depicted on the Paducah Wall to Wall floodwall mural. In the foreground, 2 dejected-looking men linger by the steps of the courthouse.  Behind the courthouse, a man pushes off into the floodwaters, presumably carrying the last of the courthouse documents. Several submerged buildings, possibly homes, can be seen in the background. This rather inauspicious start more or less marked the end of Wilmington, not only as the county seat, but also as a town.  The post office that opened in 1831 closed in 1846.  Wilmington no longer exists, and while I have done quite a bit of searching, there doesn't seem to be much about it beyond what I have related here.

Sad and secluded Wilmington Cemetery is important to me, not because of anyone buried here, but because my 4x great grandfather, John Field, purchased 3 plots of land here (lots 2, 5, & 9) in 1827. He and his wife, Jane Staton, had married in McCracken County in 1825, so one can only assume he intended to build in Wilmington and be at the center of McCracken County life. As far as I can tell, though, none of the 8 buildings completed belonged to him.  The Deed Books indicate he purchased other land (outside of Wilmington) in McCracken County, but I haven't found any record of sale for the lots of land he bought in Wilmington in 1827. Did he "take a bath" in the flood waters of 1832?  I'll probably never know.  John Field is a slippery fellow who evidently died sometime between 1840 and 1850, leaving behind his wife and two children.  They moved to Illinois not long after.  

Last summer, standing in the emptiness of Wilmington Cemetery, I could certainly appreciate the desire to own property in this area.  It was lush, green, and peaceful, and I hope this post will at least preserve the memory of Wilmington, the-county-seat-that-was. 

#52Ancestors, Week 21: Brick Wall - Thomas Green's parents

I have many brick walls.  I think any genealogist does.  Eventually, records run out, family histories come up short...or you're really lucky and you are able to track yourself back to Genghis Khan.  I've been working on this particular brick wall for several years, and every time I think I've found something that I am certain will shed a little light...it doesn't. I will do my best to describe said wall and the ways in which I have tried to go over, around, under, and through it.

Thomas Green.  He is my 3x great grandfather and a fairly interesting individual.  He was born in Kentucky in 1826/1827 but spent the majority of his life in southern Illinois.  He served in the 11th Illinois Infantry during the American Civil War and was involved in the capture of Forts Henry, Donelson, and Vicksburg.  After the war, he and his first wife (my 3x great grandmother) divorced. Thomas went on to marry a young widow and have an additional four children.  He died in 1898 and was buried in Anna Cemetery in Anna, IL.  The only part of his life I don't know much about is his childhood...specifically, HIS PARENTS!  

Let's look at all the typical ways one can determine parents:

1. Census Data - Unfortunately, I have been unable to find a definitive 1850 census for Thomas, and anything prior to that only lists head of household.   Strike one. (Later census records indicated that Thomas's father was born in New York.  Thomas's mother was born in either Rhode Island or Ohio.  You try searching the surname Green in New York, and let me know how you do.)

2. Marriage records - I have not found an official marriage record for Thomas Green and Ann Elizabeth Echols.  The year of their marriage (1854) is mentioned in a biography of Ann's brother, Thomas Benton Echols, and is acknowledged in Thomas's Civil War Pension file.  Neither lists his parents. Strike two.

3. Death records - I have three death records for Thomas: an Illinois, Select Deaths Index, a death certificate, and an application for a headstone for Civil War veterans.  Even on the death certificate, there is nothing requesting the names of his parents. Strike three.

4.  Obituary - Found it.  No parents listed, and we're all out of strikes anyway.

Remember that Civil War Pension file I mentioned?  It's over 100 pages of depositions, interviews, documents, and other phenomenal genealogical information, but do you think there is a single mention of Thomas's parents?  That's a big NOPE

It does, however, mention a sister!  Hallelujah!  Now we're getting somewhere!  ...or so I thought.  Thomas's sister was named Louisiana, and she was born in 1819 in Ohio.  She died in Rock Island, Illinois, in 1912.  I haven't been able to locate a death certificate for her, although I have asked my sister (who lives in the area) to stop by the courthouse and see what she can find.  (I'll keep you posted.)  I did locate a very length obituary for Louisiana, but alas, her parents were not revealed. 

I've tried to piece together what I have.  Louisiana in 1819 in Ohio, Thomas in 1826/1827 in Kentucky.  Both children settled in Illinois, albeit very different areas of the state.  I wanted to believe that this narrowed my search, but I also had to take into consideration when/where the parents met and were married...which was a tall order when you consider that it could have been anywhere between New York and Ohio... 

Maybe my sister will get to the courthouse, and Louisiana's death certificate will reveal all.  Maybe a marriage for Thomas and Ann will materialize down in Pulaski County, Illinois, but I'm not holding my breath.  Maybe I'll just have a séance and hope that asking for Thomas and Louisiana Green's parents rings a bell somewhere in the afterlife.

#52Ancestors #Week22 - Brick Wall William

Oy, the ever-present brick wall.  Who among the Genealogically Obsessed hasn't peered at a record for the eleventieth time in hopes said record would reveal something new?  I have several private theories about what may have become of my 3rd great-grandfather, Illinois farmer William Alexander Hughes, none of them are likely to be true, but the facts remain elusive. 

My first encounter with the man was decades ago when I received his daughter (and likely only child) Florence's death records, listing her father as "Elec Hughes" of Illinois, and her birthplace in Pulaski County, Illinois. It also lists her mother with correct info, and as I recall, my next "find" was "Elec" and Mary Jane Pearson's marriage record in the same locality, in December 1874.  This gave me his full name, and I was then able to find him in 1850, 1860, 1870 and 1880 Federal Census.  William Alexander Hughes was born presumably in Pulaski County, to William H and Martha (Echols) Hughes, and was about 10 years younger than his two brothers, John and Frank. He never moved from the above county, so very thankful for this small "favor."

Complicating matters is the number of William Hughes in this single county.  A couple of men bearing the same name in a rural location would be bad enough, but there are 6 of them. WIlliam H. Hughes, my 4th great grandfather, was born about 1811, another William A Hughes born in 1818, William Alexandrer Hughes in 1845. William Hughes born to Nancy Staton Hughes (another relation of mine) in 1856, Willam E to the senior William A in 1882 (died at age 6), and at least two more born later in the 1800's. One of those was William Alexander's nephew.

William Alexander (was he called Alex?) may have served in the Civil War. I have since ordered and received the Civil War pension file for one of two William Hughes' from Pulaski County, and the one I received and had judged likely to be "mine" does not appear to fit.  Two marriages, neither to Mary Jane Pearson, and several children with his second wife, all younger than Florence. I can order the other man's file, but he was an even worse match to the facts I have verified. The 2nd pension file also lists the 2nd William as William L.B. Hughes. I'm unsure what to make of those initials but will likely end up looking into that record.

As an adult, his widowed mother lived with him.  Alas, no death record for his father has been found either. After 1880, William Alexander, Mary Jane (with one possible exception) and Martha disappear from all record.  Pulaski County, Illinois has a fortunate recording of many area newspapers, rich with area detail, but no verifiable deaths are mentioned for this family.  I have been to the area twice, once in 2006 and again with my daughter in 2018. No cemeteries we walked revealed their burials, and no records at the courthouse list them, and there was no will. 

As mentioned in a previous entry on this blog, my great grandfather thought that his mother's maiden name was Ferrell.  I don't know if Florence's parents and grandmother died when she was quite young and she was raised by a Farrell family, but it's certainly plausible.  She had no known siblings to leave behind any further information, although a possible record exists in the 1900 census of "Mary Jane Hughes" with daughter Nancy in a similar location to where they had been living in 1880.  No later record for Mary Jane or Nancy to confirm that this is the correct family has been found. Florence  married at age 17 in 1894, and by 1900 was living in Arkansas, although had returned to Pulaski County before 1903, when Gramps was born there. 

There are several reasons for the lack of records in this area.  The courthouse was damaged by both fire in the 1870s and later by multiple severe floods, including the very famous floods of 1937. The community has been very poor for a very long time, and many cemeteries are in poor repair and/or inaccessible. Someday, I hope to find just a morsel that will tell me something, anything at all about William's fate, or Civil War service.  Someday, time travel to circa 1885-90 would be tremendous!

#52Ancestors, Week 20: (Almost No) Beards

This post was moved to the Collecting Dead People blog:

Beards

#52 Ancestors, Week 19: Bald (Eagles and other avian wildlife)

Well before my daughter was born (before we knew she was going to be a daughter), my mom purchased a My First Bird Book complete with a window-mounted bird feeder. When Marian was old enough to sit upright and observe her surroundings, we mounted the feeder in a window that overlooked the backyard.  As a toddler, Marian would sit, framed by the picture window in our game room, and identify the birds.  There were 'carnies' (cardinals), 'mourning does' (doves), and even 'hummytoomies' (hummingbirds) that would visit the daylilies.  She would proudly point them out and then page through her book until she came to the appropriate bird.  Sometimes she would toddle over to our dog, Inigo, and educate him.  He always listened patiently.

Slowly but surely, the bird sanctuary grew.  When my mother-in-law heard how much Marian enjoyed birdwatching, she gifted her a free standing post with attachments for various kinds of feeders.  There was a water dish, a tray, and hooks for hanging suet cages.  We replaced the first window-mounted bird feeder with a larger, see-through one. Buck, the backyard squirrel, had broken the first one.  With each new fixture, the variety of birds we attracted increased.  Marian's first book was no longer sufficient to identify all that we would see, so my mom contributed a few additional books, more comprehensive than the first.  Aside from the usual backyard fare, we enjoyed the company of flickers,

nuthatches,

and even redheaded woodpeckers.

One day, not long after Christmas of 2019, we looked out the double doors of our dining room and saw this:

Now, we can't claim to have attracted this fine fellow with any of our feeders, but his distance from the house did make us aware that we lacked a certain necessary viewing apparatus.  In order to really see him, we had to dig out my husband's heavy, ancient binoculars...or zoom in on him with our digital camera.  Obviously, the next addition to Marian's bird watching paraphernalia had to be a pair (several, actually) of binoculars. She now has a pair that we take on vacation and a pair that hangs from the bookshelf in her bedroom.  She used them just the other day to observe a pair of goldfinches playing in the bird bath in our front yard.

Some of you may be asking yourselves, what does this fiasco of feathered findings have to do with genealogy? Well, something this 52Ancestors challenge has reinforced is that genealogy is much more than just dates and documents.  It's about life's important moments.  It's about memories.  Because of a single gift, we have the memories of countless mornings and evenings sitting together, sifting through our growing collection of bird books, trying to identify an unusual backyard visitor.  We even have an old Audubon book that belonged to my grandmother.  We can read the notes she left in the margins concerning the birds she had been able to identify.  At my mother's house, there is a dry erase board. On it, she and Marian keep track of the type and number of birds they have seen.  My dad has hummingbird feeders at the front and back of his house, and Marian enjoys watching 'Grandpa's hummingbirds' fight for supremacy. And every day, as we drive to school, Marian keeps up a running commentary on the birds she sees sitting on posts or circling in fields.

#52Ancestors, Week 18: Pets - Trouble

This post was moved to the Collecting Dead People blog:

Pets