Read Online The Family Tree Problem Solver: Tried-And-True Tactics for Tracing Elusive Ancestors by Marsha Hoffman Rising - Free Book Online
Authors: Marsha Hoffman Rising
Tags: Non-Fiction
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situations to be the case, the child is probably biologically hers rather than a relative's.
c. She is a second wife with the same given name as the first wife, and is thus much younger than you think. You may encounter this situation more frequently before 1850, when women are often difficult to locate in the records. A good clue is a significant passage of time in which her name does not appear in the records. Or the opposite may occur. If you are “leapfrogging” across decades and primarily using the census to document your family, ten years is more than enough time for a woman to die in childbirth and a man to remarry and produce additional children. I have speculated that men marry wives of the same name to avoid embarrassing mistakes during moments of intimacy. James M. Beall of Russellville, Logan County, Kentucky, was more cautious than most. He erected a gravestone there in memory of his three wives, all named Sarah.
3. The legal age of consent is important when estimating a date of birth. It is important to know the laws of the community for the period. When could one buy and sell land? Usually individuals couldn't sell land until age twenty-one, although they could acquire it at an earlier age. When did the law allow the witnessing of deeds, the signing of bonds, the witnessing of wills, the choosing of a guardian? In colonial times in Massachusetts, someone as young as fourteen could witness a deed and choose a guardian. In many states and colonies, if a guardian was chosen for the children, they were under fourteen. If the children came into court and chose their own guardian, they were fourteen or over. Sometimes the court minutes reflect a child's dissatisfaction with the manner in which the estate was handled, or he may have wished to exercise the authority of maturing years, so he would ask for a change of guardian as soon as he reached the age of fourteen. If the court minutes are complete, we can also find when the children reached maturity (usually eighteen for girls and twenty-one for boys), as they usually dismissed their guardian and signed a receipt for whatever was left of the estate. A desire to reach maturity and control the money prompted many a dependent child to release and relinquish his guardian very soon after reaching the age of consent.
Following is an example of how estimations can be made for birth years. In this case, I had birth dates for only two of the seven children known to have inherited from their father, Moses Foren. The others were estimated from changes of guardianship and marriage dates and all fit well within the known three marriage dates of Moses Foren.
Moses Foren married (1) Morgan Co., Alabama, 1821, Lucretia Rice.
Moses Foren married (2) Hardeman Co., Tennessee, 27 April 1824, Ceely Ragan.
Moses Foren married (3) Greene County, Missouri, 3 February 1835, Mahala Farmer.
There were seven parts of the estate to be divided among the children. Here I have estimated the birth years for these seven children:
i. Lucretia born 1822/1823, as she was married by 1839, to Theophilus Cobb.
ii. Mary Ann born 1825, as she had reached age fourteen by May 1839, when she chose her guardian.
iii. Martha Jane born 1826, as she had reached age fourteen by November 1840, when she chose her guardian.
iv. Elizabeth born 1828/1829, as she had married in 1846, James Wood.
v. William C. born 20 February 1831 in Hardeman County, Tennessee (from his death record); he had reached age fourteen by September 1845.
vi. Celia born late in 1832, as she had reached age fourteen by January 1847.
vii. Filey Ann born 12 December 1835, as she died 15 March 1857, age twenty-one years, two months, three days.
Beginning with just the ages of the fifth and seventh children and the marriages for two, I could reconstruct the rest of the family from the guardianship papers.
4. When do taxes begin? When do taxes end? Many of the colonies and states required taxation of white males at age eighteen,
c. She is a second wife with the same given name as the first wife, and is thus much younger than you think. You may encounter this situation more frequently before 1850, when women are often difficult to locate in the records. A good clue is a significant passage of time in which her name does not appear in the records. Or the opposite may occur. If you are “leapfrogging” across decades and primarily using the census to document your family, ten years is more than enough time for a woman to die in childbirth and a man to remarry and produce additional children. I have speculated that men marry wives of the same name to avoid embarrassing mistakes during moments of intimacy. James M. Beall of Russellville, Logan County, Kentucky, was more cautious than most. He erected a gravestone there in memory of his three wives, all named Sarah.
3. The legal age of consent is important when estimating a date of birth. It is important to know the laws of the community for the period. When could one buy and sell land? Usually individuals couldn't sell land until age twenty-one, although they could acquire it at an earlier age. When did the law allow the witnessing of deeds, the signing of bonds, the witnessing of wills, the choosing of a guardian? In colonial times in Massachusetts, someone as young as fourteen could witness a deed and choose a guardian. In many states and colonies, if a guardian was chosen for the children, they were under fourteen. If the children came into court and chose their own guardian, they were fourteen or over. Sometimes the court minutes reflect a child's dissatisfaction with the manner in which the estate was handled, or he may have wished to exercise the authority of maturing years, so he would ask for a change of guardian as soon as he reached the age of fourteen. If the court minutes are complete, we can also find when the children reached maturity (usually eighteen for girls and twenty-one for boys), as they usually dismissed their guardian and signed a receipt for whatever was left of the estate. A desire to reach maturity and control the money prompted many a dependent child to release and relinquish his guardian very soon after reaching the age of consent.
Following is an example of how estimations can be made for birth years. In this case, I had birth dates for only two of the seven children known to have inherited from their father, Moses Foren. The others were estimated from changes of guardianship and marriage dates and all fit well within the known three marriage dates of Moses Foren.
Moses Foren married (1) Morgan Co., Alabama, 1821, Lucretia Rice.
Moses Foren married (2) Hardeman Co., Tennessee, 27 April 1824, Ceely Ragan.
Moses Foren married (3) Greene County, Missouri, 3 February 1835, Mahala Farmer.
There were seven parts of the estate to be divided among the children. Here I have estimated the birth years for these seven children:
i. Lucretia born 1822/1823, as she was married by 1839, to Theophilus Cobb.
ii. Mary Ann born 1825, as she had reached age fourteen by May 1839, when she chose her guardian.
iii. Martha Jane born 1826, as she had reached age fourteen by November 1840, when she chose her guardian.
iv. Elizabeth born 1828/1829, as she had married in 1846, James Wood.
v. William C. born 20 February 1831 in Hardeman County, Tennessee (from his death record); he had reached age fourteen by September 1845.
vi. Celia born late in 1832, as she had reached age fourteen by January 1847.
vii. Filey Ann born 12 December 1835, as she died 15 March 1857, age twenty-one years, two months, three days.
Beginning with just the ages of the fifth and seventh children and the marriages for two, I could reconstruct the rest of the family from the guardianship papers.
4. When do taxes begin? When do taxes end? Many of the colonies and states required taxation of white males at age eighteen,
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