Gone Fishing

Annie Lou Rogers Wilson's skiff...

a repost from When I Was 69...

Gone Fishing

I've shared these 2 photos before, among the few that were rescued from a fire my Rogers family (grandparents) had in Fort Worth, TX in the 1920s.

Annie Lou Rogers Wilson was my grandfather's little sister, both of them raised by an aunt and uncle most of their childhoods.  But their mother moved from Walker County TX where they had been born, and lived the rest of her life in Galveston TX.  And at times the children are listed on census records living with her, like the 1900 Galveston Census.  Annie Lou would have been 25 in 1904. She didn't marry until 1906.

 10-30-1904 Annie Lou's Skiff - I'm pretty sure there was also a sailboat attached to this dingy.

10-30-1904 on Hannah's Reef Galveston Bay.

These gentlemen seem to have a fair catch of fish on display themselves, don't they? I don't see anyone resembling a woman who could have been Annie Lou.

For Sepia Saturday this week, we've got a nudge to go out on a boat, or sit by the water, and perhaps catch some dinner as lovely looking as their gentleman has.

I shall be purchasing some salmon at the Tailgate Market this morning, shipped in from Canada.

Life interrupted

I'm blissfully going along looking at the information available on Ancestry about my ancestors, and their siblings. Then wham, a deadline approaches on a newsletter I've volunteered to edit.

So no more ancestor stuff for a while.  Drat.  But oh the joy of taking what others have written and making that be a creation to share!

I'll be back next week, dear departed ancestors, many of whom don't have graves or markers.  But they did lead their lives, and most of them had children, who became my cousins.  I just was contacted by one yesterday...so that will be fun, getting to know his story!

I'll be back.

Rev Thomas Hansford's siblings Part 1

Before we go back another generation I need to pursue the siblings of Rev. Thomas Hansford.  There were a lot of them too!  But it isn't easy getting information that I can count on.  So I'm presenting some information which may need to change later, as I may find different information.

Rev. Thomas Hansford (my four times great grandfather) was the son of William Jr. Hansford (that's the way he is listed on various ancestry tree) (1727-1779) and Mary Sarah Hyde (1729-1779).   They had married in Virginia in 1753.

First son was William (Sallis) Hansford born 1754. The Sallis in his name was his father's mother's maiden name. Since it's in parentheses on Ancestry, it was probably added by a descendent, rather than being known a his name.

William S. married someone named Mary, (b. 1752) and they had one son named Thomas (b. 1784). William S. is probably the soldier listed on Revolutionary War Rolls for Dec. 1777 in Virginia.

He and wife Mary Hansford moved to Kentucky by 1800. He died either in 1810 or after 1821.

And now let's look at the first of the confusing attempts to understand who was related to whom.

William Hansford, Jr., son of William and Sarah Hansford, lived in Orange Co., Va., but did not appear on the 1790 census. Researcher Mildred Hansford, however, has concluded that William and wife, Mary Hyde, moved to the Shenandoah Valley, Virginia where they died in a smallpox epidemic. Researcher Penny Fields Gardner in an e-mail of March 2002 noted:"William Hansford and his wife, Mary Sarah Hyde. They both died of a Smallpox epidemic in 1779 in Orange Co., VA. This was just before their daughter, Mary, married John Short.. Their second child and only daughter, Sarah, was my ancestor. She married Stephen Fields and they are buried in the same pioneer cemetery with John and Mary, in Lawrence Co, Indiana, close to where both my parents were born and raised." She identified William, Jr. as an uncle, not the father of William, Jr. The only other possibility then would be John Hansford. "Hansford" has William, Jr. as the father of Benoni Hansford. 

     Known issue:
     1. Benoni Hansford.
     2. Mary Hansford married John Short.  Source: tanjean59, an Ancestry member.

William (Sallis) Hansford, doesn't seem to have married his mother...but again, having a father of the same name makes it hard to discern, and the records now are giving his mother the name Mary Sarah Hyde Hansford...rather than mother being Sarah Hyde and wife being Mary Hyde.  I give up!

Next child (on my Ancestry tree) is Mary Ann Hansford, born 13 Jan 1756, married to John P. Short in 1780.  Here's the entry on Find A Grave.

Name:	Mary Hyde Short
Maiden Name:	Hansford
Gender:	Female
Birth Date:	13 Jan 1756
Birth Place:	Frederick County, Virginia, United States of America
Death Date:	30 Jul 1821
Death Place:	Lawrence County, Indiana, United States of America
Cemetery:	Ferguson Cemetery
Burial or Cremation Place:	Lawrence County, Indiana, United States of America
Children:	Sarah Short Fields Ezekiel Short  Hansford Short Thomas P. Short Wesley Short Samuel Short John Short

There were several other children of the Shorts on my Ancestry Tree...but I won't go into them, as they are about first cousins 5 times removed.

Next comes Benjamin Hansford:
He may have been born in 1763, or maybe 1770 or as late as 1793...but I'll take the average date.

BIRTH APRIL 17,1770 • Culpeper County, Virginia,

DEATH 15 NOV 1853 • Pulaski, Kentucky,

Other Benjamin Hansford's seem to have not had this William and Sarah Handsford as parents, one moving to GA, another staying in Virginia.

But to go backwards in his life, here's a KY hand written list of deaths, and he is there, with his father William P. and mother as Polly Hansford, dying himself on Nov 15. in Pulaski KY.

It states his condition as widower, and I believe the next entry says formerly Baptist pastor, dying of pneumonia.  Though it does clearly state his age as 90, he had been giving his age as 80 in the 1850 census, just 3 years earlier.

I here include the 1850 Census for Pulaski County, KY.  I'm so glad to have some people finally named.

Lydia Hansford at 40 was his daughter. And she had married Samuel Hawk, thus the 2 children with surname of Hawk are Benjamin's grandchildren.

Though Benjamin might have been listed as born in 1763, I believe that he was only 83 when he died, rather than 90.  I doubt that he celebrated many birthdays in his life, or maybe the person (was it Lydia?) who gave the information didn't know his real birth.

There were other children born in the family of William and Sarah Mary Polly Hyde Hansford. But they will have to wait till another date.

Margaret Beattie Hansford**

First, let me share a repost about the Kentucky settlers.  I'm on a roll apparently, and this post tells a somewhat different story than what I shared yesterday when talking about Margaret Beattie Hansford's husband, Rev. Thomas Hansford.  There are some new photos of census records at the bottom.

As far back as I can go...farther
posted originally on Tuesday, February 18, 2014 (with a bit of editing from today!)

Well, the fun of Ancestry took me back across the seas to Ireland and Scotland.

But I also found information suggesting this ancestress (Margaret Beattie Hansford) lived to be around 99 years of age.  That is if the census taker didn't mess up. Her son, who was head of the household, says he was 59 (born in 1800) and Margaret is listed as 97.

Anyway, that 1860 census is the source of her age, (until I found her grave marker later).

And the Ancestry folks connected her to parents as well, who came through Virginia and then the Cumberland Gap to Kentucky, actually to Somerset, Pulaski County, KY...as well as Crab Apple, KY.
So I've gone ahead and saved various tidbits from Wikipedia about the great trek of my ancestors from VA to KY.

 The Appalachian Mountains form a natural barrier to east–west travel, from Pennsylvania to Georgia. Settlers from Pennsylvania tended to migrate south along the Great Wagon Road through the Great Appalachian Valley and Shenandoah Valley. Daniel Boone was from Pennsylvania and migrated south with his family along this road. From an early age, Boone was one of the longhunters^[3] who hunted and trapped among the Native American nations along the western frontiers of Virginia, so-called because of the long time they spent away from home on hunts in the wilderness. Boone would sometimes be gone for months and even years before returning home from his hunting expeditions

The route of the Wilderness Road made a long loop from Virginia southward to Tennessee and then northward to Kentucky, a distance of 200 miles (320 km).

From the Long Island of the Holston River (modern Kingsport, Tennessee), the road went north through Moccasin Gap of Clinch Mountain, then crossed the Clinch River and crossed rough land (called the Devils Raceway) to the North Fork Clinch River. Then it crossed Powell Mountain at Kanes Gap. From there it ran southwest through the valley of the Powell River to the Cumberland Gap.

After passing over the Cumberland Gap the Wilderness Road forked. The southern fork passed over the Cumberland Plateau to Nashville, Tennessee via the Cumberland River. The northern fork split into two parts. The eastern spur went into the Bluegrass region of Kentucky to Boonesborough on the Kentucky River (near Lexington). The western spur ran to the Falls of the Ohio (Louisville).^[8][9] As settlements grew southward, the road stretched all the way to Knoxville, Tennessee, by 1792.^[10]

Because of the threat of Native American attacks, the road was so dangerous that most pioneers traveled well armed. Robbers and criminals also could be found on the road, ready to pounce on weaker pioneers.^[11] Although the Transylvania Company had purchased the region from the Cherokee, and the Iroquois had ceded it at the Treaty of Fort Stanwix, other tribes, such as the Shawnee, still claimed it and lived there.

Often entire communities and church congregations would move together over the road to new settlements. Hundreds of pioneers were killed by Indian attacks^.

Defensive log blockhouses built alongside the road had portholes in the walls for firing at Native American attackers. They were often called "stations". No one knew exactly when the next attack would happen. The Shawnee came from the north, while the Chickamauaga (Cherokees who rejected the land sale treaty) came from the south. The tribes were resentful of the settlers taking their ancestral hunting lands, and the French and Indian War had further stirred up their passions against the white man.^[13]

The Scots-Irish were great fighters. They had lived in Ulster, an English colony in Northern Ireland, for a hundred years before coming to America. They had taken over land previously owned by the Irish and had much experience as fighters in defending their homeland.^[14]

In 1774, Richard Henderson, a judge from North Carolina, organized a land speculation company with a number of other prominent North Carolinians called the Transylvania Company. The men hoped to purchase land from the Cherokees on the Kentucky side of the Appalachian Mountains and establish a British proprietary colony. Henderson hired Daniel Boone, an experienced hunter who had explored Kentucky, to blaze a trail through the Cumberland Gap into central Kentucky. 

Judge Richard Henderson had made a treaty with the Cherokee at Sycamore Shoals in 1775, purchasing over 20,000,000 acres (8,100,000 ha) of land between the Cumberland and Kentucky Rivers. On March 28, 1775, he left Long Island (Kingsport, Tennessee) with about 30 horsemen on the grueling trip down the Wilderness Road to Kentucky. At Martin's Station 40 to 50 additional pioneers joined the venture. On their way, they met nearly a hundred refugees fleeing Native American attacks further down the road. Despite the danger, the party kept going toward Kentucky. Since some of the streams were flooded, the pioneers had to swim with their horses. On April 20, they arrived at Boonesborough, a fortified town, named by Judge Henderson in honor of Boone

After 1770, a surge of over 400,000 Scots-Irish immigrants arrived in the colonies to escape the poor harvest, high rents and religious intolerance of Ulster. Since the better lands had already been taken, they constantly pressed onward to the western frontier of the foothills of the Carolinas.

The flood of Scots-Irish, German, and others immigrants kept coming. Over 200,000 pioneers came over the Wilderness Road, enduring severe hardships. In the winter of 1778-79, the weather was so cold that the Kentucky River froze to a depth of two feet. The frontier settlements alongside the road struggled to survive. Many of the cattle and hogs froze to death. The settlers had to eat frozen cattle and horses to survive

Often the Chickamauga, under the leadership of Dragging Canoe, would hide in ambush for weeks between Cumberland Gap and Crab Orchard, a distance of 100 miles (160 km). They would not attack large groups but wait for weaker ones who were not able to defend themselves. More than 100 men, women and children were killed in the fall of 1784 along the Wilderness Road. Many families, even in ice and snow, crossed the creeks and rivers without shoes or stockings; they often had no money and few clothes. They lived off the land by hunting in the woods and by fishing in the streams.^[19]

Since they had hardly any money, entire families sometimes walked hundreds of miles after landing in America. They even used cattle as pack animals to carry their heavy loads. Cabins were built and land was cleared of trees and undergrowth so crops could be planted.

George Bingham's painting of Daniel Boone coming over Cumberland Gap

(Note: I posted this painting before, but didn't have the artist's name, so I'm giving you this recap with Bingham getting credit!)

 Kentucky the 15th State

According to a 1790 U.S. government report, 1,500 Kentucky settlers had been killed in Indian raids since the end of the Revolutionary War.^[27] In an attempt to end such raids into the state, George Rogers Clark led an expedition of 1,200 drafted men against Shawnee towns on the Wabash River in 1786, one of the first actions of the Northwest Indian War.

After the American Revolution, the counties of Virginia beyond the Appalachian Mountains became known as Kentucky County.^[29] Eventually, the residents of Kentucky County petitioned for a separation from Virginia. Ten constitutional conventions were held in the Constitution Square Courthouse in Danville between 1784 and 1792. In 1790, Kentucky's delegates accepted Virginia's terms of separation, and a state constitution was drafted at the final convention in April 1792. On June 1, 1792, Kentucky became the fifteenth state to be admitted to the union. Isaac Shelby, a military veteran from Virginia, was elected the first Governor of the Commonwealth of Kentucky.

The Wilderness Road served as a great path of commerce for the early settlers in Kentucky. Horses, cattle, sheep and hogs found a waiting market in the Carolinas, Maryland and Virginia. Hogs in groups of 500 or more were driven down the Road to market. Beef in Eastern markets had become a main source of income for farmers in Kentucky.^[22]

A postal road was opened in 1792 from Bean Station, Tennessee through Cumberland Gap to Danville, Kentucky. This was due largely to the efforts of Governor Isaac Shelby of Kentucky. This connection of Kentucky to the East was a great advantage. Frontier settlers considered the postal riders heroes and waited eagerly for their arrival for news from settlements along the trails as well as getting their mail and newspapers.[23

I'll next post some info about her father, Francis Beattie (born 1715 in Ireland, died 1791 in Washington County, VA) who wrote a will, which summarizes well what his holdings were, and who his children were.  His wife, Martha Tate Beattie was also born in Ireland in 1720, and died before he did, but there's no documentation of her death.  They had around 8 children, all born in VA.

----------------------------

* Here's the census of 1850 with Margaret's age as 85, in a housefull of women, Margaret Erskin and probably her children, all Erskins.  Margaret Hansford is the head of the household (her husband had died in 1841).

It is interesting to note that Margaret gives her birth-state as Pennsylvania. She is living in Lincoln County, KY.

And another interesting fact, is that her 60 year old son William an his wife and family live right next door to her...with the Erskins, who I have yet to find a relationship to the Hansfords!

And here's the 1860 census.

She was living with her son, J. S. Hansford, age 59, and Margaret is 97 on this document, as well as having been born in Virginia. Though J. S. is a farmer by occupation, they are now in the Crab Orchard town in Lincoln County, KY.  Crab Orchard is one of the oldest towns in KY.  It is also where Margaret and her husband were buried.

And another thing about my great times 5 grandmother, Margaret Beattie Hansford's parents came to America from Ireland.

Rev. Thomas Hansford

Thomas Hansford was born in Orange County VA, Apri 10, 1758, in a family of 8 children. His parents were William Jr. Hansford (1727-1779) and Mary Sarah Hyde Hansford (1729-1779.) He married Margaret Beattie (1762-1861) before 1788 when the marriage was recorded by the Virginia Colonial Abstracts, where there's even a complaint that the dates were not accurate.  Since the Hansford newly weds had their first child in 1784, it's likely that they were married before that time.  Their child's birth or baptism (Thomas Jr.) was recorded in the Charles Parish Registry of York County, VA on Sept. 14, 1784. They had one more son (William) in Virginia in 1790, then the next child, (Jane) was born in 1792 in Crab Orchard, Lincoln County, KY.
--------------

Migration from Virginia to Kentucky

Background of the history of Kentucky and its geography:
The state of Virginia included land to the west of the Appalachian Mountains (supposedly to the Mississippi River) and there was a county established called Kentucky County, Virginia in 1776, effective 1777. 

Map of Kentucky 1784

In November 1780, Virginia divided Kentucky County into three: Fayette, Jefferson, and Lincoln counties.

In January 1781, Governor Thomas Jefferson appointed George Rogers Clark as brigadier general, a special position created for an expedition against British and Native Americans at Detroit, but this never materialized, because of lack of money and soldiers. As a general, Clark was the highest-ranking militia officer in Kentucky and supervised the work of the three Kentucky County colonels.

The westernmost part of Kentucky, west of the Tennessee River, was recognized as hunting grounds belonging to the Chickasaw by the 1786 Treaty of Hopewell, and remained so until they sold it to the U.S. in 1818, albeit under pressure. This region is still sometimes known as the Jackson Purchase in reference to President Andrew Jackson of the period.

----------

Several factors contributed to the desire of the residents of Kentucky to separate from Virginia. First, traveling to the state capital was long and dangerous. Second, offensive use of local militia against Indian raids required authorization from the governor of Virginia. Last, Virginia refused to recognize the importance of trade along the Mississippi River to Kentucky's economy. It forbade trade with the Spanish colony of New Orleans, which controlled the mouth of the Mississippi, but this was important to Kentucky communities.

The magnitude of these problems increased with the rapid growth of population in Kentucky, leading Colonel Benjamin Logan to call a constitutional convention in Danville in 1784. Over the next several years, nine more conventions were held. During one, General James Wilkinson proposed secession from both Virginia and the United States to become a ward of Spain, but the idea was defeated.

In 1788, Virginia granted its consent to Kentucky's statehood in the form of two enabling acts. The second and operative act required that the Confederation Congress admit Kentucky into the Union by July 4, 1788. A Committee of the Whole reported that Kentucky be so admitted, and on July 3, the full Congress took up the question of Kentucky statehood. Unfortunately, one day earlier, Congress had learned of New Hampshire's all-important ninth ratification of the proposed Constitution, thus establishing it as the new framework of governance for the United States. In light of this development, Congress thought that it would be "unadvisable" to admit Kentucky into the Union, as it could do so "under the Articles of Confederation" only, but not "under the Constitution"

Kentucky's final push for statehood, now under the Federal Constitution, officially began with a convention, again held at Danville, in April 1792. There delegates drafted Kentucky's first Constitution and submitted it to the United States Congress. On June 1, 1792, Kentucky was admitted into the Union as the fifteenth state.

From Wikipedia: Kentucky History

-----------------

"Somerset (KY) was first settled in 1798 by Thomas Hansford and received its name from Somerset County, New Jersey, where some of the settlers once lived. Somerset became the county seat of Pulaski County in 1802 and was incorporated as a city in 1887. ...Somerset is also near Cumberland Falls and the Big South Fork National River and Recreation Area; its tourism industries are, in part, due to its scenic and varied landscape. 

Source: Wikipedia

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Waterfall and creek possibly on Thomas Hansford early land

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A significant incident is recorded that places Rev. Thomas Hansford in the early county of Pulaski Kentucky, when the second Kentucky governor James Garrard, Esq. took the oath of his office.

"The courts of Quarter Sessions for said county shall be held on the fourth Tuesday in the months July, October, January, and March in every year, and the court of said county shall be held on the fourth Tuesday in every month in which the courts of Quarter Sessions are not hereby directed to be held.

"The justices to be named in the commission of the peace for said county of Pulaski, shall meet at the house of Thomas Hansford upon the first court day after the said division shall take place; and having taken the oath prescribed by law, and a sheriff begin (being) legally qualified to act, shall then proceed to fix upon a place to hold courts in said county, in such place as shall, deemed the most central and convenient to the people, and then after the county court shall proceed to erect the public buildings at such place; and until such buildings are completed the court of Quarter Sessions and county court may adjourn to such place or places as they may severally think proper.''

"The first record of this county court, according to Pulaski court record. was:

" 'At the house of Thomas Hansford, in the county of Pulaski on Tuesday, the 25th of June, 1799, a commission of the peace from his excellency James Garrard, Esquire, governor of the commonwealth aforesaid, where upon the said Samuel Gilmore, Esq., took the oath of office and the oath to support the constitution of the United States, who, then afterward administered the said oath to the other justices.'

From   http://kykinfolk.com/pulaski/History2.htm
-------------------

And...

Thomas Hansford ... was born in Virginia, near Abington. He was married to Miss Margaret Beatty, and they immigrated to Lincoln County, Ky., when it was a wilderness. They reared a family of ten children, of whom the only survivors, Margaret (Stevenson) and Lucinda (Stevenson), are living in Harrodsburg. 

Thomas Hansford was a farmer and a minister of the Baptist Church the early part of his life. He and his wife died and are buried in Lincoln County. The Hanford family are purely of English origin and there is but the one family in Kentucky. 

From: #10524: Kentucky Genealogy and Biography Volume V, Battle-Perrin-Kniffin, Mercer Co. NO DATE GIVEN FOR PUBLICATION


------------------

Find-a-Grave describes his life in this way:

THOMAS HANSFORD, the first pastor of the sinking Creek Baptist church, was an early settler in Pulaski county.

HANSFORD STATION --

Thomas Hansford, a Baptist preacher, built his station in the fall of 1792, half way between Fort's and Troutman's, about where a Mr. McIlvain lived when Shane interviewed Wade. After the sack of Morgan's Hansford stockaded his place but soon evacuated it and moved to Clark and never returned. However, his station was settled again in the fall.

He went into the constitution of Flat Lick church the 4th Saturday in January, 1799. On the 8th of June of the same year he went into the constitution of Sinking Creek, and became its pastor. After remaining in this position a number of years, he moved to Wayne county, and became pastor of the church of Monticello. In his old age he imagined himself slighted and neglected by some of the younger brethren in this church. Earnest efforts were made to remove his grievances, but all in vain. He still insisted that he was illy treated, and, as a dernier resort to obtain satisfaction, joined the Campbellites. He was a plain, illiterate old preacher of excellent character. Among the early settlers of Pulaski and the southern part of Lincoln county he was held in high esteem, and accomplished much good in laying the foundation of the early churches of that region. Under his preaching, the famous Jeremiah Vardeman was reclaimed from his backsliding, and brought into the ministry. He was the first moderator of Cumberland River Association, and filled that position several years at a later period.

Source: Melanie Clare and http://baptisthistoryhomepage.com/spencer.ky.bap.v1.chp23.html

-------------------

Margaret and Rev. Thomas Hansford had 9 children. They all lived long enough to marry, and most of them had children. 

Margaret and Rev. Thomas share the same headstone over their graves. They are buried in Crab Orchard Cemetery, Lincoln County, Ky.

There is a microfilm record of a Thomas Hansford serving in the War of 1812. It could have been his son...since Rev. Thomas would have been 54 in 1812. His son Thomas would have been 28.

Name

Thomas Hansford

Company

STAPLETON CRUTCHFIELD'S DETACHMENT, VIRGINIA MILITIA.

Rank - Induction

PRIVATE

Rank - Discharge

PRIVATE

Roll Box

91

Microfilm Publication

M602

Nancy Hansford Williams mystery part 3

Oh look!  There's another 1860 census for Richard Williams, (66) including his wife Nancy, (listed as 44?) taken on August 10, 1860, in Township 65, Gentry County, Missouri.  And now there are children named Ellen (16) Theodore (13) and Jacob (5).

So is this another family with Richard and another younger Nancy and young children, since it's in another county? Or would it be possible that Richard started another family with a younger wife? We always speculate that some of our "black-sheep" ancestors might have done such. But there's no proof. And I think a farmer would hardly be able to do such a thing!

I am also begining to wonder if another Richard Williams might have been around the same age...who might have been a cousin perhaps? This ancestry business is not for those with a linear mind, as there are millions of possibilities.

And I now have to look at all the sons of the sons, to find who Jas. W. and John C. Williams were who administered Nancy Williams' estate in the Probate dated May of 1860...before she was on at least one census report in August! Unfortunately the grandsons I find, were all around 10 years old in 1860.

Incidentally, her spinster daughter, Cassie might have had some kind of disability, because when she died in Kentucky in 1880, the record (hand written including the cause of death) indicates they didn't know where either of her parents was born) She is listed as having been in Trigg County, KY for 40 years, but having no known physician.  Perhaps she was staying with another cousin.

Nanna Nancy Williams mystery Part 2

And then we reach the year 1860. And at least 2 documents cause some problems...

The mystery around "Nanna" Nancy Handsford Williams has to do with the census and probate records in 1860. I started reading the entries on the original records (thank heaven they are microfilmed) and found Nancy's name is entered in Census in August 1860, after her death in April 1860 and probate records in May 1860.

Nancy Hansford Williams is listed as 65 years of age, with her daughter Cassie at 40 years. Nancy has a value of $1000 of real estate, and $1000 of personal estate.  That is quite a lot for that time.  

She and her daughter are living with a farmer named Christopher Milling (25) and wife Rose A Milling (26).  I thought at first, maybe this is Roseanna Williams, Nancy's daughter. But Roseanna had married George Washington Herd in 1852, and they were living in Arkansas in 1860 when the census was taken. So we don't know the relationship to the Millings yet. There is no mention of a Richard Williams, and various Ancestry trees say he died in 1860, but I haven't found any records of that.

Nancy and daughter Cassie lived with the Millings, who also have children, Richard (4) and Euphamia (2). This census was taken on Aug 8, 1860 in MiddleTown, Prarie Township, Montgomery county, Missouri. 

Then we find the bond posted for probate of Nancy William's estate. On the left page, 2 men named Williams give $2000 surety that they will be executors of her estate. They are Jas. W. Williams and Jno. C. Williams, as primary administrators, with H. B. McFarland and Thos. G. Buchannan as secondary.  This document is dated May 14, 1860 and entered into court documents in Lincoln County, Missouri.

It is also given that Nancy died April 26, 1860, according to Ancestry's record known as US Federal Census Mortality Schedues Index, 1850-1880, which says she died at 70 years of age in 1860 of "Old Age" and the list is numbered "41_717" in Macon County, MO. (note, recorded in different county.)

Well, how did she get recorded as obviously already dead, then get listed on a census 3 months later?  Perhaps the farmer family had been housing her and daughter Cassie. And then sons James and John show up to do the accounting in May.  Wait, let's make sure James and John are sons. 

No they aren't sons.  Her son John Williams had died in 1855, and she didn't have a son James.  So maybe they are grandsons? Or brothers of her late husband? At this time I have no records of Richard F. Williams death or even his siblings.

And a bonus to make another mystery...

A mystery about Nanna Nancy part 1

Nancy HANSFORD WILLIAMS - a mystery

1796–1860

BIRTH ABT. 1796 • Kentucky, DEATH APR 1860 • Montgomery, Missouri

My great times three grandmother...wife of Richard Frederick Williams...on my mother's family tree. (they were grandparents of my great grandmother Annie Williams Webb from yesterday's post.) Nanna Nancy Williams was one of 9 or 10 children born to Rev. Thomas Hansford and his wife, Margaret Beattie Hansford. Her parents moved from Virginia to Kentucky sometime between 1790-91, after their first son was born. She and all the rest of her siblings were born in Kentucky.

Her sister, Mary Polly Hansford married Robert Gilmore, who had an interesting story. (I'll shared their story yesterday)

There are some great stories about her father, Rev. Thomas Hansford. I thought I'd done his life as a post, but am unable to find it today.  He's a really interesting gggg grandfather!  It is on my list to do soon!

The first time her name was written in records is the Census of 1850.  While she was enumerated in 1840 with her husband, Richard F. Williams, it is the 1850 listing where we see children's names and ages as well. But here's the 1840 one first.

1840 Census has Richard Williams household of 12 individuals. One of his daughter's doesn't seem to be counted (Mary, age 17) and she might have been acting as servant in someone else's household.  I note the next door neighbor was named Mannen, and I think they may have shared households or their daughters might have helped out in the others. (Look at table at bottom to see my breakdown of children by ages and names.)

  

By 1850 the household is smaller, and next farm over belongs to their son, William T. Williams and his wife Dorcas (my GG grandparents.)  The Richard and Nancy Williams household gives ages and names for the first time on a census.  

So we see that Richard Williams is 58 while wife Nancy is 54. Daughter Cassandra is 23 and Roseanna is 15, John is 17 and Uphama is 12. Harriet Mannen (22) lives with them with her 1 year old daughter Margaret Mannen.  Since Harriet doesn't seem to have a husband, that is possibly the reason she is not living with her own family, and I don't have any answers for that possibility.

Asa Mannen's family is still listed nearby, and a Sarah Williams (35) lives with them and her son Alexander (13).  Richard and Nancy William's daughter Sarah would have been around 33 at that time, based on the 1840 census. But there had been no grandson Alexander on the 1840 listing as far as my count goes.

1840 Census Data:

with my guesses based on children's birth dates

Name

Richard Williams

Home in 1840 (City, County, State)

Prairie, Montgomery, Missouri

Free White Persons - Males - 5 thru 9

1 John D. b. 1833 (age 7)

Free White Persons - Males - 10 thru 14

1 -William T. b. 1824 (age 16?)

Free White Persons - Males - 20 thru 29

1 - Liberty b. 1817 (age 23)

Free White Persons - Males - 40 thru 49

1 Richard b.1792 (age 38)

Free White Persons - Females - Under 5

1 Euphema b. 1939

Free White Persons - Females - 5 thru 9

1 Rosanna b. 1835

Free White Persons - Females - 10 thru 14

2, Martha b. 1830, Margaret Cassandra (Cassie) b. 1828

Free White Persons - Females - 15 thru 19

2, Harriet Frances Hattie b.1827, Clara A. b. 1827

Free White Persons - Females - 30 thru 39

1 Sarah b. 1817 (age 23?) 

Free White Persons - Females - 40 thru 49

1 Nancy

Persons Employed in Agriculture

3 (Richard, Liberty, Wiliam)

Free White Persons - Under 20

8

Free White Persons - 20 thru 49

4

Total Free White Persons

12

Missing - Mary Jane b. 1823 (age 17) maybe she was being servant in another household?  And if Sarah had a son, Alexander, who shows in the 1860 census, he would have been 3.

I'll have the conundrum to share with you tomorrow...