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Events of importance are at Living in Black Mountain NC
My own life and my opinions are shared at When I was 69.

REMEMBER: In North America, the month of September 1752 was exceptionally short, skipping 11 days, when the Gregorian Calendar was adapted from the old Julian one, which didn't have leap year days.

Friday, January 24, 2020

Trying to unravel an ancestor...

Spencer Rogers...who was he or they really?
It's just that there were 2 big families (different wives, different towns, different children)

It's not that his name was Jack Smith or anything either.

And the different families were 10 years apart on census records...but the children were too old to have been his (supposed) wife's.

They were Rogers - maybe.  And they were my cousins. So I thought maybe I could straighten their history out.

And hoorah for checking out every possible census of those wives.  There were two men named Spencer Rogers. One was my uncle Spencer Clack Rogers. The other was Spencer Joseph Rogers, who as of now doesn't seem related to me.

There are still many entwined records to clear out. I've worked on this off and on for over a month. And I'm just going to post what I have so far...and add another post as I learn more. (Don't hold your breath.)

This all started by my reading a letter my great great grandfather Micajah Clack Rogers wrote to his youngest brother Spencer Clack Rogers, who apparently was a printer.  Grandpa Micajah asked about his only living offspring, William Rogers...in the 1867 letter, and spoke at length about the recent Civil War.  Since Uncle Spencer lived in Tennessee, and Granpa Micajah in Texas, there were questions as to what Spencer's roll had been during the war.  His wife and children weren't mentioned.I've not found a mention of William Rogers on either of the Spencer Rogers' lists of census.

I have no idea when the last time Micajah might have heard from his brother. There's no address on the letter, except where Micajah lived in Huntsville, TX. Micajah does mention Tennessee, but both the Spencer Rogers lived in that state.

The one in Chatanooga, Hamillton County, is probably not my Uncle Spencer.

So I'll try to focus on the one who was most likely my Uncle.

Spencer Clack Rogers, lived most likely in Nashville, Davidson County, Tennessee.   I'll be back again soon to give whatever facts I might be able to discern.

M.C. Rogers
 Micajah Clack Rogers (1795-1873)

Micajah Clack Rogers was the oldest of children of Rev. Elijah Rogers and Catharine Clack Rogers of Sevierville TN.  Spencer Clack Rogers was the youngest. This is the information given in the Rogers Family Bible and transcribed in the 1950s by my grandfather George Rogers.

Catharine Clack Rogers was a daughter of Lt. Spencer Sterling Clack and Mary Beavers (deBeauvillers/Beiber) Clack.