It's All Relative

Josephs and Georges Abound

2009-01-22T18:41:00.005-06:00

I found this link that brings us to yet another Joseph Vaughn and another George Vaughn. Or, is this George Vaughn the same George Vaughn, the George who is the father of Joseph Vaughn of Pope County, IL?

Could be. Or, maybe not.

I'm betting, however, that there is a connection here somewhere. This is exactly what I mean when it comes to using the same name over and over and over again. It gets really tough to keep track of which one is which.

The Joseph Vaughn who is father to my George, and whose will I obtained a copy of, was listed as being born in Kentucky in the 1860 Pope County census. Not that the census can be trusted, but every once in a while they managed to get it right! (It says his wife was also born in Kentucky; however, in 1850, it says that Joseph was born in Illinois and his wife was born in Tennessee!)

Seems too coincidental to me, especially when you get a look at a map like this, pre-1800, which shows the territories before all the state lines got worked out.

This really makes me wonder. Especially when there's a George Vaughn, who may or may not be Joseph's father, who married in Christian County in 1798.

And ... according to at least one census AND his Civil War muster, my George Vaughn was born in Sumner County, Tenn. Maps like this make details like that make a whole lot more sense.

With Sincerest Apologies

2009-01-15T12:13:00.002-06:00

to Gary Burgess and Mary. You were both kind enough to come here and to leave me comments providing information and I hadn't even noticed it -- until now. (Somehow, the setting that sends email when comments were left was NOT active. I've rectified that.)

I'm going to go through the information you've so graciously shared and I'm sure I'll be posting again soon.

This blog needs some serious love after not posting to it since last spring! I haven't really had a lot of time to delve back into my genealogy though so there hasn't been much new info to post about.

Thanks to both of you, at least there's been some activity again! One of my goals in 2009 is to post on this blog AT LEAST once a month. So far, so good ...

Back on the HOGG Trail

2008-05-12T20:19:00.002-05:00

I've had this information for almost four years, but now that I have the blog, it seems an appropriate time to drag it out. (Especially considering that there are new cousins who might find this of interest.) It also seems appropriate now that I've stumbled upon new information on John HOGG. I already had some of this, but this file has a lot more detail. So, that prompted me to locate his will, something I found fairly early on in the Hogg quest. This is from a text version I found online. Sadly, that link no is no longer live.

Will of John HOGG, Ninety Six District, South Carolina. Probated Nov. 8, 1782, Abbeville Courthouse, Abbeville, S.C.

In the name of God, Amen, the fourteenth day of July in the year of our Lord God 1781, I John HOGG, of the state of South Carolina and the district of Ninety-Six, farmer, being very sick and weak in bodey (sp) but of perfect mind and memory, thanks be given unto God, therefore calling unto mind the mortality of my body and knowing that it is appointed for all men once to die, do make and ordain this my Last Will and Testament, that is to say, principally and first of all, I give and recommend my soul into the hands of God that gave it and for my bodey I recommend it to the earth to be buried in a Christian like and decent like manner at the ? of my executors, nothing doubting but at the General Resurrection I shall receive the same again by the mighty power of God, and as touching such worldly estate wherewith it hath pleased God to bless me in this life I give, devise, and dispose of the same.

Imprimis, I give and bequeath unto my well beloved son Lewis HOGG one tract of land lying on the so. Side of Enoree River containing one hundred fifty acres formerly the property of John CLARK.

Item I give and bequeath unto my two sons, Thomas HOGG and Stephen HOGG the plantation or tract of land that I now live on to be equally divided between them when they come of age, it containing two hundred acres.

Item I give and bequeath unto my son John HOGG one hundred acres lying on the ? side of the Enoree River formerly the property of Capt. Charles KING; to my son Joseph HOGG, one eighty gallon still, also one tract of land that I bought of Joseph READING if it can be procured.

Item I give unto my son Zachariah HOGG and grandson Francis HOGG the tract of land that my son James HOGG formerly lived on containing 150 acres to be equally divided between them.

Item I will and require that my wife Sarah HOGG shall live on the plantation that I now live on during her life or pleasure ans for my household furniture and stock to be kept together for the support of the family and children and each child to have an equal part as they come to age.

Lastly I constitute and appoint my son Lewis HOGG and Sarah HOGG my wife my only and sole executors of this my last will and testament requiring them to pay all just debts and to receive all debts due to me. And I do hereby utterly disallow, revoke, and disannull (sp) all and every other former testaments wills and legacies requests and executed by me in aney (sp) ways before this time named. Willed and bequeathed ratifying and confirming this and none other to be my last will and testament. In witness whereof I have hereunto set my hand and seal the day and year above written.

John (his mark)HOGG
Signed sealed and delivered in the presence of us
Thomas WAFER
WILLIAM DARBY (his mark)
William SPARKS

I am descended from John's eldest son, James, who was allegedly slain c. 1781 by a marauding Tory
while his wife looked on. John wrote his will in July 1781 at which point James is already dead, so that lends some credence to the story.

Wedding Bells

2008-04-15T22:42:00.007-05:00

I walked to the St. Louis Public Library at lunch today. It was a gorgeous day and it gave me just a bit of time to check out what books they had on Pope County.

Some of the books were early marriage licenses. I already had a wedding date for my great-grandparents, George C. "Cooper" VAUGHN and Hannah HOGG. (3 NOV 1878) But one of the books offered up a bit more information from the marriage license itself. It said they were married at the home of Francis HOGG (Hannah's father). It listed Francis as her father and an unknown THACKER as her mother. (All other records show her as Mary THACKER.)

It listed George's father as George VAUGHN and his mother as unknown CANER. First time I've ever seen that name. Everywhere else, she is known as Elizabeth SKINNER.

But one of the best pieces of information, the witnesses: Asa COLLIER and Elijah CARTER. (Asa HAS to be one of Margaret (VAUGHN) HOGG COLLIER's brood. He is a cousin to the groom as his mother was George VAUGHN's sister.) Elijah was the grandson of Aquilla (STORY) CARTER HOGG, wife of Francis R. HOGG. These two were Hannah's grandparents. Elijah is her what? Half cousin? Her father and Elijah's father were half-brothers. (Aquilla married a John CARTER and had a few kids before marrying Francis in 1816.)

Oddly enough, Elijah is one of the ancestors that newly found cousin Cathy is researching. Do you think the happy couple and their respective cousins would be marveling that almost 130 years later someone - me - is happy at having found them?

Updates: Online and off

2008-04-06T14:44:00.004-05:00

Yesterday's mail brought a death certificate for Mary MICHAEL REDMAN. It confirmed some things and opened up questions for others.

First, she really DID die in 1934 -- at age 88! According to the certificate: She was born Oct. 11, 1846, in Vincennes, Ind., to John MICHAEL and an unknown mother. She was married to Joseph Thomas REDMAN. That cleared up the insanity about whether his name was Joseph or Thomas. (I still can't find them in the census, though, and it's starting to make me nuts!)

On a lark, I kept a link tying Mary and Joseph to another line of folks named KNEPPER. I wasn't sure if this was the RIGHT Mary and Joseph, but the birthdate, father's name, and death place of her father on this newly discovered Web site, together with a few other details seem to be more than circumstantial evidence. Cheryl, on whose site I found the Knepper link, has been kind enough to respond to me already. The direct link to my lineage is through her husband. So, I have already discovered yet another new cousin. How cool is that?!

Still got a lot more to unravel here, but I'm still looking.

Haunted by Another Joseph

2008-04-05T01:36:00.003-05:00

I'm seeking information on Joseph and Mary (MICHAEL) REDMAN. Not sure of birthdate or birthplace of either. An obituary of one of their descendants says that Mary died in 1934. She was probably born in the late 1840s or early 1850s as she had children from the 1860s throught the 1880s.

They had at least five children: Thomas Calvin REDMAN (born c. 1863), John J. REDMAN (born c. 1872), Minnie Ellen REDMAN (born April 1879), Clarence Edward REDMAN (born June 1883), and Alice REDMAN (no date known). The previously mentioned obit says there was at least one more sister and brother (unnamed) who had died prior to 1939.

Minnie, my g-grandmother, married Thomas Henry McKINNEY. (That's her and Tom at their 50th wedding anniversary party in 1949.) She was born in Kansas. They married in Montgomery County, IL, and later settled in Madison County, IL.
Alice married William James CONLON. They had at least one child, a daughter, Vivian.
Clarence married Georgiana ? and they had children including Darlene, Dana, and Darrell. I think Clarence is the baby and he was born in Illinois.
John married Mary ? And they had at least one child, a daughter, Fern, who died in the 1930s or early '40s of cancer. John was born in Indiana.
Thomas married Edith Jordan and they had at least one child, a daughter, Eva. Eva REDMAN married a George STRONG and they were living in St. Louis in the 1940s/50s.
I have pictures of most of these relatives, so if they are someone to you, I'm happy to share.

I've done a lot of work on the McKINNEY line and am just starting to dig into the REDMAN roots. Starting to get very frustrated though as I can't find any of the early census records (1860, 1870, or 1880) on this family anywhere in the U.S. I find most of these kids as adults with families of their own in later censuses. Also, Minnie REDMAN McKINNEY's death certificate lists her father as Joseph REDMAN and mother as Mary MICHAEL. Thomas C. REDMAN's obituary has the same name for mother but lists Thomas REDMAN as his father.

Joseph Vaughn, Pope County, IL

2008-04-04T15:47:00.003-05:00

I recently got a copy of the will of JOSEPH VAUGHN of Pope County, IL. (Golconda area) He died Dec. 18, 1867 and was born c. 1800. His wife, KEZIAH DIARMAN, was named executrix. When she died the following year, WILLIAM W. DIARMAN (either her brother or nephew) took over adminstering Joseph's will. It reads in part:
"It is my will the remainder be divided equal between my three children, to wit, JAMES VAUGHN, MARGARET COLLIER, ASSENETH BRAMBLET, with the exception of $1 to each of grandchildren, heirs of my son GEORGE VAUGHN, and MARY HOGG, my daughter."
I'm familiar with Margaret. Before marrying Thomas Collier, she had been married to LEWIS HOGG. We find her and some of her children living with Joseph and wife Keziah in Pope County in 1860. (Lewis died in 1859.) I'm familiar with George as I believe I descended from him through his son, GEORGE COOPER VAUGHN. I'm familiar with Mary as we find her marrying THOMAS HOGG in the Illinois statewide marriage index, though she is listed as MARY VAUGHAN. (VAUGHNs and HOGGs intermarried all over this family line. The GEORGE COOPER VAUGHN listed above would grow up to marry HANNAH HOGG, a union that helped get me here.)
This daugher Asseneth is a new one, though I found her -- I think -- through two marriages:
SINITH VAUGHN m. FREDERICK SBARGER (also known as SHUFFLEBARGER) on June 15, 1842.
ESSENETH SBARGER m. BENJAMIN B. BRAMLETT on Jan. 25, 1855. (Benjamin Bramlett family is living next door to the VAUGHNs in the 1860 census, though what would appear to be a wife is SUSAN BRAMLET, age 52, MUCH older than a daughter of Joseph should be! Perhaps she married a son with the same name? Don't find a listing for them in Pope though. This has got to be a good assumption.)
And I'm confused about James. Was son George already dead when this will was probated in early 1868? (Son George HAD a son named James. He would have been around 16 when Joseph died. Did Joseph claim James in his son's place?) Within the file Pope County sent me with the will, there are a variety of receipts for payments to GEORGE W. VAUGHN, listed as a guardian of JAMES VAUGHN. WHO is GEORGE W. VAUGHN? What was his relationship to JOSEPH VAUGHN?
And, I'm also trying to figure out where JOSEPH VAUGHN fits in with the JACKSON VAUGHN clan in Pope County -- or if he even does. Would love to hear from anyone who can answer any of these questions or, based on the info I've got here, thinks they may be a relative.

Getting Started

2008-04-02T23:17:00.004-05:00

When I was in eighth grade, I was given an assignment to start a family tree. I'd seen plenty of them and heard some family stories as a kid, but I had never paid a lot of attention to any of it. I only wish now that I had ...

That was more than a few years before the arrival of the Internet and a whole new way to trace your roots. It's been an incredible journey. The last 10 years or so have probably seen the most activity on my part. My mother worked on the BYRNES line through much of the 1980s and 1990s. Not long after 2000, she got interested in her paternal roots and we jointly started checking out the McKINNEY ancestry. It's like a huge puzzle that reveals not just one picture but many.

It also has put me in touch with lots of distant cousins. Among them, there's Rhonda in Texas (KACKLEY), Sarah in Oklahoma (McKINNEY), and very recently Cathy just a few towns away (VAUGHN/HOGG). If I'm really lucky, there will be even more along the way. Who knows -- maybe one of them will be YOU.