Monday, October 4, 2010

Mrs. Nimrod Thacker Part VI *** Genealogy By the Numbers - Conclusions

In the pass week, I’ve looked at a number of different documents trying to find an answer to the question - Who was Mrs. Nimrod Thacker?

I started with the work of other researchers, and tested their conclusions with the available evidence.

Below are my own conclusions.

Month of Birth:
January
Supporting documentation
1900 census for Frances Thacker
Death Record of Frances Thacker

February (I reject)
(No supporting documentation)

Year of Birth
1822 or 1823 (Too Close to Call)

1822
(Supporting documentation)
1. Death Record of Frances Thacker
2. 1870 and 1900 census for Frances Thacker

1823
(Supporting documentation)
1. 1850, 1860 and 1880 census for Frances Thacker

1821 (which I reject)
(Supporting documentation)
1. Frances J. Thacker’s widow pension affidavit given in December 1893 which listed her age as 72.

State of Birth

Virginia
(Supporting documentation)
1. 1850 and 1860 census for Frances Thacker
(However, this doesn’t preclude West Virginia)
2. 1870, 1880, and 1900 census for Frances Thacker
3. 1880 census for Clarinda Marcum, David Thacker, Nicholas Thacker, Mary Francis Thacker, Catherine Thacker, Hiram Thacker, Louisa Garrett. (Census Question – Birthplace of Mother)
4. 1900 census for Martha Thacker, David Thacker, Sara Jane Thacker, Nicholas Thacker, Catherine Thacker and Hiram Thacker (Census Question – Birthplace of Mother.)
5. 1910 census for Clarinda Marcum, Sara Jane Thacker, Catherine Thacker and Hiram Thacker. (Census Question – Birthplace of Mother.)
6. 1920 census for David Thacker, Nicholas Thacker, Catherine Thacker and Hiram Thacker. (Census Question – Birthplace of Mother)
7. 1930 census for Nicholas Thacker and Catherine Thacker. (Census Question – Birthplace of Mother.)
8. Death Record of Frances J. Thacker
9. Death Record of David Thacker.

West Virginia hypothesis (which I reject)
(Supporting documentation)
1. 1910 Census record for David Thacker and Nicholas Thacker (who listed father, Nimrod Thacker’s place of birth as West Virginia also. We know that Nimrod himself listed his place of birth as Louisa County, Virginia.
2. Death record of Sarah Jane Thacker which listed mother’s place of birth as “Old Virginia.”

Spelling of Frances/Francis

Because Frances could neither read nor write, either spelling could be considered correct. However, most people use the “es” to indicate female and “is” to indicate male, so I am using the “es” spelling.

Full Maiden Name

First Name

Frances
(Supporting documentation)
1. Census records 1850, 1860, 1870, 1880 and 1900 for Frances Thacker.
2. Obituary of daughter Louisa Garrett.
3. Death Record for Frances J. Thacker
4. Death Record of children, Sarah Jane Thacker, David Thacker and Louisa Thacker. (Informants were, Hannah Thacker, Hiram Thacker and Charles Garrett)
5. Application for Administration for Frances J. Thacker for estate of Nimrod N. Thacker.
6. Widow’s pension file for Frances J. Thacker, widow of Nimrod N. Thacker
7. Marriage Record of Frances J. Thacker and Nimrod N. Thacker (This is the only primary source available for Frances’s maiden name.)

Mary (which I reject)
(Supporting documentation)
1. Death record of son, Nicholas Thacker (Informant was Frank Thacker)

Middle name or Initial

J
(Supporting documentation)
1. Census record of 1860 and 1900 for Frances Thacker
2. Death record of Frances J. Thacker
3. Application for Administration for Frances J. Thacker for estate of Nimrod N. Thacker.
4. Widow’s pension file for Frances J. Thacker, widow of Nimrod N. Thacker
5. Marriage Record of Frances J. Thacker and Nimrod N. Thacker

Frances (which I reject) – no supporting documentation

Mary (which I reject) – no supporting documentation

Maiden name

Thacker
(Supporting documentation)
1. Marriage record of Frances J. Thacker and Nimrod N. Thacker
2. Death record of son, David Thacker (informant son, Hiram N. Thacker), which gives mother’s name as Frances Thacker.
3. Death record of daughter, Louisa Ellen Garrett (informant grandson, Charles Garrett), which gives mother’s name as Frances Thacker.
4. Widow’s pension file for Frances J. Thacker, widow of Nimrod N. Thacker – affidavit of Ivory Thacker (also to lesser extent affidavits of Cassmir Hawk, Finley Hartley, and William Burk,) which claims Frances was not previously married.
5. Death Record of Grandson Frank Thacker (informant, great grandson, Lloyd Thacker) which gives Frank’s mother as Mary Groves (Grover?)

Grover (which I reject)
Supporting documentation
1. Death record of son, Nicholas Thacker (informant grandson, Frank Thacker,) which gives mother’s name as Mary Grover.


Of course, it is always possible that new documentation will become available that will not support these conclusions. Then, as we did this time, we would look at the evidence, analyze the source, analyze the information, and decide how this new information changes the previous conclusions.

In Genealogy, we have to be willing to look at the evidence before us with a clear and unbiased eye. No matter how much we may be tempted, we shouldn’t try pounding square pegs into round holes, making our evidence conform to a preconceived conclusion.

Not if we care about the truth. Not if we want to get the story right.

Saturday, October 2, 2010

Mrs. Nimrod Thacker Part V **** Genealogy By the Numbers - Miscellaneous Records

When Nimrod Thacker died in 1893 he owned land. Whether a man has a will or not, land means there is something of value to be divided from his estate. Hiram Thacker made application of letters of appointment on behalf of his mother. It reads “The undersigned, whose Post Office address is Hawks, Ohio asks that the widow, Francis J. Thacker be appointed Administrator of the estate of said decedent.”

Notice once again that Frances is referred to as Francis J. not Mary Frances, or Frances Mary on this legal document. If she is really Mary Frances (or Frances Mary) wouldn’t she have been referred to as Mary Frances Thacker?

The next logical question is how did the marriage certificate read? Below is the copy of the marriage record found in Jackson County, Ohio.




As you can see on June 6, 1840 Nimrod N. Thacker and Frances Thacker applied for a marriage license and on July 23, 1840 Ellery Bascom certifies that he has wed Nimrod N. Thacker and Frances J. Thacker.

None of this is new information. However, notice once again no “Mary” appears on the document but she is clearly listed as Frances J. Thacker.

Several of us have speculated that Frances may have been previously married and that is why her last name appears as Thacker not Grover. If you believe that her year of birth was either 1822 or 1823 as the census and death records would indicate, then she would have been either 17 or 18 at the time of her marriage to Nimrod. It is still possible that she could have been married previously, but the time frame is certainly diminished.

When Frances applied for a widow’s pension after the death of her husband it required her to prove that she was indeed the widow of Nimrod Thacker. This necessitated several affidavits from people who could claim to have known both Frances and Nimrod.

Though Frances made an affidavit of her own (December 9, 1893 and stated her age as 72) it did not touch on the issues that we are trying to resolve, with the exceptions of stating her age and that instead of signing her name to the deposition, she put an “X” confirming that Frances could not write. However, there were three other depositions that were made that same year that are of interest.

On October 13, 1893 Cassmir Hawk gave a deposition in the matter of Frances J. Thacker, widow of Nimrod Thacker. Among the statements he made:

That she has been confined to her bed for five years past, and unable to perform any labor. Has not been married since her husbans (sic)death… Neither she or husban (sic) previously married … have known Numrad (sic) and wife for thirty years.

Clearly if Cassmir knew the Thackers for thirty years, he was not around to witness their wedding and he is merely going on hearsay. Still it is interesting to note that at the time of Nimrod’s death, it was thought that neither of them had been previously married.

Finley Hartley who also made his deposition on October 13, 1893 made similar remarks stating that Frances had been confined to a bed for five years and was unable to do work. That neither she nor Nimrod had married previously, and that he had known the couple for about “thirty years or more.”

The most interesting of the depositions given by William Burk and Ivory Thacker from oral statements. The written deposition is written as if both men gave the same statement, which reads:

Some 60 years ago Frances J. Thacker’s father came to this county when she was a young woman and settled near where I reside. Also Nimrod N. Thacker and by being intimately acquainted with both know that they were not previously married to (sic) their marriage to each other.

This affidavit was taken November 11, 1893 and the oral statements were made in the presence of O.F. Hawk who was the notary public. What’s interesting about this is that it clearly states that Frances was not married before her marriage to Nimrod and that she and her family came to the Wilkesville area sometime in the mid 1830’s.

So, what does all this research mean? Tomorrow we look at the conclusions based on our research.

References:

1. Application of Letters of Appointment, Vinton County Probate Court, Estate of Nimrod N Thacker, from the Private Files of Judy Oiler, emailed to Teresa Snyder 28 Sept 2008.

2. Jackson County, Ohio, Marriage Register, Probate Court, Volume 1, Page 116, Nimrod N. Thacker and Frances J. Thacker, 1840, Jackson County Probate Office, accessed and photographed by Teresa Snyder, 20 May 2008.

3. Frances J. Thacker, widow’s pension no. 582204, certificate no. 404166, service of Nimrod N. Thacker (Pvt., Co. D, 194th Ohio Inf., Civil War), Case Files of Approved Pension Applications, 1863-1934, Civil War and Later pension files, Dept of Veteran Affairs National Archives, Washington, D.C.

Friday, October 1, 2010

Mrs. Nimrod Thacker Part IV *** Genealogy By the Numbers - Death Records

A couple of years ago I wrote a blog post on my Desktop Genealogist Unplugged Blog entitled, “Death Certificates – Sources of Primary & Secondary Information.” I’d refer you to it, but that sounds a little too much like homework. Instead, I’ll summarize what I’m sure you’ll agree was undoubtedly a brilliant post. (Okay, you can’t kill a girl for fantasizing.)

The gist of the post was that while a Death Certificate is a primary source of information for some of the details found on a typical death record, it is only a secondary source for other items. It is a secondary source when (and how often do I get chance to quote myself?) “the information given was many months, years or decades after the event. So a death certificate is a secondary source for the following:

1. Date of Birth
2. Age
3. Place of Birth
4. Father's name
5. Father's place of birth
6. Mother's name
7. Mother's place of birth

Secondary information is only as reliable as the person giving the information.


Let me repeat that last sentence. Secondary information is only as reliable as the person giving the information. This means it is important to look at who the informant is on a death certificate, because we are taking their word that the above seven pieces of information are accurate - more about that in a moment.

Prior to December 20, 1908 death records in Ohio were kept at the local level. The information was recorded in ledger like books which were located at the county probate office. Rarely did they include the name of the individual’s father or mother.

Since Frances died March 27, 1901 her death was recorded in one of these ledgers.




Frances Death Record Page 1
Frances Death Record Page 2 (See X)

In summary, this is what the ledger entry tells us: Francis J. Thacker, a white widow, died of consumption on March 27, 1901 at the age of 79 years, 2 months and 12 days. She was born in Virginia and died in Hawks, Ohio, where she was a resident. Her occupation was listed as housekeeper. The death was reported by C. Hartley. The age listed would indicate a birthday of January 15, 1822.

On December 20, 1908 a law went into effect that required both births and deaths to be recorded at the state level. This was the birth of the present day death certificate.

The lovely folks at FamilySearch.org have put the images of Ohio Death Certificates dated December 20, 1908 through 1953 online. Not only have they made the images available for viewing but they have also created a searchable database that speeds the process up considerably and also allows for some creative searching. (FamilySearch - and their legion of volunteer indexers - take a well deserved bow.)

Thanks to their efforts, I was able to locate the death records for six of the twelve known children of Nimrod and Frances. Those six are Nicholas, David, Sarah Jane, Catherine, Hiram and Louisa. Algerine, Mary Frances, Ambrose and Hannah Nancy are all known to have died prior to 1900. There is nothing known of the deaths of the remaining two children, Martha and my own ggg grandmother Clarinda.

Below I’ve created a jpeg file of a spreadsheet which I’ve found to be handy way of comparing information on the death certificates.


State of Birth

Let’s ease on into the subject by first taking a look at where the informants thought that the mother of the deceased was born. Three said that the information was not known (or unknown) to them. The three that gave this information were Bertha McKenzie, the daughter of Hiram, Frank Thacker, the son of Nicholas, and Mrs. Elmer (Nina) Weese, daughter of Catherine. Charles Garrett, the son of Louisa, gave the birthplace of Frances as Ohio (which coincides with the information found in Louisa’s obituary.)

Hannah Thacker, Sara Jane’s daughter, said that Frances was born in “Old Virginia.” Why did she stipulate Old Virginia as opposed to Virginia? Hannah’s answer may have led to the speculation that Frances was born in the portion of Virginia that would later become West Virginia. This along with the responses the census taker listed for both Nicholas and David in the 1910 is probably the reason some researchers list West Virginia for Frances’s place of birth.

The one lone informant who listed Virginia as the place of birth was also the only informant who was a son to Frances, the rest of the informants being grandchildren. Hiram was the informant in the death of his brother David in 1924. Do we credit a child’s knowledge of their parent over a grandchild’s? Not necessarily, but the fact that Hiram’s information coincides with 4 of the 5 censuses where Frances was included and an additional 23 censuses when her children answered “Virginia,” to the question of where she was born, does give some credence to Hiram’s answers.

That becomes even more important when we look at the issue of name.

First Name

Below is the death certificate of Nicholas Thacker in which his son Frank acted as informant. He lists the mother of Nicholas as Mary Grover. Notice he does not mention or allude to in anyway that her name was Frances.


Last Name

Notice also, that not only is he the only individual to list her name as Mary, but also the only one to give the last name of Grover.

Hiram lists his mother’s name as Francis Thacker when he is the informant for the death record of his brother, David. Charles Garrett, the grandson of Frances, also lists his mother Louisa’s mother as Francis Thacker.

The questions is, of course, did Hiram and Charles mean that Frances’s maiden name is Thacker or are they admitting that they did not know the maiden name of Frances and so used her married name?



There is one last death certificate that we should take a look at, before we leave the subject, and that is the Death Certificate of Frank Thacker, the son of Nicholas. The informant was Frank’s son, Lloyd Thacker. Look closely at the name Lloyd gives as the mother of Frank – Mary Groves.




In 1871, Nicholas Thacker married Mary Murray. He and Mary had four children – Frank, Ambrose, George and Herman. It is unclear whether Mary died or if they divorced but in 1883 Nicholas married a second time to Mary Freeman. Is it possible that Mary Groves or Grover has more to do with Nicholas’s first wife and not his mother?

In part five, we will take a look at an application for administrative appointment, a marriage record and a pension file, to see what information they have to offer.


References:

1. “Death Certificates – Sources of Primary & Secondary Information,” Terry Snyder Weblog: Desktop Genealogist Unplugged, 31 Oct 2007. http://desktopgenealogistunplugged.blogspot.com/2008/03/death-certificates-sources-of-primary.html.w: 2010.

2. Sperry, Ken. Genealogical Research in Ohio, Baltimore: Genealogical Publishing Company, 2003.

3. Vinton County, Ohio, Death Record Register, Probate Court, Vinton County Probate Office, Francis J. Thacker, accessed and photographed by Teresa Snyder, 21 May 2008.

4. Certificate of Death: Sarah Jane Thacker, Filed 26 June 1917. State of Ohio, Dept of Health, Bureau of Vital Statistics, Reg. Dist. 5778, File no. 43333, digital images from FamilySearch Internet (
www.familysearch.org: 23 Jan 2008.)

5. Certificate of Death: David Thacker, Filed 4 June 1924. State of Ohio, Dept of Health, Bureau of Vital Statistics, Reg. Dist. 1311, File no. 37162, digital images from FamilySearch Internet (
www.familysearch.org: 23 Jan 2008.)

6. Certificate of Death: Hiram N. Thacker, Filed 12 Oct 1939, State of Ohio, Dept of Health, Bureau of Vital Statistics, Reg. Dist. 392, File no. 59506, digital images from FamilySearch Internet (
www.familysearch.org: 19 July 2008.)

7. Certificate of Death: Nicholas Thacker, Filed 6 Jan 1941, State of Ohio, Dept of Health, Bureau of Vital Statistics, Reg. Dist. 1311, File no. 7236, digital images from FamilySearch Internet (
www.familysearch.org: 23 Jan 2008.)

8. Certificate of Death: Catherine Thacker, Filed 28 Nov 1945, State of Ohio, Dept of Health, Bureau of Vital Statistics, Reg. Dist. 392, File no. 65706, digital images from FamilySearch Internet (
www.familysearch.org: 24 Jan 2008.)

9. Certificate of Death: Louisa Ellen Garrett, Filed 11 Feb 1948, State of Ohio, Dept of Health, Bureau of Vital Statistics, Reg. Dist. 1160, File no. 12473, digital images from FamilySearch Internet (
www.familysearch.org: 23 Jan 2008.)

10. Certificate of Death: Franklin Thacker, Filed 8 Jan 1949, State of Ohio, Dept of Health, Bureau of Vital Statistics, Reg. Dist. 1311, File no. 80400, digital images from FamilySearch Internet (
www.familysearch.org: 23 Jan 2008.)




FEEDJIT Live Traffic Feed