Mrs. Nimrod Thacker Part III *** Genealogy By The Numbers - Obituaries

Okay, besides the obvious advantages of being able to look at online images on websites like the Library of Virginia, Ancestry.com and FamilySearch.org, the Internet has made communication between family researchers a snap. Thirty years ago no one could have imagined how quickly information could be exchanged between two family researchers. Type up a short note, attach a file and “boom” you’ve shared a little family history. Ah bliss, thy name is Internet.

With the advent of search engines like Google, suddenly you can find snippets of information that your 4th cousin once removed has posted online. I bet some of you found this post by that very same process. (Welcome, oh 3rd cousin twice removed!)

In fact, by this very same method, I found obituaries for three of Frances Thacker’s children – Nicholas Thacker, Sara Jane Thacker and Catherine Thacker Thacker. I also have a copy of Louisa Thacker Garrett’s obituary. (I will post a transcribed copy below.)

You can find a transcription of Nicholas Thacker’s obituary by checking out Lynn Byler’s, “ANCESTORS OF JOSEPH OGIER JOHNSON AND CAROLINE RACHAEL KRONK,” on Ancestry.com.

She gives the date of the obituary as January 8, 1941 but unfortunately no newspaper is listed. There is no mention of his parents, only the fact that he has three children living, “Frank Thacker, of Wilkesville and Herman, address unknown and one daughter Willidy Williams, Los Vegas, Nevada.” Nicholas himself was living at the home of Hiram Marks near Wilkesville.

Lynn also has the obituary for Sara Jane Thacker, which appeared according to Lynn in the Republican Tribune, July 4, 1917. It gives her parents as Mr. and Mrs. Nicholas Thacker. Interesting to those of researching her siblings but not germane to our current research quest, is the sentence that reads: She also leaves 2 sisters and 3 brothers to mourn their loss, Mrs. Henry Thacker, Chillicothe; Mrs. Charles Garrett of Wheelersburg; David Thacker of Hawk, Nicholas Thacker of Minerton; Hiram Thacker of Portland, Ind., besides a number of relatives and friends to grieve her departure.


Since her sister Martha disappeared after the 1900 census, and her sister Clarinda disappeared after the 1910 census, we can conclude that both of these individuals had died prior to 1917. Again, this is not helpful to this project, but interesting to note.


Penny Brown contributed a number of Thacker obituaries to the OHGen Web Ross County. One of these was for Frances’s daughter Catherine. The most important part of the obituary for our purposes is the sentence which states that she was “the daughter of Mr. and Mrs. Nicholas Thacker.” This obituary appeared in the Chillicothe Gazette on November 19, 1945.

Other obituaries that Penny contributed include one for Catherine’s husband Henry H. Thacker and a very sad obituary notice for their young son, Jesse Thacker, who drowned at the age of 17.

Finally, we have the obituary of Louisa Thacker Garrett which appeared in The Portsmouth Times, Portsmouth, Ohio, Page 10, Column 2, February 5, 1948.

Mrs. Louisa T. Garrett

Mrs. Louisa Thacker Garrett, 86, of Highland Bend, died at 8:20 p.m., Wednesday at Portsmouth General Hospital. She was admitted there five days ago. She had been ill for two months.

Mrs. Garrett, the last of 13 children, was born August 14, 1861, in Vinton Co., a daughter of Nimrod and Frances Thacker. She was the widow of Charles M. Garrett who died in 1942. She was a member of the United Brethren Church.

Mrs. Garrett is survived by daughters, Mrs. Mary Hampton; 2004 Sunrise Avenue, Mrs. Lottie Tipton of Sciotoville; two sons, Charles Garrett of Highland Bend and N. N. Garrett of Columbus, 27 grandchildren and 48 great grandchildren. Four daughters preceded her in death.

Funeral services will be held at 2 p.m. Saturday at Gill funeral home with Rev. M. S. Cunningham officiating. Intermet will be at Memorial Park Cemetery. The body will remain at the funeral home.

From the perspective of our investigation it is interesting to note how her parents are listed as Nimrod and Frances. Her obituary is the only one to call Nicholas, Nimrod, although it should be noted that Louisa named one of her sons, Nimrod, so that may be why the name stuck with whoever was responsible for the obituary.

Also it is interesting to see that Louisa’s obituary states that she was the last of 13 children. Thirteen is also the number that was listed for Frances in the 1900 census. Since I have only identified 12, this could be the source of some future investigation.

The truth is, however, the obituaries have done little to clarify or enhance our current investigation. Obituaries are notorious for being sketchy or containing inaccurate information. Unless the person who died left a copy for their own obituary, it is easy to see why this would be. Most of the time, the information included in the obituary is second hand. Often it is given at a time when an individual might be overwrought or emotional at the death of a loved one, not to mention overwhelmed by all the details that must be seen to at the time of someone’s death.

This is something we might want to consider when, tomorrow, we look at death records.


References:
1. “Obituary of Nicholas Thacker, 8 January 1941,” Ancestry Tree Database, “ANCESTORS OF JOSEPH OGIER JOHNSON AND CAROLINE RACHAEL KRONK,” (http://www.ancestry.com/: accessed September 25, 2010).

2. “Obituary of Sarah Jane Thacker, 4 July 1917,” Ancestry Tree Database, “ANCESTORS OF JOSEPH OGIER JOHNSON AND CAROLINE RACHAEL KRONK,” (http://www.ancestry.com/: accessed September 25, 2010).

3. “Obituary of Catherine Thacker, 19 November 19 1945,” Ross County Obituaries, contributed by Penny Brown, “Ross County OHGenWeb,” (http://www.rootsweb.ancestry.com/~ohross/: accessed September 25, 2010).

4. “Obituary of Mrs. Louisa T. Garrett,” Portsmouth Times, 5 February 1948, p 10, col. 2.

Mrs. Nimrod Thacker Part II ***** Genealogy by the Numbers - Census Records

Before we look at the census records, we should look at some limitations the family historian can encounter when using census records as a source of information.

1. The census is only a snapshot of the individual as of one particular date. From 1850 through 1900, that date was June 1 of the year the census was taken. If the individual married, gave birth, or died a month, a week or a day later that information would not (or perhaps it’s more accurate to say should not) be reflected in the census.

2. The federal census was only taken once every ten years. Family moves, the birth and death of a child, the switching of occupations along with a whole myriad of other changes would have been missed by the census.

3. The knowledge of the person answering the census taker’s questions. Sometimes there were language barriers that created inaccurate information. Sometimes an individual’s memory wasn’t particularly good. Sometimes people lied.

They lied to protect family secrets. They lied because they didn’t know the truth. They lied, because well, sometimes people just lie.

Occasionally (and it’s difficult to say how often this happened), after repeated attempts on the part of the census taker to interview the family, he would ask their neighbors for the information. Imagine your own neighbor answering questions about where your mother and father were born!

4. The information is only as good as the person recording it. The census taker’s job was an important one, and some were more diligent than others. They came to the job with their own prejudices, their own spelling flaws, even their own ability to write legibly! Add to that the fact that they had to be able to read and recopy their own notes accurately, and you can see there was a potential for problems.

(I’ve often wondered if you could compare the local copy with the one kept for the state and the one given to the federal government, how many would be completely identical.)


Okay, now that I’ve made you wonder if there is any value at all to looking at census records; let’s take a look at Mrs. Nimrod Thacker’s listings in the census.

Our subject (because I’m tired of writing Mrs. Nimrod Thacker and we haven’t decided as of yet how to refer to her) is listed in five census returns – the 1850, the 1860, the 1870, the 1880 and the 1900. Only a few fragments of the 1890 census survived the 1921 fire in the basement of Commerce Building in Washington DC and none of those fragments were for Vinton County.

Below is a jpeg copy of an excel spreadsheet I used to record the information of the five censuses.

A couple of extraneous items to note before we take a closer look at the information we are seeking.

Even though we know from military, pension, estate and marriage records that his legal name was Nimrod Thacker, you will note that in each census he is listed as Nicholas Thacker.

Though race wasn’t one of the issues that we are currently looking at, notice that Mrs. Thacker is listed as “mulatto” in the 1850, 1860, 1870 and 1880 census, while in 1900 she is listed as “white.”


The Spelling of Francis/Frances

With the exception of the 1850 census, where there was one column that read, “Person over 20 years of age who cannot read or write” and it was not checked, the rest of the census years seem to indicate that our subject was illiterate (as was her spouse.)

If she could not read or write, how could she know the correct spelling of her name? Therefore, on the question of how to spell the name Frances/Francis correctly, there is no correct spelling. However, since it is common in the United States for the “is” in Francis to refer to a male and the “es” in Frances to refer to a female, I’m changing my records to reflect the “es” spelling.


Name

Next, you will notice that that she is listed as either Frances (Francis) or Frances J. in all five census records. Not once is she referred to as “Mary” or “Frances Mary” or “Mary Frances.” However, I’ve already noted that Nimrod isn’t referred to as Nimrod even once in the census records, so this is not conclusive one way or another. It is something to keep in mind as we look at the other records. One thing is obvious, however, and that is in every day life she was referred to as Frances.

State of Birth

Where was Frances born? Well, if you look at the census, you would conclude that it has to be Virginia, not West Virginia. However, to be fair there was no West Virginia in 1850 and 1860, and it is certainly possible that if Frances was born in what was to become West Virginia, in her own mind she still felt she was a Virginian by birth.

According to a search of the 1870 census, only 7 individuals in the 1870 census of Vinton County said they were born in West Virginia; none of those were in the township of Wilkesville.

In 1880, only 77 individuals claimed West Virginia as their state of birth. Three of those lived in Wilkesville – Joseph J. Cline, Jacson Hayes, and Harriet Wetherholt.

125 people said they were born in West Virginia in the 1900 census of Vinton County. Of those, 43 lived in Wilkesville Township – none had the last name of Thacker.

Beginning in 1880, the census asked for the birthplace of the individual’s mother and father. It seemed prudent to take a look at where each of the children claimed their mother was born. All told, Frances’s children were found in an additional 31 census entries from 1880 until 1930.

Interestingly enough, in each of the 31 entries, whatever state was listed as the birthplace of Nimrod Thacker was also listed as the birthplace of Frances. Twice the state of birth was listed as unknown. In 1900, Clarinda Thacker Marcum’s listing gave her mother’s birthplace as unknown and this was also the case of the1930 listing for Louisa Thacker Garrett.

Four times, Frances’s birth state was listed as Ohio. Three of these belonged to Louise Thacker Garrett’s census listings for the years 1900, 1910 and 1920. Hiram N. Thacker listed his mother’s birthplace as Ohio in the 1930 census.

As for West Virginia, it was listed as the birthplace of Frances twice. Both times were in the 1910 census, once for son David Thacker and once for son Nicholas Thacker. The remaining 23 times the state of birth for Frances was given as Virginia.

It should be noted that in the 1910 census, sons Nicholas and David also listed their father’s place of birth as West Virginia. According to Nimrod’s own statement given on March 6, 1865 at the time of his military enlistment, his place of birth was Louisa County, Virginia.


Birth Month and Year

The only census to ask the question in which month of the year were you born was the 1900 census. The census taker listed the month of January as the month of Frances’s birth, making us lean toward the month of January as the correct month.

In the matter of year, that date is implied in the 1850, 1860, 1870 and 1880 censuses. Since all five censuses were as of June 1st, that helps us pinpoint the year a little easier. According to the 1850, 1860 and 1880 census (when her age given was 27, 37 and 57 respectively) she would have been born in 1823. In the 1870 census her age was given as 48, making her born in 1822. In the 1900 census, when a month and year were asked for, she gave her age as 78 and the year of her birth as 1822.

When I say she gave her age and year of birth in the 1900 census that may not have been strictly true. In 1893, when she was applying for the Civil War widow’s pension, it was mentioned several times that she had been confined to her bed for about five years, so perhaps someone else answered the questions for her.

Her son Hiram Thacker and his family are listed next to Frances in the 1900 census, as well as William H. Thacker, son of Holeman Thacker and Roxanne Napper Thacker who is listed after Frances in the census. Perhaps it was actually one of these individuals who answered the census taker’s questions.

So what, if anything can we conclude from our look at the census records?

One, we can conclude that she went by the name Frances (and that according to custom the name should probably be spelled with an “es”). Two, she was probably born in Virginia or possibly West Virginia. Three, it looks like a “J” initial is part of her name and finally, she most likely was born in either 1822 or 1823.

In Part III, we’ll look at several obituaries to see if they can add anything to our research.

References:

1. Wikipedia contributors, "Francis," Wikipedia, The Free Encyclopedia
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Francis (accessed September 22, 2010.)

2. Wikipedia contributors, “1890 United States Census,” Wikipedia, The Free Enyclopedia http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/1890_United_States_Census (accessed September 22, 2010.)

3. 1850 US Federal Census, State of Ohio, Vinton County, Wilkesville Township, visit 1024, Head of Household, Nicholas Thacker, online digital image, Ancestry.com.

4. 1860 US Federal Census, State of Ohio, Vinton County, Wilkesville Township, visit 728, Head of Household, Nicholas Thacker, online digital image, Ancestry.com

5. 1870 US Federal Census, State of Ohio, Vinton County, Wilkesville Township, visit 172, Head of Household, Nicholas Thacker, online digital image, Ancestry.com.

6. 1880 US Federal Census, State of Ohio, Vinton County, Wilkesville Township, visit 215, Head of Household, Nicholas Thacker, online digital image, Ancestry.com.

7. 1880 US Federal Census, State of Ohio, Vinton County, Wilkesville Township, visit 212, Head of Household, Enos Markum (sic), online digital image, Ancestry.com

8. 1880 US Federal Census, State of Ohio, Vinton County, Wilkesville Township, visit 143, Head of Household, David Thacker, online digital image, Ancestry.com.

9. 1880 US Federal Census, State of Ohio, Vinton County, Wilkesville Township, visit 213, Head of Household, Nicholas Thacker, online digital image, Ancestry.com.

10. 1880 US Federal Census, State of Ohio, Jackson County, Washington Township, visit 78, Head of Household, Zebulon Thacker, online digital image, Ancestry.com.

11. 1880 US Federal Census, State of Ohio, Vinton County, Harrison Township, visit 113, Head of Household Henry Thacker, online digital image, Ancestry.com.

12. 1880 US Federal Census, State of Ohio, Vinton County, Wilkesville Township, visit 218, Head of Household, Hiram Thacker, online digital image, Ancestry.com.

13. 1880 US Federal Census, State of Ohio, Vinton County, Wilkesville Township, visit 216, Head of Household, Charles Garret (sic), online digital image, Ancestry.com.

14. 1900 US Federal Census, State of Ohio, Vinton County, Wilkesville Township, visit 245, Head of Household, Frances J. Thacker, online digital image, Ancestry.com.

15. 1900 US Federal Census, State of Ohio, Vinton County, Wilkesville Township, visit 231, Head of Household, Clarinda Marcum, online digital image, Ancestry.com.

16. 1900 US Federal Census, State of Ohio, Vinton County, Wilkesville Township, visit 213, Head of Household, Zeb M. Thacker, online digital image, Ancestry.com.

17. 1900 US Federal Census, State of Ohio, Vinton County, Vinton Township, visit 256, Head of Household, David Thacker, online digital image, Ancestry.com.

18. 1900 US Federal Census, State of Ohio, Ross County, Chillicothe Ward 4, visit 283, Head of Household, Andrew H. DeCamp, online digital image, Ancestry.com.

19. 1900 US Federal Census, State of Ohio, Vinton County, Wilkesville Township, visit 229, Head of Household, Nicholas Thacker, online digital image, Ancestry.com.

20. 1900 US Federal Census, State of Ohio, Ross County, Chillicothe Ward 6, visit 454, Head of Household, Henry Thacker, online digital image, Ancestry.com.

21. 1900 US Federal Census, State of Ohio, Vinton County, Wilkesville Township, visit 244, Head of Household, Hiram N. Thacker, online digital image, Ancestry.com.

22. 1900 US Federal Census, State of Ohio, Jackson County, Wellston Ward 4, visit 356, Head of Household, Charles Garrett, online digital image, Ancestry.com.

23. 1910 US Federal Census, State of Ohio, Vinton County, Wilkesville Township, visit 136, Head of Household, Waid (sic) Marcum, online digital image, Ancestry.com.

24. 1910 US Federal Census, State of Ohio, Vinton County, Vinton Township, visit 201, Head of Household, David Thacker, online digital image, Ancestry.com.

25. 1910 US Federal Census, State of Ohio, Ross County, Chillicothe Ward 3, visit 335, Head of Household, William M. Hindman, online digital image, Ancestry.com.

26. 1910 US Federal Census, State of Ohio, Vinton County, Wilkesville Township, visit 151, Head of Household, Nicholas Thacker, online digital image, Ancestry.com

27. 1910 US Federal Census, State of Ohio, Ross County, Chillicothe Ward 4, visit 51, Head of Household, Henery (sic) Thacker, online digital image, Ancestry.com.

28. 1910 US Federal Census, State of Indiana, Jay County, Portland Ward 4, visit 164, Head of Household, Hiram H. (sic) Thacker, online digital image, Ancestry.com.

29. 1910 US Federal Census, State of Ohio, Scioto County, Porter Township, visit 186, Head of Household, Charles M. Garrett, online digital image, Ancestry.com.

30. 1920 US Federal Census, State of Ohio, Vinton County, Wilkesville Township, visit 135, Head of Household, Joseph Thacker, online digital image, Ancestry.com.

31. 1920 US Federal Census, State of Ohio, Vinton County, Wilkesville Township, visit 180, Head of Household, Nicholas Thacker, online digital image, Ancestry.com.

32. 1920 US Federal Census, State of Ohio, Ross County, Chillicothe Ward 4, visit 117, Head of Household, Henry Thacker, online digital image, Ancestry.com.

33. 1920 US Federal Census, State of Ohio, Vinton County, Wilkesville Township, visit 51, Head of Household, H.N. Thacker, online digital image, Ancestry.com.

34. 1920 US Federal Census, State of Ohio, Scioto County, Portsmouth Ward 4, visit 15, Head of Household, Enos Hampton, online digital image, Ancestry.com.

35. 1930 US Federal Census, State of Ohio, Jackson County, Wellston Ward 4, visit 202, Head of Household, Nichols (sic) Thacker, online digital image, Ancestry.com.

36. 1930 US Federal Census, State of Ohio, Vinton County, Wilkesville Township, visit 140, Head of Household, Hiram N. Thacker, online digital image, Ancestry.com.

37. 1930 US Federal Census, State of Ohio, Scioto County, Portsmouth Ward 6, visit 464, Head of Household, Charles Garrett, online digital image, Ancestry.com.

38. Compiled service record, Nimrod N. Thacker, Pvt. Co. D, 194 Ohio Inf.; Carded Records, Volunteer Organization, Civil War; Records of the Adjutant General’s Office, 1780-1917, Record Group 94; National Archives, Washington, D.C.

39. 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.

Mrs. Nimrod Thacker Part I ****** Genealogy by the Numbers - Majority Rules

Because I am a bit of a statistics geek, and because a couple of Thacker family researchers and I have kicked around theories about the identity of Nimrod Thacker’s wife, I decided to take a look at what conclusions other researchers have come to in the identity of Mrs. T.

So on a recent perusal of Ancestry.com, I took a look and found Nimrod’s wife listed twenty times. I used Private Family Trees, Public Family Trees, One Family Trees and Ancestry Family Trees as the source of my information. Below is a break down how Mrs. Nimrod Thacker was listed.

Name of Mrs. Nimrod Nicholas Thacker

1 listed her as Frances ?

1 listed her as Mary Grover

1 listed her as Frances J. Thacker

2 listed her as Francis Thacker

2 listed her as Francis J. Thacker

3 listed her as Francis

4 listed her as Frances Mary Grover

6 listed her as Mary Frances Grover


Not only couldn’t the twenty researchers agree on her name, but they couldn’t agree on how to spell Frances (or is that Francis?).

Spelling of Frances/Francis

1 had no Frances/Francis listed in the name

7 spelled it Francis

12 spelled it Frances

Hmmm…. Not exactly an overwhelming consensus either way at the spelling of the name. Okay, what do the Researchers have to say about the first name of Mrs. Thacker?


First Name

7 give the first name as Mary

13 give the first name as Frances/Francis


What about the middle name?


Middle Name

3 give the initial “J”

4 say the middle name is Mary

6 say the middle name is Frances/Francis

7 of our researchers give no middle name or initial


Last Name

4 give no last name

5 give the last name as Thacker

11 give the last name as Grover


So, what about the year of birth?


Year of Birth

2 give the year of birth as 1822

4 give the year of birth as 1821

5 have no year of birth given

9 give year of birth as 1823


Month Born

3 give the birth month of February

5 give the birth month of January

12 give no month


State of Birth

2 give no state of birth

5 give West Virginia as the state of birth

12 give Virginia as the state of birth


If majority rules then Mrs. Nimrod Thacker was Frances no middle name or initial Grover, born in no month of the year 1823 in the State of Virginia. Case closed, right?

Well, no, not exactly. That’s not how genealogy works, or at least it shouldn’t. When there are clear discrepancies in the identity of an individual, we need to take a look at whatever actual documents exist, evaluate them and then come to our own conclusion. Or as Elizabeth Shown Mills said more elegantly in the Forward to her book, “Evidence Explained:”

At the root of everything we find in history is a source. The information we pull from a source will not likely be any better than the source itself. The conclusions we reach from it can be no better than the effort we have made to identify that source, to understand its nuances, and to interpret the evidence its information provides.

In the next several posts, we will examine census records, death records, obituaries, a marriage record, an application for appointment, a compiled military file, and a Civil War Pension file to see if we can clear up some of the confusion on the identity of Nimrod’s wife.


References:

1. Ancestry.com, “Family Trees,” databases, http://www.ancestry.com/: September 22, 2010.

2. Mills, Elizabeth Shown. Evidence Explained: Citing History Sources from Artifacts to Cyberspace, Baltimore: Genealogical Publishing Company, 2007.

A Genealogy of the Broady, Harris, Napper, Thacker and Trent Families

“Driving a Ford Pinto and equipped with a thermos of water, some snacks, overnight bag, camera, tape recorder, paper and pencils; I began numerous trips into 14 counties in Ohio.” These are Madalene Jones Norris’s words describing her research for her maternal side of the family tree.

In 1985, she published her book, “A Genealogy of the Broady, Harris, Napper, Thacker and Trent Families.” Sourced and well documented, Ms. Norris’s book is valuable to those of us who are researching the Dorton, Napper and Thacker families.

She visited courthouses, libraries, health departments, newspaper offices, and cemeteries in Champaign, Clark, Fayette, Franklin, Greene, Highland, Jackson, Madison, Miami, Montgomery, Pickaway, Pike, Ross,and Vinton Counties in Ohio. From January 3, 1981 through May 8, 1985, Mrs. Norris conducted 85 personal interviews. One of the most important of these was the one done on August 30, 1983 with Elizabeth Dorton of Chillicothe, Ohio. Lizzie recounted for Madalene the information given to her by her father, Beverly Dorton.

Beverly was the son of James Dorton and Virginia Napper. His grandparents were Malachi Dorton and Mahala Thacker.

Lizzie told Madalene that Mahala had seven girls and four boys. They included:

“My grandmother, Virginia Napper, who married James Dorton.
Patsy Napper
Ann Napper
Nancy Napper
Lucy Napper
Polly Napper
Peachie Napper
Wed Napper
Levi Napper
Pete Napper
Dick Napper

Though unable to document information for all 11 of the Napper siblings, Mrs. Norris has extensive information on most of them. As important, it gives researchers a framework for this family. Considering that this research was conducted pre Internet era, the depth of information is extraordinary.

The book has been filmed by the Family Search Library. The catalog lists the film as: FHL US/CAN Film 1597896 Item 1.

Note: Madalene Jones Norris is the great great granddaugher of Wetherfoot Napper and Mildred Jane Thacker. She is the researcher referred to in my Desktop Genealogist Unplugged post, Because the Boat Rocked.

How I am related to the Thacker Clan or Surprise! You Have In-Laws

My grandfather was adopted and his name changed when he was twelve years old, or so the story goes. I haven’t found proof of his adoption (but that can sometimes be a little tricky), so I can’t attest to the veracity of the entire story. However, what I do know is that sometime in the 1950’s two women showed up on my grandmother’s doorstep, looking for my grandfather.

Now understand, grandma and grandpa had not lived together at that point for close to two decades, so it doesn’t take much imagination to picture my grandmother, the soul of pragmatic dispositions, and her unfettered shock. God, I would have loved to seen her face.

The women turned out to be Grandpa’s sisters, Lucille Smathers Foit and Nellie Smathers Weaver. They had gone to the police station and asked about Grandfather, using, I would like to point out, Grandpa’s adopted name. Since Grandpa had “run away from home” sometime in the mid 1930’s and left Clyde Ohio forever, (and in point of fact had died of a burst appendix January 30, 1945) Lucille and Nellie’s quest had been doomed from the start.

The police chief of Clyde, Ohio, however, wishing to help, gave them the address for the only person in town with the correct last name - my grandmother. Grandmother, always a quick study and you’ve got to admit under the circumstances, a very gracious lady, made short work of depositing the two sisters at the home of her and grandpa’s only son, who was living at the time in Fremont, Ohio.

So, that is how my family came to find out that my grandfather’s original name was Walter Smathers. My parents, who were just as shocked as grandma, had a nice chat with the “new” relatives. Lucille and Nellie made a special fuss over their newly found nephew, and Daddy found out that when his father and the girls had been very young, their mother had died. Lucille, who was six, was fostered out to a family who apparently used her like a servant. Nellie was sent to live with her maternal grandfather and his second wife. Grandpa and his younger brother were taken by their father to Northern Ohio. The father, Elmore Smathers, promised the girls he would be back to get them but he never came. It was the last time the sisters had seen my grandfather. He was three.

It would have been too much to hope that somebody would have thought to ask how they knew to search in Clyde, Ohio or how sisters Lucille and Nellie knew which name to ask for at the police station. However, we now had access to the most important fact - Grandpa had been born in Athens County to Elmore Smathers and Lizzie Cope Smathers.

All of this is by way of telling you how I am related to the Thacker clan. Lizzie, or Elizabeth, was the daughter of George Cope and Francis Thacker Cope. Fanny, as Francis was called, was the daughter of Clarinda Thacker. Clarinda, who would later marry Enos Marcum, had two children out of wedlock before the marriage. The younger of the two, was Fanny.

Clarinda was the daughter of Nimrod Nicholas Thacker and Francis J. Thacker. It is believed that Nimrod was the son of David Thacker and Sally Lemay Thacker. (A court case naming Nicholas and David in 1858 as co-defendants and the fact that Sally Thacker was baptized at the home of Nicholas and Francis in 1868 point to this.)

Sally was the daughter of John Lemay and Annis Branham Lemay of Louisa County, Virginia.

Annis was the daughter of Benjamin Branham and Francis Gibson. This family is documented in Paul Heinegg's, Free African Americans of North Carolina and Virginia. Francis Gibson was the daughter of Gilbert Gibson of Louisa County, Va, and this family is also documented in the book.

So there you have it. How I tie into the Thacker family tree.

(I know, you want to know who David Thacker's parents were - well, me too. All I can tell you is that a deed record in Louisa County indicates that his mother was one Mary Dalton. This may or may not be Mary Branham, sister of Annis Branham, who married John Dalton. Most of the children in the deed are listed as Daltons. David and Robert are the only two listed as Thacker. Any speculation is welcomed on this point.)

Researching This Clan

First, you will notice, I left off midstream, in a discussion about the children of Frances and Nicholas Thacker. Mary Francis, their daughter, was the chief culprit. I suddenly realized that I didn’t know if I had her death record, or possibly the death record of her sister-in-law. So, while pausing to decide how best to resolve this little quandary, I continued my research of the Thacker clan – off line.


I still haven’t solved the Mary/Mary riddle yet, but I missed writing about the Thacker clan, so I’ve decided to drop into this blog, and update some of my discoveries, and my thoughts.


I have been struggling to decide whether to make this into a private blog, so that I can use it to reflect my thoughts on my search. When the subject of mixed race comes up, and you have the audacity to write about it, there are going to be some people who are unhappy about what you write. Some of those people you don’t want to offend. Some of those people you don’t want to make unhappy, and let’s face it, if you are a people pleaser like me, you don’t like ANY people not liking you because of something you have written.


In the past, I tried to pull my punches, for all of those people mentioned above. It made me sound like some kind of wishy-washy nut, which for all I know, I may very well be – a wishy-washy nut. It also made me sound like I was obsessed with the whole racial aspects of this branch of the family. Which I am – guilty, guilty, guilty.


There are a number of reasons why, the race of this family fascinates me.


1. First, it came as a complete surprise that I do not descend solely from good ole white European stock. What if you suddenly found out that you were, I don’t know, adopted. Wouldn’t you suddenly be obsessed with finding out more? That is what this revelation has been like for me.


2. For the Thacker’s and their clan, their mixed race identity played a significant role in their lives – it shaped them in ways that I cannot fathom - who they were, who they became and how they saw themselves. I am an unforeseen consequence of all these machinations. How could this not matter to me?


3. Separate from my own personal stake, I think they were a cultural oddity that deserves to be studied. If race shaped the lives of the 19th century man, what of a group of individuals who traipsed back and forth across the color line? Sometimes listed as white, sometimes listed as free colored – with the letters “w,” “b” and “m” changing beside their name. Did they ever feel like they belonged?


4. Finally, perhaps the most potent reason of all, this is a mystery. Their racial background is an unresolved question. Tantalizing tales exist to explain how, after several centuries of prohibited miscegenation, these people managed to exist.


I am hopelessly attracted to this puzzle of a family in much the same way an errant piece of steel is attracted to a large magnet. Having come too close, I am irresistibly drawn to its core. '


For now, I will continue to keep this public. My hope is that I, along with other family researchers, can put together the pieces of this family puzzle, so that we may better understand how each of us came to be.

The Children of Francis and Nimrod Thacker: Algerine, Ambrous, & Hannah

At the far end of the cemetery, near a large evergreen tree stands a monument. It is four-sided, about six feet tall, with an urn shaped top. Three sides are inscribed and bare some of the names of Nimrod Thacker’s family.

Nimrod’s information is on one side (though the engraver wrote Nimroon).

Inscribed here are the names of Nimrod’s sons, Algerine and Ambrous. Algerine is listed as 16 and Ambrous as 18. Based on the 1850, 1860 and 1870 census records, Algerine would have been born in 1848 and died in 1864. Ambrous would have been born in 1852 and died after June 1, 1870.

Ohio started keeping death records at the local level in 1867. This was not strictly enforced. Death records are listed for both Jackson County and Vinton County on their separate rootsweb websites. Technically, Ambrous’s death should have been listed. It was not.

Here is the third inscribed side of the monument. As you can see, two women are listed. Mary, age 33 and Hannah N., age 16. Mary is creating a few problems for me, so we’re going to ignore her for now. Hannah, however, is first listed as 3 months old in the 1860 census. The census was suppose to reflect her age as of June 1, 1860, making her birth date most probably in February. If her age is accurate, she died in 1876.

Again checking the death lists on both the Jackson County and Vinton County websites, Hannah is not listed. A Nancy A. Thacker died March 20, 1875 and is listed as 14 years old. Hannah Nancy would have been 15 at that time. It’s possible Nancy Ann could have been Hannah Nancy but that is unclear.

These three children – Algerine, Ambrous, and Hannah N. – are the only known children of Nimrod and Frances that did not reach adulthood. Next time we will talk about a few of the remaining nine children that I have identified.

Sources:

1. 1850 US Federal Census, Ohio, Vinton County, Wilkesville Twp., Head of Household, Nicholas Thacker, Visit 1024, (http//:www.ancestry.com) census image online, January 4, 2009.

2. 1860 US Federal Census, Ohio, Vinton County, Wilkesville Twp., Head of Household, Nicholas Thacker, Visit 728, (http//:www.ancestry.com) census image online, January 4, 2009.

3. 1870 US Federal Census, Ohio, Vinton County, Wilkesville Twp., Head of Household, Nicholas Thacker, Visit 172, (http//:www.ancestry.com) census image online, January 4, 2009.

4. Vinton County Ohio Genealogy, “Birth, Death, and Marriage Records Online Index,” abstracts online death records 1867 -1952, (http://www.rootsweb.ancestry.com/~ohvinton/bmdrecs.htm: accessed January 4, 2009) entry for Nancy A. Thacker.

5. Jackson County Ohio Genealogy, “Birth, Death, and Marriage Records Online Index,” abstracts online death records 1867 -1908, http://www.rootsweb.ancestry.com/~ohjackso/bmdrecs.htm: accessed January 4, 2009.)

6. Photographs of Nimrod Thacker monument, Curry Cemetery, Wilkesville, Ohio, May 21, 2008. Privately held by Teresa L. Snyder, Fremont, Ohio.