I've been collecting additional information on Michael Mason, and I've reached the point that I have to be able to sort out the Michaels in order to make heads or tails out of the information I've found.
To do that, I decided to stop and calculate their ages and relationships to other people. That will allow me to be able to figure out which Michael Mason generated a record or to at least narrow it down to two possible Michaels.
Michael Mason Sr. was, according to the 1830 Madison County, Alabama census born between 1751 and 1760. If he is the father of Joseph Mason who was born in 1777, I would place Michael Mason Sr. at the high end of the spectrum with a birth year around between 1757 to 1751ish. He would be of age by 1772 to 1778. He is the right age to be Joseph Mason's father. At the time of his death in 1832, this Michael Mason had a wife named Rebecca.
Michael Mason Sr. also had a son-in-law named William Young, who relinquished all claims to Michael's estate in 1832 in Madison County, Alabama. William Young supposedly married daughter Catherine Mason. Meanwhile, an Edmund Young supposedly married Ruth, another daughter of Michael Mason Sr.'s. That means whenever one of these two men appear in a Mason record, I need to pay attention to them.
Michael Mason Jr., son of Micahel Mason Sr., was born, according to the 1810 Burke County, North Carolina census between 1785 and 1794. To get a better feel for his age, I need to look at his children's births. If his son John Jefferson Mason was born in 1809, I would push Michael Jr.'s birth year back to at least 1789ish or earlier. Michael Mason Jr. would have been 21 years old by 1806 to 1810. I would not expect to see him on tax lists, land records, or the census before then. Although he is most certainly the young Michael Mason who is a head of household on the Burke County, North Carolina census in 1810.
Then there is Michael J. Mason who was the son of Joseph Mason. Born in 1806, he is frequently recorded as Michael J. Mason. He would reach the age of 21 in 1827, so I would not expect to see him engaging in legal matters until around that time period.
I stated in an earlier post this week that Michael Mason did not live in Carter, Tennessee. Today's research turned him up there, so I have to revise my thinking. In fact, Michael Mason is turning up in several locations, but for this post, I will focus on Carter County, Tennessee. He begins to appear on the tax list there as early as 1796, but does not pay taxes on land until 1798:
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| Carter Co., TN Tax List 1798 |
That piece of land is for 126 acres. This acreage is suspiciously close to the size of the tract land that Michael Mason Sr. of Burke County, North Carolina sold to Joseph Mason of Carter County, Tennessee in 1808.
The Michael Mason in Carter County, Tennesse in this time early timeframe is too old to be Michael Mason Jr. He is also not designated as a Sr. or a Jr. because at this point Michael Jr. is not of age, so there is not another Michael Mason of age to confuse him with. By the time Michael Mason Sr. sold that tract of land to Joseph Mason in 1808, Michael had removed to Burke County, North Carolina, where his son Michael Jr. was also of age, so it was necessary for him to use the designation of Sr. in that land transaction. That means I might push Michael Mason Jr.'s birthdate back to 1787ish or earlier.
There are a lot more Micheal Mason records to wade through, but I am going to go through them slowly.
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