Sometimes it helps to stop sifting through one family or one individual's records and just work on something else. It adds some mental distance. It provides an opportunity to return to an old problem with fresher eyes. That cooling-off period usually pays off for me in more ways that one. So naturally, I dropped my Mason puzzle and randomly picked up my John Kelley Jr. puzzle. Like you do.
John Kelley Jr., who married my ancestress Nancy Missouri Owens and lived in Kershaw County, South Carolina, had an unknown first wife by whom he had at least one daughter. That daughter married William B. Thomas and removed to Pickens County, Alabama. She died before the 1850 census, so her given name is undocumented. However, she had several children, and they are all named in a request to partition their grandfather Kelley's estate in Kershaw County, South Carolina in 1862.
I'm left to wonder where Miss Kelley met William B. Thomas and when they married. What was her given name and who was her mother? In pondering the 1850 census household of William B. Thomas, it struck me that he was fairly old. The 1850 census has his birth in 1793 and the 1860 census places his birth in 1798. And when was his father-in-law John Kelley Jr. born? About 1786. What?? That means John Kelley Jr. was only around ten years older than his son-in-law. That means Miss Kelley married a man several years her senior. That had not registered before. In fact, he was old enough to be on the 1830 census as an adult. Possibly the 1820 census. I had not pinpointed him on an earlier census. I recalled, though, that there was a Thomas family living near John Kelley Jr. on an earlier census, and I had considered that William Thomas might be connected to them.
Going back to the 1820 census of Fairfield County, South Carolina, I located the household of John Kelley Jr.:
Here is John Kelley Jr. living between Jame Loughhorn and John Kelley. There are so many John Kelleys in Fairfield and Kershaw County, South Carolina that it has been difficult to positively identify my John Kelley on the census. This John Kelley Jr was long overlooked because he did not seem to fit what I had known about my ancestor. That little girl in the household through off researchers for decades. This John Kelley Jr. is, however, a fit for my widowed ancestor with a young daughter. As a bonus, he is living next door to an elder John Kelley, who is his father. This elder John Kelley was a large slaveholder, and those slaves were distributed from his Fairfield County estate twenty years later. James Loughhorn is probably the same person who is mentioned in the estate settlement of John Kelley Sr. and whose name has been difficult to decipher. John Kelley Jr. is in the 26 to 44 year age range. My John Kelley, born about 1786, was 34 in 1820, so he falls within this age range. John Kelley Jr.'s daughter is aged 10 to 15 on this census.
Looking back up the page to the Thomas household, I found...
This is the William Thomas household that I had originally dismissed because I thought he was too old and did not have a son young enough to marry Miss Kelley. This William Thomas was in the 16 to 25 year age range. William B. Thomas, born in either 1793 or 1798, falls within this age range. Well. I'll be. That makes sense, doesn't it? People usually married someone who lived near them. William Thomas had a daughter age 1 to 10 and a wife age 16 to 25.
It would seem that William Thomas's wife probably died, and he remarried Miss Kelley as his second wife. The eldest Thomas child named in the John Kelley estate partition was John K Thomas, born in about 1832 in South Carolina. I wonder if his full name was John Kelley Thomas? William Thomas and Miss Kelley would have married by 1831 at the latest. However, since I can't find William Thomas in Fairfield County, South Carolina, or Kershaw County, South Carolina in 1830, I would guess that they married by 1830 and moved.
It may still be possible to learn Miss Kelley's given name and the name of her mother. It seems very possible that Miss Kelley was an heir to one of her maternal grandparent's estates. Her surname would appear as either Kelley or Thomas. Hopefully, her given name will be provided as well as the name of her mother.
The place to start with this task would be to research about 20 households below John Kelley Sr.'s, the households between William Thomas and John Kelley Jr., and 20 households above William Thomas.
Of course, now there is an elder daughter of William Thomas's to track down.
That's not a small task. I might just get back to sifting through my Masons.
Great detective work!
ReplyDeleteThank you!
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