Tracing the life of William T Hughes

[Parents of William T Hughes – Part 2]

Starting with what I know

In order to begin tracing one’s ancestors, it is critical to always start “with what you know.” ¹ Right. Well, when I began tracing the life of William T Hughes (1821 – abt 1875), I didn’t know much. The few clues I had were based on his notation in my maternal grandmother’s family tree (see Image 1). ²

From this single page of the family bible, I knew my 2X great-grandfather’s name, where he was born, who he married (now I know my 2X great-grandmother’s name as well), and how my grandmother descended from this couple. But if I was going to identify his parents, I had to locate more information about him. In the following sections, I will summarize details I found in various records while tracing William’s life. In addition to revealing more about him and his family, these details become crucial points in building the case that identifies Nathan Hughes, Sr and Mary Davis as his parents. Accordingly, the details described below will reappear as supporting evidence in future posts in this series.

Date of birth?

Knowing when an ancestor was born is essential to begin tracing a family line. Without knowing that piece of information, it is possible to end up tracing the wrong person and, subsequently, following the wrong family line. Since no birth record for my 2X great-grandfather exists, I had to use other sources to arrive at a reasonable estimate for his birth year.

When searching for these other sources, it was helpful to understand that knowing and proving one’s age did not become important until the early 20^th century. ³ Unless a close family member recorded the birth date in a family bible or supplied the information for a baptismal record, a person simply had to rely on what their parents or older relatives told them. 

This is why most people only had a general idea of their age prior to 1900. ⁴ For example, they simply estimated their age as best as they could when the census enumerator asked. Sometimes people also stated their ages as older or younger than they actually were. This was often the case when they applied for a marriage bond/license. Such casual approaches to knowing one’s age often resulted in conflicting ages recorded across historical documents. It’s sets of records like these that prove challenging as well as frustrating for family history researchers.

Searching the census records

Because I had no birth information, I knew that searching the census records for William Hughes was going to be challenging. So I began the search by doing some estimating of my own. Knowing that he was born in Kentucky, I could search Ancestry.com census records by restricting the parameters to include only those records with the same name and only residing in Kentucky. By refining the search filters even more, it helped me to finally locate him and his family.

1850 in Scott County

William Hughes first appears in the 1850 U.S. Census record as living in Scott County, Kentucky. He resides with his wife Amanda Hughes and three children Mary, Evan, and Susan (see Image 2). ⁵

In this record, William was 27 years old indicating that he was born in 1823. It is also important to note the ages of his wife Amanda (22 yrs) and his oldest child Mary (6 yrs). In addition, the record shows that William was a farmer and that he owned land valued at $640. Finally, all of the family members were born in Kentucky.

Ten years later

In searching the 1860 census, we find that William and his family are recorded as living in Owen County, Kentucky (see Image 3). ⁶

According to this census record, William’s is 39 years old indicating he was born in 1821. This means he is two years older than recorded in the previous census. His wife Amanda’s age is consistent with the 1850 record as are the ages of his older children. There have been four more children born since the last census. They are John, Reuben, Jedediah, and Elizebeth. William was still a farmer, but the value of his real estate had decreased to $375. Although he indicated that the value of his personal property was $450, that amount was far less than the values recorded for his neighbors listed on the same census record page.

In Missouri?

The 1870 census record is the last one in which William appears with his family. By this time, they have moved to Marion, Cole County, Missouri. Once again, his age changes. This time, he is recorded as being 50 years old which means he would have been born in 1820 (see Image 4). ⁷

In addition to having moved to another state, this census record indicates that three more children have been added to the family. He still listed his occupation as a farmer, but he owns no land. The value of his personal property has only increased by $50 since the previous census.

1820, 1821, or 1823? Which one?

As you can see, all three census records provide conflicting ages for William. He was a classic example of the conflicting ages scenario described above. Was he born in 1820, 1821, or 1823? In order to arrive at a reasonable estimate for his birth year, let’s look more closely at the three census records.

Let’s begin by examining the 1870 census record. There are several inconsistencies in the information. Based on most of the names and birth place information listed, there is little doubt that this is the same Hughes family unit that had been living in Kentucky. However, several of the children’s names are not consistent with the previous census or personal family records. In fact, my own great-grandfather Samuel Pence Hughes was born in 1867 and is missing from this record. Using subsequent census and other family records, Table 1 below compares the names and ages of the family members who appeared in the 1870 census with those who should have been recorded.

Because there are so many errors in names and ages, it is possible that a neighbor or one of the younger Hughes children might have supplied this inaccurate information to the enumerator. As such, the recorded age and subsequent 1820 birth year for William is highly questionable and likely wrong. That narrows the timeframe of his birth to somewhere between 1821-1823.

Other helpful sources

There are three other records that were helpful in revealing more about my 2X great-grandfather. These sources establish that William T Hughes married Amanda Lancaster in Scott County, Kentucky on 20 December 1843. The first and most reliable source is the image of the original listing in the Scott County marriage registration book noting that Whitfield Collins conducted the ceremony on that date (see Image 5). ⁸

The second ⁹ source is a compilation of marriage information abstracted from several years of marriage records and the third ¹⁰ source is a transcription of their marriage bond that appeared in a local historical society newsletter. ¹¹ Although both of these sources are not original documents, they support the information included in the county marriage register. In fact, the transcription of the marriage bond revealed additional information that established a known family relationship as well suggested an inferred one.

Legal marriage age

 Most of the details included in those marriage sources are important to establishing the identity of William’s parents and will be discussed in a future post. However, there is one important piece of information in the marriage bond transcription that reinforces the 1821-1823 timeframe of William’s birth. According to early Kentucky marriage laws, if either the bride or the groom was under the age of 21 and had never been married, they needed the consent of a parent or guardian.

William and Amanda’s marriage bond transcription included a note written by James Lancaster (1801-1875) who was Amanda’s father. The note is short, but it gives permission for his daughter to marry Mr. William Hughes. ¹² Because this letter of permission was included, it indicated that Amanda was under 21 years of age. In fact, she was just 15 years old. Since there was no permission letter for William and the bond was issued, he must have been as least 21 years old. Thus, this means that he was probably born about 1821-1822.

One more helpful record

This narrowing of the timeframe for William Hughes’ birth coincides with his entry in the U.S. Civil War Draft Registrations Records, 1863-1865. In this list that included individuals from Jefferson, Henry, Owen, and Oldham counties registering for the draft into the Union Army, he stated that he was 42 years old as of 01 July 1863. ¹³ Using this last record in conjunction with all of the other records described previously, it is reasonable to estimate that William T Hughes was born about 1821.

Another step closer

As stated at the beginning of this blog post, it is crucial to pinpoint a birth year when attempting to establish parentage. This single piece of information is fundamental to identifying a pool of potential parental couples and then ultimately differentiating among them.

When I first began working to discover the identity of William’s parents, I did not know much about him or his life. But after re-examining the sources presented here, it occurs to me that I’ve learned quite a bit more about my 2X great-grandfather.

William’s life

William T Hughes was born in Corinth, Kentucky in 1821 and married Amanda Lancaster on 20 December 1843 in Scott County, Kentucky. Amanda’s parents were James Lancaster (1801-1875) and Ann Nelson (1808-1891) of Scott County. William was a farmer and lived in an area of Kentucky where county boundaries shifted over time. This is most likely why he and his family appear in Scott County, Kentucky, in the 1850 US census and Owen County in the 1860 one. The county boundaries moved; not the family. 

In 1863, William registered for the Union Army draft while still living in Owen County, Kentucky. However, by 1870 the family had moved to Cole County, Missouri. His entry in the 1870 census is the last known record of him. Their last child, Missouri Ellen Hughes, was born in 1871 in Missouri.

 Since William does not appear in the 1880 census, we can presume that he died. This inference is further supported by Amanda’s census in that year. It reveals that she has remarried and moved with her younger children to Texas. Based on this information, it is reasonable to assume that William died sometime between 1871 and 1879.

In their thirty-plus years of marriage, William and Amanda (Lancaster) Hughes had thirteen children (see Table 2). Eleven of those children lived to adulthood and most of them married and raised families of their own. Among them, was my great-grandfather Samuel Pence Hughes (1867-1931).

Next time

The next post in this series identifies and analyzes several men who could be the father of William T Hughes. Because Hughes is a common surname in Kentucky, the original pool of individuals was large. However, further examination of several sources narrows the field of candidates and moves closer to the goal of identifying the parents of William T Hughes.

[AUTHOR’S NOTE: Thanks for reading and following this extended series.]

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