When in Doubt, Start From the Beginning

If, in the first place, I had never found all that material gleaned—and then lost—from my research trip last summer, how would I have started my search now? Wouldn’t I have turned to resources where I could find documents on the family’s existence?

I have to shake myself awake, back to reality, and realize: when I slip and fall along the genealogy research trail, just pick up and continue. If all is lost during that “fall,” then go back and start from the beginning.

It's kind of like the “Do Not Pass ‘Go,’ Do Not Collect $200” card in Monopoly. But it doesn’t really mean I’ve been sent to Monopoly Jail—nor Genealogy Jail, for that matter. Family history research is really that plodding journey, taking one painstakingly researched step at a time. Losing research notes is no excuse to imagine it will become any different from any other research assignment.

Since I’ve already discovered that my target person—Nancy Ann Jackson Snider—was the daughter of John Jay Jackson, let’s see what can be found in other resources regarding the man.

My handwritten notes said that John Jackson arrived in Bearfield Township of Perry County, Ohio, by late August, 1818.

Well, we’ve already seen that it is no problem to look up the 1820 census record, itemized by specific township, in this website here. Going straight to the link for Bearfield Township (which is only two pages long), it doesn’t take long to find a listing for the household of one John J. Jackson.

The household itself is small—only three people listed. That would make sense. For the 1820 census—which notes the enumeration date as August seventh—John Jackson would be at least thirty one years of age. His wife, Sarah, would be approximately twenty four years old. Depending on which date turns out to be the correct one for their marriage, it would be appropriate for them to have at least one child under the age of ten. And that is what the census reports for the John J. Jackson household in Bearfield Township.

Once again, that yields me a verification of an ancestor eligible for designation as a First Families of Ohio candidate. But what if this is not the right John J. Jackson? Although I’ve already read other reports stating that Nancy Ann Jackson Snider’s father settled first in Bearfield Township, just in case, I took a look through the rest of the 1820 census for Perry County, Ohio. While there is a Jacob Jackson in Jackson Township and a George Jackson in Reading Township, there is no other John Jackson listed in the 1820 census for Perry County.

While I fervently wish there were listings for the women in those early census records, I know that is a useless effort. Unless there were some online church baptismal records—there are none for this Jackson family that I can find—the women remained nameless in these governmental records, eliminating one way to ascertain whether the John Jackson I’ve found is the correct one.

I’ll take what I can get, though, and I’m settling with this census record—for the time being. There are still other records I can check in my quest to find out more about this Jackson family of Perry County, Ohio.