Thursday, December 13, 2012

Parameters in Passing


When an ancestor’s lifespan predates the typical governmental bureaucracy we’ve come to expect with most Vital Statistics departments, we sometimes find ourselves having to do a tap dance of estimation. Of course, headstones help—that is, once they’re located, and even then, only if they haven’t already crumbled beyond recognition.

What if we don’t have that helpful stone marker, though? And what if church records are also silent?

In the case of the family I’m currently researching—that of John Jay Jackson of Fairfield County, Ohio—for his wife, the former Sarah Howard Ijams, I have neither headstone nor death record.

I do have one thing going for me, though: widower John Jackson did get married again.

Keep in mind, John Jackson was a father of several young children by the point at which his first wife passed. Situations like that, especially in that era, were a firm prompt to encourage such fathers to quickly seek a second bride. And that is exactly what John did.

At some point, the family must have moved from Fairfield County—where we had last seen report of them with records of their daughter Nancy Ann’s 1823 birth—to nearby Perry County. It is in that county’s marriage records that I find the documentation for John Jackson’s second marriage.

Dated August 28, 1829—although I wonder if my eyes deceive me on that number—the record was entered by hand, signed by the Catholic priest who performed the ceremony. 

I do hereby Certify that by Authority of a License Mr. John J. Jackson and Miss Mary Grate were by Me on the 28th day of August 1829 Legally joined in holy Matrimony. Given under My hand this 26th day of August 1829.
                                                  N. D. Young R. C. P.

The record was on the top of the page—page 108 of the first volume of marriage records for Perry County, Ohio.

While this marriage date doesn’t exactly pinpoint the moment of Sarah’s passing, it does eliminate anything beyond this date. As for the two dates already offered online—that of the confusing biographical sketch from that 1876 newspaper article, and the various researchers’ reports—both the 1825 date and the February, 1829, death are still plausible.

The difficulty with accepting the earlier of those two dates of death, however, is that it may call into question the parentage of two of the Jackson children: William Edwin Jackson, born in 1827, and Robert Turner Jackson, born the following year.

However, unless the archives of the church diocese includes baptismal records from these early years—and online sources of that era's records don’t seem to do so—or unless I can obtain a death certificate for the one child of Sarah who died after the point when more data began being provided, this will have to remain a mystery for me.

This will be one of those loose ends that I’ll set aside for further attention in the New Year.


8 comments:

  1. So Father Young was a time-traveler, eh? Or dipping into the communion wine, perhaps? OK, so what about death records for William and Robert? If they lived long enough, their death records might include their mother's maiden name.

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    1. Well, time traveling is a charitable way to put it, Wendy! I'm hoping to find the youngest one's death certificate...though he died in a state whose death records are not readily available online in all the usual places.

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  2. Just saw, on Twitter, that the Missouri History Museum is having a talk on the Belefontaine Cemetery tonight. They said that much of the research was done at the MO History Museum. Perhaps the MHM could help you with your family's ties to this fort. Good luck. Melissa

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    1. Melissa, thanks for the idea! I'll follow up on that. Wish I could have been at that presentation. So close yet so far away...I was in Missouri yesterday, but not today.

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  3. That date definitely looks like 1829 to me! When I first starting researching my ancestor Jacob Troxell way back in the 20th century (LOL), I purchased the death records for several of his children. They all spelled the last name of their mother differently! I was finally able to track down a marriage record though. My ancestress was the child of Jacob's second wife and she was almost as frustrating to track down. I did finally get there though. Deborah

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    1. Stories like that are always encouraging to hear, Deborah! I will need to pursue that same approach, unless an alternate document pops up in the meantime. As you say, we all seem to finally "get there" one way or another.

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  4. Perhaps she died in childbirth or shortly there after..in 1928. That was a usual cause of death in the childbearing years:(

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    1. Considering the proximity of her youngest's date of birth, I'd say that was the likely scenario. Of course, that is if he really was her youngest--and not the next wife's oldest!

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