Moving Along Now

 

There may have been a reason why William Laws and his sons Larkin and Pine Dexter were difficult to find, even though using the FamilySearch Labs' Full Text search. Perhaps they might have been just a shade over the side which in more recent times would have prompted law enforcement to warn, "Move along, now."

I went back to the FamilySearch Labs website for a second attempt at finding William—or at least his sons—mentioned in a will in either North Carolina or Tennessee. Bottom line: despite reversing my technique to use "Larkin Laws" as the keyword and William as the main search term, I couldn't find any last will—or even any property records. I looked in both North Carolina and Tennessee.

However, I did stumble upon something else.

Though I am not yet convinced that William Laws was my second great-grandmother Sarah Catherine Laws Davis' father, I have found her family living quite close to the household of a man by that name in the 1870 census. An added perk comes our way thanks to DNA matches who descend from those distinctively-named possible brothers, Larkin and Pine Dexter.

Though my second try at digging up wills or deeds has failed dismally—not that I'm quitting just yet—I did run across some odd records. 

Try this mention from the Yancey County, North Carolina, court minutes for the July term in 1855. Remember, I had spotted a William Laws family in Yancey County for the 1850 census, with a family which included names such as "Larken" and "Pendexter."

According to the North Carolina court minutes, there was a note about a judgement in regard to a case labeled "State vs. Larken Laws." No further detail, but looking for additional records, an earlier entry from the January 1854 term of the same court noted that the "defendant Larkin Laws," though called, failed to appear at that session.

Perhaps the no shows might have been owing to the family's decision to remove from the state for more comfortable quarters across the border. Remembering that William's possible daughter had married by 1856 and was living in Washington County, Tennessee—a match that always had me wondering about how the connection was initiated—I wasn't surprised to find the next mentions of the Laws family in that new location. The court minutes from Jonesborough, the county seat, at the beginning of 1857 provided a list of names for the "insolvent poll tax" for 1855 and 1856. If you guessed William Laws was mentioned, you are spot on. Bonus points if you wondered if his son Larkin was mentioned as well.

Looks like it was time to move on once again.