When the detail on a family's situation becomes too messy, perhaps it is time to outline it all in a timeline. Based on the suggestion—and even that only from a letter written long afterwards by Aunt Fannie—that Light Townsend had traveled down to Florida to help his orphaned nieces, I wanted to see whether I could find any possibility of pinpointing that connection.
In the process—warning: a messy one!—I came to the conclusion that just looking at each individual's circumstances wasn't enough. I needed to blend eight people's timelines into one, so that I could spot any gaps which might be a reasonable time for Light Townsend to travel from his home in Marlboro County, South Carolina, to Madison County in northern Florida.
The brief answer: I don't see how. But let's first look at the particulars. To begin with, here are the players:
Light Townsend, born in South Carolina about 1798, who was the supposed brother of my third great-grandmother, Delaney Townsend. Delaney, in turn, while born in South Carolina much later than Light—about 1816—traveled to territorial Florida to marry Andrew Charles in 1841. After the couple's unexpected demise, Andrew's sister, Drucilla Charles, took up the responsibility of serving as guardian for the three orphaned children of Delaney and Andrew, before her marriage to, first, Thomas Hughs Hines, and then Melburn Odum—with each of whom she bore children. It was the two daughters, Frances Charles and Emily (or Emma) Charles, who supposedly traveled back to South Carolina with Light Townsend.
Now, how does all this fit in a timeline? Answer: it's a squeeze.
Let's start off with the 1850 census. Andrew and Delaney were shown in their household with their son and their two daughters, four year old Fanny and one year old Emma. What's interesting about this enumeration is that it was taken on October 16, after Andrew's death, but he was still listed as if alive, on account of the instructions to list the households as they would have appeared on June first of that same year.
In 1850, Light Townsend was at home in Marlboro County, South Carolina, with his wife, four children, and his mother. Drucilla Charles was still living with her mother and siblings in Florida, this being two years before her mother's tragic death, and before her own marriage.
The cascade of events begins with Andrew Charles' apparently unexpected illness and death in July of 1850. Sometime between that point and February of 1852, Delaney herself dies (although I have yet to find any record of that date).
In 1852, Frances, older of the two Charles daughters, would have been about six years of age. Her younger sister Emma, my second great-grandmother, would have been three, having lost her father while still an infant. On February 28 of that year, Andrew's sister Drucilla Charles was appointed guardian of the three orphans, Fanny, Emma, and their brother Rupert Charles. On May 22 of that same year, Drucilla became the wife of Thomas H. Hines, and eventually had two daughters, while presumably continuing to serve as guardian for the Charles orphans.
Sometime between 1857 and 1859, Drucilla's husband Thomas Hines died. This might have been a reasonable time to call in help from the other side of the orphans' family, but in 1858, Light Townsend was having his own woes: his wife died, leaving him with two young daughters of his own. While before this point, it might have made sense for Light to blend the two families—Emma Charles was the same age as Light's daughter Mary Ann, and Light's daughter Amelia was two years older than Fanny Charles—after his wife's death was no time to go traveling long distances through remote regions to help another family.
Thus, by the 1860 census, it was no surprise to find Light still in South Carolina with his dwindling family, and the Charles orphans with Drucilla, who, widowed, had by then married Melburn Odum and welcomed in their baby daughter Maybelle.
The years following the 1860 census might seem like the ideal opportunity for Light to travel to Florida, particularly considering the more appropriate ages of his nieces for such an adventure back to South Carolina with him. In 1860, Fanny would have turned fourteen and Emma eleven. But even then, the timeline shoved roadblocks in the way of such a plan—not to mention, a ravaging war.
After the death of her mother, Light's daughter Amelia married in 1863. Light's younger daughter Mary Ann married William Kinney in 1867, becoming the progenitor of the DAR applicant whose mention of Aunt Fannie's letter got me wondering about all this in the first place. And Mary Ann's cousin Emma Charles was herself married by 1867.
Sandwiched in between these joyful moments in the family's timeline were other disruptions. While I have yet to find Drucilla's second husband's date of death, by March of 1866, it was clear that both Melburn Odum and his wife Drucilla had passed. Drucilla, following the path of her intestant brother before her, died leaving no will. Another Charles sister, widow Mary Ann McLeran, was appointed as administratrix of Drucilla's property in March of 1866 and eventually—by 1872—that sad task finally drew to an official close.
Following Drucilla's passing by 1866, the final player in this drama was Light Townsend himself, who died in South Carolina in March of 1870.
While there were a few celebratory moments in this whirlwind of less happy events, the time it would have taken to make such a round trip—in that time period and with the constraints of their current forms of transportation—make it doubtful that an aging Light Townsend would have made such a trip. Possibly in the earliest years after the loss of Delaney and her husband, Light might have come to lend a financial or organizational hand—but it would have been unlikely that he'd return home with two very young nieces at that point.
That, however, still leaves me with a predicament: I've yet to find any verifiable written documentation to tie my third great-grandmother to her parents, or even to her siblings. But that is written documentation. As we leave this month's focus to move toward the next of my Twelve Most Wanted research goals for 2025, let's use the weekend to determine what we gained, what we still need, and what other verification has now become available to researchers in situations like this.
No comments:
Post a Comment