Often
on census documents, especially those from rural areas one might find several
related families. People in the 19th century did not generally move
far from home unless the opportunity for advancement was lacking. Children
commonly also took up the occupations of their parents. Growing up together, neigbourhood children ended up marrying each other as well, especially if their parents socialized or worked together.
Certainly
there were periods in history, especially in Canada and the United States when
new parts of the countries were opening up for settlers and families were
enticed to join the land rushes. Railroad construction was a major part of
and spurred the development of new territories.
In
many of my own family lines we have found that extended families moved
together, or at least within a short time period. One family might have gone
ahead to “scout” out areas and were then followed by siblings and cousins.
Friends and neighbours also joined together to established new communities.
About several of my ancestors, my aunt wrote in 1971:
In 1866, when the wagon train headed for Kansas,[from Indiana]
included in the group were: the little [Daniel and Hannah] Watson family; Hannah's youngest son, John
Miller; two married children of John and Clarinda Mayfield [Hannah’s
brother], Thomas W. and Keziah, whose
husband was Charles N. Lewis, a son of Harriet (Keith) Lewis [my 2nd
great-grandaunt, and daughter of my 3rd great-grandfather, Samuel
Adkins Keith], (Charles N. was a first
cousin of our Alice Jane (Keith) Miller [my great-grandmother]); the oldest daughter of Isaac Mayfield [my
2nd great granduncle, and son of my 3rd great-grandfather,
Thomas Mayfield], Virginia, and her
husband; and Isaac's youngest daughter, Catherine, then 15, who married in
Kansas in 1871, Daniel T. Lewis, another son of Harriet. [Hannah Watson was
my 2nd great-grandmother. She married Daniel Watson after the 1846
death of my 2nd great-grandfather, John Conrad Miller]
Isaac Mayfield's middle daughter, Florella, married in
Indiana in 1867, Silas Butler. They removed to Kansas in 1880. In 1897, their
daughter, Alpharetta, married Isaac Perry Mayfield, son of John and Clarinda,
and first cousin of Florella.
Others
in this Kansas-bound party were John W. Keith who was a son of Samuel R. Keith,
twin to our James B. Keith.
In
1878, when Isaac Mayfield, with his 3rd wife and their small daughter Ellen,
decided to follow their relatives and friends to Kansas, he took along his son,
Benjamin, and nephew Isaac Perry and niece Hannah, children of John and
Clarinda. Isaac settled in Randolph, Riley County, where he opened a drug store
and also practiced medicine. In this 1878 party also were Hannah's daughter,
Matilda Ann, and her husband, Calvin Hudson, and their family (this couple
undoubtedly related to Calvin Hudson and to David T. Tobias, husband of Ann
Mayfield).
The
Mayfield, Miller and Keith families are all part of my direct family lines that
came together in southeast Indiana – Jefferson, Jennings and Scott Counties –
and then moved west to Kansas. It seems all
very complicated what with the marriages between cousins, childhood friends and
neighbours, both before and after the migrations.
I have discovered over the years of researching that,
when encountering a roadblock in finding a particular family, it is useful to
look for siblings, cousins or former neighbours to see if they had all moved to
other locations together and set up households near to one another. Indexing of
censuses and other lists often contain errors in the spelling of names that
only direct observation of copies of the original documents can resolve. The
people you are searching for are where they are supposed to be but not
identified correctly, so if you can find an old friend or neightbour, or
relative, you might also come across the very person you were looking for to
start with.
Wayne
Shepheard is a volunteer with the Online Parish Clerk program in
England, handling four parishes in Devon, England. He has
published a number of articles about various aspects of genealogy in several
family history society journals. Wayne also provides genealogical consulting
services through his business, Family History Facilitated
