We know, in The Legal Genealogist’s family, what seems like so very much about my fourth great grandparents, William and Elizabeth (Jones) Buchanan.
We know, for example, that they were married in Rutherford County, North Carolina, 223 years ago today,1 and that their family was recorded on the 1800 U.S. census of Morgan, Rutherford County, NC. William was shown as head of the household, age 26-44. Based on age and gender, his household could have included his wife Elizabeth Jones, his sons George B. and William (males under age 10), and his daughters Mary J. and Elizabeth, my third great grandmother (females under age 10).2
We know that, in 1809, William sold an estimated nine acres of land to Daniel Rinehart,3 and believe this may mark the end of the Buchanan residence in Rutherford County and the beginning of their residence in nearby Burke County.
We know that they were in Burke for the 1810 census. William was listed as head of a household on that census in Morganton. Based on age and gender, his household could have included his wife Elizabeth, his sons Leonard, Arthur, John and James (males under age 10), his sons William and George B. (males age 10-15), his daughters Patsy, Sally and Anne (females under age 10), and his daughters Elizabeth and Mary J. (females age 10-15).4
We know they were still in Burke County in 1820, when William was listed as head of a household on the 1820 U.S. census. Based on age and gender, his household could have included his wife Elizabeth, his sons Joseph Alexander, Lewis and Clement (males under age 10), his sons Leonard and Arthur (males age 10-16), his son John (male age 16-18), his sons James and William (males age 16-26), his daughters Ruth and Nancy (females under age 10), his daughters Patsy and Sally (females age 10-16), and his daughter Anne (female age 16-26). We think that John was likely double-counted as age 16-18 and age 16-26.5
They continued to live in Burke County in 1830,6 but the area where they lived had become part of the new county of Yancey by the 1840 census. 7
He and Elizabeth appeared on the 1850 U.S. census of Yancey County, enumerated 26 August 1850. William was shown as an 85-year-old farmer, born in Maryland. Elizabeth was shown as age 79, born in Virginia. Their children Sally and Patsy were listed as living with them. Both Sally, shown as Sarah, 39, and Patsy, shown as Martha, 37, were shown as born in North Carolina.8
And we’re pretty sure William died before 1860, probably in Yancey County, while Elizabeth lived through the 1860 census9 and reportedly died on 21 May 1861 at Mitchell County, NC, at age 86.10
Yes, we know a lot.
And we know almost nothing.
Was he called William or Will or Willy or Bill or Billy? Was she Elizabeth or Eliza or Lizzie or Liz?
Did they truly get along with each other as dear and best friends or was theirs more a marriage of convenience? Did they love their children fiercely, dote on and spoil their grandchildren?
Did they gossip? Tell tall tales? What made them laugh? What made them cry? What did they believe in? What were they afraid of?
What were they like, really, as people?
Oh, for a time machine… because those are the stories I’d most like to hear, the questions I’d most like to have answered.
Yes, I love knowing the names and dates and places.
But there’s so much more that I want to know. Just what else did I get in my family history because of the roll of those family dice?
SOURCES
- Bible Record, contained in Affidavit, Ben Buchanan and Burns Turner, 29 January 1931, reproduced in in “Buchanan Family Tree,” Families of Yancey County 10: (September 1993) 67. This affidavit, setting out a “true and exact copy as appears in the old family Bible of Mrs. Naomi Sparks of Estatoe, NC,” was executed before the Yancey County Clerk. The affidavit matches, in most particulars, a transcription purportedly of the same Bible by a school teacher, David Stamey, some years later. The whereabouts of the Bible today are unknown. ↩
- 1800 U.S. census, Rutherford County, North Carolina, Morgan District, p. 99 (stamped), line 16, William Buhannan household; digital image, Ancestry.com (http://www.ancestry.com : accessed 18 March 2007); citing National Archive microfilm publication M32, roll 33. ↩
- Rutherford County, NC, Deed Book 25:36-37, recorded 12 May 1809; North Carolina State Archives, Raleigh ↩
- 1810 U.S. census, Burke County, North Carolina, Morganton, p. 322 (penned), line 7, William Buchannan household; digital image, Ancestry.com (http://www.ancestry.com : accessed 5 July 2003); citing National Archive microfilm publication M252, roll 39. ↩
- 1820 U.S. census, Burke County, North Carolina, population schedule, p. 55 (stamped), line 2, William Buchanan household; digital image, Ancestry.com (http://www.ancestry.com : accessed 14 March 2003); citing National Archive microfilm publication M33, roll 83. ↩
- 1830 U.S. census, Burke County, North Carolina, p. 199 (stamped), line 19, Wm Buckhannan household; digital image, Ancestry.com (http://www.ancestry.com : accessed 13 September 2003); citing National Archive microfilm publication M19, roll 118. ↩
- 1840 U.S. census, Yancey County, North Carolina, population schedule, p. 256 (stamped), line 9, Wm Buchanan Sr household; digital image, Ancestry.com (http://www.ancestry.com : accessed 14 March 2004); citing National Archive microfilm publication M704, roll 374. ↩
- 1850 U.S. census, Yancey County, North Carolina, pop. sch., p. 413 (stamped), dwell. 432, fam. 457, William Buchanan household. ↩
- 1860 U.S. census, Yancey County, North Carolina, population schedule, Bakersville Post Office, p. 394 (stamped), dwelling 330, family 330, Elizabeth Buchanan household; digital image, Ancestry.com (http://www.ancestry.com : accessed 30 December 2004); citing National Archive microfilm publication M653, roll 919. ↩
- George Baumbach, “Colonial Pettypool-Poole-P’Pool Families” (http://www.mindspring.com/~baumbach/ppoole/ : accessed 7 June 2003) (2011, online only through Wayback Machine, http://www.archive.org/web/web.php; 2003 website copy in data files). ↩
Definitely need a time machine. Maybe then I could find all the relations who were hiding under rocks.
“We think that John was likely double-counted [in the 1820 census enumeration] as age 16-18 and age 16-26.”
If the census marshal followed directions, John would have been a tick mark in both the 16-18 and 16-26 age groups. “Those [free white males], for instance, between 16 and 18, will all be repeated in the column of those between 16 and 26.” U.S. Census Bureau, Measuring America: The Decennial Censuses From 1790 to 2000 (Washington, DC: September 2002), p. 6, 1820 Instructions to Marshals.
Me too, Judy…excavating records is the only way I have of having a sense of them as people. Not enough, but just a glimpse. I also wonder whether they were happy they emigrated, did they miss their homeland terribly, how did my German 2xgreat grandfather feel during the anti-German hysteria of WWI. So many questions.
Yes, these are the things I always want to know! How did they meet? What did they say to each other? What sort of marriage was it? Were they good parents?
Sometimes there is a letter or something that provides a clue to the personalities…but all too often you can only imagine.
This has been quite an interesting read for me, since the individuals are shirt-tail relatives of mine.
I particularly notice the spelling for the 1830 enumeration – Buckhannan [note6]. The spelling likely reflects the local pronunciation. My mother and her mother insisted that the surname was spoken in mountain communities as Buck-anan, rather than as “Byu-cannon.” At the least, my grandmother was familiar with the family in Haywood, Macon, and Jackson counties, NC from oral histories of family members alive circa 1900-1910.
In 1850, my 3rd great-grandmother Mrs. Margaret (Black) (Gribble) Montieth lived with her daughter Jane (Gribble) Buchanan and son-in-law James Buchanan (junior) in Macon County, NC. This enumerator – happily for us – recorded the county of birth, not just state of birth, as the birthplace for native North Carolinians. The Buchanan children aged 26 and down all were born in Macon [formed 1828 from Haywood County] but the two Buchanan parents are shown as aged 55 and 50, both born in Burke County, NC. There is a marriage bond for James Buchanan and Jane Gribble dated 16 November 1820, recorded in Haywood County, NC, and suggesting relocation of the couple from Burke County. I am not confident of the parentage of that James Buchanan because the “junior” description was used in his area and era to distinguish between older and younger men with identical names, and did not necessarily indicate father/son relationships. This James Buchanan’s tombstone in present Jackson County, NC gives dates 30 Jan 1796 – 6 May 1874
Almost undoubtedly kin, but to which Buchanan child — that’s another story. There were a ton of ’em!
I’d love to meet them as well as find out which Wright family their daughter in law came from. I’m descended through Arthur.
Well, then, hello, there cousin…
I descend through Arthur/Isobel Wright – Ruth Buchanan/Andrew Jackson – Rebecca Jackson/Felix Morgan – Cora Morgan/Ed Lowe – Jim Lowe/Lucy Hammer (my grandparents).They were all in and around Wyoming COunty, WV but my grandparents moved to Florida in the 1960’s. I sent you a FB request.