0 My file
Chapter VI

Stories from the records

Real, ordinary lives told only from the papers they left behind: census pages, wills, pensions and gravestones. Each one teaches you how to read a record.

Handwritten receipt marked $1918.60: received of the administrators of Christian Augspurger, deceased, one thousand nine hundred and eighteen dollars and 60 cents, being part of the personal property of said estate upon distribution, coming to three minors and grandchildren of the deceased, received by me as their guardian this 13th day of February 1850, followed by a signature in German script1840s to 1850s · Butler County, Ohio

The Grandchildren's Share

An Ohio farmer's estate papers from 1848 to 1852 hide a small family story: three grandchildren, a guardian, and six receipts that add up.

Six handwritten lines from a sworn declaration: the Battle at Monmouth, and that when his term of three years was out he received from Col. Shephard a written discharge which discharge she had in her possession until about a month ago, when deeming it of no use she burnt it up. The day or year of its date she doth not remember. The word my is struck out with her written above it.1770s to 1830s · Massachusetts

The Widow Who Burned the Discharge

In 1838 a Massachusetts widow told a judge she had burned her husband's Revolutionary War discharge a month earlier. Here is how she proved his service anyway.

Top of a printed 1880 census form headed Schedule 5, Persons who Died during the Year ending May 31, 1880, for Paoli Township, Orange County, Indiana, with handwritten entries on lines 1 to 12; line 12 reads Lemuel Pickens, 68, M, W, Kentucky, Ky, Ky, Farmer, Dec, Killed accidently1870s · Indiana

The Two Decembers of Lemuel Pickens

An Indiana farmer's line on the 1880 mortality schedule, the family he left behind, and a county history that seems to put his death a year too late.

Handwritten one-page contract on lined paper beginning We the undersigned have this day agreed to hire, with three names at the foot, two followed by a cross, two witness signatures under the word Attest, an approval dated January 19th 1866, and three orange revenue stamps crossed with pen strokes near the bottom1860s · Tennessee

Paid in Cotton, Corn and Wheat

A one-page Freedmen's Bureau labor contract from Tennessee, 1866: no dollars, two crosses, three stamps, and a docket that dropped a woman's name.

Handwritten ledger page with printed column headings Date of Certificate, No. of Certificate, Names of Seamen, Age, Height in feet and inches, and Complexion. Entries begin in 1810. The last line shown reads March 11, 32, Doolittle Obed Dana, 22, 5, 5¾, dark.1810s · New Haven, Connecticut

Taller and Lighter at Twenty-Nine

A sailor named Obed Dana Doolittle seems to appear twice in a New Haven customs ledger, seven years apart, and the two descriptions do not agree.

Handwritten ship's list under the heading Embarked at Queenstown. Line 1 a woman named King, 21, spinster, Ireland, Nebraska. Line 2 Annie Moore, 13, with ditto marks, New York. Lines 3 and 4 her two younger brothers, 11, child, and 7. Read and Write columns answered yes.1880s to 1920s · New York and Texas

Two Annie Moores

For years the first immigrant through Ellis Island was given another woman's life. A single census column kept saying so.

Printed Family Record page with Marriages and Births columns. Marriage: William Barnes and Elisabeth Crossen, October 3, 1833. Births of Julian, David, Mary, Elwood, Asail H., William, Ellet and Marian Barnes, 1834 to 1849.1830s to 1880s · Indiana

Fourteen Births and Two Williams

Two stained pages from an Indiana family Bible hold a wedding, fourteen children, three children's deaths, a volunteer of 1861, and a puzzle about which William died.

A full handwritten page: the will of Solomon Johnson, dated February 6, 1812, with witnesses on the lower left and his name and mark on the lower right1810s · Johnston County, North Carolina

Solomon Johnson's Mark

A man who could not sign his name left one page in 1812, and it names his wife, three children, his livestock, and a man who owed him seventy dollars.

Printed death notice: In Augusta, Ky., on the 6th inst., of Pneumonia, Mrs. Mary Veach, in the 57th year of her age, relict of the late David Veach, of this vicinity.1810s to 1860s · Harrison County, Kentucky

The Land Warrant That Never Came

Four lines in a small-town paper named a widow, her late husband and her hometown. A lost piece of government mail named her son.

Two facing handwritten pages from a bound record book: a land grant beginning The Right Honble Thomas Lord Fairfax, with lettered survey corners A to N on the left page and the date and docket on the right1729 to 1767 · Stafford (later Prince William and Fairfax) County, Virginia

The Hickory on Four Mile Run

A 1730 Virginia land grant names a tree, a neighbor and a rent day, and each one leads to the next record.

Printed form headed Claim for Mother's Pension, filled in by hand: Brief in the case of Mary Hobbs, Mother of Seth Hobbs Pri Co. G 18 Ind Vol, with lines for service, death, dependence, and admitted Oct 2 1867 to a pension of $8.00 per month1860s · Indiana

The Son Who Paid for the Flour

A Civil War mother's pension file from Indiana, and how four years of paperwork proved who kept the household fed.