Who is Jane Jacksons Husband? or Parents? Is that even her name?

Question

ok, so im looking through my family, i go to my great grand mothers dad (joe Turner Jackson) , then to his mother (apparently Jane Jackson), i looked and looked, couldnt find any spouse, dates or anything, only a name, can someone help?

jane jackson: Jackson-51973

Joeseph Jackson: Jackson-51973

Comments

I’ve been looking in Ancestry … is Jane actually Lucinda Jane (or possibly Louise Jane)? If so, there are some census, and other, records that look relevant.

Edited to add …

Detail Source

Name:	Jane Jackson
Gender:	Female
Death Age:	73
Birth Date:	abt 1863
Residence Place:	Dunn
Death Date:	Abt 1936
Death Place:	Lillington Route
Obituary Date:	15 Oct 1936
Obituary Place:	Raleigh, North Carolina, USA
Newspaper Title:	The News & Observer
Parents:	Y S Jackson; Sybil Norris Jackson
Spouse:	Allen Jackson
Child:	Joe Turner JacksonJoe T Jackson
Siblings:	Nathan T JacksonMary JonesEllen Jones

This is from Ancestry. It seems that Jane could have been widowed at an early age. Her married name, Jackson, could be the same as her maiden name. Jackson is not an uncommon name, so this is possible. The obituary names a spouse, but I have not found anything to prove he is Joe’s father. Unfortunately, the Ancestry obit is only an extract/index. The full record is not there. The obit was published in the News & Observor from Raleigh, Oct 15, 1936.

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Someone with the $60 Publisher Extra subscription can see the full obit.   Unfortunately, my Newspapers.com sub does not allow me access.

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That info all seems right! thanks!

She lived in dunn! thats all right, Thanks!

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Will

If you do not have an ancestry subscription, many public libraries have a subscription, and it is also available for free at any Family History Center. They also have access to the institutional version f Newspapers.com.

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The obituary names a spouse, but I have not found anything to prove he is Joe’s father.

commented by George Fulton 

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I would actually question if such a person ever existed.  In 1900 she was Lucinda J Jackson, unmarried at age 36, living with her parents.  In 1910 she was Lucinda J Jackson, a Widow, aged 46, with a son born in 1903.

That's not a very large window (1900 to 1903) to marry, give birth, and have the husband die.  (Desertion, I could see.)

In 1930, her name was now Louise J Jackson, Divorced, aged 66, living with the son from the 1910 census (so it's the same person, just with a first name spelling difference).

It seems she went more by Jane, as she also is in records — and that obit (which is viewable as an image attached to a profile on an ancestry tree) — as L. Jane Jackson.

A fictional "husband" of the same last name would help to explain (and prevent the ostracism that went with unwed motherhood) the same last name before and after the birth of the child, especially for a church-going woman who was, by her death, a highly respected member of her community.

The full text of that obit is —

Mrs. Jane Jackson.
Dunn.—Mrs. L. Jane Jackson, 73, died at the home of her son, Joe Turner Jackson, on Lillington, Route 2, Tuesday afternoon at 6:30 o'clock following an illness of 6 weeks.
Funeral services were held Wednesday afternoon at the Grove Presbyterian Church.  Burial was in the church cemetery.
Mrs. Jackson, a daughter of the late Y. S. and Sybil Norris Jackson, was a native of Sampson County, and the widow of Allen Jackson.  She was a charter member of the Grove Presbyterian Church and was well known and highly respected in her community.
Surviving are one son, Joe T. Jackson of Lillington Route 2; a brother, Nathan T. Jackson of Raleigh and two sisters, Mrs. Mary Jones of Dunn and Mrs. Ellen Jones of Lillington, Route 2.

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Of interest, maybe, is that the 1910 census states she had given birth to 2 children, only 1 of which was living.

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An undated delayed birth registration for Joe Turner Jackson (I have seen no evidence that he was ever Joseph) states the father was Allen H Jackson.  But, as this was a delayed registration, it is still not proof there ever was such a person as Allen Jackson — with or without the H.

Answer 1

Much the same information, or lack thereof, on FamilySearch.org. I don't know why the claim by the son, Joe, that his father's name, or the wife's obituary that her husband's name, was Allen is doubted. Who would know better?

An interesting note on an Allen Jackson living in Mingo, Sampson, NC, 1870 census, born about 1860 in Mingo, mother Susan and three brothers; Columbus, Monk and Troy. No other source or info on Allen. Troy only has one source, the 1900 census. Columbus and Monk have numerous sources, so it is perplexing why Allen and Troy only have one each.

Comments

Whenever I see a "widow" who is later "divorced", yet find no evidence there was ever a marriage, I question that any named father of her children may be made up to satisfy the conventions of the day.  For any God-believing, church-going young woman to have a child outside marriage would have ruined her.  "Inventing" a deceased husband would cover that problem with a veil of respectability.  Divorce, too, needs to be looked at in the light of the era.  How difficult was it?  How expensive?  How likely would it be in the decade 1900 to 1910 for someone to marry, have two children, and the husband / father of those children die / be divorced?
Call me a sceptic, but I lean more to "invented husband" than "oh, there he is in this document" without much more proof than a dateless delayed birth record, and an obituary written by someone who may simply have been regurgitating the same falsehood that had existed since 1910.
I would love for there to have been a real "Allen Jackson" - or "Allen H Jackson", but without any better proof than those two sources, I disbelieve it.

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I appreciate your comment, Melanie. I am probably more naive and less of a skeptic. This is an illustration of how little any of us really know when trying to figure out some of these mysteries. And an exchange of ideas and theories is what makes collaboration worthwhile.

What do you think of the Allen Jackson of Mingo? Note that he has no known father either. FamilySearch.org profile Allen Jackson (1860–??) • LWXM-P13.

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I did find him on ancestry, but again with nothing to verify anything.  No census with him in a family that included Jane, or children.  Nothing.
Without some kind of link, I would go very, very carefully before saying "this is him".  (I had a similar situation some while back, where I thought I had the right person, someone had definitely linked the person to my target family on Familysearch - then I found him in a later census, with an entire family.  And I could track him in other years.  NOT the same person after all.)

I spent quite a few hours scouring every spelling I could think of on ancestry.  I found no marriage.  Nothing.  

I hate to seem to be besmirching the name and reputation of someone who appears to have been a decent person, church-going, upright citizen, etc, but without a marriage document, or some other verified documentation that there was a marriage (something other than a decades later obituary, or an undated delayed birth registration (NOT a certificate, but a name in an index)) I remain unconvinced that Allen / Allen H Jackson ever existed.

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I don't think anyone is going as far as "this is him" only saying that "this is a possibility" and beside stating that here, I have left research notes on FamilySearch.

I have had several people start out like this in my tree. I go back every so often and try to chip away a little more, sometimes make a little progress, thankful for the breakthroughs, usually with help, but still have some who have gone nowhere. My Lake brickwall in New Jersey has gone nowhere in my ten years of taking turns on him. You never know when one will crack or when or where the break will come.

Our work has confirmed what little we have found for now. More exhaustive research can certainly be done using other resources and record types. FS shows church records back to 1808, court 1790, land 1752, probate 1778, tax 1784, for starters. I don't have experience in North Carolina and only limited familiarity with these types of records, so I don't think I would be very efficient or have much potential for success, so I will bow out at this point.

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Except that Jane's profile now states she married Allen H Jackson.  That sure looks to me as though saying "this was him".

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I frequently chip away at older puzzles, in the hope that some documents not previously released now have been, or someone has taken a new look at old records and made a clearer transcription.  It's all any of us can do!