Ellen Austin Goodman - Please help

Question

Hello. I need help figuring out information regarding my 3rd Great Grandmother. I'm really confused with her.

1. 1850 Census ( https://familysearch.org/ark:/61903/1:1:M8QJ-W7K ) shows Richard married to Nancy Goodman (23 y/o) with children Narcissa and Mary M. Trying to figure out who Nancy is. Is Nancy and Ellen the same person? I have not been able to locate any death or marriage records for Narcissa or Mary M to see who is listed as their mother.

There is also a 1850 census ( https://familysearch.org/ark:/61903/1:1:M8QJ-NLD )that shows Ellen Austin in the home of Thomas Austin (19 y/o)

2. 1860 Census ( https://familysearch.org/ark:/61903/1:1:MZT8-LS4 ) shows an Ellen Austin (28 y/o) in the home of Tho Austin. Another 1860 census ( https://familysearch.org/ark:/61903/1:1:MZT8-L8Z )also shows Ellen Goodman (33 y/0) in the home of Richard Goodman with children Narcissa, Emma, Sami, Jas and Elizh

3. 1868 SC Probate record shows a will for Thomas Austin who mentions his daughter Ellen Goodman along with his wife Jane and 2 other children named Sarah J and William H. Frances is not mentioned but possibly could have been deceased at the time Thomas made his will. I am not sure when Frances passed as I can't locate any records for them. Census records for 1850 and 1860 show Thomas was married to Jane and had children Frances, Ellen, Sarah and William. Census records show 2 different ages for Ellen in each record as noted above. Supposedly, Thomas and Jane also had a child named Nellie S but I can't find any records to show a connection.

Please if anyone could help me, it would be so appreciated.

Comments

Hi Misty!

Ellen and Nellie were basically the same name, if that helps with the part of your question about Nellie S.  Nellie was the nickname, just like Nan and Nancy are nicknames for Anne, and both Ed and Ned are nicknames for Edward.

Cheers

Shirlea

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wow, you do have an interesting puzzle here!  It seems the name Narcissa was also very popular in the Goodman family.  I see that there is some documents related to the death of a Narcissa Goodman, a minor, in the early part of the 1850s.  At first glance, it seems her estate needed to be settled because she was one of the heirs of someone who had recently died without his estate being settled yet.  

So that Narcissa seems to have been orphaned and might show up in 1850 in the household of an uncle or other relative, without being his child...

See https://www.ancestry.ca/sharing/406502?mark=c108f95d0e3bcef5fd62587196370da2329126ae4472074a093187ee4b2fceef

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My usual way of dealing with the situation when there are multiple instances of a name and it is a bit tangled puzzle like this one: I assume that every single record deals with a different person.  I assemble all the records and see if there are aspects that rule OUT each being the same as each other.  I try to be really slow to rule anything IN.  Eventually it makes sense.  Sometimes with a census, you have to look at the neighbours to see if that stretch of road was enumerated twice, maybe by different enumerators who found different people available to answer questions that day so got slightly different age information from the informant.  Back at the beginning of census taking, people weren't expecting those questions.  They didn't necessarily keep track of how old they and their family members were.  So Dad might answer one way, Mom might be a little more accurate. Or not.

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Are there any church records available for this community? You might want to tag your question with south_carolina or something like that, to get the attention of experts in that geographical area.

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Yes it is a bit of a puzzle for sure. I've racked my brain and searched and searched within my capabilities and can't seem to find anything else about her, her children or her parents.

Unfortunately, I can only see the first photo that says estate of Charles and Narcissa Goodman. I don't have a paid account with Ancestry. I haven't researched a Charles Goodman so I'm not sure if there is a relation but most likely there is if they are in the Laurens area.

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That's basically how I do my researching as well.

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I'm not sure if there are any church records or not. I'm not sure where she passed. I can't find any death records for her. I am thinking about going Sunday to the Church that her husband is buried and see if the Pastor may have any info. I'm only about 30 minutes away from his burial.

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The account here for Ellen was orphaned so I took responsibility for it the other day. The information under her biography was already there. I am trying to see if I can verify it as well. Her son John Calvin is my 2x Great Grandfather.

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Was it a denomination that practiced infant baptism? It would be great if you could get a look at the parish register for Goodman BMD records in that time frame. Maybe a local historical society or the library might have something. Maybe local newspapers???  City Hall??

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I'm not sure about Amy of those questions but maybe the church will know. I tried locating the book I'm the local library that is referenced on his FindaGrave but they didn't have it.