FYR New Connection

Question

There is a challenge for the Month of June to get all the Notable guests on the Show - Finding Your Roots - connected here on Wikitree.

https://www.wikitree.com/g2g/1585911/join-us-to-connect-finding-your-roots-guests

I chose Gaby Hoffmann, the child actress from Sleeping in Seattle and other movies in the 1990s.

Family search has a tree for Gaby's grandmother Theresa Blackburn, that goes all the way back to the Colonial era. The Great Pilgrim Migration I think.

So I have added a line from Gaby and her grandmother Theresa Blackburn-7288 going back 4 generations.

https://www.wikitree.com/wiki/Blackburn-7288

The last profile is Enos Blackburn-7392.

According to FS he was born in 1807 and died in 1872.

FS says that the father of Enos is Israel Blackburn-2010

The ONLY record I can find, which is somewhat flimsy, is the 1840 census for Robertson County, Tennessee. Enos and Israel are both listed on the same census page and also consecutively on that page (or was that just alphabetical order?)  as being HOH for their own families.

There is nothing that specifically says they are father and son. Only that their names were on the same page.

Is this sufficient evidence or is this too flimsy?

Can anyone find any other strong records that show that Enos is the son of Israel or that Israel is the father of Enos.

Such as Birth records?

Because if they can, then I can connect Gaby Hoffman to the Global tree!!!

Thank you!!

Comments

I see I forgot to mention why I am asking this question.

Israel Blackburn-2010 already has a profile on Wikitree.

This is why I am hoping to connect Enos to his father Israel - but I need more proof!!

Thanks.

Answer 1

Sorry - had trouble finding the thread this month, as I had my head buried in several things, including the FYR challenge. Let me look now and see what I can come up with...

Comments

OK - so FS and Ancestry and Geneanet all appear to have some sort of input into this potential relationship. Let me see if I can make sense of it

FS: https://www.familysearch.org/tree/person/details/L656-YV6

Ancestry: https://www.ancestry.com/family-tree/person/tree/76972873/person/36409511461/facts

Geneanet: (couldn't find him, but I'll explain) - but here's Israel: https://gw.geneanet.org/jbmac05?n=blackburn&oc=1&p=israel&_gl=1*l2blho*_gcl_au*MTM5ODA5MzU3NC4xNjg0NjEzNTky

OK - so I'll do FS last, but it will make sense once you see it. All have Israel born around 1772 in North Carolina, either in Surry or Stokes. So he's pretty consistent. His child procreation years couldn't realistically begin until he's around 15 at the earliest, more likely 18 for the most part, so let's just say around 1790 he could begin having children of his own.

The most common spouse seen is Elizabeth Catherine Younger. Her birthdate appears most often as 1794, but for some reason, FS shows it as 1777. Even more exciting is FS has this with zero sources. So her FS profile and especially her birthdate are highly questionable. Could there be 2 Elizabeth's that he married and the first passed before the second appeared? Yes. But we'd want to prove it somehow. The FS record makes Israel appear to have married 2 different Elizabeth's, but never mentions "Catherine", so to me that's a bit of a question mark.

But then you go to Ancestry and they have Elizabeth Catherine Younger born 1794 having her first child at 1800. And then more at least at 1802, 1807, and 1812. Geneanet shows his first child at 1814, which would have made her 20 at that time. But it's clear we have some issues to resolve. This wife of Israel is the first one to address. I'll save here and then see what I can come up with.

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So let's presume that we should resolve the matter of whether Israel had a first wife (we won't necessarily have to prove her name or marriage date, but let's at least see if we can determine if he "did" have a wife and maybe if he had children prior to 1814). An 1810 Census would help for this, as we should (in theory) be able to get a count of household members. I did find one from 1820:

"United States Census, 1820", database with images, FamilySearch (ark:/61903/1:1:XHLT-HXC : Wed Mar 15 14:20:07 UTC 2023), Entry for Israel Blackburn, 1820.

Israel has a count of 1-2-0-0-1-0 and 0-0-2-0-0-0 That would be 1 free white male (FWM) under 10, 2 FWM between 10-16, and 1 FWM age 26-45, and 2 free white females aged 16-18. If we try to line this up as best we can with the records of who is said that were his children, by 1820 we would have:

Margaret (born 1800, would be 20 years old, possibly married and no longer living at home), John (born 1802, would be 18 years old, again possibly married and no longer living at home), Enos (born 1807, would be 13 years old), Margaret (born 1812, would be 8 years old), Martin (born 1812, but accounts say he died 1813). So we should see approximately 1 FWF aged 20, 1 FWM aged 18, 1 FWM aged 13, 1 FWF aged 8. And unfortunately, none of those line up at all. It sort of appears that he has children living in the household, but it's 1 boy under 10, 2 male teens aged 10-16, and 2 female teens aged 16-18. And no wife, unless one of the older teens happens to be his latest wife (considering he's 48, having an 18 year old bride wasn't unheard of, but maybe slightly unusual). And again, if he started having children as early as 1890 or 1900, at least the age of the children is within his age range to have kids.

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I also found an 1800 Census that appears to be him in Stokes, North Carolina. There are 3 household members (besides slaves). Father is listed as aged 16-25, Mother is listed as aged 26-44, and 1 child is listed, a female under 10. In theory, that "could" be Margaret, born approximately 1800.

So I'd agree, the evidence is very thin and if you choose to make the connection, I'd definitely overdocument the fact that it's made almost purely on circumstantial evidence and that there are some early warning flags that it might not be accurate. In theory, Israel and Enos just happened to live in the same general area, and there's nothing to prove they were father and son. They could have been cousins, or even distant relations. And yes - a birth certificate spelling it out would be great, but sometimes you just don't get that lucky.

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Thank you so much Scott. Very much appreciated!!

Well it looks I cannot use Israel as a connection if there is no proof "beyond a reasonable doubt" that Enos is his son. LOL

I may have to go back and try another one of Gaby's grandparents. Maybe the Hoffmann line.

I am already having too much trouble even trying to find anyone named McNicholas in Colorado!!