William K. Smith is one of my brickwall ancestors. He pops up in 1834 Walton co. GA to marry his wife, they then migrated to Cherokee co. AL by 1850, and had a number of children. After his wife died, William K. remarried in his old age to a middle-aged spinster, and after her death in turn, he promptly married her sister.
In the 1870 census, we find William K. and his wife Sarah joined by a pack of newcomers. Elizabeth W. Smith, age 41, Mary, age 14, Josephine, age 12, and Henry E., age 10, all both in Georgia. Frustratingly, no relationship is given. (Please note if you go check the census, the Nancy A., age 22, living in the household is William K. and Sarah's known daughter and not a newcomer).
My theories:
1) Elizabeth W. is William K.'s widowed sister-in-law and Mary, Josephine, and Henry E. are his nieces and nephew. William K. was born in Georgia (although which county is a mystery) so he could well have had a brother living there).
2) Elizabeth W. is William K. and Sarah's widowed daughter-in-law, and the wife of their eldest son, Henry A., born in 1835 who vanishes after the 1850 census. This would require Henry A. to have moved to Georgia and married a woman several years older than himself, neither of which are impossible.
I have tried everything I can think of to find this family on the 1860 census with no luck! I even tried to find marriages for Josephine or Mary in Alabama, but I must be blind because nothing seems to appear. Can anyone help?
