When Was Amy (Nichols) Ledford Born?

Last week, I briefly discussed documentation for John Ledford’s date of death. The conflicts between the information presented in various records pertaining to John’s death were fairly easy to resolve. His wife’s date of birth presents a much stickier situation.

John Ledford’s Date of Death

Today is the 120th anniversary of the death of my great-great-great grandfather, John Ledford.

John Ledford
Mar 1 1822
Apr 1 1894¹

Given the date on his tombstone, y’all probably think I’ve gone ’round the bend, but no, I haven’t. (Not yet, anyway.)

The Anderson Reunion Blog

A few months ago, I started a new blog, The Anderson Reunion, to document the family of Mansfield and Harriet (Black) Anderson, who were the ancestors of many of the modern Andersons (and others) of Western North Carolina.

If you’re related to Mansfield and Harriet, please consider not only subscribing to the blog but contributing to it as well. What I’m most interested in at the moment are things unique to your family, such as stories, letters, pictures, and memorabilia. For my contact information, see the About page.

The 119th annual reunion of Mansfield and Harriet’s descendants is coming up in September. We’ll have more information on it as the time draws near. In the meantime, I hope to hear from my fellow Anderson cousins regarding contributions to the blog. Don’t be shy! All help is appreciated.

Who Were the Parents of Margaret Carpenter, born about 1840?

A while back, I posted the joyful news that I’d found Margaret (McConnell) Carpenter’s year of death among her late husband’s estate records. Margaret has always been a bit of a mystery. Like many women of her era, her history remains hidden by a society that considered her to be an extension of her husband and not necessarily a person in her own right. Parts of her life can be pieced together from land, court, and census records, but parts remain unknown, and may always remain so.

One aspect of her life that I’ve always been curious about is her appearance in the 1850 U. S. census with, in addition to several of her younger children, a girl named Margaret Carpenter, who was born about 1840 in Macon Co., NC, where the family lived.¹ Many researchers believe the younger Margaret was the youngest child of William and Margaret (McConnell) Carpenter, but court records may paint a different story.

The Darnell-Teague Connection

Harrison Darnell was my great-great-great-great grandfather. He was born by his own statement on 15 April 1815 in Wilkes County, North Carolina.¹ His mother was Catherine Darnell,² a somewhat mysterious woman who moved her small family from Wilkes County, North Carolina, to first Spartanburg District and then Pickens District, South Carolina, before settling finally in Rabun County, Georgia.

Harrison was supposedly the son of Catharine’s first husband, whose name is unknown. She married second to a Darnell, whose name Harrison took, and then a third time to Benjamin Grist, a veteran of the Revolutionary War who was himself a widower. Of these suppositions, the only one that has thus far been documented is Catherine’s marriage to Benjamin Grist, which took place on 2 April 1834 in Pickens District, South Carolina.³