I discovered the name discrepancy a couple of years ago. Since then, I’ve been searching. Searching for Elizabeth, searching for Julia. No marriages for an Elizabeth Hunt. No Julia Hunts on a census. Incredibly frustrating.
But I did find one thing: there was an Elizabeth Hunt, the right age, in Georgia in 1870. She was in the household of a Mary Surratt, born Georgia, several Harper children, born Arkansas, a Surratt child, born Arkansas, Elizabeth, born Georgia and 10 year old Martha Hunt, born Arkansas. (And before you say anything, this was NOT the Mary Surratt who was hanged in Baltimore as a Civil War spy.)
This census record does not generate any record hints on Ancestry. Nothing that links these people to previous censuses. Nothing that would tell me anything about them. I came up with a hypothesis about them, however: Mary and Elizabeth were sisters, Mary was first married to Mr. Harper, had those children, then married Mr. Surratt and had that one child. Elizabeth was the mother of Martha, according to my made-up story. I know literally nothing about Elizabeth Cox Hunt. I found one 1860 census, with a David Cox and Elizabeth Cox, right age, born Georgia. They had two little boys. But they were in Hot Spring county which is quite a ways from Cross county. It seemed unlikely. Because she was about 34-35 years old when she married John/Jehu, I figured she had to have been married to Cox as opposed to it being her maiden name. Because of that, I concluded this family had nothing to do with my family. After all, Martha was too old to have been John/Jehu’s child unless she was born out of wedlock and it took him all those years to marry her mother.
So I’d put it down and come back to it later. Finally, a breakthrough of sorts: There is a Jehu Hunt, the right age, the wrong birthplace, on the 1870 Mortality Schedule in Fayetteville, Fayette county, Georgia who died in June 1869 of smallpox. The people on the mortality schedules are cross-referenced to their families on the corresponding population schedules and he is linked to the household of Mary Surratt, those Harper and Surratt children, Elizabeth and Martha Hunt.
Could it be? How could it be? Fayetteville, Georgia is a long way from Cross county, Arkansas. The only details here that match are Jehu Hunt, the right age and Elizabeth Hunt, the right age.
So I put it down and came back from time to time to try and find out more about Mary, her children, Elizabeth and Martha.
Yesterday, everything fell into place. Sometimes that darn Ancestry search engine will show you records it hadn’t shown you before, using the same search terms.
I found Mary on the 1850 census with her husband John HOPPER and oldest daughter, Nancy. They lived in Smith Township, St. Francis county, Arkansas. Where John/Jehu would live and buy land nearby in 1858. I found Mary and John HOPPER again in the same place in 1860. In their household was her presumed (by me) sister, Elizabeth Dearing and her daughter Martha J. Dearing. Mary’s daughter Elizabeth’s death certificate states her mother’s maiden name was Dearing.
I have come up with another hypothesis: Martha was born out of wedlock. She was Julia. John/Jehu gave her his name to give her legitimacy.
I went on to find Mary’s children in census/marriage/death and burial records. I found her grandchildren’s records. I couldn’t stop finding records. Except for Martha/Julia. And Elizabeth. 🙂
Being mindful of confirmation bias, I have another made-up story: John/Jehu, Elizabeth and Martha/Julia went to Georgia to visit her sister and possibly other family. For whatever reason. Maybe a health emergency. Maybe a death in the family. Farmers didn’t just up and go on vacation back then. John/Jehu contracted smallpox while there and died. Because his property and estate had to be probated in Arkansas, it took her some time to travel there from Georgia and that’s why she didn’t appear at the probate court until January.
My next steps are to track down living descendants of Mary. Find out if the family name was Hopper or Harper. The records have been about even for both spellings. See if they know what happened to Elizabeth. And Martha/Julia. Find out if they know where Jehu is buried. See if I can figure out if he was my GGGF Hunt. I’m not related to any of them, so DNA won’t help.
I’d like to put the finishing touches on his story.
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