In the 1800s communities were not always close knit and neither were families. If it took a horse 8 hours to travel 15 miles, it took three hours to get to your neighbor or brother who lived 5 miles away. Sometimes the only time your saw "close knit" communities work together was in times of crisis. Brothers who hated each other denied knowing eacb other and some went so far as to change the spelling of the last name - like my grandmother's grandfather did. There are many ways to hide.
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Originally Posted by AZDesertBrat
My family sorta has the same "problem" but not because of adoption. My great great grandmother was widowed young with five kids. She either did, or didn't, marry again but she had a son by a man we only know as Mr. ________. He was killed in an accident a few months before her son was born and never used his last name. Great grandad always went by the last name of her first husband and other kids. There was a family in the next county over with that last name but it has never been proven that he was part of it and there were TWO men by this name in the 1810 census, in the county my great grandad was born in. My great grandad was born in 1812. It has always surprised me that, as close knit as communities were back then, that nobody really knew to pass down the info.. Without a first name we're kinda stuck and they didn't have newspapers/obits back then so.....
Anyway, I'd love to solve this "mystery" and get the low down on that particular branch of our family. Just another darn 'brick wall' to try to knock down.
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