Sunday, March 30, 2014

52 Ancestors: #13 - Tabatha JOLLETT

Amy Johnson Crow of No Story Too Small has issued a challenge:  write one blog post each week devoted to a specific ancestor.  It can be a story, a biography, a photograph, an outline of a research problem – anything that focuses on one ancestor.



Tabatha JOLLETT.  So many questions.  So little information.

When I discovered Tabatha many years ago, I just laughed.  I thought Tabatha was a name made up by the writers of “Bewitched.”  I had no idea that this name was fairly common in the early 1800s.

As best I can tell, Tabatha was the fifth daughter of James and Nancy Walker Jollett.  Apparently she was born in Orange County, Virginia, sometime between 1797 and 1800.  Her name appears only twice in census records.  In 1850, she was living in Greene  County in the household of Elizabeth King.  A young girl named Frances Jollett was likely Tabatha’s daughter.

1850 Greene County, Virginia Census
Tabatha Jollett age 50 could not read or write

In 1860, the Greene County census taker must have been lazy as names are listed with initials only. “T” Jollett and “FEA” Jollett were in their own home. 

1860 Greene County, Virginia Census
Tabatha age 63 valued her personal property at $40.  She still could not read or write.





And that’s it for Tabatha, as far as I know.  Frances, on the other hand, in 1870 was listed as “cousin” in the household of Thomas and Columbia Marsh and Thomas’s mother-in-law Elizabeth King.  That means Tabatha must have been Elizabeth’s unmarried sister OR the widow of an unknown brother. 

Since there is no “Three Generations” possibility for this family, I present a To Do list:

1.       Search for a death record for Tabatha Jollett.
2.       Search for any records for Frances Jollett, in particular birth and death.
3.       Look for Tabatha’s name on any deeds.




© 2014, Wendy Mathias.  All rights reserved.

10 comments:

  1. Wendy, I have come across several census reports that show only initials rather than first names. It is quite annoying!

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  2. More sleuth work for you. Interesting with the initials...I bet those census workers had no idea there would be relatives in the 21st century digging through the records cursing them!
    Happy Sunday!

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    1. Evidently not. But there are a lot of 21st century researchers doing a lot of cursing.

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  3. How frustrating to find a situation like this! Although...think of the sense of victory when you finally do snag that name in another document. I hope those deeds or a will or something turns up exactly the hint you need!

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    1. I'm sure you'll be able to hear me shout when I do!

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  4. I think it is great you have found as much as you have with so little to go on!

    Tabatha and Elizabeth have always interested me. Looking forward to more.

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    1. Tabatha for sure is interesting. Who was her man??

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  5. My thought was the same as M's above - I'm sure they never thought about others looking at their work hundreds of years later. I thought of that when my grandmother's maiden name was spelled wrong on my mom's death certificate - Fitzgerald without the Z. I snickered inside thinking of someone 100 years from now wondering what in the heck was up with that name?

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    1. I just read a granduncle's death cert today in which his mother - my dad's paternal grandmother - was listed as Mamie. Her name was Mary. I've NEVER heard anyone refer to her as Mamie.

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