Except for an occasional acquisition of bounty land or
promise of cheap land during periods of western expansion, our ancestors did
not move around very much. Many of my ancestors died in the same county where
they were born. That is why a death recorded far from familiar territory always
raises a red flag.
 |
| My great-great grandparents are buried in the Methodist Church Cemetery Shenandoah, Page Co, Virginia |
Segourney Shiflett Eppard was my maternal grandmother’s
maternal grandmother. She was born in Albemarle County, Virginia, in 1850. At
least by 1870 she was a resident of neighboring Rockingham County where she
married George Harvey Eppard.
George and Segourney lived on a farm in McGaheysville and
raised 5 boys and 1 girl. The two oldest died as young adults. One son became a
doctor and moved to Washington DC, one moved to West Virginia, and one moved to
Georgia. It is no wonder then that after Segourney was widowed, she lived for a
time with her daughter.
What IS a wonder, though, is why Segourney died in a
hospital in Washington D.C. She had been living with her daughter in 1925 when
she filed an application for a widow’s pension due her thanks to her husband’s
service during the Civil War. Had she traveled to Washington D.C. to visit her
son George Jr and grandchildren? Was she living with them? Did George send for
her knowing she was ill and that perhaps the hospitals were better equipped?
Even though Segourney seems to have died “out of place,”
I can make sense of it since there are several logical explanations. However,
there is NOTHING to explain why my 3X great-grandmother Sarah Jones Herndon would have left Virginia to
die “out of place” in Iowa. She had no children there. One was in Illinois, but the others were in Virginia.
Sarah Jones was born about 1794 in probably Orange County
because MUCH of Virginia was Orange County at that time. She married Ezekiel
Herndon in 1821. Ezekiel died about 1845. If Sarah were still alive, she should
have been enumerated as head of household in the 1850 census or possibly as a
member of the household of a son or daughter, but there is no sign of her in
Virginia.
However, there was a Sarah Herndon in Iowa in 1860 and in
the Mortality Schedule for 1869. Date and place of birth all seem to match my Sarah Jones Herndon. Trees on Ancestry and on FamilySearch all show
her dying “out of place” in Mahaska County, Iowa, July 1869.
A search of the children listed in Sarah Herndon’s
household in 1860 led to a Findagrave memorial for son Adolphus Herndon. The
person contributed more than a photo; he gave the parents’ names as Carter and
Sarah DAVIS Herndon.
Lesson to be learned: A person's record of dying “out of place”
should serve as a red flag demanding genealogists and family historians to
question the “facts.”
Amy Johnson Crow continues to challenge genealogy
bloggers and non-bloggers alike to think about our ancestors and share a story
or photo about them. The challenge is “52 Ancestors in 52 Weeks.”
Wendy
© 2019, Wendy Mathias. All rights reserved.
What a great post. It took me 5 years to find where my paternal grandpa died, because it was really "out of place." Hundreds of miles out of place. Eventually I found out where and when, and that led me to locating more of my own 2d cousins! So "out of place" can offer excellent clues to family history, as you show in your examples.
ReplyDeleteAlways good to check the facts it would seem! I hadn't thought of that term before "dying out of place." Now I wonder if I had any ancestors that did such a thing.
ReplyDeletebetty
My great grandmother sure died "out of place" - she died on a train as she was traveling from San Francisco to Canada. I've blogged about it before but this might be a good opportunity to do it again.
ReplyDeleteGreat questions. I too wonder about a grave in our family. My great grandmother and a 2xgreat grandmother buried with another of the same surname who lived close by in Australia but came from distant counties in Ireland. Years of tracing has unearthed no other connection than friendship.
ReplyDelete