Genealogy > Thom(p)son Genealogy
Wondering about the odds
uneven:
My brand new 1st cousin 3 times removed has sent me a family photo from the 1920's with a key to the names. It's awesome. It's a family reunion and like all reunions there are people with many names. It also contains many Thompsons and best of all several of Levi Thompson's (1834) children including his oldest daughter Mary and son James Thompson. I can account for most of the differing names through marriage but one is giving me some trouble and I'm looking for advice or estimates on the sanity of pursuing this.
My cousin's dad says we are related to the Swindells represented in the picture by Mollie and Mae ( a mother daughter team), but the elder Thompson doesn't know how.
So I set about making a family tree for the Swindells and used Mollie (the mother Swindell in the photo) as my base. Mollie is actually Mollie Hughes (1870) (Swindell is her married name). I followed her back to Thomas and Mary Hughes both born in 1840. Both of Thomas Hughes parents come from Ireland. Mary says her parents are from North Carolina.
For kicks I put Thompson in as the last name for Mary and searched the 1850 census (where I can find no trace of Levi Thompson). There is a Mary Thompson right there in Anderson Indiana with a family of Thompsons that includes an older brother born in 1834.
But the older brother is named James not Levi and the parents list themselves as being from Virginia not North Carolina.
I've run down other paths and got much of the tree back to 1809 for the Swindells but come up empty handed on a possible link.
So here's why I like this one:
-----------------------------------
It would make Mollie Swindell the cousin to Levi's children James and Mary Thompson and would tie things up nicely.
I've questioned Levi's name for quite a while because it's been extremely hard to find Levi Thompson outside the 1860 and 1870 census and his military records. People are fast and loose with names. Mollie Swindell's name alternates between Mollie and Mary for instance.
Levi's son is named James and his oldest daughter is named Mary (both super common... I know) perhaps Levi is a James who chose Levi.
the birth dates are dead on and the town is right.
Why I don't like it:
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I have no evidence that Levi ever went by James.
The parents of this James and Mary (1850 census) are from Virginia and Mary in 1880 says her parents are from
North Carolina.
In 1860 Levi Thompson is already married and says he was born in Indiana (like James in 1850) but by 1870 he says he was born in Pennsylvania.
I have no 1880 record to try to match up his account of his parents with Mary's.
This would tie things up a little too nicely and I've been wrong before.
Mary:
All I can say is...... slog, slog, slog........ at least you keep finding really interesting possibilities! Much better than never finding any even possible links! I must say I wonder why Levi would change his birth state - any chance it's a different Levi in one or the other census?
uneven:
Thanks Mary. That's a good question.
I'm pretty sure it's him in both, because he is with the family both times and the children's names match up. Also I've had the VanBuren location verified for me as I found out my hunch on his wife being Rose A. Blades from VanBuren Indiana in 1850 is correct (got his son's death record today!).
So the census record from VanBuren 1860 lists him as born in Indiana and the census from Alexandria after the war in 1870 says Pennsylvania. In 1869 I know he is attempting to get his civil war veteran's pension because of disability which seems to have taken him to Indianapolis proper. Perhaps he was away for the census?
Later after Levi is gone from any census I can find, the 1880 census (probably done by Rosa) for the children's records say he's from Pennsylvania. When the Children live on their own, in 1900 they say X. On the death record for his son Albert in 1909 it says Indiana.
Frustratingly I cannot find him in 1880..only in 1890 in the next state in Hopewell Ohio on a Veteran's roll. By 1900 Rosa says she's a widow. I wonder now if he didn't answer the questions for the 1870 census and Rosa did it for him. She seems pretty consistent that he's from Pennsylvania.
The further I go...the deeper the mystery seems to get. Of course, by this point if I got a straight answer, I wouldn't trust it.
One thing is for sure today. He is not John L Thompson who marries Rosanna Steele because I have his wife's maiden name Blades. The madison county historical society sent me a bunch of documentation but lamented that they could not find many records before 1880 because of a courthouse fire. I imagine a lot of people have gaps in their history because of it.
mike
Mary:
I imagine a lot of people have gaps in their history because of it.
YUP! That's what's happened to most of our records apparently.....at least, that's what we get told!
At least nor, you know his wife's name isn't Rosaura that we were looking for before! Finding her name is Rose Blades is a true FIND. And I think I would trust the input of a wife than an offspring on where the spouse/father was born. She probably heard a lot more 'reminiscences' than the kids did over the years.
You're actually making amazing strides compared to most.....keep slogging! :)
I'll do some more looking around when I get a chance.
Mary
uneven:
Thanks Mary. I appreciate the help and wisdom.
I seem to be pretty lucky sometimes. In this case, I was lucky there were only 8 pages in the Van Buren 1850 census. Finding Rosa/Rose/Rosanna was like hitting the jackpot. I had filled her out on a hunch in my tree (and was thinking about removing it) and days later I got confirmation of the hunch in the mail. That 1880 census where she lists her parent's birth place was invaluable in matching her up.
With finding Levi in 1890 nearly 20 years after I thought he died and Rosa in 1850 with her dad and getting in contact with living relatives, this has been a pretty action packed month!
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