Sunday, March 15, 2009
1850 Census shows Henry D. Sherman and Mary (Ellen Hawkins), married in 1846, living together in Shelby Co., TN with child named Mary (or Mark Hawkins, age 6 in household, but not identified as relation of either. Not likely to be younger sibling of wife because of age of possible father of M.E.H.—could be her own child either from previous marriage, or out-of-wedlock—she would have been sixteen at birth of child, and I suspect that if it were Henry's, he would have given it Sherman name, since birth dates and actual marriages were not too rigidly consecutive in those days. Another neat clue and mystery to solve.
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I do think Mary Hawkins (6) could be child of Mary. I would think that early marriage and childbirth at 16 would have been more in line with social mores in 1860s than an out-of-wedlock birth. Argument might then be that Hawkins is not Mary Ellen's maiden name, but could have been the name of her first husband. Just a possibility.
ReplyDeleteThanks for looking at my blog. There is another interesting possibility that I found: a Mary Hawkins applied for a Civil War pension as the widow of a William Hawkins. Hmmm. That would kind of skew the dates around too. So I'll just keep digging
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