On theories and chance

 

A. H. Thayer. Young Woman. 1897.

While revisiting old finds and looking at DNA connections to my 3rd-great-grandmother Nancy Jane Flatt, I am running into challenges to find a connection between her and the potential father of her daughter Mary Alice Cain. A previous post looked into the possibility that this could be a liquor and saloon owner named Robert Cain who was living in Louisville, Kentucky in the 1870s. 

Pleasant Morgan, Nancy's husband and first cousin, named Robert as her first husband in his Civil War pension file. While I've written about his selective memory, I'd like to think the name of Nancy's first partner is something Pleasant would have known. As he was close family living in neighboring Barren County at the time, his mother Elizabeth was Nancy Jane's aunt, leads me to think and hope this was the case.

As to whether young Nancy Jane ran away from Metcalfe County to Louisville in the early 1870s and met Robert there, or Robert was visiting Barren County to acquire meat and liquor for his saloons in Louisville, we just don't know. Robert later took over the saloon and betting exchange located at 236 Main Street. In the late 1860s, proprietor John Kohlrepp was advertising venison from Barren County and quail from Lebanon, Kentucky (not too far from Metcalfe County) served at his restaurant. It's a stretch, but maybe that's how these two might be connected.

Louisville Daily Courier. 28 Nov 1867.

On a chance while researching Robert Cain's family, I looked up his next two generations, for his parents and grandparents. Descendants of Robert Cain's grandmother, Tabitha Edwards, show up as DNA matches on my Mom's results.

AncestryDNA ThruLines.

DNA Day 2024

A quick note that FamilySearch is currently livestreaming a series of DNA Day sessions on its Rootstech site (also available via YouTube and Facebook Live). These are really helpful and I plan to go back and watch several of the sessions later today once my work day allows.

A Loop in the Tree

 

Ancestry. 1850 US Census. Jackson County, TN.

The discovery of Elizabeth Flatt as mother of Pleasant Morgan opened up a surprising connection to Pleasant Flatt. It appears that Elizabeth was Pleasant Flatt's older sister. This means Pleasant Morgan was Nancy Jane Flatt's first cousin. Both Pleasant and Elizabeth were children of John Henry Flatt, and while I'll have much more on him in a later post, the image below from AncestryDNA's Thrulines on my Mom's results is pretty interesting. She has 100 DNA matches to descendants of John Henry Flatt (I have 86). For her of the 11 matching from Elizabeth Flatt, 6 also match to Pleasant Morgan, and down to Frank Morgan and his sister Viola.

AncestryDNA Thrulines.

Elizabeth was born in 1806, probably in Jackson County, Tennessee. I am still researching, but it seems likely she named her son Pleasant (born in 1845) after her younger brother (born about 1820).

Elizabeth and family appear again in the 1860 US Census in Jackson County.

Ancestry. 1860 US Census. Jackson County, TN.

Family history is the story that keeps giving, with loops and knottted branches dispersed among the leaves.

Marriage Bond

 

Ancestry. Metcalfe County, KY. 

Continuing from the previous post, above and below are captures from the marriage bond of Pleasant Morgan and third wife Sarah Josephine Poynter. The bond was signed on 7 December 1892, with the marriage occuring on 8 December 1892. Pleasant's second wife, my 3rd-great-grandmother Nancy Jane Flatt, seems to have been still alive in the Barren-Metcalfe County area at this time.

Sarah Josephine (#1) was born on 19 April 1876 in Metcalfe County, so she was 16 years old at marriage. Pleasant was 47. Nancy Jane would have been 37 then, taking care of five or six children at the time.

From a thorough review of Pleasant's Civil War pension file, he was deaf in his right ear and dealing with debilitating pain, while managing a farm. Most of the eight children listed in the 1880 US Census who were children of his first wife Mary Elizabeth were married in the 1890s, and out of the house when Pleasant started his second family with Nancy Jane, and third family with young Sarah Josephine.

Ancestry. Metcalfe County marriages.

This record is important because it lists his parents as James Morgan and Elizabeth Flatt, and his place of birth in Jackson County, Tennessee. I will have more on this in another post, but Elizabeth ties back into the family of Pleasant Flatt.

On the marriage bond, Sarah Josephine is shown as 17 years old, but she was 16. They were married at the home of her father, Pascal Achilles Poynter, who was seven years younger than Pleasant. Sarah Josephine was only two years older than my 2nd-great-grandmother Mary Alice Cain. Pleasant later signed on Mary Alice's marriage bond on 14 February 1895.

The confusing part is that it looks like Nancy Jane was still alive, and caring for young children when Pleasant married Sarah Josephine in 1892. It is not entirely clear whose child was whose, and given Josie's age in 1892 or even 1890 when Pleasant's daughter Eva was born, there may be some troubling truths to confront. Anna seems to have been a daughter of Sarah Josephine, born before the marriage in December 1892.

Ancestry. 1880 US Census. Metcalfe County, KY.

Ancestry. 1900 US Census. Barren Co., KY.

Back in 2015, a fellow researcher sent me the text from two Barren County news clippings dated October 1894. The first one appeared in the Glasgow Weekly Times for 3 October 1894. "Mrs. Pleas Morgan died at her home near Frank's old mill some three miles from Hiseville last Sunday of heart trouble. She was buried the following Monday evening in the James Nunn burying ground."

The second one appeared in the Glasgow Republican issue for 5 October 1894. "Mrs. Pleasant Morgan died at the residence of her husband near town last Saturday of heart failure."

Selective Memory

 

Civil War pension file of Pleasant Morgan.

Back in August 2015, I wrote about the Civil War pension file of Pleasant Morgan, husband of my 3rd-great-grandmother Nancy Jane Flatt. While I titled that post Pursuing Every Lead, I've failed to look more closely at this file over the past nine years to sort out the confusion over the various families connected through marriage or birth to Pleasant and Nancy Jane. As I noted that 2015 post, there are key parts of the massive file that are worth using a microscope eye to look for these differences.

A first issue is that Pleasant Morgan may have had very selective memory of important dates and facts about his families. I included a screen shot in the 2015 post of his correspondence to the Bureau of Pensions from 4 May 1898. In that document, he stated his marriage date to Josephine Poynter occurred in Metcalfe County on 7 December 1892. Pleasant said his first marriage was to Eliza Finn, he did not remember the date, then he married Nannie Flat, who he said died in June 1892. However, death notices in area newspapers indicated that the "wife of Pleasant Morgan" died in 1894, and Findagrave shows her death date as 30 September 1894, so this doesn't match up.

Another issue is that in 1898, Pleasant Morgan listed his son Frank's birth date as February 25, 1876, but as with my previous post, documentation on Frank's birth date has various dates from January 1881 to 1886. He listed Viola's birth date as May 26, 1887, and Eva's birth date as February 14, 1889 (her death certificate says 1890).

On the 1915 correspondence, Pleasant stated his first wife died on 17 May, while the US Federal Mortality Schedules list a Mary E. Morgan who died in Barren County in May 1880. However, for second wife Nancy (spelled as Nannie Flat) he wrote "died dates not known". The next question asked "if your present wife was married before her marriage to you, state the name of the former husband (etc). Pleasant wrote "yes, Robert Kain". On the next line he wrote, "I know nothing more about him." But Nancy was not the present wife in 1915, it was Sarah Josephine Poynter, who he had married in December 1892. In this case, Pleasant's confusion while answering the questions has provided an important lead.

Question 9 of the 1915 document asked Pleasant to state the names and dates of all his children, living or dead. Here, Pleasant did us no favors, writing that he had nine by his first wife, two were dead by 1915. He said he had six children by his second wife, with three dead, and none by his present wife. This is odd. Josephine Poynter is supposed to be the mother of Anna Morgan, born in May 1892 (and possibly Eva Morgan born in 1889/1890). But maybe Nancy was the mother of these children? Lastly, Pleasant wrote that he could not give dates of birth or deaths for any of his children, although he provided some in 1898.

Adding to the confusion, Pleasant married for a fourth time, on 17 September 1923, to another Sarah Josephine (maiden name Minor, married name Smith in 1923). She also provided a widow's pension application after Pleasant's death. Her claim was approved on 8 November 1928.

I am grateful that have a copy of the file, but I shake my fists a bit in frustration, wishing Pleasant had been more thorough in his answers.