Another Possibility

 

1870 US Census. Metcalfe County, KY.

There's another possibility for the father of Mary Alice Cain Read, and I've been looking at this entry for years. In the 1870 US Census, my 3rd-great-grandmother Nancy Jane Flatt (listed as Jane Flat) appears in the household of John W. Rose in Metcalfe County, Kentucky. She's listed with John Hubbard, 18 years old. John was a son of Nancy Dowell and James Whitfield Hubbard. Nancy's 2nd husband was Pleasant Flatt. Pleasant Flatt and Nancy Dowell Flatt are just three households away on the same census entry. I've looked at this previously, but ruled it out as Nancy Jane isn't enumerated in the 1880 Census and John had moved away.

By the 1880 US Census, John had married Margaret Harding and moved to Saint Joseph, Buchanan County, Missouri with two young children, Ira and Fidelia Hubbard. But the possibility remains that John was the father of Mary Alice, and Nancy Jane concealed the identity of the father as she delivered her daughter in the Metcalfe County Poor House in February 1878.

I'm testing this theory using the DNA matches in the Cain Targets group I mentioned in my last post, along with some clearly marked adjustments to Thrulines on Ancestry. There's more work to do, along with some other things to look at. I've long questioned whether "Robert Cain" was the actual father of Mary Alice Cain, or if more likely candidates were out there that could be verified by DNA. More to come on this one. At this stage, I'm leaning more toward the reality that the Robert Cain mentioned in the records of the day may not have existed, and our candidate 3rd-great-grandfather is waiting to be revealed through the DNA search.