Dear Devoy,
I just discovered something that I cannot believe I missed. In an email
to me dated August 22, 1999 you said Adeline Johnson Cavanaugh's mother's
name was Juadlaugh. That is a great genealogy name because it is so unusual,
and I have begun a search for more details. Can you tell me your source for
that wonderful tidbit of information?
By the way, I have looked at Johnsons until I am blue in the face lately.
Recently I looked through a ton of vertical files in the great genealogy
library in Birmingham. In all those Johnsons I only happened across one
Adeline, by the way, and not at a time or place that seemed to offered any
promise. That surprised me, because I would have thought Adeline was a
fairly common name.
Today I found a second Adeline Johnson, and the time and place are much
more promising. In fact I am hazarding a wild speculation that this Adeline
is the person our Adeline Johnson was named for.
Here are the details. As you know, I have been following up on a lead
from a John Cupit article in a 1955 "Beauregard News" that Adeline's father
was James, son of Captain James Johnson, apparently a Chaplain in the
Revolutionary War, and also apparently the son of Robert Johnson of Virginia.
In following up on this, I happened upon a reference to a person named
Thomas Noell, whose 1831 will mentioned his daughter Theodosia Noell Baughan.
Theodosia had a daughter named Adeline Baughan Johnson who also gets
something in the will. Now of course this isn't our Adeline, because her
maiden name was Baughan and not Johnson, but it does make one curious. Just
extrapolating backward, I am guessing that this Adeline may have been born
about 1790, so she was probably married by 1810 to her husband who was a
Johnson. If indeed that is so, then when Adeline Johnson (our Adeline) was
born about 1818, she may have been named for this person. Yes, I know it is
a stretch, but given how seldom the name Adeline Johnson has cropped up in my
research, I am entering it in the speculative part of my chronology sheet (I
make Chronology Sheets on each couple instead of family record sheets; this
gives me a place to put everything from stories to facts, all in a convenient
and interesting format).
But anyway, the real reason for this note is to ask Devoy where he got the
information that Adeline Johnson's mother was a Juadlaugh? I'd really like
to follow up on such an unusual name.
Cordially,
Michael Cavanaugh