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Classification: Query
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Message Board Post:
Must correct my earlier email twice: (1) I looked up Roderick's
will in Holcomb's abstracts, and it shows Wright with a W.
(2) I said that John Hawkins' probate record shows James C.
Right as Sarah's husband, but it only shows "James Right" [Stella
Bogner's compilation]. I'm sure you're correct: spelling was
largely phonetic. They probably all started out as "Wrights," but
it has been helpful to have the early Indiana folk use Right.
You probably have been through Hinshaw [American Encyc. of Quaker Genealogy]. I mostly
looked at Hawkins records, trying to sort everyone out, but the Wrights are there in
abundance,
along with the Hollingsworths, etc.
I confess that I have no documentation to prove that Lavina and
Catherine-the-daughter are sisters; I leapt to a conclusion there. But mother Catherine
is not buried with daughter Catherine, wife of Edmund Thomas. Daughter Catherine is in
Bethel Cemetery along with her daughter Lavina R. Thomas, according to Sims' listing.
I do have a copy of the probate record for Edmund Thomas, but not a full will referring to
the "little gray mare"--would love to see it!!
As far as I know, Edmund and Catherine had only the two daughters, Lavina R. [above] and
Mary Frances who became part of John and Lavina Thomas' household. I have wondered
what sort of epidemic decimated this little family, which appears [in part] in the 1830
census but is gone from the 1840, if I remember correctly.
Lavina Right and John Thomas had the children you mention plus
a daughter Nancy. Only William R. and Nancy lived to adulthood; Edmond died ~5 yrs. and
Sarah ~1, according to Sims' Maysville Cemetery records. Nancy married a Jacob Crabb,
who eventually purchased John's farm [there's a newspaper notice here in this
Board]. William R. married Malina
Johnson, and their first child was Julia Ann. ~1940 my parents
and I had the privilege of meeting Julia Ann Thomas Peek, then
known as "Grandma Peek" and in her 90s. She spent time with
her [and my much younger father's] great-grandparents Bennett and Betsey Thomas when
she was a little girl and told us about the family. Her father, William R., purchased
Bennett's farm in 1853, 2 years before Bennett died.
Yes, naming patterns do suggest that Lavina's father could have
been named William Right. I haven't done any tracking of the
Right name so didn't know there was a William Right in Knox
Co. early on. It's certainly possible that he was a member of the Wright clan of
Union County SC.
James Hawkins [of Montgomery Co PA, Loudoun Co. VA and
Union Co. SC, where he finally got his act together] had I think
7 sons, and all of his sons named their sons for their brothers, so
there was a tangled web of Johns, Isaacs, Benjamins, Nathans,
Williams, Jonathans, and Jameses in Union Co. With the help
of Hinshaw I finally made a chart with James' sons across the
top and their children listed beneath them. It appears that the Quaker Hawkins from Union
Co. largely emigrated to southwestern Ohio and eastern Indiana, but the apostate parts of
those families emigrated to Daviess Co: William and Eli [sons of Benjamin], John and
Benjamin [sons of Isaac], and later the daughter [Letitia Gregory Campbell, Mrs. Vance] of
Isaac's daughter Elizabeth Hawkins who had married into the non-Quaker Gregory clan.
Plus a couple of Hollingsworths. A William Wright from Union Co. might be William Right
of Daviess Co., and perhaps Lavina Right Thomas' father was William Right and she and
Edmund's wife Catherine may have been cousins instead of sisters. But it seems
unlikely, according to your
grandmother's remembrance.
Lavina and John are buried in Maysville Cemetery with
their little Edmond and Sarah. Sims' list is alphabetized and I
didn't copy the Rights, so don't know if they're next to Catherine Right.
Could Catherine have been William's wife instead of Roderick's? I must find again
that biographical sketch of John H. Right in this Board. I believe it says his
father's [James C.'s]
father came to Indiana early and his mother, some years later, if I remember correctly. I
was fixated on Roderick being the father and dismissed that account, but perhaps should
not have. More puzzles.
Re the Catherine Right who married Eli Hawkins in 1866: That
can't be the Catherine Right who married Richard Merrill. I don't
know who that Eli is--son of Sarah Right and William Hawkins,
perhaps? The names do get tangled, and these families were
all interconnected. Bennett Thomas' daughter Mary married
David Coleman, who probably was related to Wiley Right's wife
Ann. [I've been in touch with a descendant of Mary and David;
Coleman, who apparently "went west" later on, and the escendant [Robin Johnsen]
believes he has found Mary's grave near Muscatine, Iowa. David and some sons
apparently went on to Red Willow Co., Nebraska.]
By the way, you said you've been in touch with a descendant
of James C. and Sarah Hawkins Wright. Does that person by
any wild chance know what has become of the Hawkins family
Bible? Hawkins researcher Dorothy Hawkins [you've probably
come across her--her husband descends from John Hawkins'
son Isaac Right Hawkins] says she saw that Bible many, many
years ago, and it gave the surname of John Hawkins' wife Mary
[or Molly] as Tirey or Tyree or Tyre, born in Virginia. I haven't
figured out yet how in the world John met her; there were a few
Tyrees as witnesses in Union Co. land records, and one witnessed a Gregory will, but none
in Union Co. census records.
We have more mysteries than answers so far, but it's lovely to
be in touch with someone who's also working away at them.