Greetins from South Dakota on a very cold winter night.
Would anyone be so kind as to send me a very high resolution scan,(300
dpi tiff file) of the actual handwritten census entry for Simon
Piercon? She is listed as being in the Henry Billiter household,
Huntinton Co., Mt. Etna. I believe this to be my grandmother, Lucina
(Sina) May (M.) Pearson.
For those that may be inerested, waht follows is why I believe this is
my grandmother.
Sincerely,
Blake Urban
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I've just gone through that trying to find my grandmother Lucina May
Pearson Blake in the 1880 census. I had been doing most of the 1880
census searching at
Ancestry.com. However I decided to try the Mormom
site
familysearch.org. I discovered that they use a slightly different
search engine and I eventually hit paydirt.
At familysearch you can search for members of a household. After trying
Lucina and Lusina, 4 or 5 years old, born in Indiana, I came up with
nothing.
I then searched for all members of the Henry Billiter household in
Huntington, Co. Indiana, and came up with four names.
1) Henry Billiter, 39, Married, White, Grocer, which agreed pretty much
with what I knew.
2) Hanah Billiter, 40, Married, White, wife of Henry Billiter, born in
Indiana. That matched what I knew except the spelling should be Hannah
(Pinkerton) Billiter. If Henry was giving out the information in the
absence of Hannah, I could see where this might happen. Not only that,
but Hannah's parents birthplaces are blank. That's a clue that she
wasn't around when the census for her was given.
3) Simon Piercon, 4, Single, White, Son of Henry Billiter, born in
Indiana, Parents born in Indiana.
4) Sylvester Buffington, 28, Barber, Single, White, no relationship to
Henry Billiter.
The Simon Piercon baffled me. I never thought there had been a son.
Then I thought of Piercon pronounced with a soft "C" rather than hard
"C". It dawned on me that this is most likely by grandmother except for
the sex.
1) Simon: Lucina May also was called Sina May and sometimes I have
found Sina M. by close friends and relatives. Sina M. phoenetically
comes very close to Simon. As Lucina was Henry's wife's niece, Henry
probably didn't give the correct data when the census taker visited
him. As a matter of fact, Sina M. is on Lucina's gravestone although
her daughter, my mother, disagrees with it. A child's name might not be
given as the formal name but the family name. Thus Lucina May has
become Simon in the 1880 census.
2) Piercon: phonetically this sounds the same as Pearson. If Henry
(the old goat) was supplying the data, he may not have known the
spelling. So, the census taker wrote what it sounded like. Or this
could be just a trascription error.
3) Birthplace: Indiana. That's correct for Lucina May Pearson
4) Age 4: That would be correct as Lucina was born in August 1875.
She would have been 4 until August 25 of 1880.
5) Single: Correct
6) White: Correct
7) Relation: Son of Henry Billiter. The sex doesn't fit, but unless
the census taker actually asked the sex, someone named Simon would be a
son. And in 1880 Lucina May Pearson would have been in the household of
Henry Billiter. Or, this could be a transcription error again based on
the name.
8) Father's Birthplace: Indiana. Alva James Pearson was born in Ohio,
but if Henry were answering the questions he may have said Indiana.
Alva James Pearson was living in Huntington Co., according to the 1880
census.
9) Mother's Birthplace: Indiana. That would be correct. AFAIK Mary
Ellen Pinkerton Pearson was born in Hungtington Co., Indiana.