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Author: WBROWN
Surnames:
Classification: queries
Message Board URL:
http://boards.rootsweb.com/localities.northam.usa.states.indiana.counties...
Message Board Post:
I already have in my genealogy "tentative" parents of Mary Secrest as George and
Mary, although in my haste I seem to have left out the source (which is probably in print
form somewhere else), so I think we are dealing with the same family -- which would be
progress for me.
Mary had three marriages. The first was to Hugh Montgomery and it was presumably in Adams
County, Ohio. The second was to Burrill Biggs of Kentucky (Adams County is on the Ohio,
just across from Kentucky), and the third, in 1851 in Indiana to Isaac Shull, who did not
live long after the marriage.
Mary's birth date is uncertain. She is on the 1850 census for Nevans Twp, Vigo County,
Indiana as Mary Biggs, age 62. At that point she is living near Jacob Montgomery and
Sterling Biggs. Jacob was her youngest son, born in Ohio, 1821-2, and Sterling is her
oldest stepson, born 1812-13 in Kentucky. Sterling had married Mary and Hugh's
daughter, Esther, so he was also her son-in-law. So there is a line of Biggs which is
also descended from Mary Secrest, despite the fact that Mary and Burrill Walls Biggs had
no children of their own.
On the 1860 census she is Mary Shull, age 74, living two properties down from Sterling,
next to Sterling's son, Burrill W. Biggs (the second).
On the 1870 census she is Mary Shull, age 90, living in the household of George
Montgomery. She apparently aged 12 years in each decade. So her birth would have been
anywhere from 1780 to 1788.
I have no death date, but, not surprisingly, she is not on the 1880 census.
Children, all born in Ohio:
George Washington Montgomery
Hugh Montgomery
Nancy Catherine
Esther
Christopher
Samuel
Jacob
Esther married her step-brother, Sterling Biggs.
I would be much interested in further correspondence. I've had hints of the Secrest
(Segrist?) connection before, but not been able to follow it.
You can e-mail me at w.brown(a)uwinnipeg.ca
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