An Uncertain Life, Part 2

We left our last post with the death of John Tapscott. On 2 Nov 1871 in Clark County his widow, Elizabeth, married Oliver York. Oliver was born around 1834 or 1835 in Kentucky to John and Drusilla York. On 23 Sep 1830, John York had made bond to marry Drusilla Black in Bracken County, Kentucky. During the 1840s (based largely on children’s ages) John, Drusilla, and their four children (Melvina, Aven, Oliver, and Amanda) arrived in Clark County, Illinois, from Kentucky. (Around the time that John Tapscott's parents had made a similar trip.)

Trees Referencing Trees

We know relatively little of John, Drusilla, and their family. But that is not one sees when looking at family trees on Ancestry.com. Seldom has one seen such ridiculous, scandalously undocumented, and laughable trees. Drusilla Black has become “Drusilla Eveningstar” (in one case, a native American, “Druscilla Princess Eveningstar”); John, who is sometimes from Ulster, New York, marries Drusilla in Clark County, Illinois, even though their children are all born in Kentucky; and their son Aven is morphed into Aven Hall York, who just happened to have the same first name, but the wrong birth date, birthplace, and residence. Of course, the only sources for most of the posted information are other trees. Trees referencing trees. Well, enough polemics.

John Tapscott’s brother, William, took over administration of John’s estate, which was much more difficult that William expected. For two years he tried to settle debts, but failed to do so. Then on 17 May 1872 he published a notice in the Marshall Herald announcing an 18 Jun 1872 court hearing to sell two 40-acre plots of John’s land “or as much thereof as shall be necessary to pay debts against the estate of said John Tapscott. deceased.” Summoned to appear in court were most of John’s living siblings and the children of those deceased, along with husbands in the case of women (sorry, that’s the way things were). Named were

(1) Thomas Tapscott

(2) orphaned children of Jacob Tapscott

Lavina, Andrew, Margaret. Ann

(3) Sarah Ann (Tapscott) Sanders, William Sanders

(4) Frances (Tapscott) Lockard, Samuel Lockard

(5) Lydia (Tapscott) Cardell, William Cardell

(6) Major Tapscott

But some siblings were missing. William, of course, since he was the person arranging the court action, but also James W. Tapscott, Nancy (Tapscott) Siverly, Elizabeth (Tapscott) Sweitzer, and Samuel Tapscott. James may have been deceased by the time the notice was published. His death date is uncertain. But the others were certainly living. Were there separations within the family? Later in life Elizabeth exhibited a rather free spirited lifestyle that could cause familial problems (see Enigmatic Sweitzers, 29 May 2016, 30 May 2016) but the court action notice was published before her nonconformist activities. Of Samuel, there is no doubt. He was  a bounder (posting of 25 Jun 2015). If not rejected from family activities he surely should have been. And Nancy? Other than indications of a low economic position and her husband’s illiteracy, probably because he was German-born, there seems to be nothing to set the Siverlys apart. But, of course, family feelings could not legally eliminate heirs. And there was another missing heir—John’s widow.

We will look at that with our next posting.

An Uncertain Life, Part 1

I am still working on the Clark County, Illinois, Tapscotts, having just finished the life of Henry and Susan (Bass) Tapscott’s oldest child, William. We know a lot about William, his wife Mary Angeline Wallace, and his 960 known descendants (with 674 known spouses). We cannot say the same about his brother John.

The life of Henry and Susan’s second son, John Tapscott, is largely uncertain. We know almost nothing about his wife, who appears from nowhere and then disappears. He had no children, who could have served as a source of information. Extant Clark County Newspapers are almost nonexistent for the latter half of 1870, when John is believed to have died. Death records were not mandated in Illinois until 1877. And his grave marker is so worn that transcriptions are suspect.

John’s badly eroded marker (2014).

Census data indicate that John was born between 1827 and 1829 in, as expected, Kentucky, presumably, Green County. Since John’s Auburn Cemetery grave marker gives his age and date of death, one should be able to calculate a birth date. But two transcriptions of the badly eroded stone, one by your author, give death dates that cannot be correct, 23 May 1850 and 28 Aug 1850. Since probate records show that letters of administration were issued to John’s brother William on 2 Sep 1870, and since John appears in the 1870 Anderson Twp census, the year is certainly 1870 rather than 1850 and August is the more likely month. Accordingly, John’s death date is hesitantly taken as 28 Aug 1870. His age at death is also uncertain. Two grave marker transcriptions give slightly different ages — 41y 2m 14d and 41y 2m 12d, but the major problem is that the number of years, though agreeing in the two transcriptions, is suspect. The latter age allows calculation of a birth date of 16 Jun 1829, in reasonable accordance with ranges calculated from census data, but still questionable.

John took up farming with much of his eventual 160 acres of Anderson Twp land originally belonging to his father. On 15 Apr 1858 in Clark County he married Elizabeth E. Canady, whose middle initial is found only in John’s probate records.

Elizabeth is even more obscure. Born between 1829 and 1832 in Ohio, her parentage is unknown. A number of Canady families lived in 19-century Clark County, but none appear to fit the bill. In 1850 an Elizabeth “Canaday” born in Ohio was living in Darwin Twp. Right location and date to meet John Tapscott and right birthplace, but with a clearly written age of 6 on the census, she cannot be our Elizabeth, unless, of course, the census enumerator made an error. Unfortunately the Canadays disappear from Clark County.

As we have already seen, John died 28 Aug 1870 (or so) at the very young age of 41 (or so) and was interred in Auburn Cemetery. But neither the story nor the mysteries end there, as we will see in a future post.