Looking for a Green Woman in at Attempt to Find the Brown People

Of all the places to have a hole in a document, the name is the worst.

The absolute worst.

This affidavit was made on in 1884 in support of the War of 1812 pension claim for Sarah Brown of Mercer County, Kentucky (obtained digitally on  Fold3 ). The reverse side of the document was digitized as well. It does not name the person making out the affidavit and it does not provide any additional clues as to her identify.

However, locating the individual should not be too difficult as the front does provide clues.

The Reed woman was aged 72 in 1884, making her born in approximately 1812 (she's a woman because she is referred to as "she" in the statement). Reed was living in Mercer County, Kentucky, in 1830 when the Greens were married. Most likely this unnamed Green woman lived in Mercer County from 1830 until the time this statement was made out. Probably, but there is no guarantee she didn't live in a different state for forty years only to return to Kentucky in the 1880s. Despite this possibility, attempts to locate the Green woman should begin with the 1880 census and work backwards.

Without knowing when this lady was married, it is possible that she is enumerated in the census under a different last name. Most likely she has the same surname in 1880 that she had in 1884. Locating her in pre-1850 census records will be difficult because those enumerations only list heads of household.

A Henry S. Reed is a witness to Reed's signature. It is possible that he is either her husband or her son.

Why do I care who this person is?

I care because this person was at the wedding of Thomas and Sarah Brown in 1830 and was someone with whom they had not lost touch 54 years later. That hints at a potential relationship between the Reed witness and one of the Browns.

I just hate it when holes are in the most inappropriate place in a document.

We'll have an update when there's information to warrant one.

Probably Don't Need the Surrendered Brown Warrants

A reading of the entire War of 1812 pension application file for Thomas Brown indicated that the bounty land applications were contained within the pension file itself.

That's the reason the bounty land warrants were referenced on the cover packet for the file.

Obtaining the surrendered warrants (which were used to obtain the actual patent) probably won't tell me anything beyond what is in the pension file. The warrants will be issued in the name of the serviceman (or his widow). If the patent was actually issued to someone else because it was assigned to them, then the signature of the serviceman (or his widow) will appear on the back of the warrant. The chance that there is information on the surrendered warrants connecting Thomas Brown to Charlotte Lake (even indirectly) is very minimal.

And that's my goal--connecting Brown to Lake.

Sometimes children (or sons-in-law) would witness an aged parent assigning the warrant over to someone else. But since by the 1850s the Browns and the Lakes were living in different states, that is unlikely.

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Never seen surrendered warrants?

Here are images of a surrendered land warrant for another relative--for readers who have never seen one. That family has nothing to do with the Brown-Lake families but the surrendered warrants would be similar. Neat stuff, but I'm not certain I need to spend money on it at this point.

Searching for Reverend Joseph Whitehead

An 1884 affidavit made out by Sarah Brown indicated that she and Thomas Brown were married in 1830 by Reverend Joseph Whitehead in Mercer County, Kentucky.

A search on Google Books for "joseph whitehead kentucky" (sans quotes) located several references, including one to a published set of records from the Bethel Baptist Church in Washington County, Kentucky. It's a good thing I didn't include Mercer as one of my search terms or this item may not have been returned as a hit.

Washington County borders Mercer County. At this point, it is not know where within Mercer County the Brown family lived, so it is very possible they are mentioned in these records or at the very least there may some mention of Reverend Whitehead in the church records that have been published. One has to be careful not to assume residential details that are not known.

Given that these records were published recently, there's no full text available for them on Google Books. A search of the Allen County Public Library's card catalog indicates that the item is in their collection, so it will be added to my list of materials to locate when I'm there in August.

Baptist church records are typically not overly detailed in terms of vital records information, but one never knows what may be included.

Pension Suggests Bounty Land Applications for Thomas Brown

Thomas Brown's War of 1812 pension does not directly provide enough information to connect him to his potential daughter, Charlotte (Brown) Lake, despite the fact that the file is a rather large one. But teh file folder suggests additional records that should be accessed.

Cover sheet from Thomas Brown pension file--
based on his War of 1812 service in Kentucky; obtained on  Fold3

The upper right hand corner of the cover sheet indicates that bounty land was received based upon  Brown's service. There is no indication of the applicant for that bounty land.

The bounty land references indicated that there were two separate applications based upon Brown's service--one under the 1850 act and one under the 1855 act. Both were for 80 acres.

Upper right hand corner of cover sheet from Thomas Brown pension file--
based on his War of 1812 service in Kentucky; obtained on  Fold3

The first part of the number indicates the number of the warrant that was issued. The numbers contained three parts so that a clerk seeing the number would be able to find the warrant, know the amount of the acreage, and the act under which the warrant was issued.

The image below was obtained from the Bureau of Land Management website. The warrant number, acreage, and year of the act are shown on the patent.

The warrant was issued to Thomas' widow--his second wife Sallie. It is possible that the names of his heirs in addition to his widow are listed in the paperwork. There is no guarantee that any of his children are listed in the bounty land application. The more realistic situation is that there are affidavits in the application that provide details not given in the pension application.

Stay tuned.

Four Thomas Brown Signatures

The top three signatures are known to be the same man. The bottom one is from the marriage bond of my wife's great-great-grandparents.

The first two images were obtained from Thomas Brown's War of 1812 pension file--on Fold3.
The second two images were obtained from digital images of Mercer County marriage records on FamilySearch.

Image	Details
	4 March 1850—Attorney appointment in Thomas Brown War of 1812 Pension File on Fold3.
	29 November 1850-statement in Thomas Brown War of 1812 Pension File on Fold3.
	October of 1830—Thomas Brown signs his marriage bond in Mercer County, Kentucky. This is the same Thomas Brown who receives the War of 1812 pension as this marriage is referenced in the pension file as proof of the widow’s marriage to Thomas Brown.
	This is the 1847 signature of a Thomas Brown that appears on the marriage bond for the marriage of John Lake and Charlotte Brown.

Other than the "T" in Thomas in the 1830 signature, these look consistent with each other and the last name is written in a very similar fashion every time. The November 1850 signature may have been written with a troublesome pen or Thomas may have had had a reason to write in a slightly more labored format as that signature does not seem to "flow" as much as the other ones do. The first three signatures are known to be for the same man.

These signatures are out of chronological order and were grouped by who they were "known" to have been written by. Putting them in chronology may make the similarities more apparent.

This does not "prove" that Thomas Brown is the father of Charlotte Brown who marries in 1847, but it does solidify her connection to the Thomas Brown who married in 1830 in Mercer County and received a War of 1812 pension. 

Which means I should be looking into probate, court, and land records in Washington County, Kentucky, where the 1812 pensioner Thomas died in the 1850s.

A Lake Bond

This marriage bond was taken out in Mercer County, Kentucky in 1847 by John Lake and Thomas Brown in preparation for the marriage of John Lake and Charlotte Brown. The image used in this blog post was made from a digital image of the bond that was located on FamilySearch.

John Lake is signing for himself. Thomas Brown is signing for Charlotte. There's no direct statement or indirect information here regarding the relationship between Thomas Brown and Charlotte Brown. The fact that he has the same last name as Charlotte and that one party on a bond usually signed for the groom and the other party usually signed for the bride suggests a relationship. Thomas could have easily been Charlotte's father, uncle, or brother. The law wasn't concerned about the specific relationship between the Browns. The law was concerned that he could vouch for Charlotte's age and eligibility to marry.

The best plan of attack at this point is to review 1840 and 1850 census enumerations for the Lakes and Browns in Mercer County, Missouri, for John Lake and Thomas Brown. It is worth noting that there's no guarantee that either man is in the county in either of those years.