m11pw6

Miscellaneous info, Queries, and Nuggets from recent letters (by States, alphabetical order)

Indiana: 1860 Census, Samuel McAninch, in the Mortality Schedule, Hendricks County, pg.259 –

[Line] 24 Samuel Mcninch [sic] [Age] 70 [Sex] M [Color] W [Married or Widowed] M [sic]

[BP] N. Carlina [sic] [Died] Jan'y [1860] [Occ] Farmer [Cause of Death] Palsey [No. of Days Ill] 10

Analysis and explanations by Rosalie Schack, CGRS, Owatonna, Minnesota, except as noted –

[and, the big question, of course, is “Who gave this information?”]

[1] Age 70 on schedule is consistent with age 70 we already have, per tombstone picture.

[2] 'M' for married. [Rosalie] I studied this pretty carefully, wondering if it could be a 'W' for widowed.

But if you look at the 'W' at the top of the 'Color' column, you can see the letter in Samuel's married or

widowed column is not a 'W'. Also if you study the handwriting in of the 'M' in the 'male or female'

column, the 'M' is the same. So is this an error? Or was Polly still alive in 1860? If so, where was she?

[Frank] I agree, the letter is an ‘M’, but I believe Polly died many years before Samuel died in 1859.

[3] Born in North Carolina? [analysis by Frank McAninch] [actually, Samuel was born in

Pennsylvania, as spelled out in full on the 1850 census record] [3a]. On the 1880 census, and later,

people were asked where their father and mother had been born. Of Samuel's children, most said that

Samuel was born in Kentucky, some said Tennessee, but none of his children ever said North Carolina.

However, many of the other people in Pleasant Hill were born in North Carolina (Grimes, Hadley,

Harlan, Phillips, Pike, and Tincher). If one of them gave the info to the census enumerator, they might

have thought that everyone in Pleasant Hill came from North Carolina [3b].

[3a] "Daniel McAninch, Part II: From Pennsylvania, 1790, to Lincoln County, Kentucky",

MFHN v.IX n.2 April 2001 pg.2001-11; and

[3b] "Old Pleasant Hill Methodist Cemetery, Franklin Township, Hendricks County, Indiana",

MFHN v.XI n.3 July 2003 pg.2003-18, full: 68 webpages online, www.McAninch.Net/genphcem.

[4] Month of death is written "Jany". June and July are written out fully for other people on the

schedule, helping eliminate the possibility that this was written in error to mean July. The death date

we have is 30 July 1859. This was almost a year before census was taken. Still, the person who gave

the info should have remembered the month Samuel died, since it was in that past year. At least they

should have remembered that it was during the summer, even if they were wrong on the month.

[5] Occupation is farmer. The interesting thing here is that he is listed on the mortality schedule for

Center Township. He farmed in Franklin Township. Samuel’s children lived in Franklin and Clay

Townships, but not in Center Township in 1860. I hand searched Center Township in 1860, but

there are no McAninch's listed. So did the census taker mistakenly list Samuel in Center Township?

Did he live with some of the elusive children who haven't been found on the 1860 census? Did he

live with someone else in Center Township the last year of his life? Who gave this information?

[6] Cause of death is Palsey. My Webster's gives a definition of 'Paralysis--sometimes with shaking

tremors'. This suggests a possible stroke in today's terminology. Samuel lived long past the average

death date for white males born in the late 1700's.

[7] Number of days ill is 10. This was enough for them to realize he probably wasn't going to recover.

[8] The census taker was W. Astley. He was Ass't Marshal for Franklin, Clay, and Center Townships.

Had the name of the enumerator been different, it could have eliminated the chance of this being

information erroneously copied from one of those townships.

[Frank] Conversely, the enumerator could easily have picked up the info in Franklin or Clay and

then written it himself on the Center Twp. sheets, especially with a small number of deaths to report.

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McAninch Family History NL, v.XII.n.4 October 2004 Copyright Frank McAninch page 2004-26