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| 1840 Harlan County, Kentucky Census |
The
idea of using the census as part of my research keeps taking me to the census
records I can’t find for some of my Kentucky kin. It’s not the ones I
have. It’s the ones I don’t have. Census
records contain a wealth of information, so not having them can create mysteries
that seem unsolvable.
My 2nd
great-grandfather James Miller and a woman and child to be the correct ages of my
second great-grandmother Lucretia Bingham and their daughter Sarah are found on
the 1840 census in Harlan, Kentucky. James
and his family lived next door to Noah Hendrickson, his
brother-in-law. James drops off the face
of the earth after that. He never shows up on another census with or without Lucretia. Lucretia is traceable until she died in 1904.
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| 1850 Harlan County, Kentucky Census |
The 1850
census shows Lucretia with her three children in the household of her sister
and brother-in-law, Noah Hendrickson, in Harlan, Kentucky. This is probably the same location but
without James in the area. The 1860
census is missing for the entire family. On the 1870 census, she is in Knox County, Kentucky, with three children. Lucretia and an adult child and a grandchild show up on the 1880 census for
Knox County, Kentucky. These would now be located in modern Bell County. I have yet to find another census
showing James Miller. The death certificate of James’ youngest daughter,
born about 1863, shows James as her father. My great-grandmother, his middle
child, listed James Miller as her father.
Where
is James on any census after 1840? James lived at least until
1862, possibly fathering all five of Lucretia’s children. There are stories of
Civil War involvement and James possibly being shot by his own men as he ran
out the back door at his brother-in-law, Noah’s house. But he is missing from the 1850 and the 1860
censuses.
Where
was Lucretia on the 1860 census? Family
stories told of Lucretia working for “toting” privileges around the time of the
1850 census. This means she worked in
someone’s household and took home any leftover food for her family. She was destitute, with no husband to help
support the family. These missing census
results continue to fuel the Miller family mystery.
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| Burying grounds for Lucretia, her sister, and Noah Hendrickson. The daffodils mark their graves. |
