My Trails into the Past

To start off this monthly task, I selected twelve of my daughters’ sixteen 2x-great-grandparents. Using a random number generator, no. 10 was selected, which is Nell L. Hutson, who married Thomas Newton Johnston. I will deal with her life as a married person when he is selected. For now, I will focus mostly on her parents and work my way back. This will include Hutson and Selman lines. Background Information This first part will cover what I already know about the family of Nell and her parents. This covers census, marriage, deeds, obituaries, death certificate, and cemetery markers. Laying out the background information will help see the holes where more research is needed. These will be listed as action items. Nell was born on 8 February 1888 somewhere in Texas. This information is from her gravestone. [1] Other documents point to 1889 as the year of her birth. Her parents are Peter H. Hutson and Sarah “Sallie” Selman, though no document states this. [Action1: write proof summar...

Sunset from Pixabay My 3x-great-grandparents, Robert Hutson and Amanda Davis, were last known to be living in Cherokee County, Georgia, in 1860. Also living with them were assumed children: Thomas, Asberry, Peter, and Margarett. These children were 13 years old and younger. My 2x-great-grandfather, Peter, was seven. [1] The 1860 census was the last enumeration I have found for Robert, his wife, and any of his children. They may be in the 1870 and 1880 censuses under completely misspelled or garbled names. So, I have no death date for Robert or for Amanda. I have another child for them: Victoria S., who was born in 1863. She married J. B. Williams in Hunt County, Texas, in 1881. [2] Her daughter, Della, named her parents Bob Huston and Amanda Davis. [3] Della was born in 1885 and likely did not know her grandparents, which may explain the misspelling of her grandfather’s surname. [4] Research Ideas What might be the next steps to locate what became of Robert Hutson? Below are som...

Last week I wrote about a research trip to Texas and the many cemeteries I visited in Comanche County. One such cemetery, Union Cemetery, has the tombstone of my great-grandmother, Nell L. (Hutson) Johnston. It is an unusual tombstone. It is shaped like a tree trunk and has these words around a symbol: In Memoriam Woodmen Circle.” Nell L. Johnston was born on 8 February 1888 to Sarah H Selman and Peter H Hutson. [1] She married Thomas N. Johnston on 6 June 1907 in Comanche County, Texas. [2] They had six known children. She died after a sudden illness on 14 July 1919. [3] She was only thirty-one years old and left two children under five and three children six to ten years old. My grandfather was only 6. Tom would not remarry until twelve years later. Her obituary says very little. She died on a Monday at home and was buried on Tuesday in Union Cemetery. “The many friends of the family will learn with keen regret of Mrs. Johnson’s untimely death, passing away as she did in the p...

Calling all Genea-Musings Fans: It's Saturday Night again - Time for some more Genealogy Fun! Our assignment from Randy Seaver of Genea-Musings is: Which of your known ancestors lived the shortest life?  Consider only the last eight generations and those ancestors with a known birth and death date.  Do you know the cause of death?  Was there an obituary?  How many children did s/he have?  How did you figure this out? Here is mine: As I traveled aboard the Lake Shore Limited after leaving Boston, my first thought was to list all the infant deaths in the family but realized that none of them would have been my ancestors. DUH!  Nell Hutson Johnston did not live long but did give birth to six children, five of whom lived to adulthood. She was just thirty-one years old at her death. Nell was born on 8 February 1888 perhaps in Comanche County, Texas. She married Thomas Newton Johnston on 6 June 1907 in Comanche County. She died on 15 July 1919. [1] I...

Not much is known about my maternal great-grandmother, Nell Hutson. Few records were created that name her. Her nephew, Pete White stated on Nell’s sister, Annie Pearl’s death certificate that she was born in Gustine. [1] Perhaps Nell was born there, too. Her tombstone lists her full birth and death dates: born 8 February 1888 and died 14 July 1919. [2] No death certificate has been found for Nell. Even searching line by line in the Comanche County death register found no record. Deaths had been recorded since the early century. Only a short and very uninformative obituary marked her passing and doesn’t even mention her first name, typical of the era. Mrs. Tom Johnson Dead. Mrs. Tom Johnson died on Monday, July 14, at the family residence in Comanche and was buried Tuesday at 10 a.m. at Union cemetery at Gustine. The many friends of the family will learn with keen regret of Mrs. Johnson's untimely death, passing away as she did in the prime of life when so much of her life was ...

It's Saturday Night - time for more Genealogy Fun! Your mission this weekend from Randy Seaver of Genea-Musings is to: 1) What was your mother's father's full name? 2) What is your mother's father's matrilineal line? That is, his mother's mother's mother's ... back to the most distant female ancestor in that line.  Provide her ahnentafel number (relative to you), and her birth and death years and places. 3)  Tell us about it in your own blog post, or in a Comment on this post, or in a Facebook post.  Please put a link to your post in Comments here. Here's mine: 1. My maternal grandfather (#6) was Tom J Johnston (1912-1973). 2. Tom’s mother was (#13) Nell Hutson (1888-1919), who married (#12) Thomas Newton Johnston (1885-1951). Nell was born in Texas, perhaps in Comanche County, and died of the young age of 31 in Comanche County, Texas. Nell’s mother was (#27) Sarah Helena “Sallie” Selman (1858-1916). Sal...

This week I have been working on Hutson family, specifically, Peter Hayden Hutson. There is much discussion on what his first name was. Some say Payton.   However, all of the documents I have found either list his name as P. H. or Pete. He was known in the Gustine, Texas area as “Uncle Pete.” I wrote about Pete back in 2014 when I participated that year in 52 Ancestors in 52 Weeks. That post is here . Since I wrote that post, I have learned a little more about him. On 13 April 1905, P. H. Hutson purchase a piece of property from R. L. Selman and his wife, Julia P.  This piece of property was located in Gustine, Comanche County.  He paid initially $350 and secured three notes to be paid in 1906, 1907, and 1908, which totaled $400. The land was two acres. [1] R.L. Selman was Pete’s wife, Sarah’s brother, Robert Louis  (1855-1931). The interesting thing about the land, was it wasn’t filed until 27 December 1919. So the next task is to try to figure out: What p...