I haven't posted in a while. Because I forgot my password. I'm terrible about passwords. But when you need to use five capital letters, 2 lower case letters, three non-sequential numbers, two special characters (but not %, ^, or *) and a drop of blood from your first born male child, it can get hard to remember those things.
I have been doing a lot of genealogy-ing (it's a verb in my house). I've spent a lot of time on William Lear as well as some other brick walls (and I knocked a few down!). In regards to William Lear, I faced the age-old question of who his father really is. Is it the Henry Lear he is seen on the census with in 1850? Or is he and two other children being out of order in age paired with the other parents listed on his death certificate significant? I have long thought that Joseph R. Lear, who served with William in the 8th KY Cavalry, was in fact Joseph's brother. However, it is equally as likely he is a cousin or an uncle or some other relation, although he is of age to be William's brother (or cousin). They seemed to stay close throughout life, despite living in different states (not that cousins wouldn't have stayed close).
I decided to finally tackle sitting down and tracking the other children on the census with William (Joseph is not one of them, and he should be, at only 12-years-old, if he is Henry's son, and he is also not found elsewhere on the 1850 census yet) as well as Joseph. This serves the two-fold purpose of tracking them to possibly find other information on William as well as possibly finding any male descendants to participate in a Y DNA test in the future, if I can find a Lear on my side willing to spit in a tube for me.
First, I started with the children listed after William on the census, as if they are from the same nuclear family as William, also not children of Henry, just living in his household. They are Hebron, born in about 1844, and Lucy, born in 1847. It is worth noting that Henry's family are listed as Lears, William is listed as a Lear, and Hebron and Lucy are listed as Lairs. I have known for quite some time now that Hebron died in the war for the Union Army. This is possibly one of the sources of contention among William in his family, since family stories state that William's family was mostly Unionist and told him after the war that if he liked the South so much, he should move there. So he did, and that is why we are in Louisiana. At any rate, we know Hebron was dead and apparently had no descendants.
Lucy is a more interesting case. Lucy appears on the 1860 census in the household of Caroline Lear, daughter of Henry Lear. She went on to marry a man with the same last name as Caroline's husband (Woodward/Woodard). She appears as Ellen on the census. We know this to be her because her marriage record lists her as Lucy Lear, but she then again appears on the census as Ellen with her husband in 1870. She had two children and died shortly after the 1870 census, because her husband remarried in 1871. No obituary has been found. So what did we learn from Lucy? Well, it seems more likely that Lucy would be Caroline's sister than her cousin if she was living in her household in 1860. However, it is again not out of the question that they were cousins. They most likely would have been close cousins if they were cousins, since they lived together as far back as 1850, when Lucy was 3. However, this information about her living in Caroline's household does give me pause and suggest that she was Henry's child. If she was Henry's child, it is likely that William is, too. Although given the different spelling of their last name's, they could be three different connected families in one household. Or maybe we just got a sloppy census taker. Also, I have to give credit to my cousin, Lisa Fanska, for the find that Lucy was living in Caroline's household.
Before diving into the other children in Henry's household, let's look at Joseph Lear, because information about him becomes important when looking at the families of the other siblings. Joseph does not appear in the 1850 census, or at least he has not been found yet. First, let's look at Joseph's name. His name is Joseph R Lear, possibly Joseph Rice Lear. It is worth noting that Massie Pond Lear (the wife of Henry Lear) is the daughter of Joseph R. Pond. Our Joseph appears to be named after this Joseph. Thus, it is probable that he is the son of Henry and Massie, although why he does not appear on the census with them in 1850 is a mystery. Again, worth noting is the fact that Massie seems to have been mistakenly placed in the household before Henry's on the census. It is obvious was had a sloppy census taker at the very least. Joseph had four children: an unknown child who probably did not survive infancy, a girl named Lucy who was born in 1871 and was dead before 1900 and likely did not marry or have children (also, let's take note that her name was Lucy, probably after the other Lucy Lear, who it seems is likely Joseph's sister), and two more daughters, Sophronia and Willie, both spinsters. Sophronia and Willie neither one married. Willie is a a family name in my William B. Lear's family as well. Willie and Sophronia appear in the society pages of the newspapers quite frequently due to having visitors, visiting family on their mother's side, and being teachers and members of the Old Maids Association. Sophronia was named after her mother. The mother Sophronia had a nice obituary when she died, detailing some of her genealogy. Joseph, however, had only a little blurb in the paper saying he died. Just my luck. In the end, Joseph has no descendants. What we learn from him is that he was likely the son of Henry and Massey Lear, despite not appearing on the census with them, and he and William B. Lear were very close throughout life.
Moving onward with Henry's known children, we start with Mariah Lear. Mariah is definitively the child of Henry Lear as indicated by several records. She married a John Westley Stinnett, who she mysteriously never appears on a census with, and had 7 children. One was named Alexander, which was also the name of one of William B. Lear's children, and one was named Sophronia, seemingly after Joseph's wife, which seems to indicate a close relationship with Joseph, furthering the hypothesis that Joseph is a child of Henry. Mariah died in 1912 and there is no known obituary for her that might possibly list siblings (boo).
Next is Nancy, who married a Thomas Hunter and had 9 kids. She named children Joseph, William, Caroline, Lucy, and Sofronia. Again, suggesting she is the sibling of Joseph, Caroline, and Lucy at the very least, but maybe William, too? There is no obituary for her either that we know of. Next is the previously discussed Caroline, who married a Woodward, and had 9 children also, one named Joseph and one named Henry. There is a small note about her death in the paper in 1908 that lists one of her daughters. There is nothing else of note about her.
Next up on our list is David Lear- the only possibility for a direct male descendant of Henry to DNA test, supposing William Lear is not a son of Henry. I have a lot of curiosity about one of the son's of David Lear. He appears on a Kentucky birth index in 1857 (before the Civil War) as a son of David Lear and Lettie Turner under the name, W.B. Lair. It very clearly says W.B. However, later in life (after the war), he is listed as William R. Lear, including on his tombstone. The question is, was his birth index entry wrong? Or is it possible that David named his son after his brother, William Bronson Lear, only to see his brother join the Confederate Army, become a disgrace to the Unionist sentiment family, and change his son's middle name. After the war (1869), David had another son named Joseph Lear, whose middle name was Melvin. Although it seems Joseph made peace with the family possibly and stayed in Kentucky after the war. The W.B. Lear on the birth index is very interesting to me and suggest a close connection to William Bronson Lear.
Lastly is Henry's son, John, who had 5 children, two being boys, and none appearing to have produced direct male descendants to the modern day. Nothing of note has been learned from John.
The conclusion to all of this? Well, absolutely nothing definitive, as is the norm. However, I found myself leaning more towards the possibility that William is the son of Henry after all, and I have had the answer to who his parents are sitting right in front of my face for all of these years. It would be nice if he were Henry's son, because Massie Pond's family is relatively well researched, including some nice antique photos. Although on the direct Lear line we would once again hit a brick wall- this time with Henry Lear.
On another note, I found a Lear in my mother's line, in 1600s Virginia. Who are her parents? I have no idea. -_-
No comments:
Post a Comment