Merry and Martin Webb family in Warren/Barren area of Kentucky

I have been a bit distracted from the Webb families that I was looking at a few weeks ago.  I spent the day in early August at the Kentucky archives.  At the end of the day I was certain that the marriage found in the late 1700's in Bourbon County, Kentucky was not the marriage of MY William and Nancy Webb.  Another researcher has indicated that there were two separate unrelated Webb lines in the Barren/Warren County area of Kentucky in the late 1700's and early 1800's.  One is a family with names Merry and Martin.  The other unrelated line has Lazarus and Moses who she says moved North about 1800.  Since my Webb line moved from Kentucky to Clay County, Illinois before 1829, I will eventually look at both lines.  But tonight I am zeroing in on the line that has names of Merry and Martin.  The reason for my post is that I was unpacking and found a book called Footprints from the Old Survey Books of Halifax and Pittsylvania Counties in Virginia by Roger C. Dodson.  And as I read a few of the introductory pages and flipped through the rest of the book before adding it to my Virginia shelf, page 102 jumped out at me and there were the names of Merry and Martin Webb.

This is one of those wonderful books that I have learned to think:  "He just doesn't charge enough for the work that goes into publication"

Lunenburg County was formed out of Brunswick County in 1746.  It was a huge county and probably had just enough settlers to ask the Virginia assembly to make a more convenient County Seat to serve these settlers who were on the Western Frontier.

Mr. Dodson says that in the middle of the 18th Century, there were three actions of settlers:  1. entry, 2. survey, and 2. grant of patent.  This book indexes the surveys in land that later became Halifax and Pittsylvania Counties.  

The Webb men that are mentioned are Martin, Merah, Merry, Thomas and William.  All had surveys made between 1747 and 1768.  Four of the surveys were made in April 1768 for Martin, Merry, Merry, and Thomas.  

Hornberger

Charlotte Erickson and I have been chatting about our mutual Hornberger line for several months.  She found me because of the blog posts that I wrote after my visit to Nancy Marie and her brother, Bob Gravenkemper.  Today we are visiting in person!  Hurrah!

Charlotte is the granddaughter of Eleanor Hornberger who married David Haney.  Eleanor is a sister to Nancy Marie's Frieda and my Clara.  The below chart shows our mutual ancestors at the top with their six children.  Lawrence died at birth.  Maggie died either in childbirth of from complications of his birth.

One of the puzzles that Charlotte and I had looked at is the photo that I posted in my blog post:

http://marshamoses.blogspot.com/2013/05/trip-to-blue-ash-ohio-in-april-2013.html

Charlotte suggested that it was possible that the photo was of Frederick and Maggie's oldest daughter, Emma who never married and was a nurse in WW I.  I think that her idea is an excellent idea.  We pulled up the following photo with a google search:

Is this what the lady in the photo below has on?

One of the questions that came up as Charlotte and I chatted is that Charlotte had always heard that Frederick Hornberger had come to the United States alone.  Somehow in my data base the inference is that he and his mother came together and probably with his mother's second husband, Mr. Unger to join his mother's family (Schweikart) in Ironton.  We began to think of ways to try to prove or disprove either of these theories.  It seems that copies of  the naturalization records can be found at the Briggs Library in Ironton:

http://www.lawrencecountyohio.com/naturalizations/naturalizations/Naturalizations_03-06.html

Charlotte and I drove to Ironton to visit the Briggs Lawrence County Public Library to see if we could find a Naturalization for Fred Hornberger.  We called ahead and the librarian had copies waiting for us when we arrived.  Here is a photo of his naturalization in 1886. 

 At the time of his Naturalization the rules that would have been in  place were by Act of 1802:  

1. Declare Intention to become a citizen before a court.

2. Take an oath of allegiance to the United States.

3. Meet the residency requirements of 5 years in the US, 1 year in the State

4. Renounce allegiance to any foreign prince, potentate, state, or sovereignty. 

5. Be of good moral character.

This stood until 1906 basically, when there were changes in evidence required.  The information says to be sure to get all three pieces of information.  The article says that the most information is found in the declaration of intention.  We could not find a Declaration of intention for Fred Hornberg.  We did find a Declaration of Intention for George Unger.  He says that he came from Havre and arrived in NY in 1880.  George says that he is 40 years old in 1882 which is a likely date for a step father for Fred Hornberger.  Here is a website that talks about the less known harbor of Le Havre:

http://19thcenturyrhinelandlive.blogspot.com/2011/10/look-at-le-havre-less-known-port-for.html

Ok.....just brainstorming.  Would the place of entry in 1880 be Ellis Island?  Can I find any of the three:  Fred Hornberger, Barbara Unger/Ungerer, George Unger coming through Ellis Island?  Nope....Ellis Island did not open until 1892.  What was before Ellis Island? 

Castle Garden

www.castlegarden.org/

Castle Clinton National Monument

This free site offers access to an extraordinary database of information on 11 million immigrants from 1820 through 1892, the year Ellis Island opened.

Why do I have the information about Barbara Unger and the Schweikart family in my data base?  Do I have more information filed somewhere?

Be sure to read the blog post at the above link for more information about this family!

http://marshamoses.blogspot.com/2013/05/trip-to-blue-ash-ohio-in-april-2013.html

Webbs in Bourbon County

Instead of putting the following information at the end of this post, I am going to summarize the fact that all of this looking at the Webbs in Bourbon County ended up with my deciding that the marriage event that was recorded for a marriage between William Webb and Nancy smith is NOT my William and Nancy Webb.  I have given up this as a possibility for my ancestors.  After looking all day at court cases in which William E. Webb sued to be paid for medicine and for his services as a physician, I found that he died somewhere between 1798 and 1801.  The information is below.  MY William Webb was alive and well in 1830 in the census of Illinois.  However, I am going to hold onto a few paragraphs that I had written about Webb-Cree-Sandusky families who DO seem to have moved from Bourbon to the area around Warren/Barren Counties in KY.

Elaine and I spent one of the breaks during the KY Historical Society's Annual event featuring Mark Lowe up stairs at the Library.  I pulled out the vertical files that have family files looking at Webb families in Kentucky.  In folder 3, I found a report that is labelled Webb-Creek-Sandusky Families.  It says on the first page that the material contains Bourbon County Marriages, Barren County marriages, Warren County marriage.....Barren County Deed books, Barren County Court orders, Warren County Deed Books.  What grabbed my attention is the fact that this family line seems to have been in Bourbon County before their move to the Warren/Barren area of Kentucky!   I copied the entire report.

On these pages is a marriage in 1790 between Andrew Sandusky and Catherine Creek in Bourbon County.

I took the opportunity to ask Mark after the last session if he had thoughts on what I was seeing....that is his opinion on the possibility that my Webb family had been in Bourbon and then moved on to Warren/Barren and then on to Illinois and he reassured me that it was entirely possible.  Moreover he suggested the possibility that the Nancy Smith that I have been looking at as wife to William Webb could very well be a part of his own Smith line that moved from Bourbon to Warren/Barren area in the early 1800's.  His Smith line is a German line from Fluvanna County.  I am very excited to have a few more puzzle pieces to add to my Webb puzzle.

Mark also said that he will put his map that he called Kentucky Timeline on the KGS website.....so I want to view it after he does this as it shows routes that might have been used by the Webb family to reach Bourbon and then to move on to Warren/Barren area that answers my question about why they might have chosen these two areas.  I will add the link here when I find the map on the website.Elaine and I are spending this Monday morning in the Kentucky archives.  I have promised myself to follow Mark Lowe's advice and to take time today to "mull and ponder".  So I am going to write my blog posts as I go.  Elaine met me at the door with a list of court cases to look at in Bourbon County.....she is an excellent research buddy!  I got lost going the wrong way on the connector and was about a half hour late getting to the archives.

OK.  This morning I am going to concentrate on the marriage that took place in Bourbon County:

Marriage Records for Bourbon County, Kentucky 1786-1800

  Name: Nancy Smith 

  Spouse: William Webb 

  Marriage Date: 11 Sep 1794

information from:  Ancestry 

Marriage Records for Bourbon County, Kentucky 1786-1800

Kentucky was a state at this date having reached statehood in 1792.  In 1791 the area that I am looking at would have been Bourbon County, Virginia.  By 1794 Bourbon County would have been much smaller and encompass the modern counties of Bourbon and Nicholas.

Map from Newberry Library Atlas of Historical Boundaries http://publications.newberry.org/ahcbp/

I had thought that I would look at the tax lists for Bourbon County to see what males were in the area in the time frame.  However, I found the lists to be overwhelming and the court cases to be very interesting.  So I will look to see if I can locate the tax lists in a book or on-line and concentrate on the court cases.

In the first four court cases that I read I established the fact that Ann Webb is administrator for William E. Webb (I will put a couple of examples of middle initial below......but best guess is William E. Webb) along with John Metcalf.  This infers that Ann may be William's widow.  It also indicates that William died without a will.  The date on the suit is 1804 indicating that William probably died in early 1800's and before 1804.  As I read through the first four court records, I realized that William was a physician as at least one of the court cases indicated that a man owed him for medicine and attendance as a physician.

It jumps into my mind that perhaps the reason that the William Webb who was a small landowner was not because he was young but rather because he did not farm in great quantity since he was a physician.

After reading many court cases, I am quite convinced that William E. Webb actually lived and died in Bourbon County while William C. Webb who was a very large landowner in the county never lived in Bourbon.  His agent was John Allen.

William E. Webb died between 1798 when a suit begins in which he is involved (#3235) and Aug 1801 at which time his widow Nancy/Anne ( she is named both ways in same suit) and John Metcalf appear in the suit as administrators for William E. Webb.  There is the possibility that this is the William Webb and Nancy Smith who are married in 1794.  If that is the case this marriage has no bearing in my Webb family history.

I am home tonight reviewing the Webb information that I have on hand.  It turns out that this William C. Webb that I have looked at all day is also a part of the Crittenden Webbs.  Here is what I wrote in another blog post......oh, wait, I'll contact Chuck and double check.  This says Dr. William C NOT E.

I am looking at the Family Tree Maker CD Land Records: Kentucky 
1774-1924 tonight.

In Bourbon County I find

Richard C. Webb with a large amount of land on Flat Creek  1791
Augustine Webb with a large amount of land on Big Sandy R.  1787
William C. Webb with a large amount of land on Stoners Creek 1797
William Webb with a small amount of land on Stoners Fork  1797

Does anyone know if there is a relationship between these men? 
 

Marsha in WV

The answer:

Yes, they're all related to each other
as father and son/father and son/father
and son/
It goes Wm.W-Wm.C-Augustine-John Vivion-Dr. Wm. C.-Walter Leslie-me 

  Sincerely, Charles Webb Becken

It turned out that further correspondence with this man showed this Webb family was from Orange County, Virginia 

Webb families in the area around Warren County

After the last session of the KY historical Society's Annual event featuring Mark Lowe, Elaine and I spent time in the library on the second floor.  We had very little time.  So both of us were going through books about Warren and Barren Counties as fast as we could look.....in spite of the fact that Mark kept telling all of us to "Mull and Ponder".  I did not find a lot during my search, but below is a recounting of what I did find with some of my thoughts.

above from:

This tells  me that at least one of the William Webbs in Warren County is NOT my ancestor as my William Webb has wife, Nancy.

The above land transaction gives an indication of where Eli Webb owned land in Warren County, Ky. This abstraction is taken from the below book:

 and from same book, the following indicating where Martin Webb owned land  as well:

and the below from same book.  Again indicating where Eli Webb owned land and also that it is likely that Eli and Lazarus were acquainted and probably related since Lazarus is a witness for Eli.