Margaret Brooks (1772 – 1857) and Husband Joseph Day: Additional Material

Montgomery County, Virginia, Plat Bk. B, p. 147
Montgomery County, Virginia, Plat Bk. D, p. 468
Montgomery County, Virginia, Plat Bk. D, p. 552

Or, Subtitled: The Value of Land Records to Pinpoint When Families Moved Hither and Yon

Here’s some more material I’ve added to a previous posting after I did research recently at the Family History Library in Salt Lake City and had access there to records locked to people accessing the FamilyHistory site via our home computers. When I posted here this past March about Margaret Brooks (1772 -1857), daughter of Thomas Brooks and Margaret Beaumont/Beamon, and her husband Joseph Day, I noted that some of the Montgomery County land records I was citing from him, using research done by Elsie Davis and Mary B. Kegley, were inaccessible to me.

Children of Hannah Brooks (1811 – 1853) and Husband Wesley Huffaker of Wayne County, Kentucky 

“J.A. Huffaker Dead,” Courier-Journal (Louisville, Kentucky) (4 January 1902), p. 7, col. 5

Or, Subtitled: “He began business at Monticello in the general store of Huffaker & Wilhite”

This posting is a continuation of the previous one, which discussed Hannah Brooks, daughter of Thomas Brooks (1775-1838) and Sarah Whitlock. As the previous posting indicates, Hannah married Wesley Huffaker, son of Isaac Huffaker and Elizabeth Hutchinson, in Wayne County, Kentucky, in 1828 and lived there with Wesley up to her death in 1853. Hannah and Wesley had ten children. The following is what I know about the children of Wesley Huffaker and Hannah Brooks:

New Information About the Rice Family of Frederick County, Virginia

Transcript of register of bible of Patrick Rice of Frederick County, Virginia, done in April 1898 by John Seaton at house of Adolphus Lafayette Reid, Greenup, Kentucky, apparent owner of this blbie in 1898; transcript found in the bible of George Rice, son of Jehu Rice of Greenup County, Kentucky
Transcript of register of bible of Jehu Rice, son of Elizabeth Rice, apparently done in April 1898 by John Seaton at house of Adolphus Lafayette Reid, Greenup, Kentucky, who perhaps owned the Jehu Rice bible in 1898; transcript found in the bible of George Rice, Jehu’s son

Or, Subtitled: Precious Transcripts of Old Bible Registers, Tucked Away in Family Bibles

This posting is another interruption in the series I’m currently doing about the children of Thomas Brooks (1775-1838) and wife Sarah Whitlock of Wythe County, Virginia, Wayne County, Kentucky, and Morgan County, Alabama. I’ve promised you a continuation of my discussion of the family of Thomas and Sarah’s son Thomas Whitlock Brooks (1805-1879). I’ll soon be posting information about Thomas W. Brooks’s children by his wives Nancy Gillespie and Nancy Westfall.

Children of Thomas Brooks (abt. 1747 – 1805) and Wife Margaret: Rebecca Brooks (1786-1860/1870) and Husband Jacob Walters

Hardin County, Kentucky, Original Marriage Bonds and Consent Notes, 1807, available digitally at FamilySearch

Or, Subtitled:You can’t tell much about the birth of a baby, except that you were there(Peggy LaRue Walters on Abraham Lincoln’s birth, at which she assisted)

Rebecca Brooks, daughter of Thomas Brooks and Margaret Beaumont/Beamon, was born in 1786 in Frederick County, Virginia. Rebecca was enumerated twice on the 1850 federal census, once in the household of her son Jacob Warren Walters in McCracken County, Kentucky, and once in the household of her son-in-law Barrett Pace in Barren County, with both census entries stating that she was 64 years old and born in Virginia.[1] The 1860 census, in which Rebecca appears in the household of her son-in-law David Foster Pace at Elizabethtown in Hardin County, Kentucky, gives Rebecca’s age as 74 and place of birth as Virginia.[2] Barrett and David Foster Pace were brothers, sons of Joseph Pace and Martha Foster, who married sisters Margaret and Grace Walters, daughters of Jacob Walters and Rebecca Brooks.

Children of Thomas Brooks (abt. 1747 – 1805) and Wife Margaret: Susanna Brooks and Husband Ezekiel Harlan (2)

Pennsylvania Gazette (20 September 1753), p. 3, col. 2

Or, Subtitled: “Wears a cap or wig, black velvet jacket and breeches, and ruffled ſhirts, but may change his apparel”

My previous posting tells you that Susanna Brooks and her husband Ezekiel Harlan have led me on a merry chase as I’ve tried to figure out even the most basic facts about them on the basis of limited evidence, including which particular Ezekiel Harlan Susanna married, when she was born, when and where the couple met, and when and where they died. I’ve become fairly confident that the Ezekiel Harlan whom Susanna married was an Ezekiel Harlan who was born in 1769-1770, and was the son of Ezekiel Harlan (born 1732-6) who was son of Ezekiel Harlan (1707-1754) and wife Hannah Oborn of Chester County, Pennsylvania. To add to the confusion created by the plethora of Ezekiels in this line, the Ezekiel Harlan born in 1769-1770 had a son Ezekiel, too, who was likely born around 1787-8, and who appears in records of Hardin County, Kentucky, along with his father.

Children of Thomas Brooks (abt. 1747 – 1805) and Wife Margaret: Susanna Brooks and Husband Ezekiel Harlan

Hardin County, Kentucky, Deed Bk. D, pp. 426-8

Or, Subtitled: “From there on, all trace is lost”

Working on the family of Susanna Brooks Harlan, a daughter of Thomas Brooks and Margaret Beaumont/Beamon’s, has been a real trip — significant gaps in records, wild twists and turns, hypothetical possibilities that I can’t prove, but which seem tantalizingly close to the truth. I can think of few other genealogical research projects I’ve undertaken in which I’ve encountered such surprises, with so many uncertainties and tangles. What follows is my attempt to sort out the tangles. My conclusions may be wildly wrong, but this is my best attempt to put together the facts as I can find them, and make a coherent narrative out of them.

Children of Thomas Brooks (abt. 1747 – 1805) and Wife Margaret: Robert Brooks (1780 – 1847)

Biographical History of Tippecanoe, White, Jasper, Newton, Benton, Warren and Pulaski Counties, Indiana, vol. 2 (Chicago: Lewis, 1899), p. 1049

Or, Subtitled: “Respected citizens, and … consistent members of the Methodist church”

The obituary of Robert Brooks, son of Thomas Brooks and Margaret Beaumont/Beamon, in the Methodist publication Western Christian Advocate states that he was born 8 November 1780 in Frederick County, Virginia.[1] His tombstone in Abbot cemetery at Fickle in Clinton County, Indiana, states that he died 14 June 1847, aged 60 years and 7 months.[2] Note that the date of birth implied by this tombstone inscription would be 14 November 1786, which conflicts with the date stated in Robert’s obituary. The 1830 federal census puts him in the 1780-1790 age category, while the 1840 federal census shows him born between 1790 and 1800.[3] I find Robert first appearing on the tax list in Wythe County, Virginia, in 1803, which suggests that he was born by or before 1785.[4]

See Find a Grave memorial page of Robert Brooks, Abbot cemetery, Fickle, Clinton County, Indiana, created by Thelma Brooks Morgan, maintained by TCHA Research Library, with a tombstone photo by Thelma Brooks Morgan

Children of Thomas Brooks (abt. 1747 – 1805) and Wife Margaret: Ruth Brooks (1775/1780 – 1837) and Husband William Greenwood (2)

1798 tax list, Botetourt County, Virginia, from Botetourt County, Virginia, Personal Property Tax Lists, 1783-1851, available digitally at FamilySearch

Or, Subtitled: “Many of them attained prominence in the educational and executive departments of State”

I noted in the previous posting that Bartlett/Bartlee Greenwood, brother of William Greenwood who married Ruth Brooks, last appears on the Charlotte County, Virginia, tax list in 1795, and that he then moved his family to Botetourt County, Virginia. Information about the family’s move to Botetourt County for several years appears in Cameron Allen’s history of the Sublett family, which states that Bartlee Greenwood’s grandson G.W. Greenwood is the source of this information.[1] 

Children of Thomas Brooks (abt. 1747 – 1805) and Wife Margaret: Ruth Brooks (1775/1780 – 1837) and Husband William Greenwood (1)

John Carroll Power, History of the Early Settlers of Sangamon County, Illinois (Springfield, Illinois: Edwin A. Wilson, 1876), p. 335

Or, Subtitled: “The Greenwood family is one, around which cluster many interesting reminiscences”

Ruth Brooks was, I’ve concluded, the fifth child of Thomas Brooks and Margaret Beaumont/Beamon of Frederick and Wythe Counties, Virginia. When I say “I’ve concluded,” I don’t mean there’s uncertainty about whether Ruth was a child of Thomas and Margaret. Thomas’s 4 November 1804 will in Wythe County names daughter Ruthie Greenwood.[1]

Children of Thomas Brooks (abt. 1747 – 1805) and Wife Margaret: Margaret Brooks (1772 – 1857) and Husband Joseph Day (2)

History of Daviess County, Kentucky, Together with Sketches of Its Cities, Villages, and Townships, etc. (Chicago: Inter-State, 1883), p. 535

Or, Subtitled: A Family Clearly Illustrating the Genetic Tendencies to Twins in Brooks Lines

This posting is a continuation of a previous discussion of Margaret Brooks (1772-1857), daughter of Thomas and Margaret (Beaumont/Beamon) Brooks of Frederick and Wythe Counties, Virginia. As the article to which the link points tells you, around 1790, Margaret married Joseph Day (1768-1855), son of Joseph and Catherine Yarnall Day of Frederick and Botetourt Counties, Virginia. The previous posting focuses on the family of Joseph and Margaret Brooks Day up to 1804, when they moved from Botetourt County to Kentucky. This posting begins the chronicle of their lives with the move to Kentucky.