Celebrations: Labor Day

This 3¢ stamp was issued on September 3, 1956 and paid the postage on a one-ounce first-class letter.

[The Smithsonian Institution - National Postal Museum]

Florence Reece (1900-1986) wrote this song in 1931 after her house was invaded by men hired by the mining company who hoping to find and murder her husband Sam, a union organizer in Harlan County, Kentucky. Fortunately Sam had received a warning and he escaped before they arrived.

© 2018 Copyright, Christine Manczuk, All Rights Reserved.

Working on Wednesday: Michael Hening/Hanon (About 1760? - 1817), Immigrant & Settler

First of all, Michael was a very uncommon name in North America in the 18th and early 19th centuries. One of my maternal 4X great grandfathers, Michael Hening/Hanon is the only one of my forebears to carry that name.

We know very little about Michael, including when and where he was born. It's possible he's the Michael Henning who arrived in Charleston, South Carolina, in 1767/68*, in which case he  could have been as young as five or six and probably would have been an indentured servant from Ireland.* There were two other males on the same list, James Hening and Simon Cameron, both of whom seem to have been associated with Michael in later years.

[(1762) An exact prospect of Charlestown, the metropolis of the province of South Carolina. Charleston Charleston Harbor South Carolina, 1762. [Photograph] Retrieved from the Library of Congress, https://www.loc.gov/item/2012647508/.]

Michael's whereabouts and occupation are unknown over the next dozen year until his name appears as a private on payrolls for the Loyalist South Carolina Militia, along with a James Hening, but we haven't found any more information about his service and have no reason to think he was among those loyalists who left the new United States for Canada.

Instead we believe he's the Michael Hening who appears with his young family*** in the 1790 U.S. Census in Fairfield County, South Carolina. (Note that the following name on the census is that of a Simon Cameron.) His oldest four children, James, Hannah, Samuel and Jesse were born in South Carolina.

[Year: 1790; Census Place: Fairfield, South Carolina; Series: M637; Roll: 11; Page: 153; Image: 103; Family History Library Film: 0568151. Ancestry.com. 1790 United States Federal Census [database on-line]. Provo, UT, USA: Ancestry.com Operations, Inc., 2010. Images reproduced by FamilySearch. Original data: First Census of the United States, 1790 (NARA microfilm publication M637, 12 rolls). Records of the Bureau of the Census, Record Group 29. National Archives, Washington, D.C.]

By 1796 the Henings had moved west to near Nashville, Tennessee, where Michael and Sarah added two more children, Martin and Rhoda, but the family didn't remain there for long and by 1805**** had moved on to Butler County, Kentucky, where Susan and her youngest brother Elijah were born. (Note that there's a James Hening in the same district, although how close a neighbor he may have been in unknown because the list is alphabetical.)

[Year: 1810; Census Place: Butler, Kentucky; Roll: 5; Page: 362; Image: 00200; Family History Library Film: 0181350. Ancestry.com. 1810 United States Federal Census [database on-line]. Provo, UT, USA: Ancestry.com Operations, Inc., 2010. Images reproduced by FamilySearch.

Original data: Third Census of the United States, 1810. (NARA microfilm publication M252, 71 rolls). Bureau of the Census, Record Group 29. National Archives, Washington, D.C.]

However the Henings/Hanons didn't stay in Kentucky either, moving on to Gallatin County, Illinois, in 1812 where Michael died in 1817.

[Ancestry.com. Illinois sesquicentennial edition of Christian County history [database on-line]. Provo, UT: Ancestry.com Operations Inc, 2005. Original data: Illinois sesquicentennial edition of Christian County history. Jacksonville, Ill.,: Printed by Production Press, 1968.]

There are some probate records available online for Gallatin County and that's where I found this:

["Illinois Probate Records, 1819-1988," images, FamilySearch (https://familysearch.org/ark:/61903/3:1:939J-238Y-Y?cc=1834344&wc=SFK5-PTT%3A162587801%2C162598801 : 20 May 2014), Gallatin > Index to estates and guardians 1815-1900 vol 1 > image 18 of 74; county courthouses, Illinois.]

Given how uncommon the name Michael is, I wouldn't be surprised if this records refers to my ancestor. Unfortunately, I wasn't able to locate any other probate records regarding him. (Note: the #44 refers to the box in which the record was placed and is not in chronological order.)

By the way, here's how I'm related to him.

[Ancestry.com]

*On the other hand, his daughter Susan Hanon Matthews (my 3X great grandmother) told the enumerator for the 1880 federal census that her father was born in North Carolina.
**You can learn more about children as indentured servants in colonial times here (PDF).
***We don't know the surname of his wife Sarah.
****To date we haven't located them in the 1800 U.S. Census.

© 2017 Copyright, Christine Manczuk, All Rights Reserved.

A James Harrod Founded the Oldest American Settlement in Kentucky

But was he "our" James Harrod?

[Etching depicting the reconstructed Old Fort Harrod. Source: The Friends of Fort Harrod ]

Sadly, it's clear that this is a different person. This James Harrod was born in Pennsylvania and disappeared into the wilderness in 1792.

[James Harrod of Harrodsburg. Source: The Friends of Fort Harrod ]

The site of the fort is now a Kentucky State Park.You can check out the website here.


© 2017 Copyright, Christine Manczuk, All Rights Reserved.

Monday Is for Mothers: Emily Jane Wilson (About 1800 - Before 1850)

Another female ancestor who is represented in very few records is Emily Jane Wilson, my maternal 3rd great grandmother, who was born in either Barren or Jefferson County, Kentucky, in about 1800. She was the third child and second daughter of  Ruth (Welborn) and John Wilson who were both natives of Rowan County, North Carolina.

[A Map of The Western Part of the Territories belonging to the United States of America. Drawn from the best Authorities. Engraved for Imlay's Topographical Description of that Country. T. Conder Sculpt. Published June 1st 1795, by J. Debrett, Picadilly, London.

Source: David Rumsey Historical Map Collection]

By 1820 the Wilson family had moved on to Crawford County, in southern Indiana, where Emily Jane married William T. Slater on July 30th of that year.

[Indiana. Drawn and Published by F. Lucas Jr., Baltimore. (1822). Source: David Rumsey Historical Map Collection]

By the 1830 U.S. Census the Slater family were living in Pike County, Indiana, west of Crawford County and two years later they had moved on to Illinois, first to Lawrence County in the eastern part of the state and finally to Montgomery County, to the south of the state capitol in Springfield.

[Illinois By David H. Burr New York. Engd by Illman & Pilbrow. Entered ... 1834 by Illman & Pilbrow ... New York.

Source: David Rumsey Historical Map Collection]

William and Emily Jane had eleven children and my descent is from their youngest boy, George W. Slater (1832-1899).

William died in 1847 in Coffeen, Montgomery County, Illinois. We assume that Emily Jane died before 1850 because there's no census record for her in that enumeration. There's no record of where she's buried.

And we have a presidential connection through Emily Jane's older sister Christina (1798-about 1834) whose great great granddaughter Madelyn Lee Payne (1922-2008) was Barack Hussein Obama's beloved maternal grandmother.



© 2015 Copyright, Christine Manczuk, All Rights Reserved.