Sunday, August 26, 2012

Family Maps

One of the really cool things that my wife brought back from the genealogy library were these family maps of the various counties where my ancestors lived.  One in particular was from Tangipahoa parish that showed my family after Jacob had died or ran off or whatever he did.



It shows James Gill, Loama Pittman, and Nancy Pittman living in the same section, and surrounding area.   I highly suspect that Loama is the same Loami covered in an earlier blog post.  That would give further evidence to him being related, and possibly another son of Jacob and Nancy.

There is also an Isaac Brumfield in the mix too.  I'm not sure if his residence coincided with my relatives, because the land patent is a full forty six years after Nancy's was filed.

The Worst Marriage Certificate Ever

I have entertained the idea, for a long time, that Jacob did not die between 1845 and 1850.  Rather that he ran off for some reason or another.  On Ancestry.com I had seen a record where  a Jacob Pittman married a Martha Moore in Rankin County in 1846.  I always wondered what this record might contain (it was just an index on Ancestry).

Then, I got an opportunity to go to Snowbird Utah for work recently.  My wife tagged along with me so that she could go to the Family History Library there.  I asked her to search for this marriage record, and this is what she found:


Anyone who has spent a little time searching through historical records knows that a lot of them are inconsistent.  This record, however, might be the worst one that I have ever seen.  Let's look at who it says is getting married:
  1. The certificate might be a marriage between Jacob Williams and Martha Levia Moore.  (Marthas first name is shoehorned in)
  2. Jacob Pitman (Notice the 1 "t") first appears midway through the document by the "L.S." box
  3. Then The document decides that it is a marriage certificate between Jacob Pittman and Martha Levia Moon
  4. Finally, at the very bottom, it seems that this is a marriage between Jacob Pittman and Martha Levia Moore (or Moone, or something)
So I am not sure what this is.  I cannot find records of a Jacob Williams or a Jacob Pittman with a wife named Martha in Mississippi other than this record.

Unlike most of the marriage certificates that I've found over the years, this one doesn't list any birthdays or ages, or really anything that could be used to identify the couple other than their names.