Update about blogCa

Monday, August 25, 2014

Anniversary of Isaac Norman's birth, 1765

Happy birth anniversary, Isaac Norman.

I posted what I knew about him last year here. 

Then in December I drove right through Spencer and Shelby Counties in Kentucky.
I shared that adventure here.  

So I continue to be interested in this great grandpapa.
1782 was the year in which Hannah and Isaac married in Culpeper, VA.

More to investigate.  He lived for a time in Rutherford County, NC.  I live just a few counties over from there.  So it's time for another investigation!

His first two children were born in Culpeper County, VA, in 1785 and 1787.
But by Feb 7, 1788 their third child was born in Rutherford County, NC.
On Dec 30, 1789 another child, Abner Norman, was also born in Rutherford County, NC.

Then strangely enough, On March 23, 1792, Mary Margaret Norman (my ancestress) was born back in Culpeper County, VA, where the Norman family had originated.  And her next sibling was also born there on May 20, 1796.  And the next child in 1798 again born in Culpeper County, VA.

In Ancestry, the places children were born aren't listed as where parents lived, but the census of 1790 has Isaac and his wife living still in Rutherford County, NC.  So they probably had returned to VA after their 2-3 years in NC.  In the 1790 Census, their family is listed as having "2 males under 16, 1 male over 16, 2 females."  Hannah Gage Norman, the mother, apparently wasn't counted at that time. It's unlikely she would have already gone back to VA, leaving a son who was about 1 year old, among the 4 children.

My question now is, why between 1790 and 1792 move the whole family back to Culpeper, VA?  Isaac's father had already died before 1784 when his grandfather (Joseph) died leaving him and his mother, Sarah Norman, some property in his will.  We don't know when his mother died, but she had been alive in 1784.  Isaac inherited "100 acres of land lying on the side of Hickman Mountain," and she received "20 schillings sterling."

Hannah Gage Norman's parents were living also in Rutherford County, NC, since 1782.  There are 2 David Gage's on the Rutherford County Census, same page as Isaac Norman, but not clear who was who.  They were alive until 1800 and 1807 and buried in Sandy Run Baptist cemetery.  Now I can look for that cemetery!  Not as easy as I thought, there's no town called Sandy Run, indeed there are a lot of Baptist churches in an association called Sandy Run...all over western North Carolina.  A few phone calls may help me here.

The last of Isaac and Hannah's children was born Dec, 1805 in Spencer County, KY, which is where Isaac Norman and several of his children, and his wife, are buried.  So the trek back to VA was between 1790 and 1800, when they had moved to Shelby County (to be turned into Spencer Co.) KY.

There's a publication which includes early Kentucky settlers, and talks about the son of Isaac, Lemuel and his son William.  But it would have William being born when Lemuel was 12, according to the birth date that I have from the Ancestry records.

Don't you just love this dates/places/people conundrum?  No?  I've got a headache, so will look again later.

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Rutherford county was not formed until 1779 from an older county, Tyron, NC, which no longer even exists.  Parts of Rutherford County later were divided into many other counties...so I'm not sure where the Normans lived, perhaps even in my county of Buncombe, as it originally was part of Rutherford County.

But if I can find the place the Gages were buried, it's possibly the same area the Normans lived.




2 comments:

  1. Hi Violet...that's great. Cousins keep popping up in this ancestry search and recording that I've recently begun publicizing. I hope you will email me sometime at blackmtnbarb AT gmail DOT com. Or perhaps you are also on Ancestry?

    ReplyDelete

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