The ancestors calling...

I've spent much of this rainy day cleaning things around the house. (Sunday the 23rd Nov.)  Kitty litter (my un-faorite-est) then the 2 aquariums...which is such fun and now my fingers are all wrinkly.  But the chartreuse water is gone and now I have counted the guppies (20 teens, 10 adults) and kept them separated.  The big tank still has my 7 year old angel and some younger but ferocious big fish...oh that's not what I want to write you about.

Today with rain outside, I've happily searched on Ancestry.  Went climbing the tree to my great grandmother's side, the Williams.  She was a relative that my mother probably never knew, because her father had died so young.  The Williams came from Missouri to Texas, and from Kentucky to Missouri.

So I've got all these hints on the Williams tree, all these brothers and sisters about whom I know nothing.

I usually ignore them, but today took the time to look at an interesting name, "Liberty Williams" who was one of the elder brothers to William T. Williams, my great grandmom's dad.  Great times 3 Uncle Liberty.  Liberty and William T were born in Pulaski County, Kentucky.


And their parents were born in the same area as well, both Richard Frederick Williams and his wife Nancy Hansford Williams.  Richard Frederick Williams was born in 1792 in Crab Orchard, Lincoln County, Kentucky,

Richard's father, Frederick Williams probably came from South Carolina, while his mother Cassandra Elizabeth, "Cassiah" Tate Williams came from North Carolina.  They were the pioneers who moved to Kentucky by 1792 when Richard was born.  Their first child had been born in South Carolina in 1787.

And the Frederick and Cassiah Williams family may have moved to Kentucky for a while, but they died in Tennessee, while Richard F. as well as Liberty Williams (and other Williams) moved to Missouri.  And then sometime between the time William T. was 38 and 56 (by 1863) he moved from Missouri to Texas, leaving Liberty in Missouri with all his family!

Farmers all.  They had such a job ahead of them when moving to new territory.

It wasn't just go look at the land, put up a cabin, and sew some seeds right away.  Clear timber.  Find fresh water nearby.  Plow the land.  Bring along some livestock as well, and maybe take a few trips back to sources of seeds, nails, the rest of needed livestock, and hope that everyone stays healthy while each of the people help build whatever buildings were first needed.  Put in a garden, or at least go pick those berries and nuts.  And while waiting for any kind of food to grow, what do you eat?  Not barely enough berries!  (Couldn't resist the pun).  The hunters were out getting deer, squirrel, rabbits, birds and whatever could be shot for food.  Mum would have been taking these carcases and skinning them, or plucking, and cooking over a campfire.

What do you think, campfires were not much different than cooking in a fireplace.  Hauling some iron pots and pans were very important in order to make meals.  Someone was bringing water from a creek or river...every night!  And someone was chopping some logs while the littlest someones just picked up sticks for kindling.

Yes a life that was out in nature.  Sounds idyllic, right?  Not when you think of snakes, cold, rain and many bugs and even heat at other times.

It must have made these very hardy folks, cause William T. lived to be 72.  And his wife, Dorcas White Williams, mother of 8,(6 of whom lived to adulthood) lived to 74 years of age.

I'm so glad I was born when I was.  I get the benefit of medical care and social security rather than an adult child who will care for me in my old age.  AND I get the internet.  I don't know how many of the people in the 1800's could read and write, and certainly it was far fewer in the 1700s.  Those folks were too busy killing their food and cooking it, or growing it and eating and sleeping to bother to write anything, let alone teach the kids how.  Schools were obviously a real boon when towns were formed.  But that's another topic for another day.

Happy Ancestor birthday

11) Mary Margaret (Polly) Norman Conn
      Birth 23 Mar 1792 in Culpeper, Culpeper, Virginia,
       Death 13 Dec 1833 in St Charles, St. Charles, Missouri,
10) Mother of Hannah Leak Conn Booth,
9) mother of Richard Booth,
8) father of Eugenia Almetta Booth,
7) mother of Eugenia Booth Miller
6) mother of Mozelle Miller Webb Munhall
5) mother of Mataley Webb Munhall Rogers
4) my mother
3) myself
2) my children
1) my grandchildren.

Does that make her an 8 times great grandmother?  Or maybe only 6, because a first grandmother is 2 above me already.

Then she also had interesting parents (who I wrote about HERE)
Isaac Norman:
    Birth 25 Aug 1765 in Culpepper, Virginia,
Death 11 Sep 1828 in Elk Creek, Spencer, Kentucky, 

and Hannah C. Gage Norman
          Birth 20 Apr 1762 in Culpeper, Virginia,
  Death 28 Feb 1845 in Elk Creek, Spencer, Kentucky

The connection through St. Charles, MO, where she died, is of interest to me.  That's because when my family moved from Houston TX in 1950, we stayed a while in St. Charles before moving to St. Louis, MO.

The Conn family moved to St. Charles between 1826 and 1830, since there are birth records of children in those years.  In 1826 they still were in Shelbyville, KY, where their son, Isaac Thomas Conn was born, and in 1830 daughter, Rebecca Martha Conn, was born in St. Charles, MO.

Let's look back at the history of St. Charles.  Founded by French Canadians around 1765, it was part of Spanish territory.  "The Boone's Lick Trail began in St. Charles and was the major overland route for settlement of central and western Missouri then known as the Boonslick or "Boonslick Country." At Franklin, Missouri the trail ended and west ward progress continued on the Santa Fe Trail."

The first church, built in 1791, was dedicated to San Carlos Borromeo, and the town became known as San Carlos del Misuri: "St. Charles of the Missouri". This church was destroyed by a tornado in 1916. The Spanish Lieutenant-Governor Carlos de Hault de Lassus appointed Daniel Boone commandant of the Femme Osage District, which he served until the United States government assumed control in 1804. The name of the town, San Carlos, was anglicized to become St. Charles. William Clark arrived in St. Charles on May 16, 1804. With him were 40 men and three boats; there they made final preparations, as they waited for Meriwether Lewis to arrive from St. Louis. They attended dances, dinners, and a church service during this time, and the excited town was very hospitable to the explorers. Lewis arrived via St. Charles Rock Road on May 20, and the expedition launched the next day in a keelboat at 3:30 pm. St. Charles was the last established American town they would visit for more than two and a half years.

Wikipedia also says...

When Missouri was granted statehood in 1821, a decision was made to build a "City of Jefferson" to serve as the state capital, in the center of the state, overlooking the Missouri River. Since this land was undeveloped at the time, a temporary capital was needed. St. Charles beat eight other cities in a competition to house the temporary capitol, offering free meeting space for the legislature in rooms located above a hardware store. This building is preserved as the First Missouri State Capitol State Historic Site and may be toured. The Missouri government continued to meet there until Jefferson City was ready in 1826. Gottfried Duden was a German who visited in the area in 1824. Travelling under the guidance of Daniel M. Boone, he wrote extensive accounts of life in St. Charles County during his year there. These he published upon his return to Germany in 1829, and his favorable impressions of the area led to the immigration of a number of Germans in 1833.

So though the Conn family moved from settled farming in KY to the new state of MO, this was one of the more settled areas by the time of Rebecca's birth in 1830.  And by then my Gx6 grandmom, Polly Conn would have been 38.  She gave birth one more time, to Mary Ellen Conn on 7 Mar 1833, then died in December of that year. 

The first church in St. Charles was called St. Charles of Bormoreo, (San Carlos Borromeo) a Catholic church..  The Conns in Shelbyville, KY had been buried in Elk Creek Baptist Cemetery. I have no idea if there's a grave nearby for Polly Conn...but at least today I feel I understand a bit more about her life.

If you check a map of St. Charles, you'll see it's at the confluence of the Missouri River and the Mississippi River, kind of north west of St. Louis.  When I moved there in the 50s, flooding occurred in that area almost every spring.  I imagine it had been happening when the Conns lived there also.

According to Ancestry, Mr. John Thomas Conn, her husband married again in Ralls County, Mo in 1836, and had 3 more children with his new wife, and they all moved to Texas, but not including Hannah Leak Conn who would be my Gx5 grandmom.  I'll write more about her on her birthday, 13 April.  Hanna Leak moved to Indiana where she probably lived with her mother's older brother, Lemuel Norman.  I know she married in Indiana, though in a nearby county.

Polly's husband was John Thomas Conn, Birth: 9 Apr 1790 in Plum Creek, Jefferson, Kentucky; 
Death: Nov 1844 in Gonzales, Gonzales, Texas.

John Thomas' parents also moved on this westward migration, and his father died in 1835 in Ralls, MO.  His mother remained in that county and died in 1845 after the rest of the Conn family moved to Texas.  Maybe some of John Thomas Conn's brothers or sisters remained as well in Missouri.