My great-great grandmother Louisiana has been a bit tricky to search.  It would have been much easier if there hadn’t been so many mistakes both in family information and records.

 

The Family Story

Louisiana was married to Lemuel McCracken.  Her maiden name was Johnson.  She was feeling ill and the family headed to other family, in Peoria, Illinois.  It was said that she died along the way and at least part of the family assumed that she was buried along a trail.  She was only 49 and left behind several young children.

Louisiana’s Maiden Name

Johnson

I spent years searching for Louisiana Johnson. Records said that she was born in Ohio, but where?  And, why couldn’t I find her?

Since our grandfather was Andrew Johnson McCracken, I thought it was likely that Louisiana’s father was Andrew Johnson.  So, I searched for an Andrew Johnson that had a daughter Louisiana or who could have a daughter her age.  Again, I found nothing.

Still, I really didn’t question the name as it had been passed down in the family. Cousin Mitzi said that she never questioned it because she was told that Louisiana was a cousin to her great-grandfather William T. McCracken’s first wife Lauretta Johnston.  Since Johnson and Johnston are often interchanged, that seemed to support the story.

 

Mattser

During this time, I was contacted by a man who claimed Louisiana’s maiden name was Mattser.  A genealogist he knew had looked (I believe in person) at records for Louisiana and had determined Mattser was the correct last name.

I shared our story of Johnson.  He simply stated that he trusted and believed the woman and he knew her to be accurate.

So, I researched the name Mattser.  I did not find anyone in Ohio with that name at the time that Louisiana was born or during her early years.

It appeared that neither Johnson nor Mattser were Louisiana’s maiden name.

 

Badgley

I also had probate papers for one of Lemuel and Louisiana’s daughters that listed several people that I did not know.  By searching those people, I learned that both Lemuel and Louisiana had been married before.  Why no one in the family seemed to know about these earlier marriages is unknown.  One has to assume that, although much younger than the children from their first marriages, great-grandpa Andrew McCracken would have known they had earlier marriages.  Some of his siblings lived near and possibly with Louisiana’s daughter from her first marriage.

Lemuel and Louisiana’s marriage record listed her name as Badgley, but it wasn’t her maiden name.

 

Matteer

Eventually, I found a marriage record for Louisiana and her first husband James Badgley.  I could see why the researcher had believed the name was Mattser as it could easily be interpreted that way.  Fortunately, a secondary note was written on her marriage record with her father giving her permission to marry since she was not of age.  The surname was not clear, but with her father’s first name, multiple images of the name, and some research, I finally found her family.  I learned her father was William Matteer and her mother was Mary Rodgers.

In addition, although I won’t refer to  them incorrect, the many spellings of Matteer created the necessity to search multiple ways.  Her father appears to have preferred the spelling “Matteer.”  Meanwhile, her siblings generally used “Mateer.”  However, the name is misspelled or mistranslated many  other ways, including “Matter,” which causes lots of headaches when searching newspapers, and “Mattier.”

 

Given Name

I never thought that Louisiana’s given name was a question since her son Andrew had a daughter with the middle name of Louisiana.  However, once I started going through her records, I found her name recorded several ways, which is not uncommon.  Some, such as when she showed up as “Rosannah” in the 1860 census, were clearly wrong.  However, others made me question her name.

When she married her first husband, her name was recorded as Lucianna.  In 1850, she is listed in the census as Louisana.  Then, when she married Lemuel, she was Louisianna Bagley.”

 

They Got It Really Wrong

Then 1860 as Rosannah with her husband Samuel.  Finding this record required manually scanning the census for the area where I suspected the family lived, because the transcription of the record showed them as the McCracker family with husband Samuel, wife Rosannah, and children Mary, Lewis, Delormah, and Samuel.  Mary and Lewis’ given names were correct, but their last name was Badgley.  It isn’t clear if “Delormah” is the correct spelling of Lemuel’s son with his first wife or not.  Based on other records as his son used Del or Lawrence in later records.  And, of course, it should have listed Lemuel, Louisiana (or something close), and Lemuel.

Additionally, Lewis, Louisiana’s son from her first marriage, was listed as being 7 years of age when he was listed in the 1850 census.  It seems this was misheard by the census taker and should have been recorded as 11.  So a mix of transcription errors and errors in the record gave me lots of trouble.

In 1870, she was Louisiana, but her husband was still Sam.  This time the record stated “Sam” instead of “Lem” and “Samuel” instead of “Lemuel” for their son.  Additionally, Ida Belle was listed as Billie in the transcription.  The record looks like they might have written “Billie” and then attempted to change it to “Bellie.”  I am not sure which is worse.  I wouldn’t want to be called “Belly.”

 

Still Wrong

The 1875 Kansas Census added no clarity to Louisiana’s name as it simply recorded her first name as “L.”  However, when she died four years later, the cemetery records list her as Louisanna.  Meanwhile, her daughter Mary Ann’s death record lists her mother as “ Louisiania Mattier.”  On the other hand, her son Lemuel Francis’, we always thought it was Franklin but perhaps not, death record lists his mother as “Leousia Mc Koree.”

So, I believe her name was either Louisiana as we thought or Louisanna.  At least most of the names were similar.  And, perhaps, there wasn’t a correct spelling of her name at all!

 

Location, Location, Location

Louisiana’s Birth

Unlike Lemuel who it seems couldn’t make up his mind if he was born in Pennsylvania or Ohio, Louisiana’s records are consistent on that face.  In the 1830 census, the year she was born, her parents were in Windsor Township in Morgan County, Ohio.  It is assumed, but not proven, that she was born in that location.  She married in Washington County, Ohio, which is adjacent to Morgan County.

Her mother’s birthplace is another story.  In Louisiana’s father’s biography, it states Louisiana’s mother was born in Perry County, Tenn.  This appears to be incorrect.  It seems that her mother was far more likely born in Perry County, Penn.  The difference of one letter and approximately 800 miles. 

Louisiana’s mother also had controversy about her death date.  One record shows her dying in 1849 and another in 1850.  The kicker is that the latter shows, Mary’s death a being a couple of weeks after her husband Matthias remarried.  If the latter is correct, it seems like her husband jumped the gun a bit.  However, I suspect that despite that date being on Mary’s gravestone, she likely died in 1849.

 

Why Did She Move?

I wondered why a woman would move from the eastern edge of Ohio to Lee County, Iowa with two children. Records showed that  her husbands’ family moved west from Ohio. I questioned if her husband had moved and then died or what exactly had happened.  Why, Lee County? 

Well, what happened to her husband may remain a mystery forever.  Instead of incorrect records, no records at all have been found of his death.  Other researchers told me that they assumed he died in the Civil War, but none had any proof.  If that is the case, which I suspect it isn’t, James and Louisiana divorced or Louisiana simply left him.  Louisiana was married to Lemuel before the Civil War began. Thus, she didn’t lose her husband in the war.

Once I found her father, however, I knew why she ended up in Lee County, Iowa as her father and most of her siblings moved there in the 1850s.

 

Louisiana’s Death

Dad believed he had heard that they were headed to Peoria, Illinois to family when Louisiana died.  For many years, I figured that I would never find her in a cemetery.  Then, one day, I looked at a book that contained cemetery information for Bates County, Missouri.  There she was in Morris Cemetery near Butler, Missouri.

I decided to go to the cemetery for clues.  Well, we followed the directions from the book and ended up at the wrong cemetery.  Turns out, we weren’t even close.  We later got new directions and were able to visit her grave, which is just to the left of the drive only a few rows back. 

I found a few clues about the family that raised their son Henry, but none about Louisiana herself and none about where they were headed when she died.  There was a very, very short-lived post office called Peoria near where Louisiana was buried, but I haven’t been able to identify any family that lived in the area.  However, several family names show up in the county.

Likewise, no relatives have been identified in Peoria, Illinois.  However, some members of the McCracken family of which Lemuel appears to associated do live in other counties nearby.  I believe it is likely that they were instead headed to Quincy, Illinois, where her oldest daughter Mary Ann (Badgley) Macklin lived. 

Still, it is a bit odd that she died in Bates County and Lemuel stayed there, remarried, and lived there for almost 15 more years before moving on. Read more about Louisiana.

 

In Total

If you add in all the incorrect records for Louisiana, Lemuel, Louisiana’s parents, and her, his, and their children, I think it would fill a small book.  Far more records were inaccurate in some way than were 100% accurate.  Working with records for this family is a challenge because every record has to be analyzed to determine if it is someone else or if it simply contains a mistake.  But, it demonstrates that if you are careful, you can still solve the puzzle even if the pieces are tattered and torn.  Read more about my research of Louisiana and Lemuel.

 

 

 

Featured Image: By Maiconfz via pixabay.com

Prompt: Big Mistake

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