Feb23
Searching the Census
I’ve spent most of this month on seemingly fruitless quests for relatives to my Vaughan family. First, I’ve tried to locate another MtDNA descendant of Fereby (Benton) Vaughan by searching through census records. I zeroed in on Margaret and Charity Titsworth, both descendants in a direct female line from Fereby. After many, many hours of searching, I finally had to admit that I could not find any more about these two sisters. Complicating the search was the fact that Charity had a cousin by the same name that married a Calvin Fine, and for a time I thought she was the same person as Margaret’s sister. It turned out she wasn’t, and I still don’t know who Charity married (or if she married).
Giving up, I began looking at Margaret Hinds, who was also a MtDNA descendant. I was more fortunate with her, but sadly, two out of her three daughters did not apparently marry, and the third daughter, Clara B. Handley, simply disappears, and I can’t find if she died or simply married. The joys of genealogical research!
Then, this week, another mystery. While at the local library, I was looking through a book entitled “Obituaries of Washington County, Arkansas Volume 3″ and found an entry for a Dalley Vaughan. He died in March of 1906 and was said to have lived in Madison County, Arkansas, near Clifty (which is where Sheriff Ben Vaughan’s family lived). He was said to have been a brother of “Sheriff Vaughan”. Amazingly, there were two separate Ben Vaughans that were Sheriff in Madison. The first is my ancestor, who married Cherubia Harp and who’s Y-DNA does not match William and John’s. The second one was Sheriff from 1904 to 1906, after the older Ben Vaughan died. Ben’s grandson, also named Ben Vaughan (a son of Pleasant Michael Vaughan) was this man, who was Sheriff in 1904 to 1906. Yet neither young Ben nor Old Ben had a brother named Dalley. I could not find Dalley on any census. And it is not Old Ben’s son James Polk Dallas Vaughan, as he died in 1909 and never went by Dalley. I’m totally at a loss over who Dalley Vaughan is. The whole month has been very frustrating — lots of clues and leads, but no conclusions to mention.
If any of the names in this Blog sound familiar to you, please e-mail me and make my day.
Eddie Davis