Busting Down Brick Walls with Newspapers

There are many tools at our disposal to demolish those brick walls in our research. One of those becoming increasingly more common is newspaper research. These wonderful resources have always existed but as more and more of them are digitized and made available widely, they are much more accessible. 

This blog will feature a tough brick wall in which a find in a 1839 newspaper cracked the case.

Josiah Allen was my fourth great-grandfather. I had carefully documented my paternal line back to him. His name (listed as “Josire Allen”) was on William Neal Allen’s death certificate in 1917 in Marshall County, Kentucky, William Neal being my 3^rd great-grandfather, a Civil War soldier in Co. C., 15^th Kentucky (Union) Cavalry.                             

Josiah Allen and family can be documented in Marshall County records as early as 1843, one year after the county was formed. The 1850 census provides a birthplace of North Carolina for both Josiah, age 54, and his wife Elizabeth. One of the children listed was William, age 17, born Tennessee. Tracing Josiah backward, he was located in the 1840 census of Marion County, Tennessee and in the 1830 census of Lincoln County, Tennessee. The birthplace of Josiah’s oldest child Margaret Eliza Allen Rodden who was born about 1820 can give us a clue as to where they were at that time. In census records, Margaret Eliza’s place of birth was consistently recorded as North Carolina. So I was looking for a Josiah Allen in the 1820 census of North Carolina. There were only two – one in Anson County (age 45 and upward) and one in Mecklenburg County (age 16 and under 26). The one in Mecklenburg is of the correct age to be mine – furthermore, that one has a wife age 16 and under 26 and a female child under 10 in the household. Seems to fit perfectly!

Research in the Mecklenburg County, North Carolina records provided a marriage for Josiah on 18 May 1818 (Date of Bond) to Elizabeth Baker – this is the same first name as his wife in the 1850 census and the young female could certainly be Margaret Eliza.               

A Rachel Baker was living in the household enumerated before Josiah Allen in the 1820 census and online trees, born out by other primary source documentation which I verified, indicated Elizabeth was the daughter of George Baker and Rachel Cazair Mulwee. But who were Josiah’s parents? No one seemed to have any idea of that!

Since I have a location to search, it was time to dig into the published records of Mecklenburg County, North Carolina at a major research facility (the North Carolina State Archives). I’m sorry to say this turned up very little other than a few references to debts Josiah contracted in the 1820s which threatened to send him to debtor’s prison! Possibly this was why he left North Carolina for Tennessee.

So what to do next? I was stumped for a while. Careful combing of Mecklenburg County estate records made no mention of Josiah. Then I noted that newspaper records had been digitized for the region. Checking out the “Josiah Allen” entries was where I hit pay dirt! The 8 August 1839 issue of The Charlotte Journal provided a legal notice with the name Josiah Allen in it. Josiah Allen and several others were listed as non-resident heirs at law of John Allen, Jun. at the July Term of the Mecklenburg County Court of Pleas and Quarter Sessions.

When someone dies intestate (without a will), their legal heirs must be identified. Claims are filed against the estate for debts. If any heir is a non-resident of the state, publication is generally made in the local newspapers that action will be taken in the case. That is precisely what happened here – Two men named William Cook and David Parks were suing the estate. Here is a transcript from The Charlotte Journal, Thursday, 8 August 1839, page 3. 

State of North Carolina: Mecklenburg County

Court of Pleas and Quarter Sessions, July Term 1839

William Cook vs. The Heirs at Law of John Allen, jun., dec’d.

    It appearing to the satisfaction of the Court, that James Cook and Sarah his wife, William Allen, Thos. Allen, Josiah Allen, Margaret Cook, Josiah Wilson and Mary, his wife, Eli Morrow and Mary, his wife, and the heirs at law of John Allen, Sen., dec’d are not inhabitants of this State, Ordered, therefore, that publication be made six weeks in the Charlotte Journal, that unless the above named heirs at law of John Allen, jun., appear at the next Court of Pleas and Quarter Sessions, to be held for the County of Mecklenburg at the Court House in Charlotte, on the 4^th Monday in October next, and plead, answer or demur, judgment by default will be entered against them.

Witness, Braley Oates, Clerk of our said Court, at office, the 4^th Monday in July 1839.

                                                                                                         B. OATES, C.C.C.

(A similar notice with the name David Parks as plaintiff appeared immediately after this one in the newspaper).

So now we know not only that Josiah Allen was an heir of John Allen, Junr. but that he was also an heir of John Allen, Senr.!!! And a list of heirs was provided. (Can we say GOLD MINE!)

Going back to the estate records which I had already examined, NONE of these names was present in the actual estate records of either John Allen, Jr. or John Allen, Senr. However, neither estate actually contained a list of heirs so that information had obviously not been preserved in the loose estate records.

In examining the list of heirs presented in this newspaper record (from an unindexed court record which I could now examine), I found another connection. You will note Austin Cook as the bondsman for the 1818 marriage of Josiah Allen to Elizabeth Baker. Austin Cook was the husband of the Margaret Cook listed as an heir. He had died in 1831 and his widow had removed to Tennessee by the date of the newspaper publication. Always pay attention to anyone who signed a bond for your ancestor – he is someone of importance to your research!

In looking back at the records, John Allen, Jr. who died in 1836 had been the administrator for John Allen, Sr. who died in 1827.  John Allen, Jr. left a young wife named Melinda but no children.  As the widow, Melinda was only entitled to a dower interest in the property of John, Jr. Since both his parents were deceased and he had no children, John, Jr.’s heirs would be his siblings. Obviously, this is a listing of the children and thus heirs also of John Allen, Sr. who died in 1827. Josiah Allen was therefore the son of John Allen, Sr.!  And then I found this nugget in the newspaper!

     Died - In this county, very suddenly, on the 24th ult. Mr. JOHN ALLEN, in the 88th year of his age. He was a soldier of the revolution; and throughout his long life, sustained the character of an upright, worthy citizen, a kind husband and tender parent. He enjoyed almost uninterrupted health, having never, as he stated but a short time before his death, taken medicine to the value of 25 cents.

Source: Catawba Journal, (Charlotte, N.C.), 8 May 1827, page 3, North Carolina Newspapers, Digital North Carolina. https://www.digitalnc.org/newspapers/catawba-journal-charlotte-nc/\

So I now I even know more information about my 5^th great-grandfather – John Allen, Sr. He was 87 years old when he died on 24 April 1827. He was a worthy citizen and served in the Revolutionary War. And not only that – he enjoyed almost uninterrupted health until shortly before his death – a feat I hope to emulate although I have taken more than 25 cents worth of medicine!

It was time to make another trip to North Carolina. And several years ago, I did just that – going to Mecklenburg County as well as the State Archives in Raleigh. I uncovered a treasure trove of information there on the life of my John Allen – there were others of that name in the county so that had to be sorted out! It seems my John was a shoemaker by trade and had been twice married – first to Sarah McDowell who died in 1779 and is buried in Steele Creek Presbyterian Church Cemetery and then to Eleanor Brown. All the family seem to be Scots-Irish probably coming down to North Carolina in the 1750s and 1760s from Pennsylvania, possibly with a stop-off in the Valley of Virginia. Research is ongoing to identify the parents of my John Allen – he appears in an estate record for a James Allen who died in 1781 in Mecklenburg County, though at this time it is unclear if John is James’ son or brother. 

My own autosomal DNA test results have also now proven the link to other descendants of John Allen, Sr. including those of Austin Cook and wife Margaret Allen. But the true breakthrough was the newspaper legal notice!

I hope I have convinced you that you must spend the time to search out old newspapers for the region in which your ancestor lived. Many do not survive but when they do, they can not only help to scale brick walls but can help us to add “flesh to the bone” and get past mere names and dates.

Not all newspapers have been digitized but if the ones you need have not, take the time to go through the microfilm when they survived. It can pay off in a major way!

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