Many of the people I coach in family history research find the 1850 U.S. Federal Census the pot of gold at the end of the rainbow. Often, it is. More often, however, it is a tantalizing miasma of truth and error. As I work through this research tool (as well as most historic records), I imagine myself as one of the entries in that record: what was happening in my household on that day when the census-taker came? What were the census-taker's credentials? What were his recording tools?
In climbing my own family tree, I've been the fortunate recipient of decades, and sometimes centuries, of family lore recorded in family Bibles. It's interesting work to reconcile Aunt Lillie's history with the legal documents available to me. Her family line has proven easy to verify, and I can name ancestors clinging to the branches of the Willeford-Maclin-McNairy-Boyd (et al) tree back into the mists of time. Some of her neighbors who perch on other of my family tree's limbs, however, have proven a little more reclusive. Take for example Ezekiel McKee, who might have been my great-great-great grandfather, on my mother's side. "Might have been" is my current operating term, though I think his story is becoming a little more clear with each day of research.
My maternal grandfather, George Yarbrough, lived most of his childhood in the small town of Elora in Lincoln County, Tennessee, surrounded by grandparents, aunts, uncles, cousins, and distant kin who were always addressed as "Aunt Sallie" or "Uncle Bill" even if they were cousins 6 generations removed. His world was rocked when, around age 10, his parents (James Hopwood Yarbrough and Medora Yarbrough Yarbrough) died in one of the influenza epidemics. Granddaddy and his younger brother, the youngest children still living in their parents' home, were separated and sent away to live in the homes of their parents' siblings. For my granddad, his new home was with his namesake, his Uncle George Yarbrough, his father's brother. Getting family history out of Granddaddy was like getting a pearl from an oyster as he was closed-mouthed about family stories. Even when my mom and I began to bring home tidbits from the archives and query him about what we'd found, Granddaddy never seemed interested. I guess some memories were simply too tinged with regret.
When we discovered the listing in the 1850 Lincoln County, Tennessee census for his grandmother Mahaley (Haley) McKee Yarbrough, we couldn't wait to tell him about the finding. She had died before his birth, and her husband, Augustus Yarbrough, had subsequently moved into the home with my grandfather's parents. Unfortunately, Augustus died before Granddaddy was born. Yet, here Mahaley was in the 1850 census in the household of one Ezekiel McKee, just down the road from the household containing her future husband, Augustus Yarbrough, who lived with his father William Yarbrough. Her household consisted of Ezekiel, age 65 born around 1785 in South Carolina; Mary, age 50, born around 1800 in South Carolina; Mahaley, 20, born around 1830 in Tennessee; and Julia, 18, born around 1832 in Tennessee. Back all those years ago when I first discovered this entry, I believed that government documents were, by and large, accurate. Today, I can say that government documents are, just like most things, as good as the information given and the reliability of the person charged with collecting the information. With that preface, I can say that I personally have found the 1850 Lincoln County census to be filled with "almost but not quite" entries.
My mom and I have collated the McKees of Lincoln County, Tennessee with interest over these past decades, but we've made no real headway. As with most projects in life, we tended to push this McKee question to the back burner and focused on the other lines at which true progress was available. Recently, thanks to the Clan Mackay DNA project, I've been working with other folks who are related to McKays/McKees (and all the hundreds of variations of spellings.) With the internet offering me online records, I decided to try once again to find Ezekiel McKee. After all, just how many men born in the late 1700s could have been named Ezekiel McKee??
Try "None." After all my digging these past weeks, I find absolutely no references to Ezekiel McKee (spelled anyway) who fits my ancestors parameters. However, an interesting name began to crop up in my research: Hezekiah McKee. Hmm. Could it be another of the 1850 census-taking conundrums?
Starting with what I know for fact, I found Hezekiah McKee in the 1860 Lincoln County, Tennessee census living near-neighbors to newly-weds Augustus and Mahalia McKee Yarbrough. The listing not only provides for an appropriately-aged Hezekiah, born in the end of the 1700s in South Carolina, but also Mahalia's sister Julia and her son, William. Coincidence?
In the 1870 census, Augustus and Mahalia are in New Market, Madison County, Alabama, and right down the road again is Hezekiah. Julia and son William are still in his household. Coincidence?
I know that Hezekiah died in 1873 in New Market. In the 1880 Madison County, Alabama census, his widow Sarah lives down the road from grandson William, whose mother Julia still lives with him. Meanwhile, Augustus and Mahalia and their brood of children have moved just across the state line back to Elora, Lincoln County, Tennessee.
Given how closely positioned Hezekiah, Julia, and Mahalia are in 1860, 1870, and 1880, it seems remarkable that Hezekiah McKee does not exist in the 1850 census -- anywhere; conversely, Ezekiel McKee exists only in the 1850 census.
Never being content with brick walls, I began to look further in Tennessee history for Hezekiah McKee. After all, Mahaley consistently stated in all her census reports that she was born in the late 1820s in Tennessee; Julia likewise stated that she was born around 1830 in Tennessee. So, I looked for Hezekiah McKee in the 1830 Tennessee census. And, knock me down with a feather, there was Hezekiah McKee, not only in 1830 but also in 1820 and 1840 Franklin County, Tennessee. Just as close as Elora, Tennessee is to the Alabama border, it is also that close to the Franklin County, Tennessee border. Furthermore, the census figures in the reports for Hezekiah proved remarkably consistent and offered the likelihood that Mahalia and Julia were indeed the 2 youngest daughters of Hezekiah McKee of Franklin County, Tennessee.
Additionally, I found young Hezekiah McKee in the 1810 Pendleton County, South Carolina census, along with other McKee men like Archibald, William, and Jesse, whose descendents also moved to and through Alabama and Tennessee at the same time period as Hezekiah. I've been able, through marriage records and online queries, to hypothesize that the eight children of Zeke and Mary are Jeptha or Jesse; Sarah; Eliza, who may have married John Ethridge in 1840; Clara, who married William King in 1838; Derrell, who married Keziah Fowler King in 1840; Jasper, who married (1) Louise King, (2) Mariah Hill (1857); Haley, who married Augustus Yarbrough in 1851; Julia, who remained unmarried.
I think I can envision what happened the day the census-taker came by in 1850: When asked the name of the head of the household, Mary replied, "Well, sure, it's Zeke McKee," and the census-taker, trying to avoid nicknames, wrote down Ezekiel instead of Hezekiah. Not even in Lincoln County do people just apparate and then disapparate. At least not unless your surname is Potter.
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