Pick an Initial, Any Initial...

Ok, things aren't quite that extreme, but how often do you see someone with four different middle initials? The historian from the Indiana archives had never seen this before. Ordinarily, you'd assume that the Civil War enrollment cards below represented three different men...

but with a given name like Beniah, it's likely that they're all for the same man. There are no overlapping dates, and so far, these cards are the only proof that any Beniah White was ever in Randolph County, Indiana. (The bottom card is the only known evidence that Beniah was born in Randolph County, Indiana. All other sources only say Indiana.)

The initial "N" stands for "Nelson". I have no evidence showing what the other initials represent, but I do have favorite theories, like Fisher and Cochenour or maybe Christian or Christopher. Again, they're just theories. I am not a trained professional, do not attempt these theories at home!

The stage is now set for part 2...Henry County, Missouri Probate Records

Family History Library Film #946616, Henry County, Missouri Probate Records, Volume A, Page 399

The search for Christian F. White in Henry County Probate Records

Not only was the name, Christopher White, recorded at the outset of his probate proceedings (that was half-expected), in the next entry, which used just initials, he had a different middle initial as well, "N". However, in the next Court term (November 1850), he was always recorded as C. F. White. At that point, I finally felt reassured that we were dealing with Christian F. White whom we've seen in the 1840 Randolph, Indiana census and Preble, Ohio marriage records.

These name inconsistencies can be explained. In an earlier post, I mentioned a Cokonougher/Gochenour example of someone named "Christopher" who went by "Christian". Then, there's the middle initial alphabet soup shown above for Beniah White, who I believe is Christian/Christopher's son. It appears conflicting middle initials might have been a family tradition in this branch?! But  thankfully, the usual manner of recording his name in Henry County land records as C. F. White was echoed in the Henry County probate records as well.

Henry County land records show a C. F. White whose final land entry occurred 18 August  1849. Christopher N.'s probate procedings were recorded only months later in the May  1850 Court term. Christian F. was the only White besides Henry White to have a son of Beniah's age shown in the 1840 census. C. F. White wasn't found in the 1850 census, and it appears that 3 children were not living in their own families in that census, one of whom was Beniah. One possible explanation is that they were orphans, children of Christian/Christopher F./N. White.

Beniah, Mary Ann, and Oliver White of Jasper County, Missouri

In a previous post, you saw that in the 1850 census, Beniah N., Mary Ann, and Oliver P. White didn't seem to fit into the households where they were enumerated.

A sense of not meshing with other Henry White descendants continues into the 1860's. They are the only Henry White descendants I know of who lived in Jasper County, Missouri, at some distance from Henry County, Missouri. (Can their location have anything to do with their neighbors in Jasper County, the Nelson's? Since Beniah's middle name is Nelson, neighbors and associates with that name raise hopes.) 

Map of Jasper County, Missouri from Familysearch

A timeline for Beniah N., Mary A., and Oliver White shows:

• 9 August 1857--Mary Ann White married Joel Bailey in Henry County, Missouri.

• 24 November 1857--B. N. White sold land to Joel Bailey in Henry County, Missouri. 

• 25 May 1859--Beniah N. White created a bond, borrowing $250 from the Jasper County, Missouri road and canal fund, payable in one year at 10% interest. He was in partnership with Robert W. and James McFarland.

• 28 May 1860--Joel and Mary Ann Bailey created a bond, borrowing $500 from Jasper County, Missouri for the use of swamp land, payable in one year at 10% interest. They were in partnership with Robert W. and James McFarland.

• 1860--Mary A. and Joel Bailey were enumerated in North Fork Township, Jasper County, Missouri. Oliver P. White was living in their household. 

• 18 January 1867--Beniah White and the McFarland' s were notified in Jasper County's Carthage Weekly Banner that they were being sued for nonpayment of the 1859 bond.

• 21 January 1867--Jasper County filed a lawsuit against Joel and Mary Ann Bailey for nonpayment of the 1860 bond.

• 21 March 1868--Jasper County seized the Bailey's land for nonpayment of bond.

• 30 March 1874--Beniah's son, John Henry White, was born in Carthage, Jasper County, Missouri. 

Joel and Mary Ann White Bailey survived the War, but the financial impact of this judgment against them must have been catastrophic. If compounded annually, the interest alone was hundreds of dollars. I can't locate the Bailey's after this event. Hopefully, something will shed some light on their later whereabouts.

With their placement order in the 1856 lawsuit plaintiff list, their enumeration in the 1850 Henry County, Missouri Census as "strays", and their interaction later at some distance from Henry County in Jasper County, Missouri, it seems that Beniah Nelson, Mary Ann and Oliver P. White could very well have been siblings, the children of Christian/ Christopher F. White.

Weiss/White?

If Carey Bracewell had researched the White family instead of the Bracewell's, we might be traced back to Adam by now--he's a great researcher. But we have the next-best thing, a helpful clue from his ancestor, Cora White Price, who was the daughter of David Fisher White.

Carey wrote a book, The Ancestry of David Bracewell: Including the Allied Southern Families of Braswell, Brazil, Bay, Price, Passmore, Gage, Prillaman, and Allen. On page 231, it states Cora recalled that her maiden name, White, was originally Weiss.

This brings to mind a Preble County, Ohio White family, Adam White and Permelia Powers. Adam was born 10 July, 1790 in Westmoreland, Pennsylvania, the son of John White and Eve Letman. His mother, Eve, may have been the daughter of Valentine Letman and Catherine.

Valentine Ledman/Letman came from Germany. He left a will in Berkeley, Virginia, Vol. 3, dated 30 May 1802, naming his children, including a daughter, Eve, who married John Wise. I've often wondered if Wise was a variant of Weiss, which was then anglicized to White?

Some guesstimate Eve' s birth year as 1776, which works for well for the birth of Adam in 1790, but not much is truly known about her. 

So far, it looks like Carey's information might have ties to "Adam" after all!

Update: I have had the good fortune to become acquainted with Leona, a descendant of John and Rebecca Fisher White since I wrote this. According to her information, John White and Eve Letman were the parents of eleven children, including John White who married Rebecca Fisher and Henry White who married Mary Fisher.

Easy come, easy go...

Without technology, it would have taken years instead of months to put together a 3700 person database, complete with sources.

And technology also enabled me to wipe out most of that database's sources with just a click or two. When I noticed that my tree was missing from ancestry.com, I tried to replace it with the gedcom I'd downloaded from them only minutes earlier. It didn't work. Their system didn't recognize it as a gedcom.

Surprisingly, PAF, a free, outdated family history program, read ancestry's unrecognizable gedcom, but just the bare bones information remains. I still have names and family relationships for the people who was born before 1930, and their vital dates, marriages, census years and locations. The rest is basically gone. I feel too disheartened to start the sourcing process over again for anyone not in Henry White's direct line.

What's left of my oddly formatted and severely edited file will be posted at rootsweb, in hopes that the effort spent on it wasn't completely in vain: {Henry White} Pages. Ancestry's gedcom (or PAF's interpretation of it) doesn't export marriage information well; multiple spouses are often listed in the wrong order chronologically. But, they are listed! PAF saved them from complete annihilation. 

So glad I didn't delete PAF somehow, too!

Bates County Bonanza!

Lone Oak Township, 
Bates County, Missouri

I don't remember how he first came to my attention, but James Alden Menasco of Lone Oak Township in Bates County, Missouri, surrounded himself with an interesting group of people. James was born in Dardanelle, Yell County, Arkansas on 13 February 1852.

One of James' wives was Martha E. White, born about 1855 in Illinois. James and Martha were married 26 March 1876 in Bates County, Missouri. Martha didn't live long, dying sometime between 1878 and 1880, probably in Bates County. From her birth location, I immediately decided that she wasn't a White of interest.

James Menasco next married Mary Cavitt on 15 August 1880 in Bates County, Missouri. Mary appeared promising to me. 

Finally, Thomas J. White lived in James' household in 1880 Bates County, Missouri. I assumed he was Martha's brother, and therefore of little consequence. 

Wrong. Right. Wrong.

With my debatable family history instincts now set forth in black and White (sorry!), it's time to share a favorite White family origin theory--Beniah White. Was our Beniah White named for the earlier Beniah White of Loudoun County, Virginia? 

We need to go back a little in time...on 23 March 1853, Nathaniel C. White married Louisa White in Adams County, Illinois. Martha E. White was their daughter. Not only was Martha blessed to inherit a double set of White family genes, her mother descended from this Loudoun County, Virginia White family. Martha suddenly became a person of great interest. Amazingly, it got even better: Martha lived in Henry County, Missouri in 1870, before she married James Menasco.

Year: 1870; Census Place: Grand River, Henry, Missouri;
Roll: M593_778; Page: 310B; Image: 629;
Family History Library Film: 552277.

Next, Mary Cavitt Menasco. I really wanted her to be our missing Mary Cavitt. The last time we saw our Mary, she was living in Bates County, Missouri with her cousin, Sarah Ann White Blankenbaker. Only one house stood between the Blankenbaker's and James Menasco' s sisters, Martha Menasco and Lucy Menasco Finnell. (Thomas J. White, who was living in James' household in the 1880 census later married Martha Menasco in Wise County, Texas.) Mary Cavitt Menasco died in 1885 in Wise County, Texas. 

In Menasco (Manasco/Monasco) Roots and Leaves: A History and Genealogy of Descendants of James Menasco, Born 1748, Va by Virginia O'Neal Norman, 1988, page 103, Mary's father was listed as Thos. M. Cavitt. I believe she is our Mary Cavitt!

Year: 1880; Census Place: Lone Oak, Bates, Missouri;
Roll: 673; Family History Film: 1254673; Page: 222B;
Enumeration District: 159; Image: 0754.

Now we come to Thomas J. White. You saw in the first census posted above that Martha E. White Menasco didn't have a brother named Thomas J. White. With all the Henry County, Missouri White connections around him, I had to check--was Thomas another descendant of Henry White?

Year: 1880; Census Place: Lone Oak, Bates, Missouri;
Roll: 673; Family History Film: 1254673; Page: 222A;
Enumeration District: 159; Image: 0753.

Year: 1870; Census Place: Osage, Henry, Missouri;
Roll: M593_778; Page: 324B; Image: 657;
Family History Library Film: 552277.

Year: 1860; Census Place: Osage, Henry, Missouri;
Roll: M653_622; Page: 826; Image: 340;
Family History Library Film: 803622.

I think that Thomas J. White is probably Mary Jane White Blankenbaker's brother, the son of John and Nancy Smith White. 

Jackpot! It's amazing how many White's James Menasco amassed in a few short years. (There's even a Silas L. White living near James in the 1880 Bates County Census, but his ancestors are difficult to trace.) Checking James Menasco' s ancestry two generations back, I saw no White connections that I recognized. (Unless Seays could actually be Teays?)

Admittedly, the Beniah White theory is still just a theory. That line was from Ireland, and our White's sometimes feel German. Still, it's a possible avenue of research if it turns out my instincts about the White's are off...again.

George Washington Blankenbaker

It was the wrong Blankenbaker. Time for the next web page. In that split second when the old web page disappeared and a new one took its place, I wondered if I glimpsed the word "White". I quickly clicked the "back" button. 

I did see "White", not in regard to Christopher Columbus Blankenbaker, but to his brother, George Washington Blankenbaker. Another Blankenbaker had married a White. Were these White's related to each other?

Since I couldn't find a marriage record for George Blankenbaker and his wife, Mary Jane, how could I prove she really was a White? Mary Jane died about 1877, before Missouri required Death Certificates. It turned out that her children had death certificates. 

According to MO Death Cert #33676 for Artie Liss Merritt, her mother was Mary Jane White, born in Henry County, Missouri. Finding the right Mary White could prove difficult. It seemed like almost all of Mary and Henry White's sons had named a daughter Mary. Were there other Mary White's in Henry County, too? 

Year: 1870; Census Place: Lone Oak, Bates, Missouri;
Roll: M593_758; Page: 70A; Image: 144;
Family History Library Film: 552257.

Mary J. Blankenbaker in the 1870 census (above) matches the Mary J. White in the 1860 Henry County, Missouri Census (below). Luckily, there weren't any other Mary J. White's in Henry County, Missouri in 1860, and no other Mary White's came close. Also, in 1860, Mary J. lived next to the Sarah A. White who would marry Christopher Columbus Blankenbaker. They were first cousins. Mary Jane's parents were John White and Nancy Smith. Mary Jane was the first member I've found from this family group outside of Henry County, Missouri.

Year: 1860; Census Place: Osage, Henry, Missouri;
Roll: M653_622; Page: 826; Image: 340;
Family History Library Film: 803622.

Mary Jane White Blankenbaker died young, before the 1880 census. George Blankenbaker next married Elizabeth Elledge Huckaby. You'll recognize the Elledge name from C. C. Blankenbaker's chapter in the Bates County book. That Elledge was Elizabeth's brother.

If it weren't for Mary Cavitt, I'm not sure I would have found these Blankenbaker branches. Whatever became of Mary? I don't know. I hope one day I'll accidentally stumble across her again somewhere.

Christopher Columbus Blankenbaker

I don't know much about the Blankenbaker's, but I do know they must have had great taste. Two married into our family.

This is one of my favorite discoveries, even though it is one of the more embarrassing ones because the solution was always right under my nose! As usual, I came across this family while looking for someone else. My search for Mary Cavitt, daughter of Margaret White and Thomas M. Cavitt took me to 1880 Bates County, Missouri.

Year: 1880; Census Place: Lone Oak, Bates, Missouri;
Roll: 673; Family History Film: 1254673;
Page: 222B; Enumeration District: 159; Image: 0754.

The most intriguing part of this census image was the word "cousin" beside Mary Cavitt. A cousin? Whose cousin? Blankenbaker family trees showed C. C. Blankenbaker's wife as Sarah White, but not much else. Still, it looked promising. I searched for the Blankenbaker's marriage record in Bates County, Missouri. I looked for it in Linn County, Kansas. I even tried Monroe County, Missouri. But where did it finally turn up? In Henry County, Missouri. Right under my nose. See transcription here.

One of the remarkable finds about C. C. or "Lum" Blankenbaker is a piece he wrote for a local book, The Old Settlers' History of Bates County Missouri: from its first settlement to the first day of January 1900, published by Tathwell & Maxey, Amsterdam MO, pp. 139-141.

Christopher Columbus Blankenbaker described how harrowing life was on the Missouri frontier even before Civil War. It makes what used to be only a name on a family history tree come to life.





Lum's wife, Sarah A. Blankenbaker, fits the known information for Sarah A. White, daughter of Joseph and Sarah White of Henry County, Missouri. Mission accomplished. I thought my work there was done. But while scrolling through Blankenbaker family information online, it seemed that my eye caught sight of yet another White name...