Friday, January 18, 2013

Salt Lake Update

The wifi at the hotel has been a bit tempramental the last couple of nights, so tonight is a triple-header.

Wed.: My assignment for Wednesday was to offer a "proof argument" for Martha Jane Doty being Samuel Clark's wife. That's the new Mayflower line. Oops! A closer look at signatures on deeds turned the assignment around. The person who transcribed the deeds interpreted a fancy mark for a J or I. In reality the mark was just that, the mark used instead of Martha Clark's signature. Jane could sign her name, Martha could not. The clincher was finally locating the Hamilton Co., OH marriage for Samuel Clark & 'Jeane' Doty in 1798. The Mayflower went down! I spent the day on other records, trying to find a fit for Samuel in KY, MD or PA. I also spent some time working on the Butler Co. tax lists.

Thurs.: My assignment for the day was to map out the various Clarks in Butler Co. Butler has wonderful tax lists. The land description is given for each entry. Some years the list is by township. I used the 1816-1829 tax lists. I located a nice county atlas for 1836, 1875 and 1885. Using the county map with the township sections labled, I was able to plot out the Clarks. Fairfield Twp. had a large contingency, as did Reily Twp., the latter was home to my Samuel and Isaac. [John, John Jr., James and Jonathan were neighbors.] There was a scattering of Clarks elsewhere. I also returned to the tax lists after noticing Isaac was a landowner in 1836, but Samuel was missing. The last year I found Samuel on the lists was 1834, so a death date has been narrowed down! I also located an Isaac Clark [possible name of Samuel's father] in Franklin Co., PA during the 1780s. Franklin borders Maryland! Also found a Samuel Clark in Nelson Co., KY from 1790-1795.

Fri.: I spent most of the day searching Butler deeds, tracking Samuel until his death and Isaac until his move to Indiana. John Colletta was the banquet speaker tonight. As usual, he was highly entertaining!

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