The Name of His Other Leg
Spoiler: it was also called "Smith"
I can’t help myself.
The focus of today’s post is the Smith family, so my brain immediately and urgently goes to Mary Poppins:
Since Adam Smith died in 1847, I don’t think he’ll be coming after me anytime soon.
I’ve spent some time lately updating the WikiTree profiles for my wife’s family, starting from her great-grandmother, Aletha Frederick (Putnam) Martin (1899-1981). And Aletha’s maternal grandmother was born, Jane Eliza Smith (1840-1916), so that’s how my brain got to Mary Poppins. Q.E.D.
You can find Jane in the bottom-right corner of Aletha’s chart:
“Trust but verify” - with less “trust”
Whenever I show you a profile on WikiTree, you can assume that I have at least some information about that person’s parents. Jane’s profile opens with this paragraph:
Jane Eliza "Jennie" Smith was the youngest child of Adam Smith (1792–1847)1 and Experience Garretson (1800–1897), born on 26 Jun 1840 in Galena, Floyd, Indiana. Her father died when she was seven years old, and she grew up in a household run by her mother in Greenville Township.
As sources, I cited the 1850 and 1860 census records showing Jane and her siblings living in a household headed by Experience Smith. But in my Ancestry profile for Jane (Smith) Frederick, I have several sources telling me who her parents and other ancestors were. I did not include them because I have not had a chance to verify these sources. (As it is, I feel bad for putting the names and vital dates for Adam and Experience in Jane’s profile without a source, but I rationalize that eventually I will get around to doing that when I build their profiles.)
In this case, the sources I haven’t verified yet are from the Daughters of the American Revolution Lineage books. They do not include original source citations, so I don’t know how accurate the information is, and therefore, I should not “trust” it. However, the information required to complete a DAR application is supposed to be supported by evidence, so I treat the information as a lead to finding the original documents.
For this Smith family, that means accepting the Ancestry hints (so I have leads and know where they came from) and looking for corroborating evidence. Once I have confirmed what I need to build a new biography, I’ll create a profile for Jane’s parents.2
Defined By Absence
Jane (Smith) Frederick’s father died in 1847. Since the U.S. Census didn’t start listing everyone in a household by name until 1850, this means that we will have to find less direct ways to confirm whether the records we find are for the right family.
Not only is the name “Adam Smith” very common, but the family lived in Floyd County, Indiana, which is not a distant, rural outpost where we can assume everyone with the same name is related. Floyd County is just across the Indiana-Kentucky state line, on the North and West side of the Ohio River. You should be able to spot New Albany and Greenville on this map:
That means we should be looking for records in both states and in newspapers based in Louisville. (There are a surprising number of references to the author of The Wealth of Nations in Louisville during the three decades our Adam Smith ought to have been living in the area.)
Since the 1850 Census puts his family in Greenville, it is reasonable to assume that the 1840 Census for an Adam Smith in Greenville Township is probably the correct family. Here’s how the known family members from 1850 would fit into the 1840 household3:
Males - 50 thru 59 (1781-1790): 1
Adam Smith (1792-1847)
Females - 40 thru 49 (1791-1800): 1
Experience Garretson (1800–1897)
Males - 20 thru 29 (1811-1820): 1
unknown - possible son or servant, or other relative
Males - 10 thru 14 (1826-1830): 1
unknown - possible son
Females - 10 thru 14 (1826-1830): 2
Isabella (Smith) Miller (1823-1909) - m. 28 Dec 1841
unknown - possible daughter
Females - 5 thru 9 (1831-1835): 1
unknown - possible daughter
Males - 5 thru 9 (1831-1835): 2
Philip William Smith (1831–1901)
Jacob Smith (b. 1833)
Females - Under 5 (1835-1840): 1
Mary M (Smith) Brown (1836–1929)
If you compared this to the 1850 household4, you may have noticed that the document names Experience and four children (Philip, Jacob, Mary, and Jane)—but not Isabella. Isabella Miller’s 1909 death certificate gave us her maiden name and named her parents. The informant was her daughter, Anna (Miller) Wheeler.
The discovery of Isabella presents a couple of problems. First, the birth date given on her death record and her headstone (3 Sep 1823) makes her about three years older than the oldest girl counted in the 1840 Census. Second, depending on which birthdate is correct, she might or might not be the daughter of Experience (Garretson) Smith.
An Either/Or Puzzle
Either Isabella (and her family) got her birth date wrong, or someone else was her mother.
Floyd County marriage records show a man named Adam Smith marrying Elizabeth Kallahan/Hallahan on 9 June 1821. An undated grave marker exists for an “Elizabeth Smith” (inscribed “Mother” on the top) in West Haven Cemetery in New Albany, Floyd County, Indiana5. This evidence doesn't "prove" that Elizabeth (Kallahan) Smith was Isabella's mother. It doesn’t even prove that Elizabeth (Kallahan) Smith existed, but I have been unable to rule that possibility out.
If the family misremembered the year Isabella was born, then she could have been born (as the 1840 census indicates) in 1826, after Adam married Experience.
There is another possibility, since the 1830 Census has an Adam Smith family in New Albany. That record counts one Female born between 1816-1820, one Female born between 1821-1825, and two children, one Male and one Female, born between 1825-1830. If Isabella was born in 1823, she could have appeared on the 1830, and not been recorded on the 1840 census. (She married Jacob Miller in 1841 in Floyd County.)
Either way, the family has several unknown children for us to find, and we need better evidence to tell Adam’s story.
To Be Continued…
At this point, I will need to go digging for more information about Jane (Smith) Frederick’s siblings, especially the ones who were in the household in 1830 and 1840. This will require chasing down obituaries for everyone, hoping to catch a name that isn’t already known, or hoping to find a marriage or death record that names the parents. (Which will probably be horribly misspelled, since Ancestry’s hints haven’t already suggested them.)
But that’s what keeps us going, right? Always another mystery, just out of reach.
This is NOT Adam Smith (1723-1790), the Scottish economist who sired capitalism.
Update: I did end up building a profile for Adam, and found “orphaned” profiles for him and his parents, so I “adopted” and updated them: Adam Smith (1792-1847)
1840 United States Federal Census, Place: Greenville, Floyd, Indiana; Roll: 79; Page: 153; Family History Library Film: 0007724.
1850 United States Federal Census, Place: Greenville, Floyd, Indiana; Roll: 145; Page: 464a.
“Elizabeth Smith” Memorial on Find-A-Grave.