Part 749hs – Brunhammer Doherty Genealogy – 1850 US Census – Holmes and Scott – With This Dash I Do Thee Wed – Tamaqua, Pennsylvania

Good Day,

And now the information and data...
...just keeps pouring in…

In genealogy research, material evidence is sometimes revealed in a simple dash. Two such simple dashes on the 1850 US Census from the South Ward Borough of Tamaqua in Schuylkill County, Pennsylvania reveal that gg-grandparents Audley and Rebecca (née Scott) Holmes were married sometime between August 1849 and August of 1850. Column 10 of the 1850 Census is titled “Married within the Year”. Obviously the only two dashes on the Census Page which are inserted at gg-grandmother Rebecca Holmes’ Line #15 and gg-grandfather Adley (albeit Audley) Holmes’ Line #27 indicate logically that they had most recently been married.

Here is the highlighted image of the Page from the 1850 US Census. It is from the collection of The National Archives in Washington, DC and downloaded via Ancestry.com.

The following is my Clooz Reporting – United States Federal Census Population Schedule, 1850 – CUSPA000002 as re-created for the Scott Household.

We are introduced through this 1850 US Census to a number of family members and relatives. It appears that the listed Head of Household on Line #14 is ggg-grandmother Rebecca Scott. She is gg-grandmother Rebecca (née Scott) Holmes’ mother. Also in the house, on Line #21, is gggg-grandmother Susanna Scott. She must have been ggg-grandmother Rebecca’s mother-in-law.

Another two key facts from the 1850 Census data is that Alexander Scott, Line #17, and Alice Scott, Line #18, both were born in New York. The next son, on Line #19, William Scott was born in Pennsylvania. The implication to this could be that the Scott Family emigrated from Ireland to New York. After a couple of years the Scotts then moved to Pennsylvania.

Also included in the 1850 US Census is a possible piece of evidence that may provide a clue to the solving of the Mystery of the Murder of gg-grandfather Audley Holmes. The date of the recording of the Census in the South Ward Borough of Tamaqua is 30 August 1850. GG-Grandfather was murdered and supposedly thrown from a bridge over the Susquehanna River at Wilkes-Barre about 40 miles from Tamaqua. This occurred just about four years later on 16 December 1854. His occupation on the 1850 Census is listed as “Carpenter”. From my readings, the Waters Street Bridge, over the Susquehanna River was being rebuilt and refurbished at about that time for a completion in 1855. Could gg-grandfather Audley have been working as a Carpenter on that Bridge? I’m still waiting for the mail.

Overwhelmed yet? More yet to come. Stay-tuned.

Enjoy,

Jim