Person:Elisha Jackson (4)

From Darrell Jackson: "Elish was 9 years old in the 1860 census, giving him a birth year of about 1851. On the 21 Sep 1863 pension application of his mother his birth date is given as 4 Apr 1853. By taking 2 years from his age it kept him under the 16 year old age limit 2 years longer and qualified his mother for the $2.00 a month pension that much longer. On a document dated 5 Mar 1869 it states that he married on 9 Jun 1868. This would have been 2 months after he turned 15 years old according to what was by then official government documents."

"I [Darrell] assume that the facts established by the documents in the pension file, since they are now official government records, will remain in effect. Since no birth certificates were required prior to the civil war there is nothing else to base birth dates on. May there exists, in somebody's attic, a bible belonging to James V. Jackson. But until the birth dates listed in Mahala's pension record stands as the official record."

From Janie, webmaster: But I have used the estimated age according to the 1860 census records. I have to agree with Darrell that Mahala probably did take 2 years off the younger children's ages for pension application purposes and I have used what I think are the more accurate, if not official, birth dates. I also assumed the birth day and month on the pension application was accurate.

1860 Census Tennessee, Campbell Co., District 10 (Archerville P.O.) Jackson, James V. 36 M Farmer KY Jackson, Mahala 34 F TN Jackson, Mahala J. 11 F TN (abt 1849) Jackson, Elish 9 M TN (abt 1851) Jackson, Lorance 7 F TN (abt 1853) Jackson, Orlena Ann 5 F TN (abt 1855) Jackson, James V. 4 M TN (abt 1856) Jackson, Mary 3 F TN (abt 1857)

1.   Research of Darrell Jackson (darrelljackson At msn Dot com) familytreemaker.genealogy.com/users/j/a/c/Darrell-.