User talk:Sharon K Johnson

Welcome [3 September 2014]

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Gayle, Here is the e-mail address for Judith Fields , "jfields31@yahoo.com. I just noticed that William H Scott's first son, James Thomas Scott was married in 1880 to Elizabeth Jane Fields. Did he have another wife and other children? Keep in touch at your leisure. :-)--Sharon K Johnson 16:37, 3 September 2014 (UTC)

Thanks Sharon. I'll try to get in touch with her. And yes, James Thomas had 2 wives before he married Elizabeth. And Elizabeth's younger sister Lucy married George Scott as his second wife, while their "baby" brother George Fields married Mary Cora Scott, a daughter of David Garrett Scott.

William Hazelton Scott [4 September 2014]

Hi, Sharon,

Got your message, and good to see someone else on WeRelate who has an interest in our eternal brick wall! Please feel free to enter whatever information you have for him. If you have any questions or problems, let me know and I will try to answer as best I can. In addition to William's page, you might want to have a look at Scott Family Search for WH Scott's father. The link to it sort of got lost in the reference in the last rewrite of his page. I think you can edit it, but if not let me know. --GayelKnott 17:35, 2 September 2014 (UTC)

Gayle,

    I have been corresponding with you on Ancestry before trying to find out the father of Wm Hazelton Scott. I have your letters from descendents and all else from "werelate" and just found on "FamilySearch.org" someone named "Jfields31@yahoo.com" submitting the same info you drew your conslusion from, that the Wm Scott from Georgia was probably Wm H's father. She has Margaret Burket and her 5 children listed. I guess she was the 2nd wife and these children are all Wm. H's step siblings, right? Do you know any of his actual siblings?

Hi, Sharon. I'll try to answer some of your questions now, but probably won't be able to get to them all.

When you say Jfields31 is on FamilySearch, do you know where? I did a record search on Genealogies, and didn't find her. Also checked for William and Margaret Burkett () Scott on Family Tree, but didn't see any reference to her. (This would be William Scott, ID L6H8-LS6). I did check for duplicates for both William and Margaret, but didn't find any. Possibly because FamilySearch seems to be being much more restrictive in finding matches than it used to be. As you, I'm sure, know, the Scotts and Fields did intermarry a lot in Missouri, so maybe she's descended from one of those marriages -- or a cousin of one of the Fields. In any event, I'd really love to know what information she is using.

As for siblings for William H. Scott, the only one I have is Thomas, who is probably the youngest of William (C?)'s first family . He appears in the 1850 Census with William and Margaret, witnessed Margaret's will, and seems to have followed the usual family "migration" to Delaware. Unfortunately, he apparently had no children. I've often wondered if his wife, Susan Richardson, could be connected in some way to Mary Short's family, but just am not willing to try to find her ancestry in order to check it out.

Looking for other possible siblings for William H., I did pursue a couple of possibilities years ago, but none panned out -- at least in the sense of finding a documented connection. I'll try to dig through my files and get back to you with that.

next day. Okay, the one I know I researched a bit was a Garret P. Scott, b. act 1815 in Delaware, in 1840 through 1870 Census in West Goshen, Chester, Pennsylvania. He had a son named William C. Scott, but the "C" probably stood for Cheney, as his wife's father was William Cheney. This Garret had no land of his own (despite what the census said), as it was really his wife's, and went to her children on her death, with Garret having more or less the male equivalent of dower right in the land. The Cheney's were apparently Quaker. I couldn't see any real connection between this Garret Scott and our William H. Scott, so have pretty much dropped him. --GayelKnott 02:12, 4 September 2014 (UTC)

I also had both my mother and her first cousin tested for autosomal DNA, along with my sister and myself. I was hoping, between the tests, plus matches with another known cousin whose family married into the Scotts, that I could maybe find one of the "missing" siblings. Several people I contacted were quite nice in their replies, but there is no obvious connection to the Scotts. [But there were a couple of other matches which could lead to other breakthroughs on different brick walls, so it wasn't a complete waste.]

    I have a letter of 1994 from Chester Co. Archives and Records Services administered by the Chester Co. Hist. Soc.  They examined a plethora of records from me and wrote the following: On the 1830 census there is a William Scott listed in New London twp. but William H was not taxed in East Nso5ttingham until 1836(It is difficult to determine if this is the same man). William H. (Under the name William Scott - no initial)  purchased land in 1849 and 1852 in East Nottingham. The land purchased in 1849 was lost by sheriff's same in 1858 to a James Scott.(Sharon asks;, do you think his was Wm H's son?)

The deeds are for the rather scrubby worthless bit of land that William H. Scott owned (purchased in 1849, and again in 1852) can be linked together using the property descriptions, and looking for Mary (Short) Scott's signature on the deed of sale. (Because she had dower rights, she had to sign any deed of sale.) I have a photocopy of an old map showing the approximate location, which I really should post on-line (someday?) He purchased some of the land with money Mary inherited from her mother, and seems to have purchased with a mortgage. He sold off the good part of it in 1858, to neighbour James Scott, probably in hopes of paying off his loan. The balance, the portion by the road, was sold off at a Sheriff's sale in 1859, because he hadn't paid off the loan.

Have to go. Will finish this later.--GayelKnott 23:42, 2 September 2014 (UTC)

Back again. On Google map, the property William H. Scott owned is approximately 2447 Lewisville Road, Lewisville, Pennsylvania. In satellite view it looks a bit different than when I was there in 2000, but the house is the same.

The James Scott to whom William H. Scott sold the land is too old to be William's son, who went off to Missouri about 1854 in any event. He could be a brother. For some reason, I don't think I ever really researched him, perhaps because he was so much more wealthy than William H.

--- Oops, I take that back. That James is a descendant (grandson?) of a Thomas Scott who died in Chester County in 1806, left children John, Mary, James, Phillip, William, Joseph, Rebecca and Margaret. The James Scott in the 1850-1860 Census (Drover/Farmer) was a son of James. (Sources: Descent Chart by Cathy Berger, ts on file at Cecil County Historical Society, Elkton, MD (as of 2000); Doris Brostrum, 21 Nov 1999 (in re: Notes, Genealogy of the Thomas Jefferson Scott Family of Cecil County, Maryland) From Chester County Archives Limited Reference Service [I think this was also at the Cecil County Historical Society in 2000].--GayelKnott 02:12, 4 September 2014 (UTC)

    Both William H. and James had sons names Gilbert (Sharon asks, Where did they get this) which is either a coincidence or evidence of some relationship. James had an Uncle named William Scott (wife of Margaret Houston) who lived in both Pennsylvania and Maryland. In 1809 William (Uncle of James) was listed in a deed as a carpenter "of Chester County" but the 1810 census index lista a Willianm Scott in just the state of Maryland. If William H. was born in 1805 in Deleware and his father's name was also William, there is no evidence of him in the 1810 census

Yes, that fits for James Scott -- he could be related, but it would take a lot more work, and I think it is highly unlikely. For one thing, this family is definitely centred in Cecil and Chester counties, and William H. and presumably his father were in Delaware, not Pennsylvania. Still, I suppose if a direct line male descendant could be found who would be willing to do a Y-DNA test, it could be checked to see if they are potentially related. Or the other possibility would be to write to the Cecil County Historical Society and see if they have any updated information on this line. I couldn't find anything on Ancestry, WorldConnect, or FamilySearch. (I also made a stab at RootsWeb mail list archives -- no posts by Brostrom, several by Berger, nothing directly useful.)

As for the pre-1850 Census records, that is a major frustration. I can't find a William Scott anywhere who could fit William H's father and who cannot be shown to be someone else's father. For the early years, it's possible that he was living in an extended family/family-servant household, with someone else listed as the head of household, but by 1830/1840, surely he should be listed as the head of his own household?--GayelKnott 02:12, 4 September 2014 (UTC)

    There is no listing in the census or tax records for a William C(ovington) Scott. The only Covington families on the 1810 census index lived in New Castle, Deleware.  I also located a William Scott of Little Britain, Lancaster County, who purchased land in West Nottingham in 1834. In addition, James (who purchased from William H.) had a brother - Scott(wife Mary of Cecil Co., Maryland" 

Actually, there are Covingtons in Queen Anne's County, Maryland. Since this is where the Covingtons seem to have originated (at least in Maryland)--GayelKnott 02:12, 4 September 2014 (UTC)

    They mentioned Tax records in 1836 for William Scott and the deeds in I4, Pg 316, 1834, M5, pg 206,1842, O5, pg 30,1852m K5 pg 267&268,1849, F5, pf 202 & 157, land in E Fallowingfield, and D3, pg 88 & 30, 1809, sale of land in East Nottingham by heirs of Thomas Scott including William Scott, carpenter and Margaret Scott.

These are all the same family as James the Drover.

    There was also an Appearance Papers, and Execution Papers in 1859, assume this is about losing his mill to a Sheriff's sale???

Probably about losing his bit of land. As far as I know, he never owned a mill -- by that time, mill owners and millers usually were two different classes of people, with the owners hiring the millers and the millers typically not owning anything. And, according to one historian at the Newlin Grist Mill historic site, finding millers in records at that time is incredibly difficult. I think she was probably right, as the last time I was in Maryland, about two years ago, at the Cecil County Historical Society, they did have a record book from the Scott Mill near Cowantown, which at least some members of the family (James Thomas Scott's son Sewell) had identified as "our" Scott family. (It wasn't.) I thought that going through the records would give me a hint as to who might have been the miller, but the miller was never mentioned. The records were all about goods bought and sold, never about anyone employed. Ownership records, on the other hand, were in deed records, and our Scott family has never shown up as owning any mills.--GayelKnott 02:12, 4 September 2014 (UTC)

    Is any of this new to you, and have you ever heard of Judith Fields? If you ever find out anymore, please let me know. I have copied from Family Search years ago parents for Wm H Scott as Wm Thomas Scott and Eliz Jane Mason, but don't know where the submitter got that????

May get finished yet. I've had company, and not too much time. Anyway, I saw the Wm Thomas Scott and Eliz Jane Mason entry on Family Tree when I first started putting data up there. It's pretty obviously what I call "dash and grab" genealogy -- some one dashes into the records, grabs a possible name, and dashes off. Thomas and Eliza were married less than a month before William H. was born, which is not a problem, but they were married in the interior of North Carolina, and I don't see how a 8 months pregnant woman is going to get from the interior of NC to Wilmington before giving birth. There were a lot of other problems with the entire family as well, as it seemed to be a mush up of two or three different families.--GayelKnott 16:08, 4 September 2014 (UTC)

    Wish he'd come visit me in the night and just clear this up. I'll let you know if that happens :-) b u t what wo uld we use for a source?--Sharon K Johnson 20:25, 2 September 2014 (UTC)

Walking Distance [4 September 2014]

Gayle, I've been all day in your records and wish to relate an experience that might explain how Wm and Margaret in Cecil Co., Md might be in walking distance from Wm H Scott in Chester Co., Pa. I have done lots of Quaker records for my ancestors who also lived in those Nottingham Lots. Until the Mason Dixon line was drawn, the records might be in Cecil Co Md or Chester Co., Pa. I had to check both counties, as the area changed jurisdictions often. I was taking a photo of the Red Brick Meeting house in one or other of these counties when I accidentally locked my car. I went to the caretaker and they called a lock smith in Elkton, whose wife told me, he was up in that area now milking their cows. He came to assist me, and we got to talking, and he said he milked three cows in Cecil Co., and 3 in Chester Co. in the same barn next to each other. So the boys certainly could have walked to see their grandparents in short time. Hope this substiantiates the supposition that the Wm and Margaret were the G Parents of James and William C, sons of Wm H Scott. It looks like in the 1850 census of Wm and Margaret, the son Thomas was 29 and the next son Sewell was 1 7, so I presume that Thomas was the younger brother of William H by Wm's first wife. Do we have any clue as to her name. What records have you searched. Do you think they might have been married in Georgia? I love the story of "Come William, my children and your children are fighting with our children". Would love to get a family group sheet of all 15 children, though two in Mrgaret's will, Susan and Julia must have been hers by her first husband. Any record of her father Jacob Burkhard, or did you find his last will and testament in the "northern liberties of Pennsylvania" Did you ever find his will??? so many questions, so few answers.--Sharon K Johnson 04:49, 3 September 2014 (UTC)

Thanks for the story. I think that happened a lot along the border between the two states. Lewisville, where the Scotts lived for a time, was also right on the state line. Most of the town is in PA, but the church and cemetery are in MD. And people did walk a lot more, and a lot further in those days. It's "only" 8-9 miles between Lewisville and Elkton, for example. Not something you'd walk every day, but people obviously did walk it. Wm. H. was working in Elkton in the 1860s, for example, while the family was living in Lewisville. The Shorts apparently lived between Elkton and Northeast, so the distance to see them would not have been too much greater.

I've treated Thomas as the son of William (C.?) by his first wife, since he is not named in Margaret's will. Julia would, however, be William's daughter, as she is Julia Emma, and the youngest of the children based on the 1850 Census. Our family stories always said she was Emma Covington, but my guess is that it is Sophia whose middle name is Covington. I wasn't able to find (Julia) Emma in later census records, although I suspect that she moved with the others over to the area just north of Baltimore with the others, and probably married there. I did find one family that could have been hers, but no proof, and did not follow through on it. I've also never been able to find with any certainty Margaret's daughter Susan in census records. It would be really nice to know what Margaret's first husband's name was and be able to find where she was living about the time that they married.

Margaret's father's will is posted on his page. Unfortunately, Margaret was not married when the will was written, so still no clues as to who her first husband was. I did consider trying to track sales of the lots going to her siblings, but it would take going through a lot of films in order to try to track them, and the time and expense seemed more than I was willing to take on.

I have no idea who William H.'s mother was. According to our family stories, she was of "Scotch-Irish descent". I tried tracking Hazeltons -- there were Hazelton's in Wilmington, Delaware, in church records, at the time Wm. H. was born, but they are as elusive as William H's father. (I see I haven't updated the Search for WH Scott's father page. Yet another thing to do. <sigh>) My guess is that they either lived or moved across the river in Delaware County, PA, and that's an area I've never really explored in terms of research.

I did follow Helen Scott's husband, James McCrone, back to Delaware, and his father seemed to have an association/be a neighbour of a Tatnal, which is somewhat encouraging. (The Richardsons, Tatnals and Canby were the "big" mill owners in Wilmington at the time, and the Richardson's to whom William H. owed money were part of that Richardson family. There are Richardson family records in the Historical Society in Wilmington, but the index does not mention any Scotts, let alone a William Scott. Again, hired hands just don't seem to show up in the records.)

More later. --GayelKnott 16:08, 4 September 2014 (UTC)

Added a whole lot more after the above and Family Search crashed my web browser, so I've lost it. Really can't take the time to enter it all again. So brief summary:

Scotts were not members of Doe Run Presbyterian Church in Chester County, where son Joseph was married.

Have researched records in Cecil, MD; Chester, PA; New Castle, PA; also some other potential family lines, including more Richardsons.

Marriage in GA (or SC) a possibility, but records either non-existent or very rare. --GayelKnott 20:50, 4 September 2014 (UTC)

Current Research Focus [12 September 2014]

For some time now, I've been focusing on Covingtons, rather than Scotts. Based on DNA evidence, and also on extensive research done by Yvonne Scott, our Scott family almost certainly descends from Scotts who settled in Talbot/Queen Anne's Counties in MD by the early 1700s. They also were most likely part of a migration of Scotts, Covingtons, and others out of Queen Anne's County to Anson County, NC prior to the Revolutionary War (or at least closely related). There is a reasonably good compiled genealogy for these Covingtons, a few of whom may have gone to Georgia, and many of whom did move across the state line into South Carolina. (See Henry Covington for one of the early Covingtons.) One possibility that I have explored is William Covington who died in Georgia in 1818, and who had a Samuel Scott as a neighbour. I've pretty much come to the conclusion, however, that this William Covington, whose identification as part of the MD/NC Covingtons is based on an early DAR membership application, is actually a "smash-up" of two different people, the one who served in the war in South Carolina, and the one who died in Georgia and was probably from Virginia.

Although William H. Scott is not my main research focus at the moment, I do have some indication that there was a William Covington who owned a mill in South Carolina at about the right time period and who had connections to various Scotts, and, when I get the time, that is probably where I will go next, in the hopes of finding some reference either to a William Scott who could be William H. Scott's father; or to a Thomas Scott who could be his grandfather.

So that's where I am at the moment. Although, like you, I wouldn't object to having a dream some night from which I could get up crying "Eureka"! --GayelKnott 21:42, 4 September 2014 (UTC)

Gayle, I just finished my perusal of my Scott files, and I ran across an interesting letter from Eilene Evans, Box 122, Cascade, Idaho 83611, that I received in 1993, postmarked Boise Idaho. She writes: "#1. Thomas David Scott - Lady Covington Scott, #2 son William Covington Scott, came to America before the Revolutionary War. #3 son William Scott, Captain in War of 1812. #4 son William Hazelton Scott, md Mary Ellen Short 3 Jan 1833, Cecil Co. Md. born 25 Nov 1805 Cecil Co., Md, died 16 July 1884. William H and Mary are buried in the Old Torrey Cemetery near St. John, Putnam Co. Missouri."

    She then writes of the first two sons of Wm H Scott and then writes: "The William Hazelton family must have moved in 1833 to Westchester, Chester Co. Penn. All the children were born there. James T, the oldest had a son named William Covington who was born in 1858 and died in 1883. My Grandfather was David Garrett Scott, born 1851, the son of Wm. H Scott". 
    I wrote these names in the order they seemed to fall into place while reading the many mixed notes I have. 

Thought you might find some clues in this letter. Keep me posted on parents of Wm.H. Scott's parents, grandparents.... Thanks, Sharon--Sharon K Johnson 23:50, 10 September 2014 (UTC)

Thanks for the letter, Sharon. Eilene is my mother's cousin, and, while I've never asked, I suspect much of her information came from my grandmother, My grandmother spent much of her life writing letters to various cousins about family information -- all word of mouth, never any actual sources. I have copies of several of the letters, as well as similar research (writing to various family members) that my uncle did later. There was also a "cousin" back in Missouri who did a bit of research, as well, Alice Faye Scott. Some of Alice's information was a bit off, but most of what came through grandma's writing seems to hold up reasonably well. But where she got the information about Thomas Scott and Lady Covington, I don't know. That's what I'd be looking for in following the the Covingtons. A lot of this oral history has been condensed on the Scott Family Search for WH Scott's father page.

You can be sure that if I ever do get more information on William Hazelton Scott or his father, it will be posted both here and on Family Tree (which is my "backup"). If you want to be notified of any new information, you just have to "watch" the pages that are of interest to you. That is what several of my family members do. (If you are signed in, you just go to the page you want to watch, and click on "Watch" on the left hand side of the page.) I'll also try to let you know personally. --GayelKnott 19:41, 12 September 2014 (UTC)

Family Bibles [12 September 2014]

Sharon, I don't know who you have contact with, but maybe you could shed some light on the following.

William Hazelton Scott apparently had a family bible. At the very least, i should confirm his birth date. According to family information I have, it went to his only daughter, Mary Ellen Scott Wilson at his death. my cousin David talked to a daughter of Alvanza Milsap, who remembered seeing the bible as a young child, and thought it had gone to one of her uncles (possibly John Dow Milsap?), but checking with her cousin's daughter, there was no else who remembered seeing the bible.

Recently, as Family Search has been uploading "Legacy Sources" to Family Tree, there have been a couple that have referenced Mary Ellen Wilson's family bible. They were added by June Rose Milsap, a daughter of David Lee Milsap, who married Lynn Shumway. June is now deceased. I contacted her husband, who is still living, some time ago, to ask if he knew anything about a family bible, and he said he didn't.

I don't know if you are familiar with the branch of the family (I'm not), but some of the Legacy Sources might give some clues.

They are:
Mary Ellen Scott KLV3-CTQ (Mary Ellen Scott Wilson's Bible in possession of Virginia Bergland 4512 Clayton St. Denver, Colorado.) (contact Lynn Shumway)
Max Ellis Millsap KG91-HY2 – has contact name: Dorothy H Shumway
George Henry Wilson - KND1-FWN Family Bible: (Wyreka cemetery) in Possession of Mary Maybell Millsap Laura

Do you know any of these people -- Virginia Bergland, Mary Maybell Milsap, even Dorothy Shumway? Or anything about them? --GayelKnott 20:52, 12 September 2014 (UTC)