Records of Mrs. John Hugh Goodman before 1847
She was the first wife of John Hugh Goodman.
They had three sons:
John Henry Birth: 1843
Enoch Milton Birth: 1844
William Lee Birth: 1848
She was not listed in the 1850 Census.
John Hugh was remarried in 1852.
Comments
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Hi Tracie,
Can you tell us more about where you've already looked for records so we can make more meaningful suggestions? Margo Reynolds created a "Miranda" profile on FamilySearch, who she identified as the first Mrs. John Hugh Goodman. I see you both have contributed to their profiles. Have you tried contacting her to find out more about where she arrived at the name Miranda and to see if you could collaborate in your search?
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Margo is my sister. She remembers my Dad saying Miranda. However, My dad was born after John Hugh Goodman's second wife (Minerva) died, so he would have only heard the name through family conversations as he grew up. He also grew up under the impression that Minerva was his Aunt, not a Gr. Grandmother. I am uncertain about that name only because we have been unable to find any records of Mrs. John Hugh Goodman anywhere (including Miranda). We have checked Census records, births, deaths, Find a Grave, marriages, divorce, newspapers, and the Brinegar and Goodman histories at the State Archive in Missouri. I am not certain where to go from here. I posted on the community under the recommendation of my Ward Family Search Consultant. Any other ideas?
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Ah, yes, a healthy dose of skepticism is always good when the claims pertain to events from before the claimant was even born. Without continuous contemporary written records, it's easy for family mythology to supplant family history.
Can you elaborate a bit more about what checking marriages, deaths, and newspapers has entailed for you? Does that mean searching through online databases of the records that have been indexed or going through page after page of original documents and scans? What has been the geographic scope of your search--just Linn Co., MO or surrounding counties as well? Do you have records (land, tax, etc.) that would indicate the Goodman family was already living in Linn County by the time the earlier marriage would have occurred?
Have you or eligible relatives applied for the death certificates of Hugh's oldest three sons, particularly John and Enoch? Since their wives appear to have been born in the same area of Missouri, they were married for 40+ years, and their wives survived them by 10+ years (and thus, could have served as informants upon death), this seems like a great source of reliable information if it were recorded on the death certificates.
Last year, I tackled a similar situation in my own family stemming from around the same time period. Two obituaries/death notices for my 3rd great grandfather were widely circulated within the family but contained little to no biographical information. However, I was finally able to identify a third in another publication which gave more biographical information including the maiden name of his first wife (my ancestor). This seems to match the previously indecipherable scribble listed on the death certificate of their son (one of the two full siblings of my ancestor from the following generation). Anyway, when searching newspapers, did you make an exhaustive search for all published obituaries of Hugh and his oldest three sons?
I hope none of my questions/comments seem patronizing. It's just much easier to make suggestions with more detailed information about what has already been tried.
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