Family History

So frustrated!

straberiwine

Ugh! This family is driving me nuts!

I’m still looking for Garrison Bush and his family and I swear, the more I dig, the more confused I get.

In the 1850 Census, this is what his family looks like:

Garrison Bush, age 32 – head of household
Emily, age 26 – implied wife
William, age 5 – implied son
John, age 2 – implied son
Mark, age 4 months – implied son

Easy peasy, right? Seems like a nice little family. However, this is where it gets tricky. Although all the census records (only TWO) for Garrison (who may also be John Garrison?) put him born in Kentucky. So, I go back to the 1840 Census in Kentucky to find him, right? WRONG! He wasn’t married then, nor did he have kids so I have no other family members to associated him with. Also, he would’ve been about 22 in 1840 – would he have been living with his parents still and enumerated as a stupid hash mark, or would he have lived on his own? I found a John G Bush in Kentucky, but he had two kids and a wife in her 20-30’s at that time. Doesn’t sound like my guy.

I’ve looked for probate records, and even hired a professional to search the Tennessee archives to find more information on his possible death in 1869-1870 hoping to glean more on the family. She came up empty except for the guardian bond that I’d already found. Still no parents.

The man was listed as having over 100 acres in both 1850 and 1860 in Wayne County, Tennessee, but I can’t find a land record anywhere (online at least) to show he bought or sold it.

I have checked newspapers online, but do you know how many times the word ‘bush’ appears? Everybody and their brother is selling corn, peas, beans by the BUSHel.

I’m ready to beat my head against the wall with these folks, but I do love a good mystery and the find at the end of a hunt gives me such a rush.

Will I ever put their story together? I am beginning to think probably not. But am I ready to quit the search? Meh…..sometimes I think so, then I write something like this and it just gets me fired up again.

If anybody has any suggestions for places to look, I’d love to hear!

Published by straberiwine

I am a 40-something wife and mom who has been living the domesticated life for 27 years now. I have always loved family history, even from an early age. I remember my mom having our pedigree chart hand-drawn on parchment paper. Occasionally she would get it out and tape it to the wall in the living room, and there she would tell me stories about the names written in her neat script. Once I was grown and married, I joined the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints where my husband had grown up. The Church has a focus on family history that seemed to speak to my soul and my interest in genealogy grew ten fold. Here I am now, decades later, and ready to turn my hobby searches into documented research that will be suitable to pass on to posterity.

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