Mystery #2: Mary Ferguson's sister, Elizabeth (1835-1898) also married a McNabb. The Indiana Marriage Index helpfully tells us that a James McNabb and Elizabeth B. Ferguson were married in DeKalb county on 8 February 1858. The CFH tells us that they had six children:
But... after finding what I believe to be the only appearance of this family in the 1860 Census (with James, Elizabeth, and 1-year-old Ella), they seem to fall between all of the cracks in the databases. I have not been able to find them in 1870 or 1880, even with very broad searches.
- Ella McNabb 1859–
- Margret McNabb
- Mary McNabb
- Charles McNabb
- Eliza McNabb
- Emma McNabb
Looking at the data again, there are some details in the original Callin Family History that were hard for me to interpret. This was one of several records in the CFH that could be read in more than one way, and without source citations, it's hard to check the information great-uncle George drew from or figure out what he meant to communicate to us. Here's what his record actually said:
Record of Elizabeth Ferguson who was the 2nd daughter of Eliza Callin Ferguson who was the 3rd daughter of John Callin who was the 2nd son of James 1st.
Born about 1836, died about 1898.
Married to James McNabb.
To this union seven children were born:
Ella, married, has five children living.
G.W. Reid (by 2nd marriage), married, two children living.
Emma, married.
Eliza, married, five children living.
Charles, unmarried.
Margret, married, two children living, three dead.
Mary, died at one year old.
It's pretty clear now that I should have interpreted this as telling me after Ella, the other children listed were from Elizabeth's second marriage. It's an understandable mistake, and since I didn't know to look for people named "Reed" instead of "McNabb," I missed a lot of clues.
The CFH also gave us some of the vague information Great-Uncle George had about Ella:
Record of Ella McNabb, eldest daughter of Elizabeth Ferguson McNabb, who was the 2nd daughter of Eliza Callin Ferguson, who was the 3rd daughter of John Callin, who was the 2nd son of James 1st.
Born ----.
Married ----.
To this union were born five children.
Record of Alta McCorse, eldest daughter of Ella McNabb, eldest daughter of Elizabeth Callin Ferguson, 3rd daughter of John Callin, 2nd son of James 1st.
Born ----.
Married ----.
To this union were born four children.
For years, I misread this as saying that Ella married someone named "McCorse," when it turns out that "McCorse" is similar to her daughter Alta's married name...but we'll get to that next week.
In 2016, I didn't have access to Newspapers.com, so I didn't find Elizabeth's obituary until recently. It still wasn't easy to track down (I had to open my search parameters and dig through a lot of results), but as you can see, this find fits with what we already know from the CFH and the 1860 Census.
Elizabeth McNabb, wife of James McNabb, obituary Thu, Jun 18, 1896 – Page 8 · The Waterloo Press (Waterloo, DeKalb, Indiana) · Newspapers.comHere's the first part of the obituary:
"Elizabeth B. Reed was born in Ashland Co., Ohio, Jan. 1, 1835, and departed this life June 8th, 1896, aged 61 yrs., 5 mos., 7 das.
"She was married to James McNabb, July 8th, 1857. To this union was born one child, Ella Carper, who survives them. This union was severed by death, Dec. 27, 1860. She was married the second time to George W. Reed, Mar. 27, 1861. To this union were born six children, two sons and four daughters, five of whom survive them. In 1850 she came with her parents to DeKalb county, where she has since lived. They moved on their farm in 1867, where they enjoyed life together until death removed her husband. She has lived in the present home for 28 years."
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| Elizabeth's place in the tree |
As with previous breakthroughs, this one document allowed me to find a large number of previously unknown descendants of our common ancestor, James Callin. For the next few weeks, we'll look at the members of this branch of the family.
We'll visit Elizabeth's second husband, Mr. Reed, and their children in future posts, but today we'll look at Ella, the daughter born from her tragic first marriage. There are a lot of folks to cover, and I'm researching as I go, so I'm going to break these down into smaller posts so I can better stick to a weekly schedule.
James McNabb (1834–1860)
James was the first husband of Elizabeth Ferguson. Despite learning his date of death, I haven't been able to dig up anymore about his origins. As the first mystery in the original post on The Mysterious McNabbs concluded, this James McNabb is not obviously related to the other McNabbs who married people in our Callin/Ferguson tree. All we really know about him are these three vital facts:
- Born about 1834 in Pennsylvania (according to the 1860 Census)
- Married Elizabeth Ferguson on 8 February 1858 (according to two records in the Indiana, Marriages, 1810-2001 and the Indiana, Marriage Collection, 1800-1941, respectively)
- Died in Allen County, Indiana (according to the above obituary - I didn't even find an official death record!)
I. Ella Florence McNabb (1859–1929)
Like a few other people in our family tree, Ella seems to have shifted from using her first name to going by her middle name as she got older. She first appears as "Ella McNabb" in 1860 and as "Ella F Reed" in 1870. After she married Jacob Carper she appeared on the Census in 1900 as "Ellen Carper" and in 1910 as "Ella Carper;" but on the various marriage and death records of her children, and on the 1880 Census, her name is recorded as either "Florence Carper" or "Florence E. Carper." I surmise that her parents named her "Ella Florence McNabb," but she started using "Florence" later in life. Her eldest daughter and some of her grandchildren were apparently given that name in her honor.Ella grew up in the home of her mother and step-father in De Kalb County, Indiana, and in 1875 she married the son of Adam Carper (1795–1877) and Ann Elizabeth Cobler (1812–1886). Jacob Carper was born in Indiana in June 1853, the youngest of ten siblings.
Between 1879 and 1891 Jacob and Ella (or Florence, as she got older) had four children in Jackson Township, De Kalb County:
A. Alda Florence Carper (1879–1970)
B. Howard Leroy Carper (1882–1948)
C. John D Carper (1886–1964)
D. Callie Bell Carper (1891–1980)
Jacob underwent some minor surgery in late July 1927 which resulted in his health quickly deteriorating; he died on 6 August 1927. Florence died just two years later in 1929, and they are buried together in Roselawn Cemetery in Auburn, Indiana.
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