The Mansons in America: A Step Closer

Document Analysis Gives Clues

Recently, I wrote in this space that a correspondent had offered certain documents related to the Revolutionary War pension application of one William Manson. I've now received and analyzed those documents. I'm excited by what this trove suggests and I'm grateful to Carolyn Lambert, a Midwestern family historian, for her generosity in sharing the documents.

A brief review: I'm on the trail of the origins of my Manson ancestors in America. I know that the earliest such ancestor I can document is Charlotte Manson. She was born in the late 1700's in South Carolina and later moved to Georgia. She was the mother of Jane Manson, born about 1823 in Talbot County, Georgia. Coincidentally [or maybe not], another Jane Manson lived in western Georgia at about the same time. This Jane Manson was Jane Manson Norwood, mother of Georgia politician Thomas Manson Norwood. I've been trying to determine whether Jane Manson Norwood had any connection to Charlotte Manson.

Here's what I've learned from the new documents: In 1832, William Manson, then residing in Jefferson County, Tennessee, made an affidavit in order to apply for his Revolutionary War pension. He averred that he "was born on the 13th of November 1750 in Caithness, one of the Northern shires of Scotland . . . ." The affidavit continues, "In the year 1775, he emigrated to the United States and landed at Savannah, Georgia late in the fall of 1775."

From separate sources, I know that in September 1775, three ships carrying Scots immigrants arrived in Georgia. The three ships were the Georgia Packet, the Georgia Merchant, and the Marlborough. There were Mansons on each of these vessels. Any of them could be a relative of the Charlotte Manson we're seeking. But the most intriguing of these is William Manson, who arrived aboard the Marlborough. This William Manson is said to have been born on July 24, 1751, according to historian David Dobson, and came from Dunnet, Caithness. The birth dates don't match, however. This could be an error, as Dobson's work also assigns a birth date of July 24, 1751, to a Margaret Manson, who arrived on a different ship, the Georgia Merchant.

Another interesting fact about our Marlborough passenger is that he was married to one Elizabeth Sinclair. Now, our pensioner declared that he had a son named Sinclair, born in 1772. Yet the pensioner also declared that he was married on October 13, 1783 to a woman named Mary. This suggests, of course, that Mary was a second wife.

So could the Marlborough passenger and the pensioner be the same person?

Pensioner William Manson had six children with Mary, one of whom was Jane, who was born in South Carolina. She later married Caleb Merriman Norwood in Blount County, Tennessee.

Clearly, there's a lot here to continue to look into. More to follow.

Another Interesting Note

In his pension application, William Manson declares that he served under Captain John Bowie when he enlisted in South Carolina July, 1776. This would appear to be the first contact between these two of my American families.

Wedding Anniversary: James & Mary Long

1888 marriage license of James William Long and Mary Elizabeth Johnson.

This image can be viewed in greater resolution as a TIFF file or with additional pages as a PDF file at the superb site of the Jackson County, Missouri, Department of Records.



James William Long and Mary Elizabeth Liza Jane Johnson were married 118 years ago today. James, born in about 1866, was the youngest son, but the third of five children, of James "Old Man" Long and Paulina Nancy Long [1838-1886].

Mary Elizabeth, born in August, 1870, was the oldest child of Ezekiel Johnson [c. 1846-1940] and Sarah Gilbert [c. 1849-1919]. Sarah Gilbert was reputedly an Indian and still-living witnesses say her features were prominently displayed in daughter Mary's visage. Mary was not yet 18 years old when she married James. At the Jackson County Department of Records online site, you can see the mark made by the illiterate farmer Ezekiel Johnson to consent to the union.

James and Mary had 14 children together. Four sons died in infancy; a daughter, Mary Beatrice Long, died of tuberculosis as a teenager. But their other children proved exceptionally long-lived, especially Christina Long Neal, who lived to age 102; William Henry Long who died at age 101; and Rosetta Bell Long, who passed just two months short of her 94th birthday.

James William Long was for many years the pastor of the Sunrise Baptist Church in Kansas City. It is said that the church during those years straddled the state line; the pulpit was in Missouri, the congregation in Kansas. [Today, the church is at 3301 Cypress Avenue, KCMO].

James and Mary Long's granddaughter, Lillian Manson, recalls:

"Grandpa and Grandma built their home on the west side [of Kansas City, Missouri]. There was no inside plumbing. They hardly ever ventured beyond the west side until just before Grandma died, which would have been about 1946. I never knew Grandpa to work other than at his preaching. In the house, he had a study with glass walls. He would be in there all day, reading."

"He was very harsh with his children. He would make them read the Bible every night after supper and if they fell asleep, he would hit them."

James William Long died in November 1945. Thereafter, the teenaged Lillian Manson spent every day caring for her grandmother; brushing her mid-back length silver hair and knotting it into a single braid, just the way Mary liked it. Just three months after James departed, Mary Elizabeth Liza Jane Johnson Long died on February 17, 1946.

Research Note: Georgia Archives

Peach State Site Has Much to Offer

On my 2005 research trip to Georgia, I had really hoped to get to the Georgia State Archives in the Atlanta suburb of Morrow. I'd heard from several folks that it would be a worthwhile visit. Unfortunately, time and other circumstances conspired to keep me away from Morrow. But Georgia Secretary of State Cathy Cox, who has a reputation for technological innovation, is helping me and others who can't get to the Archives. She's expanding the online offerings, both the online images as well as the online indexes. Here's the link to the Georgia Archives. I like some of their images. For example, here is a copy of a document from the Civil War pension file of Henry F. Birdsong.



The image as downloaded from the Archives site is of higher quality than this Blogger.com-adjusted copy.

Henry F. Birdsong [1846-1936] was the fourth child of George Lawrence Forsyth Birdsong and Susan Francis Thweatt Birdsong. Sometimes known as "LaFayette" Birdsong, he was the brother of George Preston Birdsong.

Research Note: California & Missouri Death Certificates

California Provides Speedy Mail Service

Although GeneaBlogie is based in California, most of my research is in other states. Recently, however, I had occasion to order a California death certificate. Frankly, I was dreading the experience. It couldn't be done online and there's no walk-in counter at the state office that processes the requests. I was prepared for a months-long wait, given how other things in this state work. I was pleasantly surprised when a week after I had mailed my request, I received a postcard acknowledging my request and stating that the average processing time for birth and death certificates was four weeks from the date of the acknowledging postcard. [On the other hand, it also said the average processing time for marriage licenses is 2-3 years!]. In fact, I received the death certificate just three weeks after my request. Here's the link to the California Office of Vital Records.

Missouri Expediting Service

I've written before about Missouri's great new 1910-1955 death certificate project. Images are now online through 1923 and the State Archives intends to get through 1925 by the end of June. In the meantime, photocopies are available from the Archives for the ridiculously reasonable cost of $1.00 each. So I ordered five certificates and received a postcard informing me that it would be eight weeks until my request could be processed. But like my experience with California, I actually received the certificates in less than half that time. Well, I must have been one of the lucky ones, because recently the Missouri Archives posted this notice on its death certificate site. So now, for the equally ridiculous cost of $5.00, you can get expedited service from Friends of the Archives.

Bernadine Coles Gines

A native of Virginia, Bernadine Coles Gines earned a bachelors degree from Virginia State College and an MBA from New York University in 1947. In 1954, she became the first black woman to be certified as a CPA in the State of New York. She and her sister, Ruth Coles Harris, were among the very first black CPAs in the USA.

Bernadine Coles Gines' late husband was Richard Edward Gines, born in Kansas City, but who lived in New York City after World War II. Bernadine Coles was born in Charlottesville, Virginia, into a family with a famous Virginia name and an interesting American genealogy. She and her sister were daughters of Bernard and Ruth Coles. Their paternal grandparents were Thornton and Annie Gamble Coles, both born in about 1867 in the Charlottesville (then Albemarle County) area. Thornton Coles was the son of John Coles, born a slave in about 1845. John and his mother Agnes (born about 1815) served in the household of John S. Coles in St. Anne's Parish, Albemarle County, Virginia. John S. Coles was the grandson of Col. John Coles of Virginia and the great-nephew of Col. Isaac Coles. He was the nephew of Edward Coles. The Coles brothers, John and Isaac, were the sons of John Coles, a wealthy and well-connected tobacco planter. They were also that genealogical oddity, "double first cousins, once removed" to Dolley Madison.

John S. Coles, who owned Bernadine's great-grandfather and great-great- grandmother, was a major slaveowner in Albemarle County. Ironically, Isaac Coles had voted to abolish slavery when he served in Congress. Likewise, Edward Coles was a very early proponent of abolition. He freed all of his slaves upon moving to Illinois, became that state's second governor, and helped establish the abolitionist roots of the Republican Party. Coles County, Illinois, is named for Edward Coles.

The history of the Coles name in Virginia since the early nineteenth century is the complex, sometimes tragic, sometimes poignant, ocassionally absurd, history of the relationship between blacks and whites in America.

But today, blacks and whites share the distinction of the Coles name in Virginia and Illinois and around the country. Doctors, professors, writers, social activists, business people, artists, and accountants [our personal favorite] have written the modern history of the Coles family name, now without regard to race or "previous condition of servitude."

A Clue to the Origins of the Mansons in America

Patience is the Key to this Work

I'd begun to feel that perhaps there were some things I'd simply never know about my ancestors. Indeed, that is likely. But patience is the key to this work.

I have described before the descent of my family from a woman named Charlotte Manson, most likely the daughter of Scots-Itrish immigrants probably born in the Carolinas in the late 18th century. Her daughter, born in about 1826 in Georgia, was named Jane Manson. I've been interested in, and frustrated by, the issue of Charlotte Manson's parentage.

A separate lead I've pursued and written about involves a different Jane Manson. This Jane Manson was born in the late 18th century, and in 1818, married Caleb Merriman Norwood in Blount County, Tennessee. The family eventually settled in Georgia, living, among other places there, in Talbot County, where my ancestor, the other Jane Manson, lived at about the same time. Caleb and Jane Norwood's children included a son, Thomas Manson Norwood, who was born in Talbot County, Georgia, and had a long political career.

Though much has been written about Thomas Manson Norwood, very little seems to be known about his mother, Jane Manson Norwood. I've always felt that knowing something about her could be a key to more information about Charlotte Manson.

Nearly eleven months ago, I posted a query on the Manson family forum board at Genealogy. com. Here is the posting. Yesterday, a reply! This is significant information. I've long known that various Manson family groups landed at Savannah and that large numbers of Mansons in America originated in Caithness. But I've not been able to tie any of them specifically to my family. Working with this new information, I may be able to identify Charlotte Manson's family.