Misconstruing Caleb

~ Or ~  

"MISCALULATING THE TRIBE OF HARRIET"

Above: My third great uncle, (and Harriet Hathaways' son) Edwin Matlock Hampton, 1825-1880)

(Author's note: Who'dat baby daddy?)

As always, rudely unedited.

I.

Man, did I make a mistake.

I really thought I had something, or rather, I wanted to see if I did. You see, I did what we all did about five years ago—I prompted my Ancestry.com search results by "filling in the blanks" to help me get things sorted. Nowadays, we just ask some AI chatbot to do this for us, that is, to extrapolate some sort of answer out of the primordial soup. What's worse, though, is I left it (that filled-in blank) "up" and just walked away—I moved on to some other rabbit hole or brick wall. I didn't bother to take that supposed guess down, and, even while flagging it as "only speculated," something happened.

It grew like a wildfire. Yeah, it spread.

Yes, all because I presumed to know an answer that was still very much "a work in progress" by "filling in the blanks." Now, because of this, there are at least ten trees that have adopted my ill-begotten conclusion. They have adopted my misconceived notion as fact. It's even spread to FamilySearch.org, where it has glued itself onto the Mayflower lines of passenger Edward Doty—just like a parasite, or at best, like some old dog with a bone.

                          

Above: Harriet Hathaway Hampton's daughter Elizabeth Hampton Jones, and Elizabeth's great granddaughter, (right) my grandmother, Katheryn Ogle Record  - Is it something in their eyes?? Is it that the undefined "Hathaway" regard?

Hey, I didn't mean it! Hey, I take it all back?

You see, it all started when I went looking for Harriet and her Hathaways...

II.

Yes, Harriet, or rather Harriet H. "Hathaway" Hampton, born in "The Quaker City" presumably on October 25, 1802. Yes, dear Harriet, my four-times-great-grandmother on the dreaded Jones side of my family tree. It all started when I got a whiff of her possible Mayflower ancestry through Harriet's Hathaways. I figured even if she came through some less-than-stellar, slave-holding, Bible-belted pedigree lines, she was darn well worth investigating if she would lead me back to Ye Olde Ship.

    

But honestly, following Harriet back in time has been more like Mr. Toad's Wild Ride.

I won't bore you with the details, but suffice it to say that about five years ago, I postulated that our lovely Harriet's father was a guy named Caleb Hathaway, "lately of Philadelphia." My basic—and very unfounded—reasoning was that as dear Harriet was born in 1802, and as there were only two Hathaways in the 1800 to 1810 censuses in Philly, one of those happy Hathaways just had to be Harriet's papa. There was even a perfect slot in the birth order of Caleb's children that Harriet fit quite well into, and even a possible spot in the 1810 census that "could make sense" for it to be Harriet. (Though in retrospect, "that spot" is likely Caleb's daughter Mary). The other choice was a young Philly dad, a guy by the name of William Hathaway, but he had no female children.

So I figured that Old Captain Caleb Hathaway surely won the "who's your baby daddy" game by default.

Can you say, "Rubber Chicken?"

III.

So now I have egg on my face—egg that I have inadvertently spread on everybody else's face too. If you're out there, and you think Caleb Hathaway of 1801 Philly is our dear Harriet's father, you'd better at least mark it as "maybe-maybe-not," because that's really all you have. Believe me, I have run this forward and backward. I've tried investigating another alternative candidate too, a guy named John Hathaway who married a German gal named Catherine Kemmel, to see if I could eliminate him. I figured since Harriet named one of her daughters Catherine "Hathaway" Hampton, and also one of her granddaughters was named Catherine, and another granddaughter was named Maude "Hathaway," I had to be on the right track. Believe me, I got nowhere fast—even though Old Caleb and Old John's marriages are both listed right next to each other on the same page.

          

Above: My third great aunt, Harriet's daughter, Sarah Christy Hampton Donley (1827-1868)

Go figure.

I followed the whole Quaker thingy too—it's more than evident that the Hamptons (the family Harriet married into) were big-time Quakers. The trouble is, there really isn't much to indicate that Harriet herself came from a Quaker, other than being born in "The Quaker City" and the small possibility that her maybe-daddy Caleb seems to have flirted with Quakerism also—though to be fair, the only evidence I have is that a verified daughter of Caleb's was super into Oatmeal Cookies. Nah, truth be told, our dear Harriet looks like some stuffy Anglican gal who converted to the Bible-belted ways when she and hubby Joe Hampton moved to Missouri circa 1835.

They even followed their Philadelphia minister, a guy named Ezra Stiles Ely, back to Missouri when he left Philly. They even named their tenth kid after this same preacher, calling him Ezra Stiles Ely Hampton.

Oddly enough, the preacher may have preached at the same church Caleb Hathaway lived around the corner from.

Does your head hurt? Yeah, me too.

IV.

Past this, there hasn't been much to go on. I've dissected middle names for onomastic patterns, but most of the middle names lead back to the Hampton side (Harriet's husband's) of the equation. There are a couple of surnames, notably "Matlock/Matlack" and "Christie/Christy," that don't immediately identify with the Hampton side, but they also don't necessarily shed any light on my "Philadelphia Hathaways." It is interesting how Harriet made sure to perpetuate the Hathaway name in her children and her grandchildren, all the while not explaining where it came from.

    

Above: My third great aunt, Harriet's daughter, Harriet Henrietta Hampton Dawson (1831-1910)

Sure, I'd love it if my original theory about the baby daddy being Caleb could be shown as true, but as more time goes on, the less true it appears to be. Chalk up another false Mayflower line connection for me. I will, however, keep at it. If nothing else, Harriet is fun to try and pin down. I'm sure that somebody left something "Hathaway" behind at the turn of the nineteenth century in Philadelphia. Plus, it gives me something to argue with AI bots about—they get very annoyed with me when I push the logic and restate the inquiries or case in another form. It's like the AI is screaming for mercy and saying, "Look, I've already told your dumbass human self that you're not going to find her this way."

        

Above: My third great aunt, Harriet's daughter, Mary Stiles Hampton Rouner, 1835-1907

    

Above: My third great uncle, Harriet's son, Samuel Smedley Hampton (1838-1908)

Personally, I think the robots are just lazy and should work a bit harder gleaning the wheat from the chaff. (Lol).

V.

In the meantime, for sh*ts and giggles, I thought I'd post what pictures there are of Harriet's (and Joe's too, of course) children among what little "Hathaway" clues there are. It gives me an opportunity to look at this next generation of Hathaways and see if there are any sneaky clues glinting out of their sepia-toned eyeballs. I especially like the picture above of Harriet's son "Uncle Edwin" with the two babies on his lap. I want to say, "Uncle, I feel your pain..." As the father of twins from moons ago, I surely must have looked the exact same way.          

So if you think of any "Hathaway" clues, be sure to jot them down, list them as "maybe-maybe-not," and send them my way. Whatever you do, don't be a "copy-and-paster" and misconstrue Caleb as a pater familias into your family tree. He was a salty old dog, and as much as I'd love to claim that our dear Harriet was his love child from another Mayflower momma, sadly, I may never know the truth.   

Above: My third great uncle and Harriet's son, Ezra Stiles Ely Hampton, (1845-1925), and on the right, the man he was named after, the Reverend Ezra Stiles Ely.

In the end, though, it may not matter.

After all, I'm still, if nothing else, a Hathaway "of sorts" anyways.

Wink!

☮

 The Niece of Marshal Sisco 

AND THE IDENTIFICATION OF MRS. ANNIE BELL KING

(Author's note: Aim high.)

As always, unapologetically, unedited.

Well, you really didn't think I was done, did you?

I mean, come on. There is always another story to tell.

It isn't that I wanted to move on to the next project all that fast. Rather, I wanted to truly finish up and complete the story I’ve been telling—I wanted to elevate it. And no, I'm not talking about Ruth (Fuller) Francisco. I've done all that I can to bring dear Ruthie's tale into the light. I will have to rely on the New York Genealogical and Biographical Record to stand as both Ruth's and my own testimony regarding her identification, her life, and her Mayflower ancestry. (Coming July 2026 God willing!)

No, this time, it was Annie.

I just didn't feel like I had done enough for Annie—that is Ruth's great-great-granddaughter, Annie Bell (Cisco) King.

Finding Annie's death register record, which explicitly names her parents as Clark Cisco and Sarah (Hurley) Cisco, was a monumental win for this entire Mayflower line. Not to mention, it rescued dear Annie herself from being lost in the mists of time. Because of that, I wanted to elevate Annie and the tale of her "discovery."

So the question became: How best to do that?

I initially thought about putting it all together and calling upon the NYGBR again, but Annie's tale falls outside the scope of her New York ancestry. I thought about trying my luck with NEHGS’s The Register, but they tend to blow you off because they're so damn busy most days. I know I could try anyway, but it just didn't feel right. Annie's story also felt a little too far removed to attempt Mayflower Descendant (besides, I’ve driven the editor there crazy enough times!).

Still, my need to tell Annie's side of this lineage story prevails. 

In my genealogical madness, I decided to combine the telling of Annie's tale—which I am calling "The Niece of Marshal Sisco"—with my own aspiration (and hubris) to publish in one of the other premier genealogical periodicals: The American Genealogist (TAG). It isn't as "old" a publication as The Register or The Record (having started in 1922), but it is fiercely exclusive. Along with the National Genealogical Society Quarterly, they are the big kids on the block.

Look at me. Trying to play with the New Kids. 

Oops. Sorry, Wrong kids. Oh well, as usual, I digress.

Anyway, back to our regularly scheduled program... 

So, I took the plunge. I wrote my exploratory email to the "TAG" editor, Dr. Nathaniel Lane Taylor, and attached version 129k of my manuscript: "The Niece of Marshal Sisco—Identifying Annie Bell (Cisco) King of Madison, Jefferson County, Indiana." 

Wish me luck. This process is so incredibly intimidating.

If I get this published—and I know that is a massive "if"—it will mean that two major sections of Paige's Mayflower line ancestry, Ruth Fuller and Annie Cisco, will have successfully made their way out of the dark pages of forgotten history and into the permanent light of: 

Yes, this is who we were.

Anyway, it's officially sent. Wish us luck!

☮