Researching my Mother’s female maternal line ancestors has been challenging, especially since there are no family stories, family Bibles, photos, or records passed down to me. I have researched her maternal female ancestors infrequently and irregularly because of lack of information. I thought eventually there would be records added online for them, but they are limited for this particular ancestor – Nancy Caroline Hodges. However, honoring her in a blog post may touch one of her descendants somewhere who has information they are willing to share.
Nancy Caroline Hodges was born about 1819 in South Carolina. Online family trees are great sources to use if they have records to back up the information. If there are no records the trees are useless and unreliable. I took the information from family trees that had records and searched the records to verify the information. The research lead me to conclude that Nancy Caroline was the oldest child of Edmond and Martha Hodges, and that she married at a young age to my second great grandfather, John Lewis Coon born October 6, 1814 in Pike County, Mississippi. The 1820 Pike County, Mississippi has Edmond Hodges head of the home, and listed is one female under ten. One male twenty-six thru forty-four, one male under ten, and one female sixteen thru twenty-five.
Listed on the same 1820 Pike County, Mississippi census is Jacob Coon, father of John Lewis Coon, Wm. Hodges, Sidney Hodges, Jesse Hodges, Drure Hodges along with Edmond Hodges. I have concluded that Drure Hodges is the likely father of Edmond Hodges since Drure’s age was forty-five and up. Drure is listed living in the next household near Edmond on the census. There was a white female forty-five and up also listed. Therefore, I concluded these are the parents of Edmond Hodges. Jesse, Sidney, and William all had children listed in various age categories on the census. Those three Hodges males could be brothers of Edmond. I haven’t found Edmond on the 1830 census; however, he is on the 1840 census living in Pike County, Mississippi.
Listed as head of the family is one male in the fifty thru 59 age category and I concluded that would be Edmond. Edmond’s age in 1840 would be about fifty-one years. There is one female in the 40 thru 49 age category and I conclude that is Martha his wife since she would be about 56 in 1840. There were two males in the five thru nine age category, two females under five, two females ten thru fourteen, and one female fifteen thru nineteen which I concluded to be Nancy Caroline. I continued my research and found Edmund Hodges still living in Pike County, Mississippi and place of birth in South Carolina and age sixty-one. That would make his estimated birth year 1789 so I believe that I have the correct Edmond Hodges father of Nancy Caroline.
By the time of the enumeration of the 1850 census Nancy Caroline was married and she and Lewis Coon had five children. There is Martha M. (Miranda) eleven-years-old living in the household, so Nancy Caroline’s estimated marriage is about 1838. Nancy Caroline’s age is twenty-eight making her estimated birth year 1822. Sarah J. the next daughter was eight years old making her estimated birth year 1842. John C. age seven, Talitha age five, William C. age 4, and Edmund T. age 2. Their family continued to grow and by the 1860 census they were still living and Pike County and had three additional children – Polly Ann age nine, Isham age seven and Phillip age one.
Finding the Coon family in the 1870 census was more difficult. The tip to keep in mind when researching the censuses is to look at all spelling variations and initials. Well, Caroline was listed on page 29 on the census as N. C. Coon and was forty-eight years old and her place of birth was South Carolina. She had a real estate value of $200 and personal estate at $500. Living in Dwelling No. 219 was N. C. Coon and living with her were I. S. Coon male age seventeen, Polly female age sixteen, Phillip H. male age ten, Summers Vic female age twelve. Living nearby Dwelling 220 was E. T. Coon her son and his wife Jane A. Then, living in Dwelling 221 was Martha Miranda (M. M. McDavid) and her family.
Lewis Coon was listed as L. C. and was living with W. C. age twenty-three. In Lincoln County. I tracked the family down by looking at various spellings of the name variations. The other tip when looking through censuses is to look at the pages to the right and pages to the left of the page where you find your ancestor. That is the tip that I used and looked on the next page 30 and found L. C. (Lewis). On the 1870 census living in Dwelling 214 was Martha Hodges age seventy-five Nancy Caroline’s mother her place of birth was South Carolina and her value of real estate was $500 and personal estate $125.
On the 1880 census Caroline was sixty-one years old and Lewis was sixty-five. H. Phillip was living at home and he was twenty-one years old and the family was living in Lincoln County. Lincoln County was formed from Pike County in 1870. The family didn’t move the county line changed.
After researching the available records and analyzing them carefully I feel confident that Nancy Caroline Hodges’ father is Edmond Hodges and her mother is Martha. Nancy Caroline died October 2, 1897 in Lincoln County, Mississippi and is interred in McDavid Cemetery in Lincoln County, Mississippi. John Lewis Coon died February 19, 1898 and is interred in the same cemetery where is beloved wife Nancy Caroline is interred.
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