The Family Tree
By Terence L. Day
Terence L. Day, genealogist and journalist, is on the Washington State University faculty. He welcomes e-mail at genealogy@moscow.com, or regular mail in care of the Tri-City Herald City newsroom, P.O. Box 2608, Tri-Cities, WA 99302-2608.
Genealogy involves geographic mysteries
This story was published April 16, 2000
Recently, I turned my genealogical attentions to my Barnes line and rediscovered any numbers of lessons in history, geography, genealogy and the solving of mysteries.
My Barneses trace to early Indiana. Just how early, I can't reliably say. More about that in a moment.
Grandmother Day was born Ada Rene Barnes. Her father, Oliver Perry Barnes (1833-1909), brought the family West over the Oregon Trail in 1860 or 1861.
I can't say whether his father, William George Barnes (1801-77), came with them or followed them to Oregon. He died in Cove in Oregon's Union County.
According to family records, W.G. Barnes was born in Morgantown in Indiana's Morgan County. Our records say his father, George Warren Barnes, was born in Morgantown in 1760 and died in 1853.
Genealogical research is an exercise bound by geography and history.
Reading my account of the Barneses thus far, some of you already may have raised an eyebrow. I hope so. Were G.W. and W.G. really born in Morgantown, Ind.?
First I consulted Everton Publishers' The Handybook for Genealogists and found that Morgantown didn't exist when G.W. was born in 1760. Indeed, Indiana Territory wasn't organized until 1800. Prior to that, the area now called Indiana was part of the old and unsettled Northwest Territory.
I have yet to determine when settlement first occurred in present-day Morgan County, but the Morgan County Library's Web site says Morgantown was organized in 1825. Morgan County was created in 1822, from "unorganized territory."
This suggests that the first permanent settlers moved into the area not much before that time.
The Morgan County Library's Web pages include extracts of original land sales from the U.S. government, in Morgan County. There I found that one Benjamin Barnes bought 80 acres on Sept. 5, 1820. John Barnes bought 80 acres on July 17, 1821. James Barnes bought 80 acres on April 5, 1822. Thomas Barnes bought 80 acres May 1, 1832, and Hannah Barnes bought 80 acres Sept. 20, 1836.
Needless to say, I'm pursuing the possibility - make that a strong likelihood - that these Barneses are related to my George and William. I'll also pursue James, Robert and William Foster, who bought nearby tracts of land between 1838 and 1848, because George's wife was Anna Foster, born in 1770.
I'm guessing that George lived near Morgantown. He may have died there, or perhaps in Missouri. The family seems to have moved back and forth between Indiana and Missouri, with a spell in Iowa, before striking out for Oregon.
But it's highly unlikely that George or Anna were born in present-day Morgan County, Indiana.
I'm guessing they may have come from Kentucky, which was the source of many early Hoosier settlers.
During the coming months, a genealogizing son and I will delve into the origins of our Barnes ancestors. We'll use land records and federal census records to see if we can crack this mystery.
Who knows, maybe my Barnes ancestors sneaked into the old Northwest Territory before it was officially opened for settlement. But even if they did, one thing is certain - there was no Morgantown in 1760, no Morgan County, and no Indiana.
Assuming old George was born where present-day Morgantown stands, our records should record his birth not in Morgantown but in ... well, I was going to say in the Northwest Territory, but he couldn't have been born there, either, because it didn't exist until 1787.
If George was, indeed, born in 1760, in present-day Morgan County, Indiana, George was born in disputed, unsettled territory.
I think Kentucky's a better bet, but we'll leave no records unturned in our search for George's birthplace. If we find it, I'll return and report where - and how we found it.
Meanwhile, when you record births, marriages, deaths and other events, list them by the names of the counties, states, territories or nations that governed the locations where they happened, at the time they happened.