From our whole gang to yours — Mini Coni, Jaybird, Desi, Sassy, Ancestria, Lumi, and Penny — we’re wishing you a night full of moonlight, lanterns, and just the right amount of spooky.
Tonight is for remembering, too. While the little ones are out gathering candy, we light our candles for the ones who came before us — the ancestors whose stories brought us here. If you walk a cemetery this weekend, walk it slow. Read the stones. They have so much to tell us.
Tell me in the comments: who are you remembering tonight?
With love, from my Ever Widening Circle to yours — Coni 🧡
Mary Griffith’s death certificate, Rome City, Indiana, 1901 — the record that writes “Unknown” for both of her parents
By Coni Dubois
Her own death certificate doesn’t know who she was.
When Mary Griffith died in Rome City, Indiana, on Friday, July 5, 1901, the man who reported her death was her son-in-law, Dr. W. G. Cameron — a man who had known her for years, in whose home she had been living. And where the certificate asked for her father’s name, he had to write “Unknown.” Where it asked for her mother’s maiden name: “Unknown.” Their birthplaces: “Unknown,” and “Unknown.”
This Wednesday I’m going back for the woman behind the name Parker — and the first surprise of the hunt is that Parker turns out to be real. What’s missing is everything behind it.
The woman as the records show her
Mary Parker married Elihu S. Griffith (born March 14, 1817, at Richburg, Allegany County, New York) about 1840 — the marriage itself is carried by family knowledge and the census household trail; no marriage record has been read yet, and that record is one of the keys this wall needs (more on that below).
Together they raised five children:
Sheldon D. Griffith (born February 1841–43)
Elizabeth Fidelia Griffith (born 1845, married Andrews)
D. Elton Mathye Griffith (born July 30, 1849, at Girard, Pennsylvania)
Lavira Matilda Griffith (born January 26, 1851, married Stetson E. Southworth)
Ida M. Griffith (born 1857, married Dr. William G. Cameron)
The census trail follows the family the way so many New York families moved — a short hop, then a long one:
1850, Girard, Erie County, Pennsylvania: Eli (33, farmer), Mary (30, born New York), Sheldon 7, Elizabeth 5, and baby “Mysthus” 1, born in Pennsylvania. And one extra man in the house — Napoleon VanPatton, 28, born New York, a currier by trade. Hold that name. A boarder who travels with a family is often kin, and he comes back in the hunt plan below.
1860, Girard, Pennsylvania: the household grown to seven, the younger three children born in Pennsylvania.
1870, Sheridan Township, Calhoun County, Michigan: the classic “Yorker” jump — New York and lake-shore Pennsylvania families poured into southern Michigan farmland in those years, and the Griffiths went with them.
1880, Clarence, Calhoun County, Michigan: Elihu 63, farming; Mary 60, keeping house; Ida 23, still at home.
Elihu died at Clarence on February 14, 1886, and lies in Clarence Center Cemetery. By 1889 the Battle Creek city directory lists Mary Griffith, widow of Elihu, at 718 N. Eaton. And about 1890 — her Indiana doctor’s certificate says he attended her from that year — the widow made the last move of her life, the commonest move of all: she followed a married daughter. By the 1900 census she is in Albion, Noble County, Indiana, listed plainly as mother-in-law in the home of her daughter Ida and Dr. Cameron, with her son Sheldon, 57, in the same house.
The 1900 census, Albion, Indiana — Mary Griffith at 80, in her daughter Ida Cameron’s home
She died there a year later, on July 5, 1901, at 8 p.m., of cancer — five years of it (my book note says cancer of the face) — with exhaustion the immediate cause. She was buried Monday, July 8, in Orange Cemetery, Rome City, Plot 3-15, after a funeral at the Free Will Baptist Church. Her obituary, printed July 12, is three lines long:
“Griffith Mary, mother-in-law of Dr. W. G. Cameron, died last Friday, aged 81 years 3 months and 15 days from cancer of the face. Funeral at the F.W.B. Church Monday. Burial, Orange Cemetery.”
Even “died last Friday” checks out — July 5, 1901 was a Friday. The record-keeping around her death is careful. It’s her beginning nobody could write down.
A moment in Rome City, July 1901: a small Indiana town in high summer, a widow of 81 buried on a Monday from the Free Will Baptist church she had chosen as her own, by a family who loved her, knew her children and her grandchildren — and could not have told the health officer her parents’ names if their lives depended on it. That is how a brick wall is born: not from neglect, but from one generation’s silence becoming the next generation’s blank page.
What this week’s digging already moved
Brick Wall Wednesday usually starts at the wall. This week the wall moved before the post even ran, because three records already sitting in my own files had never been read side by side:
Her death certificate (Indiana, Noble County, Health Officer’s Record No. 92) — read in full. It gives her birthplace as “Conn.” — Connecticut — and then the four Unknowns for her parents.
Her son D. Elton Griffith’s Michigan death certificate (he died December 15, 1916, in Arenac County) — in the box for maiden name of mother, his son wrote “Mary Parker.” For her birthplace, he wrote “Vermont.”
Her daughter Lavera Southworth’s Michigan death certificate (she died May 20, 1927, in Calhoun County) — a different informant, eleven years later, in a different county, wrote in the same box: “Mary Parker.” For her birthplace: “New York.”
Two children. Two informants. Eleven years apart. Both of them, asked for their mother’s maiden name, wrote Parker.
So Parker is not a guess and not a clerk’s fancy — it is the name her own family used for who she was before she married. The wall is no longer “was she a Parker?” The wall now is: which Parker family — and where?
The honest flags — shown, not hidden
Her birthplace is a four-way split, and I won’t pretend otherwise. Connecticut (her death certificate, one informant’s word) · New York (all five federal censuses, 1850–1900, and her daughter Lavera’s certificate) · Vermont (her son Elton’s certificate). New York is the widest pattern. But Elton’s “Vermont” is a loose thread worth pulling, not discarding — a Vermont birth with a New York childhood would fit a family that moved, and it matters for the name question below.
Her birth date is computed, not proven. No record gives it. Her death record’s age — 81 years, 3 months, 15 days, at death on July 5, 1901 — works back to March 21, 1820. My tree has long carried April 21, 1820, from a working note of mine whose subtraction slipped a month (July 5 minus 3 months is April 5, and April 5 minus 15 days crosses back into March). The honest way to print it: born about March 1820, computed from her death record. I’m correcting my own tree the same way I’m showing it to you.
And then there’s “Pasket?” My files carry Mary as “also known as Pasket?” — question mark and all, in my own tree, with no source attached to it anywhere. I have searched my Drive for Pasket and Pasquet and found nothing. It may be a real alternate surname (a stepfather’s name? a French-Canadian Pasquet under a clerk’s spelling — which would sit very comfortably beside a Vermont birth). It may be a misreading of somebody’s handwriting, or a note parked from a fellow researcher’s tree. Until a record carries it, it stays exactly what it is: an unsourced hint with its own question mark, flagged and not built on.
A reader’s note, the day this posted: Linda Stufflebean wrote in with a handwriting observation — in old script, “Pasket” and “Parker” carry the same word-shape (tall, two short, tall, short, short), so a faded “Parker” is easily written down as “Pasket.” I had reached the same thought while writing this piece; hearing it independently from another researcher steadies it. It isn’t proof — but it’s one more reason to read “Pasket?” as a transcription ghost of Parker. Thank you, Linda.
The marriage paper in my tree isn’t real yet, either. Two Indiana marriage-index citations are attached to Mary and Elihu’s marriage in my files — unread, and geographically wrong for a couple who were in New York and Pennsylvania in the early 1840s. Most likely a namesake couple. They stay labeled unverified until somebody reads the actual records.
The Leads — what would crack it
Any one of these could name her parents:
Her marriage record, about 1840 — Allegany County, New York, or Erie County, Pennsylvania church registers (New York kept no county marriage records that early). A witness, a bondsman, an officiant from her side of the aisle names her family.
A Parker will, estate, or deed in Allegany County NY, Erie County PA, or a Vermont town, naming a daughter or sister Mary Griffith.
The full original obituary — the three lines in my files are a fellow researcher’s extract. Noble County papers often printed a full sketch: born in ___, came to Indiana in ___, survived by a brother in ___. That paper is a named pull.
The Free Will Baptist Church records of Rome City — her funeral church, her chosen anchor. Membership rolls and letters of transfer often carry a maiden name and the church she came from.
The Orange Cemetery lot card, Plot 3-15 — lot ownership and burial cards sometimes hold the next-of-kin and birth data the certificate left blank.
The rest of her children’s certificates — Elizabeth Andrews (died 1912, Michigan), Sheldon Griffith (died October 30, 1921, Michigan), and Ida Cameron (died 1930). Three more informants answering the same two boxes. Elton’s “Vermont” already shows the answers wander — a fourth and fifth voice either steadies Parker in one place, or surfaces that other name outright.
The hunt, in order
Finish the children first — pull Elizabeth’s, Sheldon’s, and Ida’s death records, and read the Michigan marriage records already in my files (Michigan marriages name both parents of bride and groom).
Rome City — the full obituary, the Free Will Baptist rolls, the cemetery lot card.
Work the cluster, not the woman alone. Napoleon VanPatton, the 28-year-old currier boarding with the family in 1850 — Van Patten is an old Albany–Schenectady Dutch name. If he is Mary’s brother or cousin, his family is hers. And Joe Griffith, the researcher my death and obituary notes came through — his files are the first place to ask what “Pasket?” ever was.
The 1840 marriage ground — church registers around Richburg and Girard, and the county-history biographical sketches: a son’s or grandson’s printed biography often names the mother’s family outright.
Search every drawer for the name — Parker · Pasket / Pasquet / Pasquette · Baskett · Parks — remembering that to a hurried clerk, a flowing “Parker” and a “Pasket” are one bad pen-stroke apart.
DNA — cluster my Griffith-line matches and look specifically for Parker — and Pasquet — families of Allegany County, Erie County, and Vermont. A shared cluster with a paper trail would be a genuine lead, labeled as a lead until a record lands.
Still hunting — maybe you hold a piece
If you descend from Elihu and Mary Griffith of Girard, Pennsylvania, or Calhoun County, Michigan — through Sheldon, Elizabeth Andrews, D. Elton, Lavira Southworth, or Ida Cameron — or if your Parker (or Pasquet) family of Allegany County, Erie County, or Vermont has a daughter Mary, born about March 1820, who married a Griffith and vanished west — I would love to hear from you. Somebody’s family Bible, church roll, or letter home knows who her parents were. Her own death certificate didn’t. Maybe yours does.
Sources
We source everything. Every fact above traces to one of these:
Death certificate of Mary Griffith, Indiana Death Certificates 1899–1911, Noble County, Health Officer’s Record No. 92 (died July 5, 1901, Rome City) — read in full from my files.
Death certificate of D. Elton Mathye Griffith, Michigan Death Records 1867–1950 (Arenac County, died December 15, 1916) — names mother “Mary Parker,” her birthplace “Vermont.”
Death certificate of Lavera M. Southworth, Michigan Death Records 1867–1950 (Calhoun County, died May 20, 1927) — names mother “Mary Parker,” her birthplace “New York.”
U.S. Federal Censuses — 1850 & 1860, Girard, Erie Co., PA; 1870, Sheridan Twp., Calhoun Co., MI; 1880, Clarence, Calhoun Co., MI; 1900, Albion, Noble Co., IN.
Obituary of Mary Griffith, July 12, 1901 (newspaper unnamed in the extract), via the research of Joe Griffith, as carried in my compiled record.
Battle Creek, Michigan city directory, 1889 — Mary Griffith, widow of Elihu, 718 N. Eaton.
Ancestors of Coni Allen by Coni Dubois — the compiled family record this research started from (Mary Parker entry, pp. 623–626 and 1078–1079).
Find A Grave: Mary Griffith #41706990; Elihu S. Griffith #20445967 (index/secondary).
I can finally say the words: Heirloomie is complete.
Every room is built, every door has been opened and checked, and as of this morning she is officially published. Now we move into beta testing — the last step before she opens to the world on Google Play.
Here’s where we stand:
🌿 11 of our 20 tester seats are filled — 9 seats left
📱 I especially need 7 more Android testers (iPhone and computer folks — you can test through the web, and you’re welcome too!)
💛 Every beta tester gets six months free when Heirloomie launches, as my thank-you
Testers all go in together, keep the app at least two weeks, and tell me honestly what you love and what trips you up. First come, first seated — when the 20 are gone, they’re gone.
Want a seat? Sign up on the beta form at heirloomie.com 💛
🎃 Somebody stole the candy at Mamaw & Pawpaw’s house… and the suspects are our own grandkids!
It all started with a Halloween mystery game I wanted to make for my grandkids — Madelaine, Adalina, Kali-Anna, Rowan, Kasen, and Charlie. Well, you know how things go around here. The game grew a storybook. The storybook grew three whole mysteries. And before I knew it, we had a whole book — and I love it so much I want to share it with YOUR family too, just in time for Halloween.
Inside The Halloween Candy Caper you’ll find:
🕵️ Three mysteries to solve — the Case of the Great Candy Caper, Mamaw’s Detective Notebook, and the Case of the Vanishing Pumpkin Pie. (Detectives, be warned: one culprit has four legs and a very guilty face. Her name is Sassy.)
👻 A storybook starring Glowbert — that’s him in the photo below, our real porch ghost! He glows on our porch every Halloween, and now he has his very own story about the night he danced in the wind.
Glowbert, our real porch ghost!And here’s our storybook Glowbert — the porch ghost, recreated cute!
🎨 11 coloring pages — including one drawn from our actual haunted porch, so the kids can color Glowbert himself.
✂️ Crafts made from things around the house — toilet paper roll bats, a milk-jug Glowbert lantern, ghost lollipops, and more.
And on every single page, there’s one little thing left black-and-white on purpose — because every young detective should get to color something on every page.
📖 The Grandkids’ Book (32 pages) — the full book: all three mysteries, the whole storybook, every coloring page and craft. 🎃 The Handout Edition (11 pages) — a slim version made for printing a stack. We’ll be handing these out with little crayon packs to our trick-or-treaters this Halloween — feel free to do the same!
You’ll also find both editions on our brand-new Holiday shelf in the Crayon Corner — a special corner of the Book Nook where our holiday books and crafts will live from now on. Halloween is just the beginning!
Happy Halloween, detectives. Keep your eyes on the candy bowl… and if it goes missing, check the dog first. 🐾
He was the law in Hancock County, Tennessee. He laid out roads, settled disputes, collected taxes, and owned 830 acres of East Tennessee farmland. He married three times, fathered children with each wife, and when he died around August of 1860, they buried him in the family cemetery in Sneedville.
This is my 4th great-grandfather — Zachariah Green Trent. And if Matilda, his third wife, is the mystery of my mother’s line, Zachariah is the anchor. He left a paper trail a mile long, and today I’m walking every inch of it with you.
The chain, so you can follow it home: me → my mom, Nancy Lee Gilbert → my grandma Mildred Marie Scheetz → Viola Beatrice Nickerson → Nancy Pratt → Caroline Trent Pratt → Matilda, Zachariah’s wife. Every step mother to daughter, and Zachariah stands right there beside Matilda at the far end of it.
The Offices He Held
Zachariah wasn’t just a farmer who happened to live in Tennessee. The records show a man his community trusted with real authority.
Justice of the Peace — appointed June 11, 1832, in Hawkins County, Tennessee. In frontier Tennessee, a justice of the peace wasn’t a ceremonial title. He married people, settled small disputes, witnessed documents, and kept the peace in a county that was still rough around the edges. When your neighbors pick you for that job, it says something about who you were.
Zachariah Trent appointed justice of the peace for Hawkins County — National Banner and Nashville Whig, November 7, 1829, p. 3. (Newspapers.com clipping.)
3rd Sheriff of Hancock County, Tennessee — serving 1849–1850. The third man to hold that office in a young county. He would have served papers, collected taxes, kept order, and ridden out to wherever he was needed. Hancock County in 1849 was mountain country — Sneedville, the Clinch River valley, farms carved out of ridges. Being sheriff there meant knowing every hollow and every family.
Now, I want to address something directly, because that’s how we do this. There’s a family story that Zachariah was killed in the line of duty as sheriff. I love that story — what genealogist wouldn’t? But his sheriff service ended in 1850, and he died around 1860. Ten years later. I have no record, no newspaper account, no county document confirming how he died. Until I find proof, it stays out of the fact column. It might even be a different ancestor entirely. Facts only. Always the facts.
The Land
On April 30, 1830, Zachariah acquired 830 acres from Samuel Nicholson. Then on March 18, 1833, he acquired additional land from William D. Trent and Alexander Trent.
Eight hundred and thirty acres. Let that number sit with you for a minute. In 1830 East Tennessee, that wasn’t a farm — that was an estate. That was a man building something meant to last, meant to pass down.
He shows up in the Hawkins County court minutes too: on juries laying out roads in 1831, 1836, and 1837. Present at court in August 1831. Involved in a writ for money owed in July 1838. On the 1836 Hawkins County tax list and the early Tennessee tax records. This is a man woven into the civic fabric of his county — not passing through, but planted.
The Census Trail — Every Decade I Can Find Him
Here’s Zachariah walking through the federal census, decade by decade:
1830 — Hawkins, Tennessee. Seven people in the household. He’s a young man building a family. (NARA Series M19, Roll 178, Page 83.)
1840 — Knox, Kentucky. Just two in the household this time. The family was in transition — and if you’ve followed my Brick Wall Wednesday on Matilda, you know these were complicated years. (NARA M704, Roll 116, Page 315.)
1850 — Sneedville, Hancock County, Tennessee. He’s here with Matilda now, listed as his wife. (Subdivision 32, Roll M432_881, Page 25B.)
1860 — Sneedville, Hancock County, Tennessee. Age 59, farming, with Matilda. And here’s the part that makes every genealogist smile: the enumerator mangled the surname as “Z G Lunt.” Lunt! If you’re searching for this family and can’t find them, try the mangled versions. Enumerators, bless them.
That 1860 census is the last time anyone sees Zachariah on paper. He died about August 1860, in Sneedville. He’s buried in the Trent Cemetery there — Find a Grave Memorial #130592796.
About His Name
You’ll find him as Zachary, Zachariah, and Zechariah Green Trent — and in the records themselves as Zachari, Little Zack, Zak, Zackie, “Z G Trent,” even “Zackasi Trent” and “Fackariah Trent.” I’m mentioning it once so you can find him when you search. That’s just genealogy — names shift like sand, and his is no exception.
Three Marriages
Zachariah was married three times that I can document. Here’s each one, honestly laid out:
1. Naomi Taylor Greene — married 1818, Hawkins, Tennessee. Naomi was born January 7, 1801, in Rowan County, North Carolina, daughter of Jeremiah and Anne (Hartley) Greene. Her maiden name was Taylor — she’d married a Greene first, and was known as Naomi Greene when she married Zachariah. She died December 26, 1877, in Morristown, Hamblen County, Tennessee, and she’s buried in the old city cemetery there.
Seven children I can document: Nancy Trent, John Hicks Trent, James William Trent, Stokely Donaldson Trent, Manila Trent, Cinthea Greene Trent, and Mary Jane Trent. Manila married Jefferson Baker, and their descendants carry this line forward.
2. Myra Singleton — “partners” about 1832, Hawkins, Tennessee. I want to be careful here: the record doesn’t call this a marriage. It says “partners.” Myra (also recorded as Mira, Miriah, Miry) Singleton was born between 1812 and 1814 in Lee Valley, Hawkins, Tennessee. Their children carried “Singleton” as a middle name: Frances “Frankie” Singleton Trent and Lucinda Singleton Trent. There may have been a third girl, Rhoda. Myra later appears as Myra Lawson — she married a Lawson after Zachariah. The records give me “partners, 1832,” and that’s what I’m reporting.
3. Matilda — wife by the 1850 census. My Matilda. She appears as Zachariah’s wife in the 1850 and 1860 censuses. I have no confirmed marriage date for them. Four children I can document: Sarah Jane Trent, Caroline M. Trent, Nancy Trent, and Daniel Lewis Trent.
Now here’s a confusion I want to flag for fellow researchers, because it will trip you up: Zachariah had two daughters named Nancy — one by Naomi (the elder) and one by Matilda. As descendant Caroline Tassey wrote to me: “the two Nancy Trents has caused much confusion.” She’s right. When you’re researching this family, always check which Nancy.
Caroline’s Obituary — The Daughter Who Carried the Line
Caroline Trent Pratt — Zachariah and Matilda’s daughter, my 3rd great-grandmother — got a beautiful sendoff in The Argos Reflector on November 13, 1919. Born June 12, 1845, in Hancock County, Tennessee, she married William Harrison Pratt in 1865, and the paper called their marriage “one long happy and harmonious experience.” Ten children, twenty-nine grandchildren living, four great-grandchildren. She died November 5, 1919, at 74, a faithful member of the Church of Christ at Francesville, Indiana. Through Caroline, Zachariah’s blood runs straight down to my mother, my grandmother, and me.
Her death notice ran in the Weekly Republican the same week (November 13, 1919, p. 5) — and it spells her name “Tratt.” Another variant for the search files. It notes she died Wednesday at 2:45 at her daughter Mrs. Jesse Tomlinson’s home in Argos, suffered a stroke the Saturday before, and her body was shipped Friday to Francesville, Indiana for funeral services.
William Pratt and Caroline Trent Pratt with Orville Nickerson (center). Caroline was Zachariah and Matilda’s daughter — my 3rd great-grandmother. (Family photo, identifications handwritten on the back.)
Pictured left to right: William Harrison Pratt (my 3rd great-grandfather), Orville Nickerson (center), and Caroline Trent Pratt (my 3rd great-grandmother, Zachariah and Matilda’s daughter). The identifications are handwritten on the back of the original — it’s a real photo postcard from the early 1900s, the kind families mailed to each other.
The DNA Backs the Paper
My files carry a research note: “3 Trent lines and their DNA.” A Family Tree DNA Trent Project participant descends from William D. Trent Sr. and Charity Burton — and also from Zachariah G. Trent and Naomi Greene. The Y-DNA results show the William D. Trent line matches the Trent lines of Campbell County, Virginia, including the lines of Alexander Trent.
Zachariah was the son of Alexander Trent, who served in the War of 1812 — and Zachariah was Alexander’s heir, with a War Bounty Land Warrant in his name as Alexander’s heir. The Trent Y-DNA results fall into three distinct groups, and the East Tennessee/Campbell County group — which includes Zachariah’s line — all match each other.
What that means: the DNA supports the paper trail connecting Zachariah to Alexander Trent to the Campbell County, Virginia Trents. The paternal side is solid.
A Same-Name Warning
Fellow researchers, heed this one. In my files there are two Confederate Civil War records for a “Zachariah Trent” — a private in Capt. Patteson’s Company, Virginia Heavy Artillery (Campbell Battery), enlisted March 5, 1862.
That is not our Zachariah. He died about August 1860 — two years before that young man enlisted. This is a different, younger Zachariah Trent, and it’s exactly the kind of same-name trap that can send your research sideways for months. As Caroline Tassey warned me: “there were two Zachariah Trents at that time.” Always check the dates. Always.
What I Still Don’t Know (The Honest List)
How he died. The killed-in-service story is unproven — no record, no newspaper, nothing. It stays out of the fact column until I find proof.
Whether the Native ancestry claim holds. Family tradition says Zachariah was reported to have Native ancestry, and the Bolin line connects to Saponi tradition. But it’s a family/research claim, not a proven fact. I’m still digging.
His exact birth year and place. Between 1801 and 1803, Grayson County, Virginia — though one source says Hawkins, Tennessee. Census ages wander, as we all know.
Why He Matters
Zachariah Green Trent is my 4th great-grandfather, and he’s the reason the Trent line has a paper trail at all. Matilda may be the mystery — but Zachariah is the proof that the family was real, rooted, and respected. A justice of the peace. A sheriff. A landowner. A man whose name shows up in court minutes, tax lists, land deeds, and census rolls across three decades.
And through his daughter Caroline — my 3rd great-grandmother, who married William Harrison Pratt and carried the family from Tennessee to Kentucky to Indiana — his blood runs straight down to my mother, my grandmother, and me.
He left a paper trail a mile long. I just walked it with you.
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Sources
Justice of the Peace appointment, June 11, 1832, Hawkins County, Tennessee
Justice of the Peace appointment — National Banner and Nashville Whig (Nashville, TN), November 7, 1829, p. 3 (Newspapers.com)
3rd Sheriff of Hancock County, Tennessee, 1849–1850
Land acquisition: 830 acres from Samuel Nicholson, April 30, 1830; additional land from William D. Trent and Alexander Trent, March 18, 1833
Hawkins County court minutes: road juries (1831, 1836, 1837); present at court (August 1831); writ for money owed (July 1838)
1836 Hawkins County tax list; Tennessee early tax records
U.S. Federal Census: 1830 Hawkins, TN (NARA M19, Roll 178, Page 83); 1840 Knox, KY (NARA M704, Roll 116, Page 315); 1850 Hancock, TN (Roll M432_881, Page 25B); 1860 Hancock, TN (NARA M653, Page 462 — enumerated as “Z G Lunt”)
US Selected Federal Census Non-Population Schedules, 1850–1880 — Zachariah G. Trent
War Bounty Land Warrant — Zachariah Green Trent, heir of Alexander Trent (War of 1812)
Find a Grave Memorial #130592796 — Zachariah Green Trent, Trent Cemetery, Sneedville, Hancock County, Tennessee
Tennessee State Marriages, 1780–2002 — Caroline M. Trent marriage record
Obituary of Mrs. Caroline Pratt, The Argos Reflector, November 13, 1919, p. 1 (courtesy Marshall County Historical Society, Plymouth, Indiana — researched by Judy McCollough, Historical Archive Manager, April 2003)
Death notice of Mrs. Caroline Tratt, Weekly Republican, November 13, 1919, p. 5 (courtesy Marshall County Historical Society, Plymouth, Indiana)
Caroline Trent Pratt death certificate, Marshall County, Indiana, Certificate #307 (father “Zachari Trent”)
Family Tree DNA Trent Project — Y-DNA results, East Tennessee/Campbell County group
Brick Wall Wednesday #1: Matilda — Who Was She Before She Married Zachariah Green Trent? (conidubois.com) — companion piece on Matilda
Personal correspondence: Douglas Trent to Rhonda Yamauchi, June 2003; Caroline Tassey to Coni Dubois, May and September 2013
Big news, friends — The True Story of the Barkhamsted Light House Village is on its way beyond Amazon!
🎉 Big update, friends — as of October 6, 2026, my book is now ON SALE at Barnes & Noble Press! The paperback edition is 50 pages and $19.99 (ISBN 9798179043492). I’ve also submitted to IngramSpark, and once they give the green light, it’ll be available to bookstores and libraries everywhere — not just online.
And if you haven’t seen the new 50-page edition yet — it’s packed with new fun for the little ones! Counting activities on every page, five coloring pages, hidden stars to find throughout the book, ‘Try this!’ prompts, ‘Did you know?’ facts, and ‘Wonder with me’ questions. It’s not just a story anymore — it’s an adventure!
This little book about the Barkhamsted Lighthouse Village — about community, family, and the real history of the people who lived there — it’s reaching more readers than I ever dreamed. Fifty pages of history, heart, and heritage.
I’ll let you know the moment it’s official. Thank you for being part of this journey with me! 💛
The Will That Spoke: Amos A. Gilbert Sr. (1778–1843)
On the 28th of February, 1843, an old man in Vevay, Indiana, sat down and wrote his will. He had been married five times. He had children by more than one wife. And when it came time to divide what he owned, he did something that still speaks, nearly two hundred years later.
His name was Amos A. Gilbert Sr. — my 5th great-grandfather, on my mother’s Gilbert line.
The will was probated on the 1st of May, 1843, in Switzerland County, Indiana — recorded in Probate Book A, page 213. And this is what it says.
He named his wife Agnes as his executrix. To Agnes he left all his personal property and real estate for as long as she remained his widow — for her maintenance and that of his two youngest children. If she remarried, she would take one-third of the real estate instead.
And then came the line that tells you everything about the man: to his two sons, Elijah Gilbert and Amos Gilbert, Jr., and to his daughter Amety McMillen, wife of John McMillen — one dollar each. “They having already received their proportion.”
One dollar. Not out of cruelty — out of fairness. The older children had already been given their share while he was living. The will was making sure the widow and the little ones were provided for. That is a father settling his accounts honestly.
A year and a half later, on the 20th of September, 1844, the widow Agnes Gilbert came back to the courthouse. She relinquished her claims under the will and claimed her dower rights instead — witnessed by John Dumont. Even in grief, she knew her rights under the law, and she exercised them.
Five marriages
My research shows Amos married five times: Letitia Canby, Sarah Jane “Sally” Magruder, Betsy Silvers, Nancy Henry, and finally Agnes — whose maiden name I have not yet proven, and I won’t guess at it.
What the records prove outright: an Amos Gilbert married Betsy Silvers on the 17th of May, 1827, in Switzerland County, Indiana. And Sarah “Sally” Magruder — born the 2nd of May, 1789, daughter of Revolutionary soldier Norman Bruce McGruder — married an Amos Gilbert; the old pension papers name their grandchildren Amity MacMillen and Elijah Gilbert, living in Switzerland County in 1844.
Amos himself was born the 1st of September, 1778, in Otis, Berkshire County, Massachusetts, son of Elisha and Submit (Glazier) Gilbart — so the Massachusetts town vital records say.
What I’m still proving
I do this work on the rule of “proven and proven again,” so here is my honest account: I have not yet proven which Amos Gilbert married Letitia Canby in Wrightstown, Pennsylvania, in 1803 — there was another Amos Gilbert with a wife Letitia living in Ohio in 1850, and I will not hand my ancestor’s marriage to the wrong man. Agnes’s maiden name is still unknown. And the maternity of Nancy Welsh, formerly Nancy Gilbert, named among the youngest children in the will, is not yet settled. These are open questions, and I’ll tell you when they’re closed.
The records
Amos Gilbert’s will — Switzerland County, Indiana, Probate Book A, p. 213; will dated 28 Feb 1843, probated 1 May 1843; Agnes’s 1844 dower claim. Transcription on my Gilbert research page: https://conidubois.com/tag/gilbert/
Our book is LIVE on Amazon, and this mama’s heart is bursting! 💛
The True Story of the Barkhamsted Light House Village — the story of my ancestors, the Barkhamsted Lighthouse Village people — is now a real, hold-it-in-your-hands book. After 30+ years of researching my family’s story, it’s out there in the world for little ones to discover.
Here’s the thing, family — reviews are EVERYTHING. Every single review helps more families, teachers, and little readers discover this story.
But here’s something you should know: Amazon has been blocking reviews from people who know me. Their system can’t tell the difference between real love and fake reviews, so if you’re my friend, family, or follower — your review may never show up on Amazon. It’s not you, it’s their robot.
My blog & Facebook — share your thoughts in the comments! Your words matter more to me than any star rating.
Amazon — you can still try! Just know it may take a few days to appear, or it may not show at all. (Make sure you’ve spent $50+ on Amazon this year, or it won’t post.)
🎨 BONUS — Free coloring books! Every children’s book celebration comes with BOTH free coloring books: the 34-page Light House Village coloring book AND the 11-page Book Nook for Kids coloring book.
🌿 What’s next? This is just the beginning! I’m building Heirloomie — my very own genealogy app — so families everywhere can trace and treasure their own stories. And right here at Ever Widening Circle, the research never stops. New ancestors, new stories, new discoveries every week.
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Here’s the honest truth, family — I’m self-publishing this book. That means there’s no big publisher behind me, no marketing team, no advertising budget. It’s just me, my research, and this circle of wonderful people.
The ONLY way this book reaches new readers is through YOU. If this story touched your heart, please share it:
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Post the Amazon link in your favorite parenting or homeschool group
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Every share puts our ancestors’ story in front of someone new. You are my publishing team, and I love you for it. 💛
Thank you for being part of this circle. It keeps widening because of YOU. 💛
