The Daugherty Family and Ellen Landers

I enjoy taking out my really dusty (mostly sawdust from Joe's creations) loose-leaf notebooks and going through old notes. That's probably been the best purpose for this blog. Sometimes a document needs to be read many times to fully understand it's significance.

One person of whom I owe so much family information is Ellen Landers from Iowa. She has been working with the brothers and sisters of my gggrandfather, William Henry Daugherty. We are both searching for our Irish roots. William Henry's grandparents came from Ireland (or possibly Isle of Man). We just don't their names nor where they came from. Not sure if that mystery will ever be solved. I want to go to Ireland so badly, yet I've been waiting until more was discovered about our roots.

Ellen found out that William Henry's father, another William, had the first name of James. So many of our ancestors were known by their middle names. She found this out through an old document. We know that James William Dougherty was born about 1798 in Virginia. Note: This parcel of Virginia is now West Virginia. He married Harriett Bedows (Beddows) in 1825 in Allegany County, Maryland. She was born about 1807 in Virginia and died in 1873. Looking at the map, Allegany County is in the skinny stretch of land extending above West Virginia. When I think of Maryland, I think of the Washington DC part of that state, where Joe and I have lived. This is making more sense already!

Hampshire County, West Virginia is directly south of Cumberland, Maryland. I believe that's where the Dougherty's lived, but will get into that later. Just had the Atlas opened so checked that out as well. We're definitely in the Appalacia and Allegheny Mountains. Interesting!

A friend of brother-in-law Bob's, has the name of Bedows (Beddows). His family hasn't been in America very many generations. They are from England. I know very little about Harriett, except she had two half-brothers. Another direction to search.

Ellen thinks the family came to Appanoose County Iowa between 1842 and 1845. There William bought land from the United States government in 1849, Section 29, Township 70, Range 16, described as N1/2 SE and N1/2 SW. Appanoose County is on the very bottem of Iowa about halfway across the state. I've ordered a book about this area and it should be here any day.

William also purchased North 1/2 Secion 29, Township 70, Range 16, South 1/2 of SE Section 29, Township 70, Range 16. It was "bought by William Daugherty of 6/16/1849 No. of receipt and certification of Purchase is 8679."

The William Dougherty family is listed in the 1850 Census for Appanoose County, Union Township, Iowa as: William Dougherty, age 52, born in Virginia, a farmer with a real estate value of $350; Harriet, age 43, born in Virginia; William H., age 20, born in Virginia; Emily L., age 18, born in Virginia; Louisa J., age 15, born in Virginia; Edward O., age 10, born in Virginia; George, age 8, born in Virginia; Martha, age 5, born in Iowa; Harriet, age 1, born in Iowa; John H. Hampson, age 25, born in Ohio, farmer; & James Hampson, age 1, born in Iowa. Ellen found information stating that John H. Hampson was married to the oldest child of William and Harriet Daugherty. Her name was Margaret and she supposedly died in childbirth.