| Notes |
- I feel like Linda Blair in the Exorcist. My head is spinning.
No one is going to like what I've found. I know you want to look at this for yourself, so if the url address didn't work, this is the easy way to get there. Go to www.familysearch.org <http://www.familysearch.org>. That should be the home page. Scroll down. You will see counties in blue print. Click the United States (last one). That will take you to a page with states in alphabetical order. Go to NC. It is the NC estate files that you want. When you click that, it will take you to a page with a lot of words. Scroll down on that page and hit the blue print that says browse (big number). That will give you a list of counties. It took me a few times to be able to go straight to the area I wanted. That's the easy way.
The estate files for Michael Clontz and Nancy Clounse (I think) are in Caldwell County. After rereading them I realized that Nancy's estate came from her mother, so I looked for a woman's estate. Couldn't find one in Caldwell so I went to Burke. There I found the estate for Mabel Clark (Mavil Clarke). The first paper is January 23, 1837, which puts it before Nancy's death. The administrator is Nathan Clark and the paper was signed by Nathan Clark, Hirum Clark and John Puett. Bingo!
Some of the papers in the estate files say that Michael is taking Nathan Clark and John Puett to court for $1000. I wonder if they sold her land. That is much more money than they got at her estate sale. Would be nice to see those land records.
Now for the kicker. I started looking at Clark genealogical sites. I found one that had Mavil/Mabel Clark married to Thomas Clark, so I googled those two names. Uh-oh.
There are two bastardy bonds for Mavil/Mabel Clark. One dated 17 April, 1798 with bondsmen John Clark and Samuel Clark. The second one is dated 16 May, 1801 with bondsmen Thomas Clark and Benj'n Coffey.
More uh-oh.
Guess who else was one the bastardy bond list. Yep. One for Nancy Clark on 27 October, 1818 with bondsmen Allen Stokes, John Smith and Stephen Peed. The second one for Nancy Clark had three dates listed: May 30, July 30 and October of 1825 with Samuel Newland, John Sudderth and David Tate as bondsmen.
Now...
Michael Clonts is on the 1830 Burke County census with 2 males under 5, 1 male 20-30, 1 female 5-10 and 1 female 20-30. Which Michael Clontz? I'm not sure, but the boys correspond with Solomon and Nelson. Solomon's birth corresponds with the 1825 bastardy bond. His 24-year age on the 1850 census with Michael and Celia would put his birthday in 1826. The 1818 bastardy bond would correspond with the age 5-10 female on the 1830 census.
Thus...I believe...Nancy Clark was the illegitimate daughter of Mavil Clark (probably the May 1801 bond) and Nathan is her son (probably the April 1798 bond). Nancy Clark had 2 illegitimate children--one unknown female and Solomon Clark who took the name Clontz. Michael married Nancy Clark (proof estate records of 1847) taking her children into his household. Nelson, whose birth year is approx. 1828 is the other male child on the 1830 census. He may have been Michael's child. Since Nancy died in 1847, the three-year-old Amanda on the 1850 census is probably hers. I suspect Nancy died in childbirth.
Michael needs a mother for his full house, so he married the approx. 35 year old Celia Beach. Celia then has Sarah Ann Clontz and Michael Clontz. Michael, husband of Celia, died in 1851, leaving her with a house full of children.
I have yet to straighten out the Clarks. I have seen Mavil/Mabel as the daughter of both Alexander and Jeriamiah.
Also, I'm not sure again which Michael, but Michael Clontz was the bondsman for the marriage of both Nathan Clark and Betsy Stokes and Jeremiah Clark and Mary Ann McCall.
Bonnie Panter Hallman [2]
|
(CIRCA 1820) - Abt 1847
[1]