4.10.12

ANOTHER MYSTERY MAN

Hopefully, DNA will help clear up this family dead end.   For now, however, he is a true mystery.


Timeline of William Hudson


1827 –
Date generally associated with his birth via census records.  His children will generally answer he was born in Indiana, on the 1880 census he will say Virginia, and (if it is him on the 1870) census he says England. His daughter on one census further confuses the issues by saying he was born ‘at sea’.
1830 – unk

1840- unk

1850 – unk
  • ·         Although there is an older William Hudson in Vanderburgh Co., Indiana where ‘our’ William will marry in 1868 no known connection.  William might have had a 'first' family but no clear indication other than his age at the time he marries in 1868.
  • ·         In  Alexandria, Rapides, Louisiana , there is A Wm Hudson b 1827, single, carpenter, b. Va (Note later listing of work in a bed manufacturing business in Evansville).

1860-
1863 -  City Directory
  • ·         The Evansville City Directory for this year lists no William Hudson.

1861-65 – Military Service in Civil War?
  • ·         If he was born in Virginia, he may have served and then post war gone ‘west’ – landing in Evansville, Vanderburgh Co., Indiana – a Mississippi port city- would not have been strange.

1868 – Marriages Emily Jane Kane (believe the spelling of her name was Cain)
  • ·         July he marriages this woman, daughter of Lewis Cain and Millie Greer Carson Cain Parker , in the same place at this time may also be her step-brother Thomas Benjamin Carter, and William Cain.
  • · City directory lists a widow, Millie Parker (believe this to be Emily’s mother).

1870- Census - Evansville, Vanderburgh, Ind.
  • ·         Shows a Wm Hudson (says born England), with wife Emma, and son Lewis.  From other documents, Emily may have sometimes gone by the name “Emma” and may have sometimes used the last name Carter. (The death record for her son Lewis/Louis Hudson calls her Emma Carter).
  • ·         He might have answered England to hide his southern roots, some men did this in the post civil war days.
  • ·         This same census also shows in Pigeon Twp, Vanderburgh, Ind. Thomas Benjamin Carter, William Cain (Kane) and Millie Parker.  With them is a small child Benjamin Cain (Kane).  This is her step brother, her brother and her mother.  The child may be Emily’s or may be the child of a brother (one is unaccounted for and may have died in the Civil War).
  • · City directory for that year : City Directory (pg.159) lists one Wm Hudson, laborer at bed manuf John Tohill, Jacobsville


1880 – Census / Mound City, Pulaski Co., IL
  • ·         Listed is William (b. Va), wife Emily, daughter Millie, and son Lewis.  Also, is Benjamin Kane, identified as step-son (i.e., Thomas Benjamin Cain).
  • ·         The belief was Emily had married a Kane (Cain) but then once her parents were identified it was clear her mother, Millie Greer, had married 1) Cullen Carter, 2) Lewis Cain, 3) Edward Parker.  Note the naming pattern at work.  Benjamin, whose name appears to have been Thomas Benjamin Cain, may have been Emily’s illegitimate son, or what may be more likely, the son of a brother who died.  Emily may have then assumed the oversight of the child when her mother died.  Her brother Thomas Benjamin Carter buys a cemetery plot in 1876 in the ‘Mechanicsville’ Cemetery – which may refer to an area in old Evansville. No records of death or burial have been found.
  • ·         Pulaski or Alexander Co., Illinois /  Family appears dispersed by 1900 so he and wife may have died between 1880 census and 1900 - when they have not been located.  His wife's brother buys a cemetery plot in Pulaski Co., but no record found of a grave with names associated with the group.  The plot numbers seem difficult to track.  Several people known to have been buried in this area (from their death certificates) do not appear in indexes or on databases such as 'Find-a-Grave.'


1890 – Unknown

1900 -  Unknown

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