07 December 2012

On the Wings of a Dove

You didn't think I was going to ignore Mourning Dove from Monday's post did you? There are approximately fifty trees that have her name with the added "SHE WAS 1/2 CHEROKEE" and another 200+ for just Mourning Dove Callaway.
The records listed below are a compilation of various trees with a profile for Mourning Dove. No tree, as far as I can tell, has all the records attached. Of course most have no records whatsoever just "sources," a.k.a. Ancestry Member Trees.
Comments after the jump.

 Mourning Dove Callaway "SHE WAS 1/2 CHEROKEE " (1774-1840)
 Father: Benjamin Callaway (1754-1830)
 Mother: Red Wing "A Cherokee Indian " (1756- )
 Spouse: Solomon Baker (1770-1847) married 1800 in North Carolina
 Children: All have the surname Baker.
   James Walter, B: 27 Jan 1782 in Virginia
   John P, B: 15 Aug 1784 in Virginia
   Joseph Solomon, B: 4 Feb 1801 in North Carolina
   Johanna, B: 1804 in North Carolina
   Andrew Jackson, B: 1807 in North Carolina
   Henry, B: 11 Aug 1809 in North Carolina
   Caleb, B: 23 Mar 1813 in North Carolina
   Andrew Jackson, B: 13 Jun 1813 in Kentucky
   Sabrina, B: 1815 in North Carolina
   Rhoda, B: 1817
   John, B: 1818
   Russell Leroy, B: 23 Aug 1823 in North Carolina
   James, B: 1823 in North Carolina
   Nelson, B: 1823 in North Carolina
   Joseph, B: 1825 in North Carolina

 RECORDS
 ✿ 1820 US Federal Census - Name: Caleb W Calloway; Home: Carteret, North Carolina; Household: 1 male age 26-44, 1 female age 26-44, 1 male under 10, 1 slave
 ✿ 1850 US Federal Census - Name: M Calloway; Born: abt 1782, VA; sole member of household
 ✿ 1870 US Federal Census - Name: Mourning Baker; Born: abt 1813, NC; Race: Black; Head of household: Jacob, age 75; Also in household: 8 others born between 1834 and 1870
 ✿ Nash County, North Carolina Vital Records Abstracts - Name: Milbrey Kent; Mother: D. Summer Mourning 1851; Spouse: Mr. Bottoms; Children: William, John, Others
 ✿ US and International Marriage Records - Name: Andrew B Baker, born 1749, Virginia; Spouse: Elizabeth Avant, born 1811; Marriage year: 1770
 ✿ United States Obituary Collection - Name: Beth Baker; Obituary Date 12 Mar 2010; Spouse's name: Thomas P. Baker; Newspaper: Gaston Gazette (North Carolina)
 ✿ One World Tree

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The tree owners probably yell "SHE WAS 1/2 CHEROKEE" in hopes that no one will notice that there's no documentation on their trees to support that theory. There's not a single source on these trees to even give evidence of her name. No surprise there since a woman giving birth to two children by the time she's 10 is highly improbable.
The records...
✿ 1820 US Federal Census - What indication is there that Mourning Dove was in this household? Was this a brother? Hmm, nope, no brother. In fact the logical assumption would be that the others in the house were Caleb's wife and child but he has the same surname so of course he MUST be connected somehow. Or not.
✿ 1850 US Federal Census - Birth year off by 8 years, not unusual on its own. Born in a different state. Using maiden name. Oh, and let's not forget, she's been dead for 10 years!
✿ 1870 US Federal Census - Dead for 40, FORTY!, years but why let that stop you.
✿ Nash County, North Carolina Vital Records Abstracts - The transcription gives no indication what 1851 refers to so I won't assume. The bigger issue, who is Milbrey Kent? I checked a half dozen trees that had this record attached and none had a Milbrey Kent, or anything similar, in them.
✿ US and International Marriage Records - Andrew Baker? The birth info doesn't match either of her sons named Andrew. Obviously it doesn't because this Andrew was born before Mourning Dove. Notice also that his wife married him before she was born. This is one of many collections that should not be taken as fact. Sources for this collection are unreliable. Personally I try not to attach a record from this collection unless I have another source for the information. Most of the time I just ignore them altogether.
✿ United States Obituary Collection - Now who is Beth Baker? Died in 2010? Does the obituary give her entire family tree connecting her back to Mourning Dove? That would be quite a feat since Beth's maiden name was Hord, a surname not found on the one tree this was on.
✿ One World Tree - OWT was an idealistic attempt at creating a wiki type tree. It is a truly dysfunctional tree. It is the source of many of the problems on Ancestry Member Trees. I have plans to do an entire post on OWT soon. I'm gonna need a BIG bottle of wine for that one.


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2 comments:

  1. Hi,
    I stumbled upon this article trying to research the Calloway family and Native American Roots. This does not have to do with the Morning Dove, but with some of her forefathers and mothers. Particularly Joseph Calloway and Catherine Browning. I found a book called Shawnee Heritage that claims the children of Joseph and Catherine were 1/4th Rappahannock-Nanzatico-Metis . It said Catherines mother was the source. Now, I do not know the truth behind this, but curious if anyone else does?

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  2. The problem is there would not be records of Native American marriages in the 1700s and early 1800s due to the fact, it was not allowed. Very few documentations for Native American/white marriages would be in Quaker min. books.. OR the person would have taken on a European name. which was common. I go by family stories and find what I can for the truth. I am related to the Calloway family NC-KY. I was looking at pictures from the mid to late 1800s and you can 100% see Native American ancestry in the family. So I do believe Mouring/Morning Dove did exist, and there is something out there for records, just not found online.

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