Home | Family Links | Family Gallery | Site Map | Updates

Surnames | Submissions | Trains | Dogs

Ciphering the Salter Family Line

Researching the family charts for the John and Hannah (Eidson) Salter line exposed some challenging issues, therefore they should be considered more theory than the usual genealogical studies. This page will attempt to explain the issues and the ciphering that went into resolving them. If you have any information or suggestions on how to more accurately reveal the Salter Family lineage please don't hesitate to contact us; oldbilly@old-billy-rodgers.com

The charts for the first generation were created by analyzing the 1850 through 1870 census of Edgefield County SC.  We also discovered the 1870 census of Copiah County, Mississippi which contained information on Simpson Salter who we believe to be either a son or grandson to John and Hannah. By the1850 census Hannah (Eidson) Salter had passed on.

The Issues

1. In the 1850 there's a 12 year age gap between the children, Frances and Simpson living with John Salter. 

2. We also noticed there were no sons in the age range of John and Hannah's children with the given name "John". This is unusual given that "John" is family name appearing throughout the Salter lineage. However it appears the youngest male living with John Sr. in 1850 is named "Larken" and in the 1860 census he's named "John L". 

3. In the 1860 census the two youngest children, Savannah and John L. appear two years younger then they should be according to the 1850 census. Throughout all three enumerations Savannah and Frances's age never corresponds with any of the other years.

Before we go into how we resolve these issues, take a look at how the different census years compare to each other. Below is chart showing how John Salter and his family were enumerated in the years 1850 thru 1870.

 Alternative theories in answer to challenging issues.

1. The 12 year gap between the ages of the children; Frances and Simpson Salter could be explained if John Salter remarried a woman more than half his age after the death of Hannah. Another explanation could be if John took in some orphaned grandchildren.

2. Regarding the missing name "John"

    

   1. Larken appears to carry the name of "John" in the 1860 census, but because of the 12 year gap between Frances and his older brother Simpson we aren't sure about his lineage. Could it be possible that John and Hannah had a son named John born sometime between Mary in 1815 and Simeon in 1819? If so Simpson, Margaret, Savannah and Larken could be that son's children, making them John Sr. and Hannah's grandchildren.

    

   2. There are several reasons Simpson, Margaret, Savannah and Larken could be orphaned the first that comes to mind is the parents dying from disease. Another reason could be the Mexican War fought between 1846 and 1848. 

    

3. The discrepancies in the Frances, Savannah, and Larken's ages is  easily explained by the enumerator John Allen's compunction to be more interested in sampling family stills than counting people, but that's just conjecture based on his lousy penmanship and the numerous errors we find throughout his work. More logical reasons behind the discrepancies are...

    

   1. If Frances were not John and Hannah's daughter but their widowed daughter in-law, it wouldn't be unusual for the another member of the household to mistake her age while dealing with a census enumerator. This could be true if the younger children are John's grandchildren and not his children. This is a reasonable explanation for the years 1850 and 1860.

    

   2. In 1870 Frances and Savannah are living on their own with no others in the household. It's possible this is when we discover the true age of Frances. But Savannah  has to be at least 7 years older than the 23 years shown on the census. Let's consider the inclination of an aged widow living alone with her spinster daughter, when a young census enumerator named R. C. Griffin comes a calling in 1870. Would she lie about her daughters age to make her seem a more eligible bride?

After we finished ciphering John and Hannah Salter's family we moved on to their children's family...

Sarah Sallie (Salter) & William Malachi Rodgers detailed information is available here.

James and Telitha (Rodgers) Salter were married before 1828 possibly before 1827. We know the couple had at least 5 children maybe more. The ones we are sure about are John Coffee, Charity (Salter) Crouch, William R., James Malachi, Lawrence Gideon, and Telitha Caroline (Salter) Forrest.

James died before 1850, we have no knowledge of his demise. Three possibilities are disease, the 2nd Seminole War or the Mexican War. In the 1850 census we discover Telitha remarried Uriah Hodge and the couple has 4 young children living with them, Sally age 9, Nancy age 5, Alvin age 3 and Caroline Salter age 12. We aren't sure if Sally, Nancy and Allen are Uriah's children from a previous marriage.

During the enumeration of the 1850 census Telitha and James Salter's youngest son Lawrence Gideon is twelve years old and listed as living with his older sister Charity and her husband Jacob Crouch. John Coffee is 22 living with the family of Arthur Smith, probably working as a farm laborer. William is 20, living with his Aunt Eliza and Uncle Luke Rodgers, likely working as a farm laborer too. James Malachi is 14 living with his Uncle Lemuel and Aunt Charlotte Salter.

We have no record of any other children born from the marriage of James and Telitha, but there are issues that raise suspicions. Aside from the younger children mentioned earlier living with James' father John, there's also the married couple; James M. and Martha (?) Salter.

James M. and Martha (?) Salter are enumerated from 1850 on to 1900, living in the proximity of the other families, but we have no knowledge of how they're related. One of the reasons we'd like to discover the connection James and Martha have to the family, is the familiarity with which Jane (Rodgers) Bodie writes about the couple in her letters. James seems too old to fall in with the younger children living with John Salter in 1850. Given his age, he would fit nicely as the eldest son of James and Telitha Salter.  The problem with this, is the couple already has a son named James Malachi. It's hard to believe James and Telitha would have two son's named James M. 

James M. Salter's surname, Jane Bodie's letters and the fact that his family migrated to Telfair County Georgia with the Rodgers brothers at the end of the 19th century, strongly support his connection to the family. With all the ciphering we've done we still don't understand the relation to the rest of the family, so we placed James and Martha in the Salter family charts alone, with a footnote stating we're unsure about his lineage. This will make sure the family isn't overlooked in further research. 

Updated information March 2007.

After correspondence with a great granddaughter, we've discovered James full name was James Marshall Salter and and his first wife Martha Savanna died before 1874. James Marshall's  second wife was John and Mary Polly (Salter) Gillian’s daughter Margaret Angeline Gillian. Their great granddaughter is in possession of a letter stating James and Margaret were first cousins. 

Therefore James was the nephew of Mary "Polly" (Salter) Gillian and he would be either be the son of an unknown son of John and Hannah Salter or the son of James and Telitha (Rodgers) Salter. 

Home | Family Links | Family Gallery | Site Map | Updates

Surnames | Submissions | Trains | Dogs

oldbilly@oldbillyrodgers.com 

© copyright old-billy-rodgers.com