Tennessee-Mom

Sophia is a recent discovery.  I was looking at John W. Johnson and in the 1880 census, I saw her and her kids names listed with John W!  She was listed as “Sophia Carr”, “sister” and marked as “W” for widow.  No where in any of my family things have I seen a sister mentioned, BUT when I went through the old date book belonging to my great grandmother I saw “J. Carr died”. 

After more research on Sophia, in the 1870 Census I see that she is married to William CARR, 29 years old, a farmer and born in New York, and living in Beaver, IL where John W. did.  Sophia is 31, and they have 2 children, Mary who is 1 and Jenny who is 2.

In the 1880 Census, Sophia is living with her brother John W, with her 3 kids and is listed as a widow.  According to the gravestone information below, William Carr died in December, 1876.

I’ve also found online Kathleen Barnhart was nice enough to transcribe the graves in Beaver Cemetery, IL and the following names were found:

Carr Sophia June 15, 1869 April 20, 1893
John M. and Cora M. and Infant Children of W. & S. Carr
William Aug. 25, 1841 Dec. 28, 1876 Veteran 1861 - 1865
Jennie E. Dec. 9, 1867 May 10, 1899
Mary E. Sept. 23, 1869 Aug. 28, 1899

I’m not confident about Sophia’s DOB as posted above, 1869 doesn’t match up with the census, but I’m certain that this is her and her family.

What’s interesting is that his gravestone says “veteran 1861-1865″ which means he was in the Civil War.   When I looked up John W.’s roster, there was William Carr!  I still need to dig deeper to confirm that it is John’s brother in law, but I’m fairly sure that it is.  John W wasn’t married at this time, but imagine how his sister felt with her brother and her husband off to the war.

So now I’m wondering if Sophia was John’s step sister, or a full sister. We know that shortly after arriving in America John’s father died and his mother remarried.  I wonder if Sophia ”came” with the new step-father.  I’m confident she is related somehow.  I just hope one of her descendents will research their family tree and come across this page and contact me one day.