Backtracking - The Springfield Connection

I made the big mistake of letting my assumptions get in the way of evidence when I blogged about my Springfield Connection a couple of years ago. I have been so focused in trying to establish a connection between my Arkansas Coker family to the Coker families in Springfield that I refuted the possibility that my main relationship could be through the Stinnett side of my family. I stand corrected.

I initially questioned why a probate record for Shulia Coker's estate named several of my Stinnett relatives and none of my Cokers (except my great-grandmother who married a Coker). I assumed that my relationship to Shulia was through her marriage to Bryant Coker. A relook at the 1880 census for Union Township, Marion County, Arkansas sheds a new light on that assumption.

My 2nd-great-grandmother Nancy Jefferson is in the 1880 census with her children (who are all later recorded as Stinnetts). The next family listed is Martha Upton with her son James and daughters Arshuly (Shulia) and Frank (Frankie). I have looked at this record dozens of times and totally ignored an obvious clue. Though Martha is recorded in a separate household she is not identified as "head"; instead the record says "daughter". I now believe that she is another daughter of Nancy and that explains why Shulia's probate record lists my great-grandmother and her brothers and their families as aunt, uncle and cousins. Duh! Head-smack!

Union Township, Marion County, Arkansas, 10 Jun 1880

This record alone isn't enough to confirm that Martha is Nancy's daughter but it is a lead that makes sense. I will continue to research these families with more focus on evidence. I will have to remember to put my assumptions aside and to be more diligent in data analysis.