Family of Louisa Jane Mason

Louisa Jane Mason

b. abt 1837 in Indiana

m. 11 Jul 1854 to William H. Hendricks (b. abt 1824) in Harrison County, Indiana

I have been searching for Louisa Jane Mason's parents for quite some time so I could continue this line of my ancestry. Louisa Jane is my 3rd great grandmother.

Until today, the only records or accounts of her that I had found are after she was married to William H. Hendricks in 1854. I was able to find the marriage record from 1854 and census data from 1860, 1870, and 1880. Every account of her was from Harrison County, Indiana.

Since she was married at a young age and we know from later census data that she was born in Indiana (along with her mother), I had always assumed that we should be able to find her on 1850 census data in the Harrison County area. However, each time I came back to this search, I hit road blocks. Nothing seemed to match up.

Today, I decided to take a different approach, and I believe I may have solved this long-standing mystery in my research. Instead of searching for MASON, I searched for females named "Louisa" from Harrison County that were born between 1832 and 1842. This returned 66 matches on the Ancestry.com 1850 census search. As I scan through each record, I discovered one that was a nice surprise... LOUISA I MARON.

Upon further inspection, I noticed that the family surname in the record was barely visible. It was possible that this was transcribed incorrectly. I noticed that this Louisa "Maron" had a younger brother named Reubin (less than 1 year old). After another quick search, I was able to find Ruben in the 1860 and 1870 census with the surname MASON (along with the rest of this family). Thus, it confirms that the 1850 census data contained a transcription error - MARON instead of MASON.

I also looked for another capitol "J" on the 1850 census page. To my satisfaction, a letter "J" in the name "John" looked exactly like what was transcribed as an "I" in Louisa's name. Thus, LOUISA I. MARON was actually LOUISA J. MASON. Perfect match.

It is also important to note that Louisa has a calculated birth year of 1839, which is consistent with her 1860 census record (after being married to William H. Hendricks).

The 1850 census record reveals that Louisa Jane's parents are LINCOLN MASON (b. abt 1810 in Kentucky; cooper by trade) and LURANY (b. abt 1814 in Indiana).

We also discover that Louisa Jane has several siblings:

Lucinda (13)

William G (9)

Thomas P (7)

Oswell N (5)

Margaret A (3)

Reubin (0)

I am thrilled to have this new data to continue my research on this line. My next steps will be to attempt to figure out the spouses of Louisa Jane's siblings and research her parents further.