{"id":158,"date":"2023-07-21T02:46:54","date_gmt":"2023-07-21T02:46:54","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/joshtyra.net\/?p=158"},"modified":"2023-07-21T04:31:48","modified_gmt":"2023-07-21T04:31:48","slug":"when-my-5th-great-grandfather-met-my-6th-or-4th-great-grandfather","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/joshtyra.net\/index.php\/2023\/07\/21\/when-my-5th-great-grandfather-met-my-6th-or-4th-great-grandfather\/","title":{"rendered":"When My 5th Great-Grandfather Met My 6th (or 4th) Great-Grandfather<\/strong>"},"content":{"rendered":"\n
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Approximately 1850s\u20131860s, Johnson County, Indiana: A receipt from Andrew Jackson “A.J.” Vaught (1816\u20131901) to William Magill, either William Magill, Sr. (1785\u20131860) or his grandson William Carson Magill (1833\u20131900). From the collection of David Gray, now in possession of Joshua Tyra.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n

Here\u2019s another highlight from my Vaught archive from Johnson County, Indiana. This is a receipt from my fifth great-grandfather Andrew Jackson \u201cA.J.\u201d Vaught (1816\u20131901) to William Magill, who was either my sixth great-grandfather (1785\u20131860, no known middle name) or his grandson, my fourth great-grandfather William Carson Magill (1833\u20131900). If the former, this slip of paper represents contact between William Magill, Sr., and the father of his grandson\u2019s wife; if the latter, between William Carson Magill and his father-in-law; if the former, this receipt must predate February 14, 1860, the date of death of William Magill, Sr.; if the latter, then it could be dated anytime between the majority of William Carson Magill (1854) and his death in 1900. In my opinion, the handwriting, ink, and paper all seem to point to an earlier date, but since it is\u2014maddeningly\u2014undated (unlike the majority of the other receipts), I can\u2019t say for sure which William Magill is. Here\u2019s the transcript:<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Rec of Wm McGill by AJ Vaught                                            <\/p>\n\n\n\n

$2.20<\/td>for Spring<\/td>No 6<\/td>10(th?)<\/td>1.50<\/td><\/tr>
<\/td>\u201c   Carding<\/td>No 7<\/td>4<\/td>20<\/td><\/tr>
<\/td>\u201c     \u201c<\/td>No 8<\/td>4(th?)<\/td>20<\/td><\/tr>
<\/td>\u201c    Spring<\/td>No 877<\/td>2<\/td>30<\/td><\/tr>
<\/td><\/td>Making<\/td>\u2014<\/td>$2.20<\/td><\/tr><\/tbody><\/table><\/figure>\n\n\n\n

Since this is clearly a receipt for the carding of wool (apparently in the spring), it would be helpful to know which William Magill kept sheep and for how long. It would also be helpful to know between what years A.J. Vaught provided wool-processing services in Johnson County. And it might be helpful to understand all the figures here, some of which are a little cryptic: the ones on the far right are clearly dollar amounts, but the two columns to the left of that don\u2019t mean anything to me. 10th? 4? 4th? No. 6? No. 877? I\u2019m lost. Perhaps if I knew more about the wool industry in the mid-1800s, these figures would be more transparent. If anyone has any expertise in this area, I would love to have your input. I will certainly be visiting Google Books to explore 19th-century books on sheep husbandry. \ud83d\ude0a<\/p>\n\n\n\n

By the way, there is nothing remarkable in the spelling McGill for Magill: there are all sorts of variant spellings in the 19th century (sometimes used by the same person), including Macingill, M\u2019Agill, M\u2019Egill, MacGill, McGill, MaGill, Magill, and Gill. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

The issue of A.J. Vaught\u2019s literacy (or lack thereof) might be relevant here: I can tell from my collection that as late as 1844, he was signing \u201chis mark\u201d (an X) on promissory notes and receipts. I assume that he eventually learned to write, or at least to sign his name. However, I have no certain examples of his signature or handwriting in my collection. And since he may have easily had someone else make out this receipt on his behalf, the date at which he learned to read and write may be irrelevant to the dating of this piece.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Here\u2019s another highlight from my Vaught archive from Johnson County, Indiana. This is a receipt from my fifth great-grandfather Andrew Jackson \u201cA.J.\u201d Vaught (1816\u20131901) to William Magill, who was either my sixth great-grandfather (1785\u20131860, no known middle name) or his grandson, my fourth great-grandfather William Carson Magill (1833\u20131900). If the former, this slip of paperContinue reading “When My 5th Great-Grandfather Met My 6th (or 4th) Great-Grandfather<\/strong>“<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-158","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-uncategorized","entry"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/joshtyra.net\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/158","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/joshtyra.net\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/joshtyra.net\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/joshtyra.net\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/joshtyra.net\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=158"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/joshtyra.net\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/158\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":161,"href":"https:\/\/joshtyra.net\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/158\/revisions\/161"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/joshtyra.net\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=158"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/joshtyra.net\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=158"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/joshtyra.net\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=158"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}