Tracing Female Ancestors: Maiden Name Mystery

Tracing women in the family tree presents unique challenges. Many of the key forms of historical documentation that U.S.-based genealogists rely upon like censuses, tax records, land and property records, and court records were created to document activities related to property ownership and formal wage earning–activities which most women were barred from participating in fully, legally or by custom, until the twentieth century. Additionally, patriarchal customs like taking the husband’s surname upon marriage often led to women’s maiden names and family associations being lost to history. In other words, where the social, economic, and political activities of free, and especially free white men were likely to generate paper trails of some kind, those of women went mostly unrecorded. While all of this can be frustrating for researchers, it’s still worth a careful and thoughtful search, as indirect clues can support solid inferences about women’s identities and lives, and even help to uncover direct documentation that was not noticed before.

In this two-part series, I will share the case of my fourth great-grandmother Sarah Ann Speckernagle, whose story illustrates some of the most common challenges in researching (white) female ancestors in the 19th century and before. In part one, I focus on the process of identifying Sarah Ann’s maiden name and clarifying the identity of her parents. In part two, I trace Sarah Ann’s unexpected cross-country migration in the final years of the nineteenth century.

Sarah Ann Speckernagle was born in Texas in 1838/1839.¹ She was the wife of Phillip A. Speckernagle (also spelled “Spickernagle,” “Speckernagel,” “Spickernagel”), a sign painter-turned-steamboat pilot who was born in or near Memphis, Tennessee and moved to Texas as a young man.² They were married in Houston in 1855, and by 1870 had settled in Galveston, where they raised five children.³

From the year of their marriage to the early 1880s, Sarah Ann and Phillip’s residence in these two Texas cities was consistently documented in censuses, city directories, and newspapers. Their whereabouts before and after this time range were less clear. Identifying Sarah Ann’s origins was especially vexing. One major hurdle was to identify her maiden name; with that information, it would become easier to locate her as an 11- or 12-year-old in the 1850 census.

Mystery of the Maiden Name

Typically, if some form of marriage record exists, it is possible to discover a woman’s maiden name with relative ease. In the case of Sarah Ann and Phillip, a marriage license was entered in Harris County, Texas. According to the document, Sarah Ann’s maiden name was Compton. However, unlike most of the brides in the marriage license book, Sarah Ann’s name was preceded by the title , which likely indicated that she was a “Mrs. Compton,” and that Phillip was her second husband.

Indeed, two years earlier, in March 1853, a marriage license and return were filed in the same Harris County office for Sarah Ann Bass and Ira Compton.⁴ Sarah Ann’s unnamed mother’s authorization was required to carry out the marriage, indicating that she was under the age of consent (she would have been 14 or 15 years old).

Identity Facts

With a potential maiden name to work with, it becomes possible to search for Sarah Ann in the 1850 U.S. federal census. Basic facts about her identity, including name, approximate birth year, and birthplace, are recorded consistently in the 1860, 1870, and 1880 censuses:

At the time of the 1850 census, Sarah Ann’s mother Anne Bass owned $1,000 worth of real estate, but it is unclear what her occupation was and what type of real estate she owned.⁸ There was no husband or father living with the family. Anne and her two daughters were sharing a dwelling with Eliza Peck, a 38-year-old mother of three daughters, and Anson Jones, a 49-year-old laborer.⁹ The relation between the three adults is unclear. However, it seems likely that they shared a household in order to pool resources and cut living expenses.

For single women in the 19th century who were not supported by family wealth or other connections, gaining a sufficient amount of income to maintain a stable household was not easy or guaranteed. Forms of professional work were not widely available, and other forms of waged or otherwise paid work like housekeeping, sewing, and caretaking were often poorly paid, informal, and not officially documented. Furthermore, in Texas and other areas of the southern U.S., an agriculture-based economy dependent upon the labor of enslaved people did not afford women significant openings into factory work as was the case in industrializing northern states. It seems likely, then, that Sarah Ann’s early marriages were spurred on by her mother’s lack of economic resources.

Hiding in Plain Sight

Is there any further documentation that would bolster the conclusion that Sarah Ann (Compton) Speckernagle and Sarah Ann(e) Bass were the same person, and that her mother was Anne Bass, born circa 1813 in North Carolina? A look back at the Speckernagle household in the 1870 U.S. federal census reveals that this connection was hiding in plain sight, but it wasn’t visible until Sarah Ann’s maiden name was identified.

In 1870, Sarah Ann (“Sally”) and her husband Phillip were living in the first ward of Galveston with their five children: Gertrude, Cate, Mary Jane, Charles, and Sally.¹⁰ Living right next door were Anna and Mary Jane Bass. Anna was 57 years old, from North Carolina. Her occupation was “Sewing.” Mary Jane was 28, born in Texas, and she also worked as a seamstress. These are Sarah Ann’s mother and sister.

Beyond lacking knowledge of Sarah Ann’s maiden name, two other aspects of this record obscured the connection between these two families. First, they are two separate households, recorded with distinct family and household numbers. Anne/Anna has an occupation and $300 worth of personal estate, which signals that she is the head of household. Second, the census taker recorded Anne and Mary Jane’s race as “mulatto” (though it seems as if they first wrote a “W” for Anne and then added a line to form an “M”). Together, these observations precluded any assumption that the two families were related. But once Sarah Ann’s maiden name was identified, making these connections became possible.

At this point, a number of questions remain:

• Who was the father of Sarah Ann Bass Speckernagle, and what happened to him?
• What type of property did Sarah’s mother Anne own, how did she acquire it, and where was it located? Did she always own it?
• What was Anne Bass’ life history?
• Why did the census taker identify Anne and Mary Jane as of mixed race in 1870, but not in 1850?
• What happened to the Speckernagle family after 1880, at which point they seem to disappear from Galveston?

Many of these questions will be addressed in upcoming posts.

Sources

1. 1860 U.S. census, Houston, Texas, population schedule, Houston Ward No. 3, p. 130 (penned), dwelling 1009, family 1009, Sarah A Spickernagle; image, Ancestry.com  (http://www.ancestry.com : accessed 11 September 2019); citing NARA microfilm publication M643, roll 1296.
   1870 U.S. census, Galveston County, Texas, population schedule, Galveston Post Office, p. 25 (penned), dwelling 199, family 200, line 3, Sally Speckernagle; digital image, “1870 United States Federal Census,” Ancestry.com  (http://www.ancestry.com : accessed 9 September 2019), in database search surname Speckernagle is incorrectly transcribed as Speeckernaple; citing NARA microfilm M593, roll 1586.
   1880 U.S. census, Galveston, Texas, population schedule, enumeration district (ED) 67, p. 6 (penned) 108B (stamped), dwelling 53, family 56, Sarah A Spickernagle; image, Ancestry.com (http://www.ancestry.com : accessed 11 September 2019); citing NARA microfilm publication T9, roll 1305. ↩︎
2. Phillip A. Speckernagle’s parents, John M. and Mary Jane, were married in Memphis in 1832 and resided in Memphis during the 1830s: Shelby County, Tennessee, Marriage Licenses, 1820-1948, p. 67, paginated entries arranged chronologically, John M Spickernagle-Mary Jane Davis, 17 February 1832, marriage solemnized 18 February 1832; image, “Tennessee, Marriage Records, 1780-2002,” Ancestry.com (http://www.ancestry.com : accessed 23 September 2019).
   Phillip A. Speckernagle’s father John was recorded in the 1837 Shelby County tax list: Shelby County, Tennessee, 1837 Tax List, p. 89, District No. 1, entry for John Speckernagle; image, “Tennessee, Early Tax List Records, 1783-1895,” Ancestry.com (http://www.ancestry.com : accessed 23 September 2019).
   There was a sign painting business in Austin, Texas in 1853 called Lampkin & Spickernagle. It is not proven, but it seems likely that the surname Spickernagle belonged to Phillip. The surname is distinctive, and it appears that Phillip was the only Sp[e]ckernagle individual (along with his family) to ever live in Texas. Additionally, in the 1860 census referenced in this article, Phillip’s occupation is “Painter”: “Lampkins & Spickernagle: House, Sign and Ornamental Painters,” business advertisement, South Western American, 16 March 1853, p. 3,col. 3; image, University of North Texas, The Portal to Texas History (https://texashistory.unt.edu/ : 23 September 2019). ↩︎
3. Harris County, Texas, Marriage Records, vol. C:135, Philip A Speckernagle—Sarah A Compton, license and return, 13 February 1855; image, “Texas, County Marriage Index, 1837-1977,” database with images, FamilySearch (https://www.familysearch.org/ark:/61903/3:1:939K-YFS5-QB?i=71&cc=1803987 : accessed 9 September 2019); citing “Harris County, County Clerk; FHL microfilm 25222.”
   1870 U.S. census, Galveston Co., Tex., pop. sch., Galveston Post Office, p. 25 (penned), dwell. 199, fam. 200, Speckernagle family. ↩︎
4. Harris County, Texas, Marriage Records, vol. A:412, Ira Compton—Sarah Ann Bass, license and return, 3 (or 8) March 1853; image (452), “Texas, County Marriage Index, 1837-1977,” database with images, FamilySearch (https://www.familysearch.org/ark:/61903/3:1:939K-YFSK-FT?i=451&cc=1803987&cat=453099 : accessed 19 July 2024); citing “Harris County, County Clerk; FHL microfilm 25221.” ↩︎
5. See “1850 U.S. Federal Census,” database, Ancestry.com (http://www.ancestry.com : accessed 10 September 2019); search of Texas all counties for Sarah Compton. There was an Alexander Compton family living in Brazoria County, but none of the identifying information for the daughters of the family correlated with the facts known about Sarah Speckernagle. ↩︎
6. 1850 U.S. census, Harris County, Texas, population schedule, City of Houston, p. 4 (penned), dwelling 34, family 35, Sarah Anne Bass; image, Ancestry.com (http://www.ancestry.com : accessed 16 September 2019); citing NARA microfilm publication M432, roll 911. ↩︎
7. I do not know the legal age of consent in Texas at this time period. Research into historical legal records would resolve this. However, in many states and territories, 14-16 was the a common range for age of consent. ↩︎
8. A future blog post will discuss the details of Anne Bass’ land ownership, as these are now better known. ↩︎
9. 1850 U.S. census, Harris County, Texas, pop. sch., City of Houston, p. 4 (penned), dwelling 34, family 35, Sarah Anne Bass. ↩︎
10. 1870 U.S. census, Galveston Co., Tex., pop. sch., Galveston Post Office, p. 25 (penned), dwell. 199, fam. 200, Speckernagle family. ↩︎