A Confusing Widow

One of the challenges in family history is a woman who is a widow, but looks like an unmarried woman. Not knowing she is a widow, it is easy to make incorrect assumptions and conclusions about her name and her parents and to climb the wrong tree.

With increasing emphasis on DNA matching, such incorrect trees will cause even more confusion and wrong conclusions. In this case (and no doubt many others), the DNA matching could be especially incorrect due to the intermarriages between allied families.

There is no way to entirely guard against the problem. The best defense is to gather every document you can find about the family and question any inconsistency. If you see an inconsistency, try to find other information to support or disprove your conclusion.

The Lake family of Morgan County, Illinois, has such a widow in the extended family. If you search online trees, you will find a woman named Lucinda Lake who married John C Carter on December 24, 1835, in Morgan County, Illinois. Unfortunately, the marriage license refers to her as Miss Lucinda Lake, perpetuating the myth that she was not a widow.

There is a strong clue; however, that she might be a widow. The 1835 Illinois state census shows Lucinda Lake, age 20-30, with two girls aged 0-10. Lucinda is listed next to Lindsey Lake in that census.





There could be other explanations for Lucinda being the head of household, but in this case, the simplest one is correct. Lucinda was the widow of Aaron Lake, which is proven by his probate, though just barely.

On the 11th of July, 1835, Lucinda Lake took out letters of administration for the estate of Aaron Lake, who had died on July 6th. Her bondsmen were John York and Eleazer Skinner. The estate was inventoried on July 18th by Angus McDonald New, Joshua Knapp and Joel Stewart. With the inventory is a list of "property taken by the widow at the appraisement". That single line in the probate file is the only proof that Lucinda was the widow, rather than the daughter, of Aaron Lake.





One of the receipts in the file reads "Received of Lucinda Carter formerly Lucinda Lake Administratrix of the estate of Aaron Lake" That receipt shows that she is the same Lucinda who married John C Carter.


 



Additionally, the file contains a bond for John C Carter assuming guardianship of the minor heirs: Rebecca Lake and Angeline Lake. The bondsmen for the guardianship were Nicholas Houston and Nicholas Carter and the bond was dated March 28, 1836.

The claims on the estate included two doctor bills for nine doctors visits and medicine for Aaron Lake, including quinine. That indicates he probably suffered from malaria, which at that time was common along the Ohio River, where the family had lived previously.

Aaron Lake entered a claim for 40 acres on June 12, 1834 and died barely a year later, on July 6, 1835. He was living in Hancock County, Kentucky at the time of the 1830 census, so had lived in Illinois for only one to five years at the time of his death. If he had nine doctor visits in one year, his condition must have been serious. He was under the age of 40 at his death.

One of the puzzles of the probate is how Lucinda picked her bondsmen. Assuming Aaron Lake was the older brother of Precious Lake, that would have made John York the brother-in-law of Aaron Lake. But was there another family relationship to John York? Was Lucinda related to Eleazer Skinner? Was one of the appraisers a relative?

An additional challenge to the story of Lucinda is that two women named Lucinda married two men named Carter in Morgan County during the 1830s. One man was John C Carter and one was Johannon Carter. It appears both men moved to Oregon and their families have been confused in Ancestry trees. They will likely never be totally corrected, so be very careful when researching these families.

Lucinda's maiden name is unknown, but it is very unlikely to be Lake.

Please contact me via a comment if you want a pdf copy of the probate file of Aaron Lake, Morgan County, Illinois, 1835.