So the amount of information we have on deeds in Port Tobacco can be staggering to look at as a whole. You wouldn't think for such a small community that it would be that difficult to trace this stuff back to the original town...well I didn't think it would be...but it is.
And I keep getting side tracked by things I find in the deed records, which leads me to find out other information that we were looking into. It's fun...like a giant jigsaw puzzle.
Here's a few things I learned while doing deed research that may be of use to us in putting together the story of not only the town itself but its residents.
(1)Remember Joseph Cocking? The man hung on the bridge over the Port Tobacco River. Well, according to several deed references to part of the property of the "New Wade Store", one of the boundary lines runs along "the state road towards the new bridge over Cockings Run"! Could this be the replacement bridge for the one that he was hung on? I'm thinking this might be the bridge on MD Rt 6 going over PT Creek but there's still a lot of piecing together of records to do.
(2)I always love coming across names from our census records in the deed references too. One of those that stood out was Mary A. Scott. I saw it and in parenthesis was (then Shackelford). Both of those names clicked in my head and I went back to look at the census data. Here's what I found...stay with me here...it's a bit tricky:
In 1860 Mary Shackelford is listed as married to John Shackelford, merchant. They have a 1 year old son named James Shackelford. In the same 1860 census, we have a Thomas H. Scott aged 18.
In 1868 (according to deed records), John Shackelford conveys land to Mary Scott (Shackelford). In the 1870 census, the only Shackelford on the census is 11 year old J.W. Shackelford. Mary Shackelford is now Mary Scott, 36, married to Thomas H. Scott, 26, carpenter.
Somewhere between 1860 and 1868, John Shackelford either dies or leaves and Mary Shackelford marries Thomas H. Scott. By 1880, the names Scott and Shackelford are gone from the census records.
While the lineage of the PT residents may not give us a whole lot of information at the moment, it will in the future as we piece this stuff together.
On a personal note, it's very interesting to me when we can make a family connection. I started a family genealogy years ago that my father took over from my meager beginnings and transformed it into a family database that stretches back to England in 1733 and includes Quantocks from around the world.
- Peter
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Genealogy research can be rewarding and very much like the work Peter has shown here. In reality, my work has traced us back to 1550.
One thing that I am sure Peter remembers is to set aside all family stories, or third party stories while researching. My entire family called my grandfather George Quantock....but his birth certificate obtained a few years ago clearly states...Frederick George Quantock. Further research uncovered why he used George rather than Frederick.
I can see that researching Port Tobacco, is like most genealogy research - small steps.....an exciting and successful day might be finding a single reference that helps build, confirm or solidify the cornerstone of your history, whether is be personal or of an entire town.
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