Re: Senator Thomas Hart BENTON, MO
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In reply to:
Re: Senator Thomas Hart BENTON, MO
5/17/00
Theresa,
As I said in the closing of my post, do not let me discourage you.Let me give you a little better idea of where I am coming from. You are very likely the descendant of Thomas Hart Benton and you may even be a descendant of the "Thomas Hart Benton".Oldtimers loved stories and they may have had a name for half-truth type stories which they seemed to love to tell.In my family, when I got back to my 1790's ancestor Lydia Smith, I found four living branches of the family which told almost the same story.We are descended from Lydia Smith, sister to Abigal Smith who was a unique woman in american history(this part is all true since each person is also unique).She was the wife of a President (John Adams) and the mother of a President (John Quincy Adams).John Quincy Adams even came to visit Lydia at her home during his quest for the Presidency. (Depending on your politics, Barbara Bush has an opportunity to join this unique club).It all made a great story.
It was easy to check a known genealogy of the Reverend Smith, father of Abigal Smith, of Boston Mass and find that he had no known daughter named Lydia.Long story short, our Lydia Smith did have a sister Abigal Smith who married a man named John Adams (from New Jersey in about 1800).That is probably all that was told by the first generation.The second generation may have dressed the story up a bit and it continued to grow with each generation.They all truthfully retold what they had been told and possibly added a new bit of romance of their own.Hopefully, this is not the case in your quest.
On the downside, I do know that after 1820, a high percentage of every Benton family had a Thomas Hart Benton or a Jesse Benton.I seldom read a county census line by line with Bentons present that I do not find at least one named Thomas Hart or Jesse.It is just like the southern Lee families after the Civil War, every Lee family named a son Robert E Lee.
I can help you with some of the descendants of Samuel Benton and Jesse Benton.Over half of their children left no issue which quickly narrows the field.I do not know the direct descendants of Thomas Hart Benton except for a daughter (Jessie I think) who married John C Freemont the liberator of California.He may have also had one son but I can not remember for sure (I should have that information in my notes).If you want to contact me directly [email protected], I can give you who each of Samuel and Jesse Benton's children married and where they migrated to and some of their known children.From that you should get a pretty good idea of where, when and who to look for if there is still a potential connection.
As I said previously, do not let me discourage you.Good luck with your search.
Ray Riley
More Replies:
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Re: Senator Thomas Hart BENTON, MO
5/22/01
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Re: Senator Thomas Hart BENTON, MO
5/18/00