Linchfield Parks Jr and his marriage(s)
A great effort has been made to try and determine if Linchfield Parks was married to two different people (Arminda “Mindy Barnes and Jemima ___) or if they were one and the same.At this present time I have not been able to make a definitive decision on this, though if I had to choose I would believe that they were two different wives.The reasons that would support their being two wives are as follows:
· Linchfield’s 1838 marriage record shows he married Minda Barnes and the 1850 census shows he married Marcy.The 1860 and 1870 census both show him being married to Jemima/Jimmima
· Linchfield and Minda were married in 1838, which means that Minda most likely would most likely have been at least 16 years old putting her birthdate before 1822.In 1840 Linchfield’s wife was listed as being born between 1810-1820 and then in the 1850 census Marcy is listed as being born in 1815.Whereas the 1860 census shows Jemima as being born in 1822 and 1870 showing Jimmima born in 1825
· The 1850 census shows Marcy as being born in GA, whereas the 1860 and 1870 census shows Jemima (sic) as being born in SC
With the clear delineation of name/birthdate/birth state for the wife of Linchfield mentioned in 1838, 1840, and 1850 between the wife listed in 1860 and 1870 one would think that you have enough evidence to prove that he was married twice.The evidence that doesn’t support this or at least doesn’t prove that he was married twice is:
· No cemetery record for Arminda “Marcy” Barnes Parks in Cherokee/Pickens County.It is worth noting that there may just have been no headstone
· Arminda “Marcy” Barnes Parks is not listed in the 1850 mortality schedule, which could have been approximately when she died
· There is no marriage record for Linchfield Parks and Jemima.During this time in Cherokee, Pickens, Murray, and Gordon Counties marriage records were existent so there should have been a record
· Jemima was the name of Arminda “Marcy” Barnes Parks grandmother.In seeing that this isn’t a common name one could assume that Jemima was related to Arminda if she was not the same person.
· There is no age gap in Linchfield’s children thatcould cause one to assume that Arminda had died and he had remarried a woman name Jemima.Between 1850 and 1860 children were born in theyears 1850, c1852, c1854, c1856, 1860
Unfortunately we don’t know what happened to Linchfield and his family after 1871 when he was listed in the Murray Co tax digest.No records have been found on Linchfield or Jemima in the 1880 census and there haven’t been any records found on the children of Linchfield Parks born after 1850 with the exception of daughter Martha was living with son Jason in 1880 Johnson Co, AR and the possible exception to a John W. Parks found in the 1910 Oklahoma census.Nothing has been found to prove that he is the same John W. Parks that is listed in the 1860 and 1870 census with Linchfield though.As for the older children:
1. Daughter Rebecca was married and lived in Pickens County, Georgia.
2. Sons James Asbury and Jason Hannibal were both in Johnson Co, AR in 1880 and by 1900 had moved to Choctaw Co, Oklahoma (Indian Territory).James died between 1900-1910 and Jason died in Oklahoma in 1929
3. I have found no records on daughters Louisa and Mary Ann and son Josiah
There is hope that in researching more of the Dawson Co, GA Estate Records we could find a distribution of the estate of Isaac Barnes that could show a distribution to his daughter Arminda or her surviving children. (CS Williams 10/2012)