I’m right on top of things this week, as I’m reading Randy Seaver’s challenge for this week’s Saturday Night Genealogy Fun:

1)  What was your genealogy-related highlight of this past week (or two weeks)?

I’ve had some success going down the Nation family rabbit hole this past week, trying to add to my scanty knowledge of Henry Nation, born 1814 In Ohio, who settled in Fentress County, Tennessee and married several times before 1850.

Unfortunately, Fentress County is a burned county and the marriage records are long gone.

However, because Henry married for the first time c1831, between the three children at home in 1850, one given to another family to raise and three more born in the 1850s, I think I’ve been able to build enough of a FAN club, just based on census records, to make a case for four wives, not three which is what most others have believed, for Henry Nation.

He died sometime after the 1860 census when he was living in Johnson County, Arkansas. Wife Mary remarried c1865, but I don’t know if the war had anything to do with his death.

I think my case for four wives, though, is pretty strong and I’m quite pleased with myself for piecing together some of this longstanding puzzle.

I’ve shared my research with one of my husband’s cousins, who is the family historian for that branch of the family and I’m looking forward to hearing her thoughts on my reasoning and will be sharing my theory in a future post.

Thanks, Randy, for this week’s challenge.