After recently finding that James Holland and wife Annie Thompson had a previously-unknown-to-me son, Edmund Holland, I starting digging once again.

Edmund Holland married Nancy Dodson on 8 June 1848 in Howard County, Missouri.

He appears in the 1850 census, dated 25 October 1850, living with the Jackman brothers in Grass Valley, Yuba, California.

Then I took another look in 1850, trying to locate his young wife, Nancy (Dodson) Holland and found:

1/1 James Holland, 59, farmer, $1100, born Kentucky
Sarah Holland, 59, born Virginia
Nick Holland, 23, born Virginia
Nancy Holland, 17, born Missouri
P. Holland, 17, born Missouri
Nancy Holland, 22, born Kentucky
Ed Holland, 26, born Missouri

So, on 14 September 1850, Ed Holland was apparently living with his father’s family. It’s possible that they gave his name to the census taker even though he might already have been in California. Or, because the Yuba County census with the Jackmans is dated 5 weeks later, he might have just left for California.

In any case, Edmund had apparently died between 1855 and 1860 when Nancy was living in her father’s household with three Holland children – Martha, born c1851, Annie, born c1853 and Sarah, born c1855.

I suspect that “Nick Holland” might really be Sarah Hutchinson’s child by her first marriage given that he was born in Virginia.

However, who are Nancy Holland and P. Holland, both 17 and both females? James and Sarah married on 28 October 1832. Could the girls be twin daughters born to James and Sarah?

Although no marriage record has been found (by me), one Nancy Caton, wife of William Caton, died 30 October 1897 and is buried at Big Springs Christian Church Cemetery in Hilldale, Howard, Missouri. She was born in 1833 and is linked as the daughter of James and Sarah (Hutchinson) Holland.

Could “P. Holland,” aged 17, be the same as Miss Patsey Holland, who married Marion Cates on 11 September 1855?

As for Nancy (Dodson) Holland and daughters, Nancy was also married to Marion Cates by 1870. Could Patsey have died and Nancy then married Marion?

Edmund and Nancy’s daughter Martha Ann married Joseph Maphies and they settled in Cedar County, Missouri. Martha died on 22 December 1928 and her death certificate names her father as “Edwin Hollon.”

Annie married John Dobbs and they settled in Joplin, Jasper, Missouri. She died on 3 September 1940 at her son’s home in Kansas, but is buried in Joplin.

Sarah E., born in 1855, apparently died between 1860 and 1870. Nothing further is known about her.

This deep dive following the BSOs has provided quite a bit of new information about James Holland and his family – well worth the hours I’ve spent!