One of the things I love about blogging is that as I choose ancestors to spotlight, I am forced to check for new information that might have been found about some of these lost lines. I’m not sure that it is going to help much with this particular brick wall, but I can always hope. My husband, Dave, is descended from John Dulworth and Mary (?) Broadway through his mother’s family:

1. David Stufflebean

2. Edward Stufflebean, 1917-2002
3. Ruby Jewel Sturgell, 1919-2013

6. Oscar Elden Sturgell, 1893-1968
7. Ethel Anne Nation, 1900-1976

14. Clayton Columbus Nation, 1872-1922
15. Matilda Jane Dulworth, 1869-1931

30. Abraham Dulworth, 1840-after 1910
31. Mary Jane Adams, Abt 1850-1932

60. James Dulworth, Abt 1805-1887
61. Elizabeth Gwinn Spear, Abt 1817-1878

120. John Dulwit/Dulworth, Abt 1763-?
121. Mary (?) Broadway, Abt 1766, SC-Aft 16 Feb 1853

Part of the difficulty with this family is that there are few written records for them.

John Dulwitt first appears on a list of militia men on guard in Knox County, Tennessee dated 1792-1794:

John Dulwitt, Knox Co., TN 1792-1794
Ancestry.com

The second, and last record, found for John Dulworth is his marriage to Mary Broadway on 2 December 1803 in Knox County, TN:

John Dulwit-Mary Brawdeway Marriage, 1803
Ancestry.com

There are a couple of road blocks here. The first, and it is a big one, is that the census records for eastern Tennessee are missing before 1830.  Secondly, most people who have placed information about this family on line seem to believe that Broadway was Mary’s maiden name. I don’t believe that. I don’t have any idea what it was, but I firmly believe that Mary was a fairly young widow when she married John Dulworth.

The Broadway name appears in only two other places  and those are also marriage records.  Peggy Broadway married Thomas Robinson in Knox County, TN on 23 December 1813. That record is a certainty.

The next connection is a bit more tenuous. There is a Louvina who married John Rush about 1819, probably in Cumberland County, Kentucky. Family descendants say her maiden name was either Broadway or Dulworth and her age in census records consistently place her birth about 1800-1801, two years before John Dulworth married Mary Broadway. In 1820, newlyweds John and Louvina Rush are living only two doors away from Mary “Delwit.”

I have seen references on line to a will supposedly left by a John Dulwit stating that his wife “left me early” and that he was leaving all to daughter Hannah. However, I have never been able to locate a source for this will in Knox County, TN or Cumberland Co., KY.  No date has been given with this reputed will, either.

The next factual information found is Mary, already referenced in the 1820 census, above. She is the head of household and her known Dulworth children are in the household with her.

It appears that John Dulwit died before the 1820 census as he is not found in Tennessee or Kentucky in a household apart from Mary. Many on line trees place his birth at about 1778, but I believe he was born some years before that. I would expect for him to be on a 1792-1794 militia list with no other family found in the area, he was likely at least 21 at that time. That would place his birth closer to 1770.

Mary Broadway married Solomon Prewitt, a Revolutionary War pensioner, shortly after 4 November 1840, the date on a marriage bond noted in his pension file.

In 1850, her age was reported in the census as 75, which would place her birth year at about 1775.

That would be a good fit for a woman who had children born in the late 1790’s during a first marriage to Mr. Broadway. In her affadavit for a widow’s pension in 1853, Mary’s age was given as 87 years old, which is probably too old, especially when compared to her age of 75 in the 1850 census. Mary died sometime between 16 February 1853, when she was approved for her pension and the 1860 census, probably in Cumberland County, Kentucky.

There stands the brick wall. By the 1850’s, the family surname was most commonly recorded as “Dulworth.” Her children died in places where parents’ names weren’t included on death certificates or there were no death certificates at all. No probates have been found, the few land records recorded for this family gives no indication of family origins and no family Bible records or anecdotes have surfaced.

FamilySearch brings up a John Henry Dalwerth baptized a Catholic on 20 Mar 1753 in Juelrich, Rheinland, Prussia; parents are John Jacob Dalwerth and Anna Magdalena Funck. I have no idea whether this family is related to John Dulworth of TN and KY.

Comments and suggestions are welcomed!