I’ve had quite a bit of unexpected time on my hands recently so I decided to chase one of my ancestors through court records. My Goodger ancestors left Chesterfield County, Virginia sometime after 1799, following the death of my 5th great grandfather, Martin Goodger. His widow, Elizabeth, was left with 10 children, eight of whom were minors, and debt. We know from a lawsuit filed by James Lyle against the heirs of Martin Goodger the identities of the 10 children: William, Andrew Martin, Mary, Elizabeth, Nancy, Henry, Stephen, my 4th great grandfather, Susanna, James and Jordan.

Sometime after the lawsuit, the family packed up their belongings and headed to Georgia, where we find Elizabeth in 1805 tax records in Warren County. I knew from marriage records that Stephen had first married Fanny Bacon in Wilkinson County, Georgia in 1813, followed by my ancestor, Julia Veazey, in Greene County, Georgia in 1819. But from there, I knew nothing about Stephen’s life (save for a newspaper appearance in 1821) until he showed up in Perry County, Alabama in 1837. And, I also wanted to possibly understand why I haven’t been able to find him in the 1830 census.

Searching in Greene County resulted in nada. I’d almost given up hope until I looked at records for his brother, James, who was enumerated in Greene County in 1820 and Taliaferro County in 1830. Did he move or did the county move around him? And then I remembered an important lesson about genealogical research: understanding how and when counties formed is critical.

Taliaferro, which is pronounced “toliver,” was formed in 1825 from parts of five other counties. AHA! I’ll spare you the details but I found records of land Stephen purchased in Greene County prior to 1825 recorded in Taliaferro County after 1825. That was sheer luck! In all, Stephen owned about 170 acres which he then sold in February of 1830. Another AHA! This may explain why Stephen is missing in the 1830 census. The family was likely on the move when the census was undertaken.

Kenfolk: Trantham
Relationship: 4th great grandparent
Common ancestors: Stephen’s parents were Martin Goodger and Elizabeth, whose maiden name is sadly unproven, but often mistaken as Pankey – which doesn’t make sense because had Elizabeth Pankey been married to Martin at the time, she’d have appeared as Elizabeth Goodger and not Elizabeth Pankey in her alleged father‘s will – but I digress!