Amanuensis Monday: The Biography of Norman John Dutton (1810-1888)

(Amanuensis: A person employed to write what another dictates or to copy what has been written by another.  "Amanuensis Monday" is a blogging theme hosted by John Newmark at the Transylvanian Dutch Genealogy Blog.)

From THE PAST AND PRESENT OF WOODFORD COUNTY, ILLINOIS (LeBaron & Co., Chicago, 1878) --

DUTTON, NORMAN, farmer and
stock raiser ; Sec. 9 ; P. 0. Metamora ;
one of the early settlers of the county ;
was born in Lamoille Co., Vt., Feb. 14,
1810 ; he resided there until he was 23
years of age, and then came to Lake Co.,
Ohio, where he remained two years ; he
then came to Illinois, spending a year in
Morgan Co., and settled in Woodford
Co. in 1836 ; he was married Nov. 7,
1835, to Mrs. Nancy Dutton, of Morgan
Co., who was born in Canada ; she died
in March, 1868, leaving six children-
Louisa L.: Samuel S.: James H., Julia
E. ; the oldest two being the children
of her former husband ; Mr. Dutton was
married again June 6: 1869, to Miss
Maria Sleeper, who was born in
Hillsborough Co., N.H., Dec. 1, 1825;
he owns 100 acres of land valued at $6,400.

Before I found this entry, all indication was leading me to believe Norman was my direct ancestor, father of Louisa, my great-great-grandmother.  But this simple little paragraph provided me with two clues to a small little family research sidetrack.  The first clue was obvious, "the oldest two children were of a former husband."  Louisa was second oldest, she was not Norman's daughter!  So who was her father?  Second clue, her mother Nancy's surname is shown as "Dutton" the same as Norman's.  But her maiden name was "Smith."  Further research would show Nancy's first husband, and Louisa's father, and my g-g-g-grandfather was Samuel Dutton (1808-1835), Norman's older brother.  Nancy was widowed for seven months before marrying Norman.

Copyright © 2010 by Kevin W. Walker