1830 Census, Rockingham County, Virginia

Samuel Liggett and Hannah Bryan were married on 18 Apr 1815 in Rockingham County.  The only Liggett family in Rockingham County in the 1820 census was the family of Samuel's father Jacob Liggett.  It appears likely that Samuel and Hannah were living in Jacob's household in 1820.

Hannah Bryan was surely one of mine, but I do not know who her parents were.  There were two Hannah Bryans in Rockingham County at about the same time, one of whom married the aforementioned Samuel Liggett in 1815 and the other of whom married Samuel Moffett in about 1814.  The Hannah Bryan who married Samuel Moffett is known to have been the daughter of Major William Bryan.  Major William Bryan was the brother of my fifth great great grandfather Peter Bryan.  It seems likely that the two Hannah Bryans were first cousins, but even if so I cannot at this time make an informed guess as to who the parents were for the second Hannah Bryan.

It is clear that Samuel Liggett was one of the two males age 30-39 in this census entry.  But I'm only guessing that Hannah Bryan was the female age 20-29. On the one hand, it seems rather obvious that she was.  On the other hand, I wonder if Hannah might have died before 1830.  The 1840 census certainly indicates that she died before 1840.

The children age 10-14, age 05-09, and age 00-04 clearly seem to reflect the issue of an 1815 marriage.  But there is a male age 30-39 and a male age 20-29 in this census entry that are otherwise unnaccounted for.  If Hannah was the female age 20-29, then she was at most 14 or 15 years old at the time of her marriage.  I think it's equally plausible, if not more so, that Hannah was a bit older than that, that she died shortly before the 1830 census, and that the female age 20-29 is just as unaccounted for as is the male age 20-29.

David Harrison and Elizabeth Pickering were my fourth great grandparents.

David was the son of Capt. Reuben Harrison and Lydia Donnell Harrison.  Lydia and Reuben were first cousins who married.

Elizabeth Pickering was the daughter of William Pickering and Barbara Woodley.

Daniel Harrison age 20-29 was my third great grandfather.  He was in fact about 23 years old in 1830, and he was married in 1834.

There seems to have been one too many females age 05-09.  I don't know if there was another daughter unknown to us who died young, or if the extra female was a niece or boarder or other female who was not a daughter.

Henrich (Henry) May age 50-59 was the son of my fifth great grandparents Thomas May Sr. and Maria Catherine Emerich.  As such, Henry was the brother of my fourth great grandmother Margarethe Elizabeth (Peggy) May who married my fourth great grandfather William/Wilhelm Messamore.  Henry was born on 5 Dec 1773 in Berks County, Pennsylvania, so he was actually about 46 years old at the time of the 1820 census.

Henry's wife was Catharine (Keaty) Sites.  They were married on 25 Jun 1798 in Rockingham County.