Week 15 52in52: Brick Wall

 This week's #52AncestorsIn52Weeks prompt was "Brick Wall"

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I have so many Brick Walls in my tree (a brick wall meaning I've reached a dead end, I can't find out anymore about that person, can't figure out maybe who their parents are, when they were born, when they died, etc.) Sometimes the issue is that there's a record that doesn't exist, most states didn't require birth or death records until the early 1900s. Or they did exist but were destroyed in a war, or natural disaster, or like the 1890 census, a fire. Some are that I have immigrant ancestors from countries that don't have many records online and it is not always feasible to travel around the world in hopes of finding something (though I wish it was!). Others there is no paper trail, like the case of my Pop Pop, there is no evidence of his birth father on official documents. And I swear some people just don't want to be found! 

My 2x great grandfather Frank Hancock

For some reason both of my 2nd great grandfather's on my maternal grandfather's side just appeared out of thin air when they got married. This week I'm going to talk about one and next week we will talk about the other. 

Here is what I know about my great great grandfather Frank Hancock. He was born on October 29, 1867 in Kentucky. He married Nancy Love in 1892 and had 10 children. He died on September 24 1956. The problem is that he just appeared out of seemingly no where. He does not appear on a census record until 1910 when he is already married with a gaggle of children. I have no marriage record. No birth record. No census even though he should be on 3. His death record, which his daughter Bethlean gave the information for states that his parents are Wallace Hancock and Susan Lamb. 

So after figuring out what his parents names were I searched for them. And I found them in 1860 and 1870. Frank SHOULD be on the 1870 census. But he's not. There are other sons listed with them though, including Fernando, Corbin, Benjamin, and Border. I went on to find all of them in the 1880 and 1900 census records. I found Frank's wife Nancy in 1880 with her parents, and their neighbors are his brothers Fernando and Corbin. But Frank? No where. Then all of a sudden in 1910 there he is with Nancy and the children. 

Frank with his wife Nancy and children Nancy, Bessie, Emma, Clarice (my great grandma), Marvin, and Hallie. 

I found him several newspaper clippings about birthday parties and family reunions with the descendants of his 4 brothers. Including an obituary from Corbin's daughter Jennie specifically stating she was survived by her Uncle Frank Hancock. None of his brother's obituaries mention him though and he was the last of them to pass away so they were not mentioned in his obituary either. 

Not only do I not know where Frank was before he married Nancy but I don't know what happened to either of his parents. I believe his mother died around 1874 but I don't know who her parents were so that's a dead end. My guess is that his father died before 1880 because his brother Border is living with eldest brother Corbin in 1880 at age 11, and Benjamin is a laborer on a farm at the age of 16. So that just adds another layer to my brick wall. 

Frank, daughter's Bessie, Clarice, and Bethlean, and grand daughter Alice in the center

I am slowly working my way through DNA matches to try and figure out where they came from but 3 years in and I'm not quite there yet. 

Frank is my 2x great grandfather