Once a Knight is Enough

Knight Genealogy

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Descendants of Jacob Knight and Nancy Mitchell

By Jerry Eugene Knight
 2024.

Note: I welcome comments, recommendations, criticisms, insights and especially referrals for additional records and information. The reader can reach me at JerryEKnight@gmail.com.

Details and records of the data summarized in this document can be found in my public Ancestry.com Family Tree, which is named “Knight Family Tree”. My username at Ancestry.com is Jerry Knight.

Introduction

This document summarizes my research about the family of my paternal second great grandparents Jacob Knight and Nancy Mitchell and their descendants. During this research I have attempted to locate all available online records for Jacob Knight and each of their descendants. The document is the culmination of many man-years of research and covers several thousand individuals.

Organization

This first chapter reviews the records, DNA evidence and life stories of Jacob and Nancy and identifies their offspring. It will then identify and discuss the common conflations and errors associated with Jacob and Nancy in Family Trees.

Subsequent chapters will systematically present the records and high-level life stories for each of Jacob and Nancy’s children and their descendants. I have attempted to cite public references for all reported events.

Each following chapter reviews the available records for one of Jacob and Nancy’s children and their descendants. I have attempted to include all available public records for each person, their spouse(s) and their descendants that are identified by public records. Little is known about Jacob’s first four (probable) children, so whatever little is known about them is included in this chapter.

Subsequent Chapters and sections within a chapter are in birth order, first born to last born, and are numbered in birth order. For example, the chapter for Jacob’s 5th child, John Harrison Knight, is labeled child 5.

Section labels for Jacob and Nancy’s grandchildren contain both their parent’s birth order and the child’s birth order. For example, the section for John Harrison’s fourth child, Thomas Russel Knight, is numbered 5.4.

Records for great-grandchildren add a third birth order, and so on for each additional generation. For example, my section is 5.4.12.2 because my great-grandfather John Harrison Knight was Jacob’s 5th child, my grandfather Thomas Knight was John Harrison’s fourth child, my father was Thomas’s twelfth child, and I am the second child.

Information and records for each of Jacob and Nancy’s descendants and their spouses are organized in semi-chronological order:

• Evidence for birthdate and birthplace, and identify of parents
• Census Records. Summary of census records. Census records that have been previously presented (such as a child’s records when living with their parents) are noted but are not repeated.
• Records of education
• Marriage and divorce records
• Records and evidence for children
• A summary of where the individual lived.
• Death and burial information.

Records for a descendant’s spouse(s) are presented as unnumbered subsections within the descendant’s section.

The final subsection for each descendant is a short summary of their know children. This section is omitted if no records regarding children are available.

Methodology

The databases at Ancestry.com are the foundation of this research. After an initial pass populating my tree, I compared my results with all available tress at Ancestry.com, FamilySearch.com, FamilyTreeDNA.com, MyHeritage.com, wikitree.com, and GEDmatch.com  In each case I reviewed all the records attached to each person and gathered all appropriate records together in my family tree at Ancestry.com.

My starting point was the Civil War Pension records of my Great Grandfather, John Harrison Knight, which includes a transcription of his 1860 US Census. That census record and John Harrison’s pension application, name Jacob and Nancy Knight as John’s parents and lists four siblings. John Harrison Knight was well known to my grandfather and older aunts and uncles, so I am extremely confident of the lineage from me to Jacob and Nancy.

I added each person named in that 1860 census record to my family tree and began reviewing each of the hints provided by Ancestry and added spouses and all children cited in census records. I then performed extensive online record searches with particular emphasis on locating a complete set of census records and all public marriage, birth, and death records. I also attempted to locate each person at Find-A-Grave and other gravesite databases and searched Newspapers.com for articles that name the individual.

After searching databases at Ancestry.com I reviewed my findings with those of other Family Trees at Ancestry.com and each of the other genealogy web sites and added references to additional appropriate records to my family tree.

I added descendants and additional relatives and in-laws to my tree if a census, obituary, birth, marriage, divorce, death, or other legal record specifically names them. This includes relatives born after the 1950 US Census, the most recent available during this research effort. The coverage of these more recent relatives is quite uneven. The time passage required for a record to become public varies from ten to one hundred years depending upon the state and records type.

Whenever possible, I have herein transcribed obituaries for deceased relatives and spouses. Unfortunately, I have found many obituaries referenced by Family Trees and the databases at the genealogy web sites are no longer available. Obituaries that were originally posted by funeral homes and local newspapers that have gone out of business have become unobtainable.

I have made extensive use of archived telephone, address and other directories in a variety of ways. The dates that spouses start and stop listing the same addresses is a strong clue to when they married and separated; A suspected child’s earliest address will often match their parent’s address; etc.

Finally, I attempted to locate each living person in my tree and those that have died within the last 20 years using the search facilities provided by TruePeopleSearch.com. That site often provides the current and recent residences as well as the month and year of birth for each person. I then transcribe the person’s month and year of birth and their most recently reported city of residence to my family tree. Given that information, the database search engines at the various genealogy sites are often able to locate significant records for the individual.

I did not attempt to use any of the more intrusive background search engines like BeenVarified.com or TruthFinder.com to avoid infringing confidentiality and to minimize expenses.

Database References

I have attempted to provide a simplified reference for the source of every life fact cited for each person. The references give the name of the source database in italicized text. Date ranges that are often part of database names are omitted for brevity and because the date span is constantly changing as time passes and the databases are expanded and updated.

This simplified form of reference was chosen for practicality. Including a photocopy or screenshot or full database reference for each fact would make this document prohibitively large and nearly impossible to read. Please consult my Family Tree at Ancestry.com for full references and source materials.

I have used several shorthand references to avoid repeated, long lists of similar databases. Specific references and details are available at my Family Tree at Ancestry.com.

• Directory Records is used to reference records from one or more of the following databases. Often, records are available from several or many of these databases, and often many records for one person exist within a single directory. The cited date spans of these databases are from Sept 2024.
• U.S., Index to Public Records, 1994-2019
• U.S. Public Records Index, 1950-1993, Volume 1
• U.S. Public Records Index, 1950-1993, Volume 2
• U.S., City Directories, 1822-1995
• U.S., Phone and Address Directories, 1993-2002
• City Directories from multiple states and cities
• Local Directories from multiple localities
• SSA Records is used for records from several Social Security Administration databases including:
• U.S., Social Security Applications and Claims Index, 1936-2007
• U.S., Social Security Death Index, 1935-2014

Use of Birth and Married Names

Formal genealogical protocol lists females by their birth name and without married names. Traditionally many women changed their last names each time they married. Subsequently their records list only their married name without reference to their birth names. During this research, I found the search engines at ALL at the various genealogy sites perform poorly when only a woman’s birth name is used for a search. Much better results are obtained by using all known last names simultaneously or in sequential searches.

For this reason, I have chosen to list women with their birthname in parenthesis followed by their married last names in chronological order. For example: If Mary Knight married Tom First and later married John Second, she will be listed as Mary (Knight) First Second. Incidentally, I have found several of the search engines perform better if there is a space between the birth last name and the parentheses: ( Knight ) rather than (Knight). I include the spaces in names in my family tree, but not in this text.

Conversely, I have investigated adding the birth last names of wives to the names of husbands. Surprisingly, this produces inferior results to searches with just the man’s birth last name because many more, sometimes hugely more, matches are created, making it impossible to determine which are correct. For example, if John Knight married Sue First and later married Jane Second, searching records with the last name of (Knight) First Second produces much poorer results than searching with just Knight.

Dates

Dates are presented using standard genealogy protocols: day of month without leading zero, a space, 3 letter abbreviation of month, a space and four-digit year. If the day of month or month are unknown, they are simply omitted. Approximate dates are signified by a leading “c” instead of “ca” or “Circa”. “Bef” or “b” is used for events that occurred before the given date, “Aft” or “a” for those that occurred after the date and “Bet” if the date of the event is between two other dates.

Geographical Names

Geographic locations are presented in a modified version of the standard genealogy format: City, County, State, Country. For brevity, I have not included the country field for locations within the United States of America. All cited locations are in the United States of America unless otherwise specifically cited.

Standard genealogy uses commas to designate missing fields, such as “, Clark, Nevada, USA” for a marriage that took place in Clark County, Nevada or ,,Arkansas for a birth location from a census record that only provides state of birth.

I have not used leading commas to signify missing city or county fields because I find the leading commas hard to read and confusing. If the city name is not included, I follow the name of the county by the word “County”, such as Los Angeles County, California. If only the state is known, then the state name is spelled out without leading commas. Independent cities that operate without a county like Saint Louis, Missouri or Fairfax, Virginia are named without spelling out “County” signifying they are independent cities.

In some instances, particularly in census records, locations are given as Townships within a county rather than in a city. In these cases, the city field is replaced by the township name followed by “Township”. For example: Clark Township, Logan, Arkansas.

If more specific location information is important, it is included in a leading field followed by a comma before the city name. For example: McKendree Cemetery, Subiaco, Logan, Arkansas.

Some records, especially those for persons living on farms, give a location as “rural” followed by a city or county name. In these cases, I have just attached the word rural to the city or county name: “Rural Scranton, Logan, Arkansas or Rural Logan County, Arkansas.

Census Records

Most census records presented herein are from one or more of the US Censuses. For the most part census records are presented in tabular form with the top row indicating the census year, the next row the census location, the third row is the date the census was recorded by the census taker. (I have found that sometime the data is accurate for the date the census was taken, not the actual census date.)

Data from the US censuses are presented with just the year of the census without reference to the “US Census” of the numerical number of the census. The source of local city, county or state censuses will be fully spelled out.

In the presented census summaries, the full census name of the head of household is presented and is given as the first person in the table. The last names of household members with the same name as the head of household have been omitted. The names presented in the tables are the transcribed names (usually by Ancestry.com). No effort was made to reconcile differences between actual and transcribed names.

The names attributed to household members in the pre-1850 censuses are speculative and inferred from family members specifically named in the 1850 and later censuses.

Records for Jacob Knight and Nancy Mitchell

Two records are anchor points for Jacob Knight’s and Nancy Mitchell’s history. First, in his Civil War Pension application, my great grandfather, John Harrison Knight, included a transcription of Jacob and Nancy Knight’s 1860 census record as proof of his parentage and age. Second, a record in the Tennessee, Marriage Records shows Jacob Knight married Nancy Mitchell on 22 Apr 1841 in Meigs County, Tennessee. From their 1850 and 1860 census records it appears Nancy was about twenty-six and Jacob was about forty-six. As we will see, Jacob was probably recently widowed.

Jacob Knight’s census data from 1860 and earlier are summarized in the following table. The process used to identify these records will be discussed in the next few paragraphs. These census records plus Jacob and Nancy’s marriage record are the only records that I have found for them.

The following table summarizes Census Records for Jacob Knight (c1790-aft.1860)

Per the1860 census record cited in his pension application, John Harrison Knight, his parents, and siblings were living in Hamilton County, Tennessee. Ten years earlier in 1850 the family is also in Hamilton County Tennessee. Hamilton County includes the major city of Chattanooga and is on the southern border of Meigs County where Jacob and Nancy were married. There is some disagreement between the ages in the 1850 and 1860 censuses and son Jacob Knight, Jr. is missing in 1850 when we would expect to see him. Also, the 1850 census lists Jacob Sr.’s birth state as South Carolina and Nancy’s as Tennessee while in 1860 Jacob’s birth state is listed as North Carolina and Nancy’s is listed as Kentucky. However, since there are no other records in either 1850 or 1860 that might be this family, I think we can safely conclude both records are for the same Jacob Knight and family. Also, the 1860 census indicates Jacob cannot read or write, while 1850 does not have that indication. Nancy is not shown as unable to read or write in either census.

Census records provide the only known indication of Jacob Knight’s birth year. However, the birth year implied by these records is uncertain. The 1860 US Census indicated Jacob Knight was 65 years old, implying a birth year of about 1795. In the 1850 US Census Jacob’s age is listed as 60 implying he was born in about 1790. Other census records indicate Jacob was between 26 and 44 in 1820 (born between 1776 and 1794); between 30 and 39 in 1830 (born between 1790 and 1800); and between 50 and 59 in 1840 (born between 1780 and 1790).

Considering all the ages listed in the census records it is likely that Jacob Knight was born between 1790 and 1795. The unified family tree at FamilyTree.com lists Jacob Knight’s birth year as “after 1790” which is consistent with the birth years indicated by the census records. To distinguish this Jacob from other associated Jacob Knights I will refer to him as “Jacob 1790”.

Let us now review Jacob’s census records in more detail.

We know from their marriage record that Jacob and Nancy were married in Meigs County in 1841. In the 1840 US Census there is a Jacob Knight in newly formed Meigs County, Tennessee. Meigs County was carved from Rhea County in 1836; the part of Rhea County on the east side of the Tennessee River becoming Meigs County. We will see Rhea County again when we review the 1830 US Census.

We can be confident that the 1840 Meigs County Jacob Knight is correct for the following reasons: In the entirety of the 1840 US Census, there are 20 Jacob Knight households. All but three are in northern states. One of the southern Jacobs is living alone in Natchitoches County, Louisiana. He is between 20 and 29, so is too young. The other two are in Tennessee, one in Meigs County and one in Jefferson County, which is located north of Meigs County on the Kentucky border. It is highly probable the Meigs County Jacob Knight is the one that married Nancy Mitchell the next year. His household contains a male 50 to 59, a female 10 to 14, and a female 15-19. In this time widowers and widows with small children very often remarried of necessity within a few years after the loss of their partner. Therefore, it is likely this household consists of a recently widowed Jacob and one or two daughters. It is of course possible that one or both young females is hired help or a relative who is helping in the house.

The Jacob Knight household in Jefferson County consists of a male and female 20 to 29 and one male child under five. This household is too young to be Jacob 1790. The Tennessee, Marriage Records database shows a Jacob Knight married Rebecca Little on 20 Nov 1833 in Jefferson County, Tennessee. This younger Jacob will be discussed in detail in a subsequent chapter. Many Family Trees conflate records from Jacob 1790 with this younger Jacob, and many Family Trees have the younger Jacob Knight’s children attached to Jacob 1790.

Let us now look at earlier census records.

Considering Jacob 1790 was born between 1790 and 1795, he would not appear in census records until he was old enough to establish his own household, presumably in 1820 and afterward. There are 10 Jacob Knight households in the United States in 1820. Eight of them are in Pennsylvania, New York, and the New England area; one is in Virginia and another in South Carolina. The Virginia Jacob household includes fourteen members all listed as free colored. The Jacob in South Carolina is living in Lancaster County, which is located on the border of North and South Carolina and is adjacent to the Charlotte, Mecklenburg, North Carolina Metropolitan Area. (Recall that in the 1850 census Jacob’s birth state was listed as South Carolina and in 1860 as North Carolina.) This household includes a male, presumably Jacob 1790, between 26 and 44, a female between 16 and 25, and a young boy and girl, both under 10. This is likely Jacob and a, presumably, first wife. I have tried to identify the name and history of the first wife and the children that are indicated by the 1820, 1830 and 1840 US Censuses, but have had no success. Records of this marriage do not appear to be publicly available and probably do not exist anymore. At present, I have not discovered any DNA matches or other evidence that help identify these individuals.

In the 1830 US Census, there are 16 Jacob Knight households in the United States, All but three in the northern states. Two of the southern Jacobs are in Virginia, one with members listed as free colored, and one household in Rhea County, Tennessee. Recall that in 1830 Meigs County was still part of Rhea County and that Jacob 1790 was living in Meigs County in 1840.

This Tennessee household is headed by a 30- to 39-year-old couple. They have one daughter between 15 and 19. This is likely Jacob 1790 and his first wife. The son listed in the 1820 census appears to have died, or at least left home before the age of fifteen, or as often is seen in census records, he might have been a relative or orphan who was living in the household temporarily.

These census records also provide the only known indication of Jacob Knight’s birthplace. Considering Jacob first appears in Lancaster County, South Carolina in the 1820 US Census, I have reviewed the 1790 through 1840 census records for all Knight households from the region around Lancaster County, South Carolina. In the 1790 US Census, all but one of the Knight households in this region lived in Lancaster County. The single exception was in adjacent Chester County. By 1800 most of the Lancaster households from the 1790 census have moved to neighboring counties including nearby Chester, Chesterfield, and Fairfield Counties. After 1820 many of these South Carolina households migrated to Eastern Tennessee, Southern Illinois, and Western Kentucky. Since many descendants from these households are my DNA matches, it is probable Jacob 1790 was born in or near Lancaster County, South Carolina, near Charlotte, Mecklenburg, North Carolina along the North Carolina, South Carolina border.

There are no records known for Jacob after the 1860 US Census. Presumably, he died between 1860 and 1870. Many of the members of his household fled Tennessee for Kentucky during the Civil War. Two of Jacob’s sons, including my great-grandfather John Harrison Knight, plus a nephew also named Jacob Knight, all enlisted in the Union Army’s Tennessee Cavalry at Lebanon, Kentucky which is near the Kentucky state capital of Louisville. After the Civil War, John Harrison and his family and several other related Knight households moved back to Tennessee for a short time, but then relocated, first to Illinois, where they stayed for less than 10 years, and then on to Western Arkansas along the Arkansas River where I was born and many of my close relatives still live. Many other Knight relatives remained in western Kentucky where their descendants can still be found. Many of their descendants, who are still living in that area, are DNA matches to me.

The 1850 and 1860 census records are the only unequivocal records I have found for Jacob 1790’s presumed children Jane, William, and Martha. I have been able to trace the descendants of John (my great grandfather), Angeline, Jacob Jr., and Cordelia and have many DNA matches with their descendants. My unproven suspicion is that William and Martha each died before the next census where they are absent. Since Jane Knight was 14 in 1850, she may have died before 1860 or she may have married, but I have not found any marriage records for her.

Problems and Conflated Records for Jacob Knight

There are several closely related Jacob Knights in South Carolina, Kentucky, and Tennessee between 1800 through 1860. The lists include, at the very least, my 2x-great-grandfather, his son, a grandson, a nephew, a close cousin, and a distant cousin. The records of these individuals have been very badly intermixed and conflated in the various public Family Trees. It should be noted that all Jacob Knights are sometimes listed as Jake Knight (or Night) in their records.

Problems and Conflicts

The following is a list of problems and unsupported claims that are common in public Family Trees

• Jacob 1790 is listed as Pvt. Jacob Knight and the service records of his son, Jacob Knight (1842-1908) are attached to Jacob 1790.
• The records and households of Jacob 1790 are intermixed with those of Jacob Knight (1810-1870), husband of Rebecca Little (1811-1870). DNA evidence indicates the descendants of Jacob Knight (1810-1870) are also DNA matches to me. Several Family Trees list the children of Jacob Knight (1810-1870) as children of Jacob 1790.
• Both Jacob Knight (1842-1908) of Tennessee, husband of Matilda Emaline Knight (1850-1899) and Jacob Knight (1838-1873) of Kentucky, husband of Cynthia Knight (1841-1880) are listed as sons of Jacob 1790 in various Family Trees.
• Some Family Trees list Jacob 1790 with the middle name of Reuben and conflate records for Reuben Knight (1795-1860) of Colleton County, South Carolina.

The next few sections will present an overview and possible resolution of these problems.

Jacob Knight Military Service

Jacob 1790 is listed as Private (Pvt.) Jacob Knight in multiple public Family Trees

I have reviewed the available service records for all Jacob Knights who may have served in the US military. There is no record of Jacob 1790 in the War of 1812 (sometimes called Jackson’s War), the Florida War (sometimes called the Seminole War), the Mexican American War and the intervening time periods. I found one Jacob Knight who according to the directory at Fold3.com served as a private in Meeks’ Company 3rd Tennessee Mounted Militia in the Mexican American War. However, since Jacob would have been over fifty when this war was fought between 1846 and 1848, it is unlikely this is 1790 Jacob. I was not able to find any specific dates associated with this service in the militia or any additional information about Meek’s company.

Jacob 1790 had a son also named Jacob who served in the Union Army’s Tennessee Calvary during the Civil War. Jacob, Jr.’s records, particularly his military service, are often attached to other Jacob Knights.

Some public Family Trees indicate Jacob 1790 was killed in action during the Civil War. Since Jacob would have been over 60 years old, it is very unlikely he would have been a formal soldier in the Civil War and there is no official Civil War Soldier record for him nor is he found in any of the Civil War casualty lists.

Jacob Knight Relationships

The probable relationships, parents and spouses of the related Jacob Knights that appear in Eastern Tennessee and in Southern Kentucky between 1800 and 1860 are summarized in the following simplified family tree. In total there are at least eight related Jacob Knights and others that are frequently conflated with each other. The next sections will present a high-level review of the records for each of the Jacob Knight’s in the diagram.
There are several instances where the wife of a Jacob Knight was also a Knight. Since both parties are potential DNA matches, these marriages complicate any conclusions derived from DNA matches.

Jacob Knight (c1810-c1870) husband of Rebecca Little (c1811-b1870)

Many Family Trees conflate the records Jacob Knight (c1810-b1870) with those for Jacob 1790 and attach children of Jacob (c1810-b1870) to Jacob 1790.

Jacob Knight (c1810-b1870) was born in Tennessee, probably in Jefferson County, near the border with Kentucky. Research done by others (and unconfirmed by me) indicates his parents were John Knight Jr. (c1790-c1860) and Cecilia Bennett (?-1812). Tennessee, Marriage Records show he married Rebecca Little (1911-1870) in Jefferson County, Tennessee on 20 Nov 1833. Jacob and Cecelia Bennett’s daughter Matilda married Jacob Knight (c1842-1908), who is the son of Jacob 1790.

The DNA testing sites show descendants of Jacob Knight (c1810-b1870) are DNA matches to me. The degree of Y-DNA matches at FamilyTreeDNA.com indicates Jacob 1790 and Jacob (c1810-b1870) shared a common male ancestor probably from the late 1600s, so they are probably 2nd, 3rd, or 4th cousins.

The 1850 and 1860 census records indicate Jacob (c1810-b1870) and Jacob 1790 lived near one another in Hamilton County, Tennessee but are clearly distinct individuals. In the 1870 US Census Rebecca and her younger children are in Clark County, Arkansas living in the household of her son Merritt Knight. Since her husband Jacob does not appear in that census, it is likely Jacob has died between 1860 and 1870.

The following table summarizes the census records for Jacob Knight (c1810-b1870). The records indicate Jacob was a farmer and neither he nor Rebecca could read or write.

These census records clearly show Jacob Knight 1790 and Jacob Knight (c1810-c1870) are distinct individuals but lived near one another in multiple US Censuses.

Two candidates for Jacob Knight, Jr.:
Jacob Knight (1842-1908) of Tennessee
Jacob Knight (1838-1873) of Kentucky

Both Jacob Knight (c1842-1908) of Tennessee, husband of Matilda Emaline Knight (1850-1899), and Jacob Knight (1838-1873) of Kentucky, husband of Cynthia Knight (1841-1880), are listed as sons of Jacob 1790 in various Family Trees. For brevity they will be referred to as Jacob 1842 and Jacob 1838. The ThruLines utility at Ancestry.com, and several Family Trees, list both of them as sons of Jacob 1790 and Nancy Mitchell. In the summer of 2024 Ancestry.com identifies fourteen descendants of Jacob Knight 1842 who are DNA matches to me and twenty descendants of Jacob Knight 1838’s who are also DNA matches to me. Since the birth last names of the wives of both Jacobs is also Knight, these DNA matches may be via either or both the husband or wife.

The following table lists the DNA matches, as identified by the Ancestry.com ThruLines utility, between these two Jacobs and me. The descendants of Jacob 1838 are listed first, followed by those of Jacob 1842. Each Jacob’s name has a turquoise background and the names of their children with DNA-matched descendants have a gray background. There are DNA matches for descendants of more than one child of each Jacob. The rows following the gray-highlighted name list the ancestry.com username of a DNA match who is a descendant of that child according to Ancestry.com.

The column titled “Implied Relationship” is the relationship to me if the corresponding Jacob is the son of Jacob 1790. The column labeled cM is the size of the DNA match between that user and me in centimorgans and the column labeled Ancestry Likelihood is the probability that the listed relationship is correct for that number centimorgans match. The percentages displayed in the Likelihood column are computed by Ancestry.com. It is the probability that someone with that size DNA match is related by the indicated relationship. Ancestry’s tool does not provide likelihoods for third cousins-3-times-removed or more distant relationships. Likelihoods for those relationships are blank.

The following table summarizes my DNA Matches to Ancestry.com users who Ancestry.com ThruLines indicates are descendants of Jacob Knight (c1842-1908) or Jacob Knight (1838-1873)

Surprisingly, the DNA matches for the descendants of both Jacob 1842 and Jacob 1838 are about equally likely to be those of a son of Jacob Knight 1790. The answer, assuming that only one of them is Jacob 1790’s child, must be that one of these Jacobs is Jacob 1790’s son and the other is Jacob 1790’s nephew who married their first cousin, who is Jacob 1790’s niece. Children have about one-in-two DNA match to their parents while nieces and nephews have about one-in-four match, but the children of a first cousin marriage between a nephew and niece have a one-in-two match (one-in-four from each parent) just like children.

The 1860 US census record is the only record that I have found that names Jacob 1790, his wife Nancy and their son Jacob, Jr. together. In that census Jacob Jr’s age is fourteen, indicating he was born in Tennessee in about 1846, but since the other ages for Jacob 1790’s family members in that census are inconsistent with other records one must be cautious of this date. It is likely that the Jacob in the census record is not Jacob 1838 who would have been 22 years old. Also, since Jacob 1790 and Nancy Mitchell were married in 1841 and lived in Tennessee, it is very probable that Jacob Knight 1842 is their son and Jacob Knight 1838 is too old to be their child.

We also know Jacob 1842’s wife, Matilda Emiline Knight (1850-1899) is the daughter of Jacob Knight (c1810-c1870) and Rebecca Little (1911-1870). Since Y-DNA indicates the common ancestor of Jacob 1790 and Jacob (c1810-c1870) lived sometime in the 1600’s, it is very unlikely that Jacob 1842 and Matilda Emiline Knight are close cousins.

Detailed presentations of the records and descendants of both Jacob 1838 and Jacob 1842 are presented in later sections.

Reuben Knight Who Is Frequently Conflated with Jacob Knight

Public Family Trees often conflate the records and family of Reuben Knight (1795-1863) of Colleton County, South Carolina and Jacob Knight of Lancaster County, South Carolina. To further complicate the matter, some Family Trees list Jacob Knight 1790 as Jacob Reuben Knight and attach records and spouses from Ruben Knight of Colleton County.

I have never found a record that lists a middle name for Jacob 1790 and would be pleased to be alerted to any records that do show a middle name.

Reuben Knight of Colleton County has a Find-A-Grave memorial (#84243524) that gives his death as Jul 1863, but his grave site is unknown. Mary Hutto (1805-1862) is listed as his wife. Her grave site is also unknown.

According to Find-A-Grave, another person named Reuben Ephraim Knight (1800-1880) also lived in Colleton County, (Find-A-Grave memorial (#148790059.). He first married Lette Ferguson and later married Mahala Land. The records of Reuben Ephraim Knight do not seem to be confused with those of Jacob 1790. However, the records of Reuben Ephraim seem to be confused with the records of one of several Ephraim Knights in various Family Trees.

At least one, sometimes two, Reuben Knights appear in all US Censuses from 1820 through 1850. In 1820 they are in Union, Union, South Carolina. Thereafter, they are in Saint George, Colleton, South Carolina. I think, but have not proven, that these two sets of records are for Reuben Knight, husband of Mary Hutto and Reuben Ephraim Knight.

The 1850 census lists Reuben Knight, husband of Mary Hutto, and his household by name:

As we have seen, Jacob 1790 appears with his family in Hamilton County, Tennessee in the 1850 and 1860 censuses, leaving no chance that Jacob Knight and Reuben Knight, husband of Mary Hutto, are the same person.

Problems and Conflated Records for Nancy Knight nee Mitchell

As we have seen with Jacob Knight, existing Family Trees have conflated the records of several Nancy Mitchells and Nancy Knights who lived near one another in Tennessee between 1840 and 1860.

Problems and Conflicts

• Family Trees list Nancy’s parents as John Mitchell (c1787-c1855) and Elizabeth Coppinger (c1785-c1865). There is a Nancy Mitchell in that household, but she is not the one who married Jacob Knight.
• The date and place of Nancy’s birth is uncertain due to conflicts in her census records.
• The date and locale of Nancy’s death is unknown and is conflated with the death of another Nancy Knight in many existing Family Trees.

Nancy Mitchell’s Parents

Many Family Trees that include Nancy Mitchell indicate her parents were John Mitchell (1787-1855) and Elizabeth Coppinger (1785-1865). This couple does have a daughter named Nancy Mitchell who appears with them in the 1850 US census where she is 28 and apparently unmarried because she is using Mitchell as her last name. As we have seen previously, Nancy Mitchell who married Jacob Knight on 22 Apr 1841 is living in her own household with husband Jacob Knight (Jacob 1790) and four children in Hamilton County, Tennessee in 1850.

The following table summarizes the census records for John Mitchell and Elizabet Coppinger. The 1850 census indicates that neither of them could read or write. Names in the 1830 and 1840 census are inferred from the 1850 census.

I have not been able to identify Nancy Mitchell’s parents. Prior to 1850, census records only provide the name of the head of household, so Nancy is not named. Since Nancy Mitchell and Jacob Knight married in 1841 in Meigs County, Tennessee, it is likely that her family lived near Meigs County for the 1840 US Census. Nancy was probably between 22 (age given in 1860 census) and 28 (from age given in 1850 census).

There are three Mitchel/Mitchell households in the 1840 US census from Meigs County, Tennessee or surrounding counties that contain a head-of-household with last name Mitchell who is old enough to be Nancy’s parent and a female between 20 and 29 that could be Nancy. The households of these families are listed in the following table:

The following table lists 1840 Census Records from counties near Meigs County, Tennessee that are headed by a Mitchell and contain a female that might be Nancy Mitchell

Nancy Mitchell’s Birth Year

Nancy Knight nee Mitchell is listed by name in the 1850 and 1860 US Censuses.in 1850 she is listed as 38 (born in 1812) and born in Tennessee, and in 1860 she is listed as 43 (born 1817) and born in Kentucky.

Nancy Mitchell’s Death

The 1860 U.S., Federal Census Mortality Schedules Index indicates a female named Nancy Knight, age 33, died of fever in Feb 1860 in Hamilton County, Tennessee. Multiple Family Trees use this record to assign a Feb 1860 death date to Nancy Knight nee Mitchell. However, the 1860 US Census, which has an official date of 1 Jun 1860, shows Nancy Knight nee Mitchell with her husband Jacob Knight and five children. Her listed age is 43. Clearly, the Nancy Knight listed by the Mortality Schedules is a different person.

In his Civil War Pension Application (page 76 of the National Archives Copy), John Harrison Knight wrote on 8 Jun 1910 in a statement made under oath and certified and recorded by a notary public:

“he has no record of any kind of the date of birth, that his mother died in Mo about 3 years ago and that she had the family record but he has never been able to get it nor to know what became of it".

This implies Nancy died in about 1907 in Missouri. John Harrison Knight’s document is written in longhand ink and the 3 is written as a number. There is a small dot after the 3 that looks like a period and adds uncertainty to the date of her death. (Is the number 31, or 30 – implying she died in about 1880 -  or another number bigger than three?) It is very possible that Nancy Knight is not named in later census records because she remarried after the death of Jacob. I have searched extensively but have not found additional marriage records for her.

DNA Evidence for the Parents and Descendants of Jacob and Nancy Knight

During this project I have reviewed my autosomal DNA matches at Ancestry.com, 23andMe.com, and FamilytreeDNA.com as well as Y-DNA matches at FamilyTreeDNA.com. My Y-DNA test results have been registered with the Knight Group Y-DNA project at FamilyTreeDNA.com.

The following table shows the “cousin matches” to my Ancestry.com DNA kit. A cousin-match is a DNA match to descendants of uncles and aunts of any degree. These matches have a common grandparent of some degree. Due to genetic division, the size of cousin matches decreases each generation. Parents and children have about one-half DNA match, grandchildren one-quarter, cousins about one-eighth, 2nd cousins about one-in 32, etc. Only a fraction of fifth cousins will have significant DNA matches. The Ancestry.com ThruLines tool stops matching at 5th great grandparents.

If a family tree is correct, one expects to see multiple cousin-matches at each generation of grandparents. If there are no cousin matches, there may be problems within the identity of the supposed shared grandparent. Other explanations include:

• The ancestor was an only child.
• There are very few descendants of the grandparents.
• None of the other lines of descendants have researched and shared their family tree.
• The ancestors’ descendants have not taken a DNA test and attached it to a family tree.

These DNA results do not provide strong evidence regarding the parents of either Jacob 1790 or Nancy Mitchell. The Ancestry.com ThruLines tool suggests Jacob 1790’s parents are John Knight (1742-1800) and Sarah Gascoigne (1750-?) and that he had at least two siblings, Lucy and John Jr., who have descendants with DNA matches. ThruLines also indicates Nancy’s Mitchell’s parents are John Mitchell (1787-1855) and Elizabet Coppinger (1795-1865) but there are no siblings with descendant DNA matches.

There are multiple DNA matches through Jacob and Nancy’s children. Nancy Mitchell appears twice in the match list, once with years (1815-?) and once with (1822-1860) due to the errors and conflations for Nancy Knight/Mitchell discussed above.

Family Summary for Jacob Knight (c1790-a1860) and Nancy Mitchell (c1815-?)

Here is a summary of the family of  Jacob 1790’s spouses and children inferred from the census records. I have not found any indications of other children who died young and are not counted in a census.

First wife: Unidentified

 Judging from the 1830 census record, she was born a few years after Jacob, perhaps 1800 to 1805. I have not found any records that list her by name. She is listed as under 26 in 1830 and appears to have died shortly before the 1840 census.

1. A son born between 1820 and 1830, not found, in 1840 and after.
2. A daughter born between 1820 and 1830 who is under 10 in 1830, 15-19 in 1840 and disappears afterward. She may have married or died before 1850.
3. A daughter not listed in 1830 but listed as 10-15 in 1840. She may have been born in about 1830. No other records of this person are known. She may have been a relative, boarder or hired help.
4. In the 1850 US census Jane Knight is 14 years old. She might be the female between 10 and 15 listed in the 1840 Census who was not actually that old. I have found no marriage or other records for Jane Knight, but many of the marriage records for the area around Rhea County, Tennessee are lost.

Second Wife: Nancy Mitchell (c1815-?)

Nancy Mitchell was born about 1815 in Tennessee. I have not found her in a Census record after 1860.

5. John Harrison Knight (c1840-1917) married Rachel Hampton (1848-1883). John gave his birth date as 4 Apr 1840, but he does not appear in the 1840 census and Jacob and Nancy did not marry until 1841. My grandfather and my oldest uncles and aunts knew John Harrison Knight.

6. Angeline (Knight) Rail (1842-?) married Samuel Rail and had at least one daughter whose descendants are DNA matches. Records for Angeline are scarce.

7. Jacob Knight, Jr. (1842-1908) married “Emily” Knight (1850-1899).
Note: Jacob Knight (1838-1873) of Kentucky, husband of Cynthia Knight (1841-1880) is often attached as this son of Jacob 1790.

8. Cordelia A (Knight) Casteel Casteel (1848-1898) married Russum Pedro Casteel (1847-1916). Late in life she married Russum’s brother A.E. Casteel. (1848-?)

9. William Knight (c1851-?) not found after the 1860 US Census.

10. Martha Knight (c1854-?) not found after the 1860 US Census.

Descendants of Jacob Knight (c1790-a1860)

The next few sections will review what little is known about the children of Jacob Knight and his presumed first wife. Following chapters will cover the six children of Jacob and Nancy Knight that are named in the 1850 and 1860 US Censuses.

1 Son (c1815-c1825)

Jacob Knight’s 1820 Lancaster County, South Carolina census indicates he had two small children in his household. Presumably both children were born in or near Lancaster County, South Carolina. One of the children is a male under 10 years of age. This male child is not indicated in the 1830 Jacob’s 1830 US census. Presumably he died between 1820 and 1830. If this son was almost 10 years old in 1820, It is also possible that he has left home to set up his own household or is living in another household and working as an unnamed laborer.

The name and other details of this possible son are not known. No candidate DNA matches are known for any of his descendants.

It is of course possible this person is not actually Jacob’s child but was only living in the household temporarily.

2 Daughter (c1815-?

The second child listed in Jacob Knight’s 1820 census record for Lancaster County, South Carolina is a female under 10 years of age. Presumably she was also born in or near Lancaster County, South Carolina. It is not known if she was born before or after the previously discussed son. In the 1830 US Census she is listed as 15 through 19. There is also a female who is listed as 15-19 in the 1840 census that may be the same person.

The name and other details of this daughter are not known. Presumable she either married or died between 1840 and 1850, but no marriage record or gravesite is known for her. No candidate DNA matches are known for any of her descendants.

Again, since this person is not listed by name, it is possible that she is not Jacob’s daughter and is only living in the household temporarily.

3 Daughter (c1830-?)

In the 1830 US Census Jacob was living in Rhea County, Tennessee and in the 1840 US Census Jacob Knight was in living in Meigs County, Tennessee which was split out of Rhea County in 1836. The 1840 census record identifies two daughters, the previously discussed older daughter, and another aged between 10 through 14. Since the younger daughter is not listed in 1830 and is over 10 in 1840, she was probably born in Rhea County, Tennessee in about 1830.

The name and other details of this daughter are not known. Since she was at least 10 years old in 1840, it is very possible that she married before the 1850 census where she is not listed with Jacob. No marriage record for this daughter is known and there are no known DNA matches for her descendants.

It is possible that the listed age for this child is incorrect in 1840 and that this is Jane Knight who is listed as being 14 years old and living Jacob’s household in the 1850 US Census.

4 Jane Knight (c1836-?)

Jane Knight first unequivocally appears in Jacob’s household in the 1850 US Census, where her age is given as 14. If that age is correct, she was born in about 1836 in newly created Meigs County, Tennessee. There is no record of her in the 1840 census where she would have appeared as a female under 5 years. It is possible that the third child listed above, and Jane Knight is the same person.

There is no 1860 US Census record that matches Jane Knight, so she has probably died or married and is listed with her married name. No marriage records for Jane Knight have been found. No DNA matches are known for any of her descendants.

Children of Jacob Knight and Nancy Mitchell

The children six children of Jacob Knight and Nancy Mitchell will be reviewed in following chapters:

Chapter 2: John Harrison Knight (c1840-1917) married Rachel Malvina Hampton (1848-1883)

Chapter 3: Angeline Knight (c1842-?) married Samuel Ryle or Rail (1938-1864)

Chapter 4: Jacob Knight Jr. (c1842-1908) married Matilda Emaline Knight (1850-1899)

Chapter 5 Cordelia A “Cora” Knight (1850-1899) married Russum Pedro “Russell” Casteel (1947-c1916)

Chapter 6 William Knight (1851-?) and his younger sister Martha Knight (1854?-). Little is known about William and Martha.

More coming soon.

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