Massachusetts Family History Trek

I have a work conference in Boston this week and came early to spend Memorial Day weekend tracing family roots in western Massachusetts.

After picking up my rental car, I drove two hours west to the town of Hadley in Hampshire County.

Over the past couple months, I've been researching when and why my 4th great-grandfather George Henry's last name was changed from Jucket to Hawks. It seems his mother, Lucy (Hawks) Jucket, passed away young and his father, Daniel Jucket, was unable to care for him. George was taken in by a maternal aunt and she raised him with her surname.

The ongoing mystery drew me to the cemeteries where this cast of characters - my ancestors - are buried.

Hawks Ancestry
First stop was the Sugarloaf Street Cemetery in South Deerfield, Franklin County. The cemetery is a small wedge of green surrounded by buildings and a busy street. I quickly found the stone obelisk that has the infamous L.H.J. inscription, which I believe is Lucy Hawks Jucket (my 5th great-grandmother). Her initials are inscribed below those of her parents, Silas Hawks and Mary (Blodgett) Hawks (my 6th great-grandparents).

Silas and Mary (Blodgett) Hawks and daugher Lucy Hawks Jucket

Sugarloaf is also the final resting place of Mary (Blodgett) Hawks' parents Timothy and Melicent (Perry) Blodgett - my 7th great-grandparents.

Timothy and Melicent (Perry) Blodgett

Silas Hawks' father Waitstill Hawks, my 7th great-grandfather, is also buried on the grounds.

Waitstill Hawks

A short drive from the Sugarloaf Cemetery is the old burying ground in historic Deerfield. My 8th great-grandparents Eleazer and Abigail (Wells) Hawks rest beneath a conjoined stone whose faint inscription is faded by the years.

Stone's Inscription:

Here Lies Intered the Body of Dean ELEAZER HAWKS Who Died May ye 14th 1774 Aged 80 years.

Here lies inter'd the Body of Mrs ABIGAIL the Wife of Dean ELEAZER HAWKS who died March ye 7th 1768 Aged 71 years.

By Virtue & Religion their lives they led and in Peace they made the Grave their Bed 

Eleazer and Abigail (Wells) Hawks

A few steps away are Eleazer's parents, Deacon Eleazer and Judith (Smead) Hawks, my 9th great-grandparents.

Stone's Inscription:

Here Lyes Ye Body of Deacon Eleazer Hawks Dyed March Ye 27th 1727 in Ye 72d Year of His Age

And Also Mrs Judeth Hawks Wife to Deacon Eleazer Hawks Decd Jany Ye 27 1718 In Ye 54th Year of Her Age.

Eleazer and Judith (Smead) Hawks

Historic Deerfield includes a handful of buildings dating from the mid 18th century. One of the town's guides was excited to hear of my Hawks family connection. 

She told me I had to see the Sheldon Hawks home. The house was built in the mid-1700s and was representative of how my Hawks ancestors would have lived. It also belonged, at one time, to a distant Hawks cousin.

Sheldon Hawks House

The home's interiors were flush with wood paneling. Wood walls, wood floors, wood ceilings. It smelled warm and earthy. Light a cozy fire in the brick fireplace and it's ready for me to move in. When I walked into the house, I told the docent I was a Hawks descendant. She waved aside the standard guestbook, pulled open a drawer, and lifted out a book for descendants to sign. It was the equivalent of rolling out the red carpet.

Back in Hadley, only 10 minutes from my hotel, my journey down the Hawks ancestral line continued to John Hawks, my 10th great-grandfather (tenth!). He's the immigrant ancestor who came to the new world from England. His descendants erected a stone marker in his honor.

John Hawks

But Where's the Jucket?

I tried to locate a grave for Daniel Jucket - the husband of Lucy Hawks. According to his death record, he was buried in Enfield. However, Enfield - the entire town, including its cemetery - was moved to make way for a man-made reservoir in the early 20th century. More than 7,600 burials from 34 cemeteries across eight towns were disinterred and most were moved to Quabbin Park Cemetery. 

Unfortunately, there's no exhumation record for Daniel. A cemetery official told me that all reburials should have this record. The lack of a record suggests that he was either not disinterred (perhaps there was no stone denoting his burial) or he was buried elsewhere. 

I spent time trawling through Quabbin Park with some success. I found the burial for Daniel's son Charles who was a half-brother to my George Henry Jucket Hawks.

Charles Jucket

Despite this find, Daniel was nowhere to be found. I drove to Quabbin Reservoir and walked along the shoreline. It's eerie to imagine the remnants of a town beneath the surface. It's unrealistic, I know, but I had hoped to uncover a clue that would lead me to Daniel Jucket. 

I drove away empty handed. Pulling out from the reservoir, I turned past a street sign that made me do a quick double-take. The name! Daniel was taunting me, yet inspiring the search to go on. No exit sign is going to stop my sleuth work! 

His Mother's Sister: A Hawks Transformation

"He was left an orphan when quite young. His mother's sister, Emily Hawks, raised him and gave him the name of Hawks."

Family lore says my 4th great-grandfather George Henry Hawks was originally born with the surname Jucket (see Jucket to a Hawks: Finding Truth in Lore).

The investigation into the identities of George Henry Jucket Hawks' (GHJH) parents led to an unexpected twist. The quote above, taken from a letter penned by a purported Jucket niece of GHJH, revealed a tantalizing piece of information that, if true, suggests that his maternal aunt played a significant role in his transformation from a Jucket to a Hawks.

Are there facts to support it?

Thanks once again to New England's faithful record-keeping, GHJH's mother, Lucy Hawks, is listed in the Massachusetts-published family census for Silas Hawks. Born in February 1799, she was the eldest child of Silas and Mary (Blodgett) Hawks.

Scanning down the list of births, there is a likely candidate that supports the letter's claim: a sister, Emily Amelia Hawks, was born in November 1817. This confirms that Lucy did indeed have a sister named Emily.

Silas Hawks Family Births

You may recall that the headstone for Silas and Mary (Blodgett) Hawks includes death date inscriptions for some of their children. Among those inscriptions is one for LHJ who died March 30, 1832 at age 35.

The Massachusetts birth record indicates that LHJ (Lucy Hawks Jucket - according to working theory) was born in 1799. However, the stone records a birth year of 1797 (1832 year of death - 35 years old at death). This slight discrepancy could very likely be chalked up to human error.

Curiously, if Emily Amelia Hawks was in fact the sister in question, then she was only 14 years old when Lucy died and young GHJH was orphaned. As Cousin Tex noted, this was "a little young, but I guess not impossible" for Emily to take on the role of adoptive mother.

Deferring to the claims laid out in the letter, it's entirely possible that young GHJH (who was only four years old) lived with Emily and her family while she took on the primary mothering responsibility.

In Pursuit of Emily

GHJH's Timeline: GHJH was likely enumerated in the household of Daniel Jucket in Montague, Franklin County, Massachusetts in the 1830 U.S. Federal Census. His next documented appearance was in December 1848 in Menard County, Illinois when he married at the age of twenty.

Where was he before leaving Massachusetts, and when did he leave Massachusetts for Illinois?

Making Sense?

1840: Where was Emily Hawks in the 1840 U.S. Federal Census? Although she was an adult (about 23 years old) she wouldn't appear by name unless she was the head of household. Her father Silas died in 1831, so there wouldn't be a household under his name either. At this time, GHJH would be about 12 years old.

No hits yet, but it's possible that individuals of their age can be located in the household of one of Emily's siblings.

1855: Cousin Tex located an 1855 Massachusetts state census that enumerated a 37-year-old Emily A. Hawks who lived with a handful of people all labeled as paupers. This Emily's age puts her birth year at 1818 making her a close match to our 1817-born Emily Hawks. GHJH was, of course, no longer living in Massachusetts.

Curiously, the family enumerated below Emily were Blodgetts. Blodgett was the maiden name of Lucy and Emily Hawks' mother Mary. Is this our Emily A. Hawks?

Deerfield, Franklin County, MA 1855 Census

There is no record of her in the 1850 U.S. Federal Census. Was she was living with one of her siblings or with her mother's Blodgett family? Perhaps wherever she was in 1840 is where we will find her in 1850.

1860: In Deerfield, Franklin County, Massachusetts, the 1860 U.S. Federal Census enumerated an Emily A. Hawks who was 42 years old and a pauper. She lived on land that's labeled as a "pauper farm."

Deerfield, Franklin County, MA 1860 Census

1865: Again in Deerfield, Emily Hawks was enumerated as a single female pauper in the 1865 Massachusetts census. Her age was listed as 47, five years older than her appearance in 1860.

Deerfield, Franklin County, MA 1865 Census

This is the last census appearance for Emily A. Hawks so far. Did she die between 1865 and 1870? Perhaps. Or, with a more positive spin, did she marry and find happiness outside of the pauper farm? I sure hope so.

Shadow of Doubt: To keep us on our toes, another inscription was discovered on Silas and Mary (Blodgett) Hawks' tombstone. On a different side from the LHJ inscription, the stone obelisk is engraved: EH Died July 10, 1838 Age 27.

Who is EH? Is this Emily Hawks? There were no other children enumerated in the family of Silas Hawks whose names began with "E".

Someone who died at 27 in 1838 would have been born in about 1811. This doesn't match Emily's birth date of 1817. In July 1838, GHJH was only ten years old. Was he orphaned for a second time? Or is "EH" a different relative entirely?

A public family tree on Ancestry.com (gasp!) provided a clue. According to that tree, Lucy and Emily's brother Silas Hawks, Jr. married a woman named Eunice. It lists her birth as 1811 and her death as July 10, 1838. Certainly, these dates need to be substantiated, but if proven true, this would alleviate the doubt cast by the mysterious "EH" inscription and confirm that our Emily got to live another day.

The engraving directly above "EH" adds credence to the in-law inscription theory. The inscription says: PFH died July 19, 1836 Age 22. Find A Grave lists this as the grave of Pheba Frary Hawks who was the wife of Lucy and Emily's brother Richard Hawks - their sister-in-law. Perhaps this face of the obelisk was reserved solely for in-laws.

The facts appear to support the theory that different faces of the obelisk were reserved for in-laws and blood relations. When you look at the LHJ-inscribed side, the theory holds up. Below LHJ is the inscription HH, which was for Silas and Mary's son Henry who drowned in the Connecticut River - Lucy's brother.

Based on this additional information, EH could very well be Eunice Hawks. Emily did not die in 1838.

A Ringer: Another complication is the fact that Emily Hawks is a common name in Massachusetts during that time. There are at least two ringers thrown into the fray.

• Emily Hawks born in September 1818 in Charlemont to parents Thomas and Sally Hawks.
• Emily Hawks born in June 1819 in Deerfield to parents John and Emilia Hawks.

Trawling through the records, it's important to be mindful of these individuals and work to eliminate them as contenders. Fortunately, neither one is listed with a middle initial of "A".

Questions Remain
Did Emily Hawks die in 1838 or did she live to appear as a pauper in the 1855, 1860, and 1865 census records? I have a gut feeling she did not die in 1838 (that the grave's inscription really is her sister-in-law Eunice), and that she was - sadly - a pauper for much of her adult life.

Unfortunately, the written records we've uncovered to-date fail to provide definitive answers. The more we dig, the more questions we uncover. Why did GHJH move to Illinois? What became of Emily? Why was she a pauper? When did she die and where is her grave?

What's Next?

• A review of the 1840 census records for Franklin County may reveal some of Emily's siblings with tick marks in age categories that could be her and GHJH.
• Emily (or another Hawks sibling) may have filed a guardianship record for GHJH in Franklin County. This tip came from the New England Historic Genealogical Society.
• A review of tax records for Franklin County, MA and Menard County, IL could determine when GHJH quit/started paying taxes. This can help pinpoint his location and narrow the timeline for his whereabouts.
• A review of Menard County land records could determine in which year GHJH purchased property (if at all). 
• Franklin County will or probate records for Silas Hawks (if they exist) could shed light on the family dynamic at the time of his 1831 death. For that matter, do any probate records exist for GHJH in Benton County, Arkansas?
• Map out life sketches for GHJH's purported siblings and father, so we have a better understanding of the cast of characters that play a role in this puzzle.