I’m trying to find out more about the Hickman family. My Hickman relatives now live in Oklahoma, but before that they lived in Tennessee. I was looking at the 1870 federal census record for my gggreat grandpa Zachary Taylor Hickman and decided to take a spin around the census block to check out the neighbors.
His (at the time) future wife Mary Jane White is a tough one to pin down. So far it appears that after Zachary Taylor Hickman died she married at least two more times. Did she have a husband before Zachary Taylor? She was 20 when they married in 1873, so the odds are lower than if she’d been older.
So I’m cruising around District 9, Lawrence, Tennessee in 1870, trying to spot Mary Janes or a White family. I get to the end of the census District and see this:
Page 14, 1870 census, District 9, Lawrence, TN/Ancestry.com and NARA
Go ahead, blow that up on your computer screen and take a look at those stats. I hadn’t seen a tally like this before, and maybe it’s because of the census year or the region or just the guy they hired to do the job, or maybe I just haven’t reached the end of enough censuses (censi?). How about that voter count? It kind of makes me want to go back through the census and compare the number of adults eligible to vote and the number of actual adults in the area.
But that’s a distraction that’s going to derail me. I’ve been hot on Mary Jane White’s trail and I’m not ready to give up yet. It seems like the Hickmans reused names way more often than other family branches. This is making it really tough to figure out which Lemuel is which, and how the Lemuels connect with the Snowdens (I think they do somewhere along the line, maybe future back than Tennessee?).
Anywhoo, back to the census records. I just wanted to pop in here real quick to make a note of the nice statistical rundown.
Illuminated Past 
I am the grandaughter (4 generations down) of Zachary Taylor Hickman and Mary Jane White. yep im in Oklahoma. My Dad Thomas Luckinbill is the daughter of Emma Hickman. ZT Hickman and Mary are her parents. I love your pictures of the PI. My Dad was a Air Force Officer and I actually graduated from High School at Clark AFB in the PI. I’m with you in the frustration of finding anything on Mary Jane White… I have her grave located and knowledge of her later husbands and children… but draw a blank on her earlier life.
Hi cousin! I’m glad you enjoyed the photos! I’m the daughter of two Air Force veterans, though they were no longer in the service by the time I was born. I’m a descendant via Zachary Taylor Hickman->Lemuel Jack Hickman->James Aubrey Hickman
Unfortunately Mary Jane White has been a brick wall for me too, and I haven’t found much more information since I put this post up a few years ago. I think I possibly found a record of her and Z.T.’s marriage on 11 January 1873 in Lawrence, Tennessee, but further back then that is still a mystery! If I find something good I will be sure to put it up on the blog. Here’s the Ancestry tree page I have for her: http://person.ancestry.com/tree/41680426/person/19663930733/facts