Mary ?, b.c. 1830-31 (another conundrum in the Hart family)

[lucymags]

Ah - thanks for that extra detail. How annoying! 

I'll come back to it with fresh eyes tomorrow and see if anything else occurs to me. Else will just have to give it up as a needle in the haystack job (an Emily born in London over a possible span of at least two years!).

Thanks for your assistance.

[avm228]

Another small detail, but Mary is named as Mary Ann in Eli’s bank account record with Freedman’s Bank (dated 17 Sep 1873).  The family’s address at the time was 622 New York Ave (this is a Washington, DC address I think?).

It names his wife as Mary Ann Hart who “can draw” (from the bank account, presumably, rather than artistically!).

[lucymags]

Thanks for that! Funnily enough a relative supplied similar information in an email overnight, and I was able to locate the actual record on FS after Google led me to it.

I see that they have mistranscribed her surname - for a moment got excited about discovering a maiden name! But it's great to have confirmation of her second name anyway, and also very useful to be able to positively identify Eli's signature as the same as that on the marriage certificate with Jane Court Stanway. So actually a very useful piece of information to have.

Also interesting to learn about Freedman's bank, which was apparently created for African Americans after the American Civil War in 1865, but eventually failed and closed in 1874. Who knows why Eli chose that bank? - But handy that he did, because I doubt that there'd be many other banking records available from that period.

I can't believe how much time I'm spending on this somewhat peripheral family, but I guess you know what's it's like once one discovers mysteries and then a few clues...