Thanks for all the information, Diddy. I researched some of the many Thomas Hoggs in the 1841, 1851 and 1861 censuses to see if I could find something familiar. I knew from seeing his name and age (28) on a Liverpool to Mobile, Alabama, USA passenger list in 1855 that my Thomas Hogg was born in about 1827. (His obituary, which I found in a family scrapbook, was undated, but it said he was 46 when he died in Mobile, Alabama (that makes his death year 1873) and it said he was from Newcastle Upon Tyne). I saw the family of James Hogg and Ann Groves and stopped in my tracks because:
1. My Thomas Hogg named his daughter "Annie" and this name is not from his wife's side of the family. James Hogg was married to an "Ann."
2. A letter from Thomas's mother-in-law to his sister-in-law asked "How is Maria Hogg?" I thought she had to be a relative and the censuses of 1841 and 1851 showed that James and Ann Hogg had a daughter named Maria.
It would have been wonderful to have James' death date because then I'd know for sure if I was exploring the right family. A letter dated Sept 1863 between two sisters-in-law of my Thomas Hogg has this line: "We received letters yesterday from England announcing the death of Mr. Hogg's Father and Uncle, he seemed to feel it very much indeed because his Father had been dead eighteen months and this was the first intelligence he had had of it." So this told me Thomas's father had died around March of 1862. And his uncle had died maybe around the same general time.
Okay, with that exploration at an impasse for the time being, I decided to find out what happened to Maria Groves Hogg after 1851. I guessed that she too came to Mobile and there IS a Maria Hogg, 21, a seamstress born in England, on the 1860 census for Mobile, living next door to James Groves, 43, clerk; his wife Annie, 33, and children Thomas, Emma, James, Annie, Robert and Marie. James was born in England. Annie, James' wife, was born in Scotland. Further research told me James came to the US in 1854. Do you know the siblings of Ann Groves? I guess that's next on my research list. What do you know of about your ancestor Elizabeth, if I may ask? --many thanks, JP
