♀Lydia Hartman

Lydia Hartman (27 March 1857 – 19 November 1934) was a Mount Carmel, Illinois, woman who married there in 1880 and, as Lydia Kenner, died in the town where she was born. She was the great-grand-aunt of Nancy Jane Blanchard (1929–2006), the sister of Mary Hartman (1850–1920), Nancy’s great-grandmother.

Early life

She was born at Mount Carmel, in Wabash County, the daughter of John Hartman (1813–1896), a blacksmith from Hesse, and Mary Beal (1824–1890). The census of 1860 lists a girl of three called “Elizza” in the family’s household at Mount Carmel, and she was most likely Lydia. In the census of 1870, whose index spells the surname “Hartum”, a girl of fourteen called “Leyda” is in the same house, with her parents and her sisters Josephine and Mary.

Marriage and death

On 29 September 1880 she married George L. Kenner at Mount Carmel. The census of 1 June 1880, a little under four months earlier, lists a daughter “Elisa”, aged 20, in her parents’ household at Mount Carmel; she was probably Lydia, who would have been 23. She died at Mount Carmel on 19 November 1934 and was buried there on 21 November. The index of her death record names her Lydia Kenner, gives her husband as George L. Kenner, and gives her father’s birthplace as Hesse-Darmstadt^W and her mother as Mary Bell, born on the Rhine.

Notes

Her names in the censuses

The census-takers wrote her name three ways: “Elizza” in 1860, “Leyda” in 1870 and “Elisa” in 1880. The 1860 entry, aged 3, fits a birth on 27 March 1857. The 1870 entry, aged 14, is one year more than the 13 that the birth date gives at any 1870 census date. “Elisa” in 1880, aged 20, is three below her age of 23. Taken together, the three entries point to one girl. A separate daughter Eliza, born about 1860, rests on the 1880 entry alone and is probably the same person as Lydia. The marriage and death indexes both give the mother as Bell, not Beal.