One Name Place Study: Nettie Townsend in Marion Ohio

Townsends of Franklin County, Ohio
It's once again time to investigate the Townsends of Franklin County, Ohio in an effort to find relatives of William James Townsend who was born around 1842 in Franklin County, Ohio. So far I have discovered one relative and I have a genealogy super-sense that I have found a few others. Let's continue with the second to last named Townsend in the 1880 US Census.

The next individual is Miss Nettie Townsend born in 1858 and is a 22 year-old servant for the John Bobbert family.




Nettie Townsend in Marion, Ohio
Nettie Townsend in Marion, Franklin, Ohio in 1880 US Census as a servant for John Bobbert


Sadly, as a servant there is very little information about Nettie as recorded in the 1880 US Census. Her name, age, and gender were recorded. No parental or personal birth locations were recorded. She was a servant in the home of John Bobbert, aged 38, and his wife Martha, 25. John is a gardener by trade and Martha keeps the house. Martha tends over five children: John H Bobbert, age 14; Charles, 12; Edward, 9; Catherine, 6; and Annie M, 3. John indicates that he was from Bavaria and Martha from Hesse Darmstadt.

The possibility of Nettie being a relative of William's living in the home of another relative is ruled out because of the Bobbert's German origins. Nettie was simply hired to do a job rather than work for a relative.

There is another female servant about Nettie's age also working in Franklin County. I wrote about Ella Townsend, born in 1855 in Connecticut. What if these girls are related and came to Ohio seeking new opportunities and started out by separating and working as servants? It's entirely possible, but then again, anything is possible. The only question is this, "Can you prove it?"  I can't.

Unfortunately, there is nothing I'm able to do to learn more about Nettie and to assure that I'm discovering the right Nettie in previous or later Census records. I also can't determine if Nettie is closely related to William. Sadly, the best I can do to help out Nettie is to keep her name filed away in my memory just in case something jumps out later on.


Previous Posts:
What I Know about William James Townsend


Additional Reading:

Comments

  1. For anyone interested here for the surname of Townsend, there are some Quaker Townsend family members buried at the Friends (Quaker) Cemetery in North Lewisburg, Champaign County, Ohio.:

    http://www.findagrave.com/cgi-bin/fg.cgi?page=gsr&GSiman=1&GScid=2199365&GSfn=&GSln=Townsend

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