A Father for Harriet C Weeks Howard: John Weeks’ Land Entry Case File

Y’all. I cried when this record was delivered to my inbox. It was just a crazy, emotional rollercoaster of having worked to prove a relationship with indirect evidence and after having all that research and correlation under my belt, I then received a piece of direct evidence which tied together all of my hard work.

In a previous post, I walked you through finding three brothers for Harriet C Howard. In that post, there was a fourth man, John Weeks, who I theorized was likely their father, but could also be their uncle. The arrival of John Weeks’ Land Entry Case file answered the question definitively.

At the time of his original application on July 20, 1843, under the Armed Occupation Act of 1842, John Weeks referred to himself as “John Weeks Jnr”. By the time of his death, he was referred to by others as “John Weeks Senr” and his son is referred to as “John Weeks Jr”.  John Weeks who received Permit 883 also had a cousin named John Weeks whom he lived near and interacted with in Columbia County, Florida before he settled in Hillsborough County, but his cousin John Weeks was younger than him, so this would not explain why John Weeks referred to himself as “Jnr” on his application.  This should be noted and used to correlate additional evidence when found. 

Land Entry Case File, John Weeks, Certificate No. 242; Land Entry Case Files; Pre-1908 General Land Entry Files, Record Group 49; National Archives Building, Washington, DC. Page 6.

Within the case file, it was immediately obvious after having read the first page that John Weeks is deceased and the land is being claimed by his “heirs and legal representatives”.

Land Entry Case File, John Weeks, Certificate No. 242; Land Entry Case Files; Pre-1908 General Land Entry Files, Record Group 49; National Archives Building, Washington, DC. Page 1.

Further in the document, his actual date of death is reported.

Land Entry Case File, John Weeks, Certificate No. 242; Land Entry Case Files; Pre-1908 General Land Entry Files, Record Group 49; National Archives Building, Washington, DC. Page 9.

There are lots of wonderful little nuggets of information to be gleaned from this document and I encourage you to read the whole thing (which can be found 1) under John Weeks’ profile in my public tree on ancestry.com: John Weeks 1796-1844 in “Sunni’s Family Tree” for username “sunnisearchangel”, or 2) in the memories section of his familysearch.org profile). But the part that is most relevant to this post is the following section which lists John Weeks’ eight children.

Land Entry Case File, John Weeks, Certificate No. 242; Land Entry Case Files; Pre-1908 General Land Entry Files, Record Group 49; National Archives Building, Washington, DC. Page 9.

Not only does this document list Harriet and her three brothers William, Thomas, and John, but we now have four more siblings: Selia, Madison, Mary, and Vicey.

In conclusion, John Weeks had at least 8 children and their names were: William, Selia, Madison, Mary, Harriet, John, Thomas & Vicey.  This list was likely made in birth order.  He died on January 21, 1844, and his son, William Weeks, was the administrator of his estate.

Now that I have a father for Harriet C Weeks Howard, it is time to re-visit the DNA study for Mary Howard. Look for that post and analysis in the near future.