The William Mitchell Mystery
For members of the Mitchell family
Who was William Mitchell?
He was — until recently — the earliest known source of my paternal family’s surname, Mitchell.
He had two sons, Thomas and Elisha.
Then… he disappeared without a trace.
OK, OK, “without a trace” is hyperbole. We do have some clues about where we came from and where he went. We just don’t know very much for sure.
Many family members have worked on this puzzle, but the facts are still fuzzy.
Think of this little post like an episode of Unsolved Mysteries. It is a story about what we know — and don’t know — so far. But it is also a request for help! If you have more information or can provide a helpful clue, please reply to this email or leave us a little comment.
Probabilities
Here’s what we know… or think we know….
Origin
William Mitchell was born on December 24, 1832. This birth date is based on a handwritten page found in his son Elisha’s family Bible.
This page is something of a mystery, because the dates it includes are from before this edition of the Bible was actually published; other parts of the page also include information for someone who doesn’t appear to be actually related to William.
According to one census record and his son Elisha’s own death certificate, William was born in Tennessee. And based on some likely property tax records for his probable father, we can guess that he was born specifically in Smith Co., Tennessee.
His middle initial was probably C., which possibly stood for Caloway — his son Elisha’s own middle name. Again, this fact is based on that Bible and his son’s death record.
And here’s something “new” and exciting:
His father was probably Joseph Mitchell; his mother was probably named Sylvania. Sylvania is a bit of a question. Her first name may have been Silvana, and her maiden surname may have been Presley.
Up until very recently, our family simply didn’t know anything about William’s origins, despite decades of research by multiple descendants. Read on if you want to know more about how we solved this particular problem.
Marriage and Children
He most likely married his wife, Malvina Wallace, sometime between 1854 - 1857.
Their first child, Thomas “Tommie” Mitchell, was born in Tennessee in April of 1857. Their second child, Elisha Caloway Mitchell, was born in Kentucky in December of 1858.
Death or Divorce
He was probably either dead or separated from his wife and children by June of 1860. That’s when Malvina and her two sons were living with Malvina’s parents in Allen Co., Kentucky — without William.
He was definitely dead or divorced from Malvina by the time she married her second husband, John Carrick. That was in September of 1867 in Crittenden Co., Kentucky.
Possibilities
Now for some speculation! Buckle your seat belts; we’re in for a bit of a bumpy ride.
Origin
Up until DNA testing for family history research became common, William’s parents were totally unknown. William was what genealogists call a “brick wall.”
Oh, we had some good guesses. If he was born in Tennessee, it would make sense to look for him in records there. Since Malvina Wallace, William’s future wife, lived in De Kalb Co., Tennessee when she was counted with her family during the census of 1850, it would make sense to look for him in that particular part of Tennessee.
In neighboring counties in 1850, there were two likely-looking families that included a 17-year-old William Mitchell. Interestingly, the heads of both households were named Joseph Mitchell.
But we couldn’t know for sure which of these families — if either! — was ours… until genetic genealogy came to the rescue.
At least six descendants of William have done a genetic kit with AncestryDNA. More importantly, at least eleven descendants of William’s probable siblings have done that genetic kit, too — and they matched with those 2nd- and 3rd-great grandchildren of William. This all pointed back to one particular couple: Joseph and Sylvania.
They are almost certainly the parents of William. It’s possible that he was actually a younger brother of Joseph; DNA at this generational distance isn’t that precise, and documentation is scarce. But for now, we can work with the assumption that Joseph and Sylvania were the parents of William Mitchell.
Marriage and Children
William’s wife, Malvina Wallace, was born on January 4, 1841 in Tennessee.
It is highly unlikely that William and Malvina got married any earlier than 1854; Malvina would be 13 years old, which even back then was considered unreasonably young for marriage. But it is technically possible that they were married as early as 1851; the legal age of consent was just 10 years old (YIKES) in Tennessee at that time.
Given that his wife was living in Tennessee in 1850 and that their first child was also born in Tennessee, it would be a good guess that this couple got married in Tennessee, too.
Records for birth, marriage, and death were not consistently kept prior to the Civil War in either Kentucky or Tennessee. And even when they were recorded, a great many of them were lost during the Civil War or in the century and a half since. So, we can’t pin all our hopes on finding a good marriage record for this couple.
There is one indexed marriage record that could possibly apply. On January 4, 1854 in Obion Co., Tennessee, a person named William Mitchell wed a person named Mellvin Jackson. Though it is far from a perfect match, there are two reasons why this record could possibly be relevant. First, Malvina’s father’s name was Andrew Jackson Wallace. Second, January 4, 1854 would have been Malvina’s 13th birthday.
Just keep in mind that it really was unusual for girls to get married quite that young during this time period. When they did, it was almost always a “shotgun” wedding that would be followed shortly by a baby. As far as we know, William and Malvina didn’t have their first child until several years after this possible-but-not-probable marriage was recorded in 1854.
Their son Thomas’s birth date and location — April of 1857 in Tennessee — are known from just his gravestone and census records.
Their son Elisha’s birth date and location — December of 1858 in Allen Co., Kentucky — are more formally documented in a birth registration book. This record at least confirms for sure the pairing of his parents: William Mitchell and Malvina Wallace.
So, William was definitely still alive and with Malvina at least as late as March of 1858. And if he was still living at the birth of Elisha, he would most likely have also been with his family in Allen Co., Kentucky by the end of that same year.
Death or Divorce
First, let’s note that death is the most likely reason for William’s disappearance, but it isn’t really the ONLY possible reason.
Divorce was relatively rare during the 19th century, but it was certainly an option. And given the social shame that came with it, it was not uncommon for abandoned or divorced women to try to hide their status. It was more culturally acceptable for an unattached mother to claim to be a widow than admit to a failed marriage.
When she married for the second time in September of 1867, Malvina identified as “Mrs.” Mitchell — presumably indicating that she’d been widowed.
Lacking definite proof of his death, and considering all that social baggage, we have to be open to the possibility that William still lived in 1860, even though his wife and children were enumerated without him during the census that year.
But for now, let’s assume that Malvina was widowed. We have a pretty good reason for this assumption, actually.
William would probably have died sometime between March of 1858 and June of 1860 — between the conception of Elisha and the next federal census.
Since Elisha was born in Allen Co., Kentucky and Malvina and her sons were still living in Allen Co., Kentucky during that census, chances are good that William died in Allen Co., Kentucky, too.
Unfortunately for us, death registrations were pretty sporadic in antebellum Kentucky, and full death certificates were unheard of.
Fortunately for us, Allen Co., Kentucky did keep a relatively thorough death register in the late 1850’s.
Unfortunately for us, many of these records were badly damaged by a fire and just plain bad storage practices.
Fortunately for us, some of these records have been digitized anyway.
Unfortunately for us, the most likely relevant record that we need to help solve this mystery is faded almost beyond legibility.
Fortunately for us, someone did try to decipher it and index it for searchability.
Here is what the indexer thinks the most likely-looking — but not for sure! — death record says…
Name: Wm. Mitchell
Death Date: 16 Feb 1859
Parents: G. and-or J. Mitchell
Place of Birth: Allen Co., Kentucky
Place of Death: Allen Co., Kentucky
Personally, I cannot read whatever is written under Name. Nor can I read everything written under Parents, except Mitchell.
If I squint and stare at it long enough, I suspect that the information written under Cause of Death is… “not known.”
Which, by the way, might fit in with some family lore.
You see, one of the reasons that I began with the assumption of death rather than divorce is because of a tale that was told to my grandparents by a daughter of Elisha, William’s son — who was still an infant when this was supposed to have happened.
The story goes that William had a terrible argument with Malvina’s father. It apparently had something to do with the Civil War; one of the men favored the Confederacy, and the other favored the Union. William decided to leave the house late one night to go fight for his chosen side, but he never made it to the enlistment camp. His father-in-law shot him in the back as he tried to leave.
Kentucky was a major battleground state during the Civil War. Many families there were ripped apart by it. But… the Civil War started in April of 1861. Malvina was presumably widowed by June of 1860. So, the timeline of this story just does not make sense.
Still, it is certainly possible that the bones of the story are still good. Family arguments that come to a violent end have always been an unfortunate feature of human societies. In this place and time — semi-isolated, rural Kentucky of the 19th century — it would have been fairly easy to commit and then hide such a murder.
Next Steps
As of right now, this is all the documentation and conjecture we have to go on. But that doesn’t mean we have to give up on solving this mystery.
First, it’s possible that we’ve missed some documentation somewhere. And newly digitized and indexed records are being made available online all the time, too. So, we just have to keep an eye out for these kinds of things.
This is also a good opportunity to practice something called cluster genealogy, which involves looking at the activities of each potential family’s “F.A.N.” club — their extended family, associates, and neighbors.
For example, Malvina Wallace’s second husband, John Carrick, may also have been married at least once before. There is a marriage record in 1851 for a John Carrick and a Mary Mitchell in White Co., Tennessee. It is quite possible that this Mary Mitchell is a relative of William’s. Establishing a connection like this could give us more clues about the origins of our Mitchell ancestors.
If this were an episode of Unsolved Mysteries, this would be the part of the show where we call for tips from the public.
So… if you think you know something about this William Mitchell or his family, please contact me! To do so, just reply to this email or visit the newsletter homepage at tlmk.substack.com and leave a comment on this post.