In the first post, Conflict: Which Bruce Line Is Correct, If Either?, we presented conflict and the research question.
In the second post, Conflict (Bruce): Azariah Benjamin Bruce - Exploring Sources, we delved into the sources that are attached to Azariah Benjamin Bruce at FamilySearch to see if we can find an answer to our question.
In this third post, Conflict (Bruce): Isaac Jones Bruce - Exploring Sources, we delve into the sources that are attached to Isaac Jones Bruce at FamilySearch for clues to our question.
Isaac Jones Bruce records at FamilySearch included these nineteen sources:
- Marriage: Lucy Walters 3 Dec 1840 White County, IL. No parents listed
- Marriage: Lucy Walters 3 Dec 1840 White County, IL. No parents listed
- 1850 US Census
- 1860 US Census
- 1870 US Census
- 1880 US Census
- 1895 Illinois marriages
- 1895 Illinois marriages Charles C Melvin
- 1896 Illinois marriages
- 1896 Illinois marriages James S. Hoadley
- 1905 Illinois marriages
- 1910 Illinois marriages
- 1910 Illinois marriages Joe Bruce
- 1919 Illinois deaths & still births
- 1929 Illinois deaths & still births
- 1932 Illinois deaths & still births
- 1943 Illinois deaths & still births
- 1945 Illinois deaths & still births
- FindAGrave
The marriage record, items 1 and 2, names only the bride and groom. It does not name parents.
Isaac I (J?) Bruce with Lucy Walters Executed this 3rd day of Dece’r. 1840 Thomas M. Vineyard
The US Census records (1850-1880) do not list Isaac’s parents because by then he was married and the head of his own household. But we might be able to find some clues about his father.
1850 Isaac Bruce was 35 for he was born around 1815. Born in Tennessee. Other members of the household include:
- Lucy Bruce 30 years old
- Elizabeth Bruce 9 years old
- William A. Bruce 7 years old
- James T. Bruce 3 years old
- Benj T. Bruce 1 year old
- Joel A. Yates 10 years old
1860 Isaac J. Bruce was 44 for he was born around 1816 in Tennessee. Other members of the household include:
- Lucy Bruce 39 years old
- Wm A. Bruce 15 years old
- James T. Bruce 13 years old
- Benj J. Bruce 11 years old
- Mary F. Bruce 8 years old
- Susan V. Bruce 6 years old
- Albert N. Bruce 2 years old
All the children were born in Illinois and Lucy was also born in Tennessee.
1870 Isaac J. Bruce was 54 for he was born around 1816 in Tennessee. He was a farmer. Other members of the household include:
- Lucy Bruce 49 years old
- Benjamin Bruce 20 years old
- Mary Bruce 18 years old
- Susan Bruce 14 years old
- Albert Bruce 12 years old
- Lucy Bruce 9 years old
- Josephus Bruce 7 years old
- Thomas Bruce 4
All the children were born in Illinois and Lucy was also born in Tennessee. Lucy was “keeping house” and Benjamin was a farmer.
The 1880 census for Indian Creek Township, White, Illinois has Isaac J. Bruce at the age of 64, born around 1816 in Tennessee. He was a widower. His occupation was farming. This is the first census with the birthplace of parents. According to the census, probably Isaac himself reporting, Isaac’s father was born in Virginia, and his mother was born in North Carolina. Other members of the household include:
- Albert N. Bruce 22 son
- Lucy L. Bruce 19 daughter
- Josephus Bruce 17 son
- Thomas J. Bruce 14 son
All the children were born in Illinois. Daughter Lucy was “keeping house,” and Albert was a farmer.
The Illinois marriage records, items 7 - 13, offer some nice information about the bride and groom and their families, but they do not offer clues about Isaac’s parents.
The death records, items 14 - 18, include the parents of the deceased. These records are death records about the children of Isaac and Lucy Bruce. So they are listed on the death records and that it probably why the records are attached to Isaac in FamilySearch.
The burial record, item 19, is a FindaGrave listing. It is managed by people just like FamilySearch. I believe we stated this in the first post in the series, but shows Azariah and Patsy as Isaac’s parents. Isaac and Lucy are both shown as buried at Mount Oval Cemetery in Norris City, White County, Illinois. Azariah, Patsy, and children James, Sallie, and Pollie were buried at Pleasant Grove Cemetery in Mt. Vernon, Jefferson County, Illinois. Armistead Bruce was buried at Bruce Cemetery (perhaps a family cemetery or one on Bruce land), Wayne County, Illinois. Marcus Bruce was buried at Antioch Cemetery, Dix, Jefferson County, Illinois. Leonard Bruce and his brother Savannah Bruce were buried at East Hickory Hill Cemetery, Bluford, Jefferson County, Illinois. Nancy Bruce was buried in Old Union Cemetery, Mt Vernon, Jefferson County, Illinois.
Wayne County where Armistead was buried is adjacent to Jefferson County. White County, where Isaac was buried in beyond Wayne County to the east and further from Jefferson County.
Aside from Armistead, Isaac Jones Bruce is the only child of Azariah and Patsy Bruce who was buried outside of Jefferson County, Illinois. Several of the children were buried in the same cemetery as their parents.
The burials indicate that most of the children stayed nearby in Jefferson County. Armistead left and why he did should be investigated. Isaac, if he was the son of Azariah and Patsy, went even further afield. Again, if Azariah and Patsy were his parents, we should investigate why he ended up in White County. Another question is did Azariah and Patsy birth their children in Tennessee?
We can learn a lot of things from the marriage and death records including middle names, locations, spouses’ names, etc. But we do not learn about the parents of Isaac Jones Bruce. The best information about his parents that we have from these records is from the 1880 census that shows his father born in Virginia and his mother born in North Carolina. The records at FamilySearch attached to Azariah Bruce and Martha “Patsy” Keeling indeed show that Azariah was born in Halifax, Virginia. However, Patsy was also born in Virginia, not North Carolina, as (likely) Isaac reported in the 1880 census. Next time we can have a look at records regarding a connection between Isaac Jones Bruce and Robert A. Bruce.
