finding rachel cushing's maiden name

I was searching through my family tree, trying to decide which family to focus on next when I saw that I have not found my 5th great grandmother, Rachel Cushing's maiden name.  One of her daughters, my 4th great grandmother, Deborah Cushing, was married to Joshua Bates Cowing.  I wrote about them in a blog post here.

I have Deborah's death record from the ancestry database Massachusetts, Death Records, 1841-1915.

Death Record of Deborah (Cushing) Cowing

The death record shows us that Deborah was 77 years old when she died in 1892, and her parents are Thomas and Rachel Cushing.  Unfortunately the record does not give us her mother Rachel's maiden name. My next step was to see if her marriage record to Joshua has her mother's maiden name listed.

There are many entries for Joshua and Deborah's marriage intentions in the ancestry database, Massachusetts, Town and Vital Records, 1620-1988, but none of them state the parents of Deborah. The book, Vital Records of Weymouth, Massachusetts, to the Year 1850: Marriages and deaths, available on google books has the marriage intention date and the marriage date, but again does not list their parents. The book states the date of marriage came from C.R.3, which is a church record of the Union Church of Weymouth and Braintree.  If I find the original source of this record, perhaps there will be more information on this family.

I also found Deborah's birth record using the information I already have.  I know that since Deborah died at the age of 77 in 1892, she was born around the year 1815, to Thomas and Rachel Cushing.  Again, there are many records for her birth in the ancestry database, Massachusetts, Town and Vital Records, 1620-1988, showing Deborah was born July 23, 1814.  The records do not show her mother Rachel's maiden name though, but they do show that she was a twin to her sister Betsey Cushing.

Deborah Cushing birth record

At this point, my two possible options for finding Rachel's maiden name is to search for Thomas Cushing and Rachel's marriage record which most likely would have Rachel's maiden name; and to search for Betsey's death record which also may list Rachel's maiden name.  I would have to estimate the marriage of Thomas and Rachel to be around 1814, since I know they had at least two children at that time.  I also have to guess that this couple was married in Weymouth, since that is where Deborah and Betsey were born.  Using the Vital Records of Weymouth, Massachusetts, to the Year 1850: Marriages and deaths, I see that there are actually two Thomas Cushings around this time that marry a Rachel.  Thomas and Rachel Hunt and Thomas and Rachel Green.



This narrows it down a little bit, but still does not give a definitive answer as to Rachel's maiden name.  So on to finding Betsey Cushing's death record hoping it will finally give us Rachel's maiden name, to bring this family back another generation.  Since I am guessing Betsey marries, and I do not know her married name, I decided to do a search on familysearch which allows you to search for Massachusetts Deaths using first name and parents' last name.  I started my search in familysearch's Massachusetts, Deaths, 1841-1915, using Bestey as a search term, leaving the last name blank.  I also included parents last name as Cushing.  I found one that matches, showing a Betsey Cushing Smith in Weymouth.  I was very excited to see that it did include her mother's name as Rachel Hunt! Then I saw it had her father's name as David Cushing, not Thomas!  I still think this is the correct Betsey, and that the informer just had her father's name incorrect.  I did do a quick search to see if there was a David and a Rachel that had a Betsey around this time in Weymouth, and I did not find one.

death record of Betsey Cushing Smith

Moving on from vital records, I thought it would be interesting to see if Rachel Cushing is listed in the 1830 census. At this time, the census only listed head of households; but Rachel's husband Thomas most likely died in 1822, according to Weymouth Vital Records. There is a Rachel Cushing in 1830, living in Weymouth.  Her household contains the following:

Males Under 5: 1 (?); Males 20-29: 1 (hiram); Females 5-9: 1 (?); Females 15-19: 3 (deborah, betsey,?); Females 20-29: 1 (?); Females 50-59: 1 (rachel)

There are many people in her household, some I am not sure who they would be shown by the question marks above.  One of her children and their family could be living with her; though none I could find matched perfectly.  One interesting thing to note about the 1830 census is who Rachel is enumerated next to, most likely being her neighbors. Simeon Cushing, probably her son; a Polly Cushing; and an Ebenezer Hunt, maybe her brother.  I would think that this Rachel is probably the Rachel Hunt, not Rachel Green, as she is living near Hunts, and Simeon Cushing's death record states Rachel Hunt as his mother.  Since Deborah Cushing Cowing is from Weymouth in all her records, I assume that her parents are the Thomas Cushing and the Rachel Cushing, head of households, in the Weymouth censuses.

So where is the Thomas and Rachel Green living?  There is no other Rachel Cushing or Thomas Cushing in the 1830 census for Weymouth; however there is another Thomas Cushing with a family in nearby Hingham. The other Thomas Cushing family in Hingham is still living in Hingham in 1850, when the census starts to enumerate every household member.  This Thomas's wife is indeed Rachel, and they have two adult children Rachel A and Almira living with them.  I looked for the death records of Rachel A. and Almira Cushing (d. 1872 and 1871), and both state their mother as Rachel Green, and they were born in Hingham.  So the Hingham Thomas and Rachel is the couple that marries in 1810 (Rachel Green); which leaves the Weymouth couple as Thomas and Rachel Hunt. Again, since Deborah was born in Weymouth, not Hingham, her parents most likely are Thomas Cushing and Rachel Hunt.

At this point, I am pretty sure that Rachel Hunt is the mother of Deborah Cushing Cowing.  Since Rachel and Thomas were married in 1792, she would have been born around 1770.  The Weymouth Vital Records show her possible birthdate in 1771 to Ebenezer and Rachel Hunt.

birth entry for Rachel Hunt

I also looked at Norfolk and Suffolk Deeds to see if Rachel Hunt's possible parents, Ebenezer or Rachel Hunt, sold or handed down land to Thomas or Rachel Cushing.  (Weymouth was in Suffolk County until 1793).  I did find some connections between the Thomas and Rachel Cushing's in Weymouth to the Hunts, as shown in the following deeds.  This provides more evidence that Thomas and Rachel in Weymouth were Thomas Cushing and Rachel Hunt, and most likely parents of Deborah Cushing as she was born in Weymouth, not Hingham. (see note 1)  These deeds also show that Rachel's father was most likey Ebenezer Hunt, as she is listed as an heir to his estate in two of the deeds.

• norfolk deed 20(140) : Ebenzer Hunt Jr. sells land in Weymouth to Jacob Dyer and Thomas Cushing dated 1804 (carpenter and mentions Thomas Cushing and wife Rachel)
• norfolk deed 28(8) : heirs of Ebenezer Hunt divide land in Weymouth -- mentions Rachel Cushing and Thomas Cushing (housewright) - among others dated 1805
• norfolk deed 28(9) : heirs of Ebenezer Hunt divide land in Weymouth -- mentions Rachel Cushing and Thomas Cushing (housewright) - among others dated 1805

Now that I am more certain that Rachel's parents are Ebenezer Hunt and Rachel, I looked in the Probate index, Norfolk County, Massachusetts ... 1793-1900, (page 574).  There are many Hunt probates that may apply to this family, including:

• Ebenezer Hunt probate for 1804, in Weymouth, Number 10268 adm; (this is probably her father)
• Ebenezer Jr., for 1823 in Weymouth, number 10269 adm. (this is probably her nephew)  
• Ebenezer Hunt will in 1832, number 10270, (this is probably her brother)  
• Rachel Hunt, will, 1817, Weymouth, number 10349 (this is probably her mother)

All of these documents may provide more clues into Rachel Hunt's family and provide more evidence connecting Deborah Cushing Cowing to this family.  These documents are not available online at this time, so I will have to wait to obtain them.

One of my final step in finding more information on Rachel Hunt is to look in the History of Weymouth book online at ancestry.com.  I look at this last because I do not like the book to influence my thoughts and change the process I would take to find information in records on my own as they often do not provide their source of information.  I have also found errors in the town history books.  I checked Ebenezer Hunt's entry (p 317) to see if they came to my same conclusions as to his family, which they did.  They also state in this book that Ebenzer Hunt's wife, Rachel Hunt, left a will as I referenced above, (Norfolk Probate 10349).  This will apparently mentions her daughters, including Rachel Cushing. I would still like to obtain this will, to see all the information it provides.

I think there is more evidence to support Deborah Cushing Cowing's parents are Thomas Cushing and Rachel Hunt, rather than Rachel Green.  I reached the following conclusion through:

• twin sister Betsey Cushing Smith death record states parents as David Cushing and Rachel Hunt - probably a mistake with father's first name.
• 1830 census has Rachel Cushing living in Weymouth next to an Ebenezer Hunt, possibly her brother.
• 1850 census has other Thomas Cushing and Rachel Green living in Hingham, children born in Hingham according to their death records - Deborah born in Weymouth.  This couple is in Hingham 1810-1860.
• Norfolk County deeds showing that land in Weymouth was handed down to Rachel Cushing, wife of Thomas Cushing, as an heir to Ebenezer Hunt.
• History of Weymouth book states Deborah's mother Rachel Hunt has a will, Weymouth, which mentions daughter Deborah Cushing.

notes:

1. I also looked at Plymouth county for any deeds that may show a transaction for Thomas or Rachel Cushing in Hingham that were linked to either Greens or Hunts, just to double check.  I did not find any connections to either; maybe because both this Thomas Cushing and Rachel Green were from Weymouth according to History of Weymouth book (p 187), so they probably did not purchase land in Hingham from their families.