Elizabeth M. Byers Overton

If I was given the chance to talk to one of my ancestors....I would have to chose my great, great grandmother, Elizabeth.  I  would pick her because she is such a mystery to me. I don't have the usual records that I would normally collect for my ancestors.  No pictures, marriage records, or cemetery records.
What I do know is that in 1850 she was living with her family in Miami Co, IN. From this census record I can estimate Elizabeth's birth to be circa 1840 in Ohio.  Her mother had already died and her father, Isaac Byers, was remarried. I was able to find a marriage record between Isaac Byers and Margaret Potterf in 1849 in Miami Co, IN. to support this.




*Ancestry.com

 Isaac died 16 May 1854 in Jasper Co IN where he is buried in Saltillo Cemetery indicating that the family had moved there by 1854.  In the 1860 census I can find several of the children living with other families.  Elizabeth is living with the N.P. Lefler family and listed as help.  Her husband to be, Tilghman H. Overton, is also living in Jasper Co, IN.


*Ancestry.com

By 1870, Elizabeth and Tilghman are married with 3 children and living in Sarpy Co, NE.   There is not a marriage recorded in Nebraska so I suspect that they married in Jasper Co, IN before moving to Nebraska to homestead.  The Jasper County courthouse burned and the early marriage records were lost so I can only guess.

*Ancestry.com

In the 1880 census Elizabeth is gone and Tilghman is married to a Maria Adkins. Their oldest daughter, Margaret, is living in the household of James Davidson and listed as a servant. Robert is living with Elizabeth's sister, Matilda, and listed as a farm laborer.  I was unable to find Anna after the 1870 census.  I checked cemetery records for Sarpy Co but could not find anything for Elizabeth or Anna.
I searched the land records and found that Tilghman and Elizabeth had taken a mortgage out on their land in 1871 from James Preston but by 1876 the mortgage had not been paid off and Mr Preston is asking for the sale of the land to recoup his money.  It was in the court documents that I found Elizabeth listed as Tilghman's wife and that she had died since the mortgage was taken out.


And the said plaintiff further saith that the said Tilghman H. Overton & Elizabeth M. Overton, his then wife, for the purpose of securing the payment of said promissory note did on the 14th...



Plaintiff further says that Elizabeth M. Overton, the former wife of said defendant has since the executions of said deed of mortgage, died: that the legal title of the land at the time of the executions of said mortgage was wholly and entirely in the ...

Elizabeth must had died between 1871 and 1876.  Anna is also gone...Robert is alive in 1880 but is not found after that time.  I have not found death notices or cemetery records for any of them.

I would love to talk with Elizabeth and hear stories about her family, her marriage to Tilghman, homesteading and so much more.  #52Ancestors  #I'dLiketoMeet