Connecting a family in FamilySearch can be a challenge when there is little to no evidence. There are many, many families on FamilySearch that are missing family members. Even just a little bit of searching can find those that are missing and connect families.

This has been particularly true of the Tyre Snelgrove family. The first viewing of this family showed that neither Tyre Snelgrove nor his wife Nancy had any sources. As I began to research this family, sources were found and added to Tyre and Nancy. The 1840 U.S. Census in particular makes mention to two daughters. FamilySearch only listed one daughter, which means the second daughter was missing.

Review What Is Known

Connecting a family and adding missing family members begins with reviewing what is known. In a previous article, I reviewed what was known about Tyre Snelgrove and Nancy Langford. In this review, we should review what is known about their two daughters.

Here is the family in the 1840 U.S. Census.

• Lexington, South Carolina
• Male 30-39 = 1 (Tyre)
• Female 0-5 = 1
• Female 5-9 = 1
• Female 30-39 = 1 (Nancy)
• Total enslaved = 4

This means there is a daughter born between 1835-1840 and another born between 1831-1835. Martha Ann Snelgrove is attached to Tyre and Nancy as a daughter. She was born 28 November 1832 in Lexington, Lexington, South Carolina. This birth date and location seems to be a good fit for the older daughter born between 1831-1835.

Martha Ann Snelgrove has a number of sources, however none of the sources provide any information connecting her to her parents. Very likely there is a reason a FamilySearch user to connected her to these parents, but it remains unknown. Possibly the book on the Langford family has some answers, but it is only available in print at a few libraries. Until it can be reviewed, this connection will have to be temporarily accepted.

The name of one of Martha’s children suggests the connection may be true. Martha has a son named Edwin Tyre Hendrix. The middle name Tyre suggests a possible connection to Tyre Snelgrove. The name is just unusual and rare enough to suggest that Edwin’s middle name came from a family member, and in this case a potential grandfather.

Grace Ann Snelgrove

A search of Ancestry’s public member trees found a tree for a Grace Ann Snelgrove that was a daughter of Tyre and Nancy. This Grace was married to a Peter Shealy. The birth year was about 1838 and the birth place in Lexington, South Carolina. The tree had no sources for Grace, but it was an intriguing suggestion.

A search of the FamilySearch Family Tree found a profile for a Grace Ann Langford that was married to Peter Shealy. This profile had one source consisting of the 1860 U.S. Census for Grace Shealy. There were no other sources to indicate the source of the last name or anything else.

In order to know if Grace Ann Langford is really Grace Ann Snelgrove, a marriage record or some other document is needed. Searches for Grace with either surname was negative. And so we need to look for records for Peter Shealy.

Peter Shealy

Peter Shealy had many more source records attached to him. He was born about 1830 in South Carolina. He died at the Battle of Chickamauga in Georgia in 1863. There were a few land records and several Civil War military records. But no marriage records or anything other than the 1860 U.S. Census record to connect him to Grace.

There was a probate record for Peter’s estate. The estate went through probate in 1874 – more than 10 years after his death. The estate was not large, worth maybe about $100 at the time. The estate included farm animals, a house, furniture, and land. Probates can be used when connecting a family because they often include relationship statements. Peter’s two sons were listed as heirs – but not Grace. Perhaps she was also deceased by 1874.

Connecting a family with indirect evidence

The estate administrator of Peter’s estate is key to connecting Grace to her parents Tyre and Nancy. The administrator was J. S. Hendrix or John Solomon Hendrix. John was the husband of Martha Ann Snelgrove. Very often a close family member would be named as an administrator of an estate and that is likely what happened here. With both Peter and likely Grace being deceased, the boy’s uncle is named to handle the estate.

Peter and Grace’s two sons were still minor children and they were living with a woman named Nancy Hipp in 1870. It is not clear if Nancy Hipp is their maternal grandmother Nancy Langford or their paternal grandmother Barbara Nancy Hare. Some research needs to be done to determine that connection, but their guardian could be a relative.

Because Peter’s estate administrator was John Solomon Hendrix, the spouse of Martha Ann Snelgrove, it seems likely that Grace is Grace Ann Snelgrove. Her birth year and birth place match the 1840 U.S. Census. Even though there is no direct evidence of Grace’s parentage, this indirect evidence makes it seem likely that her parents are Tyre Snelgrove and Nancy Langford.

It is possible this connection is wrong, but at least this evidence points in that direction. (And if someone else comes along with more compelling evidence then it could change). The Langford book mentioned previously has a subject in the catalog record that includes collateral lines, which include the Shealy’s, so the Shealy family likely interacted with both the Langfords and Snelgroves.