A Mystery in the Brand Family Tree
Some family stories hide quietly between census lines. When I first came across Thomas Morgan Brand, my great-grandfather, the records didn’t agree on when he was born, or even which Thomas I was looking at. One census said 1870, and another said 1876.
Two boys. Same parents. Same name. Different years.
Could the Brand family of Neshoba and Newton Counties, Mississippi, have named two sons Thomas Morgan, one after the other?
The Question
This research began with a simple objective:
To determine whether Thomas Morgan Brand was born in 1870 or 1875-1876, and whether his name was recycled after the first Thomas passed away in infancy.
It’s a question that touches on both genealogical detective work and the quiet realities of 19th-century life, when childhood illness often reshaped a family’s naming patterns and memory.
What I Already Knew
| Fact | Source |
|---|---|
| Thomas was listed as 8 months old in the 1870 census. | 1870 U.S. census, Beat No. 4, Neshoba, Mississippi, population schedule, page 122, dwelling 920-2, family 920-2, entry for Thomas M. Brand; digital image, Ancestry (https://www.ancestry.com : accessed 28 Nov 2024), image 8 of 52. |
| The 1880 census listed Thomas as 4 years old, born in 1875-1876. | 1880 U.S. census, Beat 2 Township 8, Newton, Mississippi, population schedule, Enumeration District 0086, sheet 591B, dwelling 277, family 277, entry for M.L. Brand household; digital image, Ancestry (accessed 28 Nov 2024). |
| The 1900 census listed his age as 24 and his birth date as December 1876. | 1900 U.S. census, Beat 5, Newton, Mississippi, population schedule, Enumeration District 0057, sheet 2, dwelling 283, family 306, entry for T.M. Brand household; digital image, Ancestry (accessed 3 Dec 2024). |
Background
The Brand family lived in east-central Mississippi during the post-Civil War Reconstruction era, when families were rebuilding homes, farms, and communities after years of upheaval. In the 1870 census, Morgan L. Brand and his wife, Lovice (Levisa) Harris Brand, appeared with two young sons, James L., age 2, and baby Thomas M., just 8 months old.
By 1880, the Brands had moved east into Newton County and had added 6 children to their family. Their household now included T.M. [Thomas], age 4, and M.V. [Martha Virginia], age 4. Interestingly, a 10-year-old daughter, who would have been the same age as Thomas, was listed on the 1870 census. However, the older Thomas was gone. No death record. No gravestone. No mention in later family stories.
The likely explanation? The first Thomas Morgan Brand had died in infancy, and the name was reused, a quiet act of remembrance common in the nineteenth century.
The 1900 census also recorded *my* Thomas Morgan’s birth year as 1876 and his age as 24, which provided further proof of my working hypothesis that his name was likely “recycled.”
Why Families Reused Names
In that era, high infant mortality was a heartbreaking reality. When a child died young, parents often gave the same name to the next child of the same sex, both to honor the lost child and to carry forward a name that held family meaning.
The name Thomas Morgan may have carried ancestral significance within the Brand or Harris lines, perhaps commemorating an uncle or grandfather. This cultural context helps us understand that the duplication wasn’t an error; it was love preserved through memory.
How I Plan to Prove It
To confirm whether two Thomases truly existed, I plan to follow the research plan below since I want to reasonably exhaust all avenues to my theory:
- Revisit the Censuses
Reexamine the 1870 and 1880 census images for both Neshoba and Newton Counties. Are there neighboring families who connect the Brands? Could one census contain a transcription or age error? - Search for Vital and Church Records
Look for birth, baptism, or death entries in Baptist, Methodist, or Primitive Baptist registers, as these denominations were common in the region. - Survey Cemeteries
Explore Pine Bluff, Beulah, and Salem Cemeteries for infant burials or unmarked plots. Local genealogical society transcriptions or Find-a-Grave listings may offer leads. - Check Probate and Guardianship Records
Review 1869–1885 records for mentions of a deceased minor named Thomas Brand or guardianship adjustments after a child’s death. - Study Extended Family Patterns
Trace siblings and cousins of Morgan L. Brand and Levisa Harris to see if Thomas Morgan appears repeatedly in the family tree. - Correlate All Evidence
Combine census, church, and cemetery findings to build a timeline that either confirms two separate children or explains inconsistencies as an enumeration error.
Where This Story Leads
If the first Thomas died in infancy, as the records hint, his brief life still left a mark strong enough to shape the next generation’s name. And if there truly was only one Thomas after all, sorting out how those census ages became tangled will give me an even deeper look into how rural Mississippi families were counted, moved, and remembered in the decades after the Civil War.
Either way, this mystery reminds me that behind every record line is a family’s story, a mix of loss, memory, and the desire to keep a name alive.
To be continued.
source citations
- 1870 U.S. census, Beat No. 4, Neshoba, Mississippi, population schedule, page 122, dwelling 920-2, family 920-2, entry for Thomas M. Brand; digital image, Ancestry (https://www.ancestry.com : accessed 28 Nov 2024), image 8 of 52.
- 1880 U.S. census, Beat 2 Township 8, Newton, Mississippi, population schedule, Enumeration District 0086, sheet 591B, dwelling 277, family 277, entry for M.L. Brand household; digital image, Ancestry (accessed 28 Nov 2024).
- 1900 U.S. census, Beat 5, Newton, Mississippi, population schedule, Enumeration District 0057, sheet 2, dwelling 283, family 306, entry for T.M. Brand household; digital image, Ancestry (accessed 3 Dec 2024).
