I Wandered into a Quandary

I’m determined to finish the Lincoln lineage book I’ve been working on. Yet, all weekend, I worked on one of my husband’s lines. A question was asked, a thread was pulled, and my curiosity sucked me in. It happens all the time.

My husband’s great-grandmother was a woman name Nellie D. (Hornsby) Latta. I have photos of handwritten blurbs on old envelopes that were stuck in the Latta family bible that state “Grandfather John Hornsby, Grandmother Calasted Milstead”. It was assumed by the family that these were Nellie’s parents as, presumably, her daughter-in-law wrote these genealogical factoids for her own children. However, I found this newspaper clipping about her wedding:

…the contracting parties being Claude C. Latta and Miss Nettie Hornsby, daughter of W.K. Hornsby.

Although they misspelled her name as it was used by the family later, it was properly spelled Nellie in the original marriage announcement.

So this points to her father not being John Hornsby, but W.K. Hornsby. I searched the census records and, sure enough, William K. Hornsby is her father (she’s listed as such on the 1880 census) which means Ann Quinn from Ireland is her mother (listed with Nellie’s siblings on the 1870 census). Ann and William married in Iberville, Louisiana, November 27, 1850, according to the state’s marriage index. Ann’s headstone also states she was his “consort” (a term used for spouses at that time).

So, then, what does this mean?

I think these are William Hornsby’s parents, Nellie’s (“mother”) grandparents and the note was misinterpreted.

I started out looking for Calasted Milstead and ended up finding a whole host of Hornsbys. But I still haven’t found her! But my husband’s DNA results shown connections to distant cousins with both Quinn and Milstead in the family trees, so I know I’m on the right track considering both families being attached to the tree.

This has absolutely nothing to do with my Lincoln lineage, which is what I was supposed to be working on. But how could I not keep looking when there was clearly a mystery here! And now my husband has one more generation in that line of his tree.

I will find you Calasted - oh yes, I will!

If you have any leads on the Milstead family of southern Louisiana around the early 19th century, please share!