Ontis-Ennis Extended Families

Comment

Comment by Cheryle Hoover Davis on July 26, 2009 at 8:08am

Another interesting coincidence is that 'my' Mahala named her first child, her daughter, Nancy. ?

Comment by Ronald Schulz on July 25, 2009 at 3:12pm

I don't immediately see Mahala Ennis in my data yet. Could be? Anyone see more on her?

Comment by Cheryle Hoover Davis on July 25, 2009 at 7:37am

Interesting that you have an Ennis ancestor in the same area of Illinois as my 3rd great-grandmother, Mahala Ennis. Mahala was married to Charles Ackles in 1839 in St. Clair county, Illinois.

Reading your story, I wonder if our Ennis' were related? I don't have much information on Mahala, however we do know she was Cherokee, born in Burke Co., North Carolina. She and Charles migrated to Iowa after their marriage.

Comment by Ronald Schulz on July 17, 2009 at 2:18pm

The Ennis-Ontis Connection.
We presume that Henry Ontis met Nancy Ennis about 1824 or 1825 when he first came to Illinois and her first child was born in January 1826, when, considering the age on her headstone, she would already have been about 36 years of age. Rather late to be starting a family, if indeed this was her first marriage. Was it? I feel quite certain that she would not have been so long an old maid with so many eligible men around (the ratio of men to women on the frontier was rather high) until she was in her thirties, but she may have been a widow or even a divorcee.
We do have an interesting marriage taking place in that year of 1812 while we know Henry was living in upper New York State and serving in the war there. If our Nancy had indeed been born about 1790, this would have been a reasonable time to get married, as she would have been about 22 years of age.

NANCY ENNIS to JOHN QUIGLEY on 06/11/1812 B/ 9 PER COLL ST. CLAIR.

Could this be the same Nancy? The War of 1812 had only a QUIGLEY, WILLIAM PVT SHORT Co. on the Illinois list and I located only one possibility on the next census.

1820 Census Apple Creek, Madison County IL.
John Quigley, Males: 1 26-45, 3 above 46. Females: 1 over 45.
Nearby we have a probable brother of this John Quigley.
Samuel Quigley Males: 2 under 5, 2 10-15, 1 30-40. Females 1 5-10, 1 40-50.

I never found a John Quigley on the later Illinois censuses, so I assume that he must have died shortly after this 1820 entry, making this Nancy Ennis-Quigley a widow. In that case she would have been free to marry or simply take up with Henry Ontis who arrived in Illinois by 1824. The timing makes this possibility all the more likely.

The DEATH of NANCY:

Most of what we know about the mother of the Ontis Children born in Illinois is inscribed on her headstone in the Rosedale Cemetery, Rosedale Township, Jersey County Illinois. It reads:

NANCY
Wife of
HENRY ONTOS
DIED
Feb. 9, 1840
AGED
About 50 yrs.

Thus Nancy seems to have been born about 1790, making her almost the same age as her husband Henry, but as vague as this is, it looks like they didn’t really know her birth date for sure. There were no official vital records kept of births and deaths in those days and far too few records were kept by most families, certainly not this one.