Bevins New York to Kentucky

I’ve been doing a lot of research the past few months but just haven’t had a chance to post about it here.  One of my interests right now is my 3rd Great Grandmother Keziah Bevins born 19 Oct 1797 in New York.  The birth date comes from later records as I have not yet been able to find a baptism record for her.  Many trees have her father as Abner Bevins, but no document has been found to show that he is Keziah’s father, that I know of.

Last summer I was gifted a Family Finder DNA kit and I’ve had so much fun working with my cousin matches to figure out how we are related.  One interesting thing is I have a very large number of matches who all have ancestry in Kentucky, Tennessee and the Ohio area.  We have not yet been able to figure out how I relate to this group of people.  The only known connection I have to that area is that my 3rd great grand parents lived in Campbell County, Kentucky for about 16 years after their 1818 marriage in Springwater, New York.  Perhaps it is through the Bevins line some how.  I’ve always wondered why they moved to Kentucky in the first place.  My Badgerow line as far as I can tell has no ties to Kentucky or that area at that time period.   It is looking like Keziah had family in the area and this could be why they made such a huge move.

On 17 January 1828 in Campbell County, Kentucky there is a marriage of a Samuel Bivins to Esther Garran.  David Badgerow is the bondman on this record.

I was reading about marriage practices in that area and in order to obtain a marriage licence the couple had to first get a marriage bond.  This was to show the courts that there was no legal reason the two people could not be married.  If a reason later came up then a bond fee would have to be paid.   The laws in Kentucky at that time didn’t give woman the legal right to enter into a contract so a bondman would stand in an sign for her.  This would normally be a father or brother of the bride.  It seems to be common that a close friend or guardian of either the bride or groom could stand in as a bondsman as well.

So why did David Badgerow stand in as bondsman to the marriage of Samuel Bivins and Esther Garran?  It seems very likely to me that Samuel is Keziah’s brother.  Interesting that Keziah also named a son Samuel.  However I can’t just jump to that conclusion and move on.  I’ve been researching Samuel’s descendants and I’ve been in touch with one who’s worked on his Bivins line for some time.  It’s wonderful to find a possible cousin to share research with.

I’ll be sharing more about Samuel Bivins and other Bivins/Bevins families that I think are connected soon.

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