This post is unlike most of my others. Rather than focusing upon a Baggett ancestor, I am publishing this study on a member of my father’s maternal line. His mother was Fannie Jo Hollingshead, daughter of Thomas Jefferson Hollingshead, son of Ezekiel Hollingshead. Ezekiel (my gg-gf) was married to Jane. The purpose of this study is to correctly identify her parentage and family line for further research.
Note: This is all original research and a new discovery. To the best of my knowledge the parents and lineage of Mary Jane Hammock (Jane Hammac) were previously unknown.
Problem
The earliest document naming the wife of Ezekiel Hollingshead is their marriage license from Autauga County, Alabama. On that document, she is listed as, “Jane Hammac.” This spelling has led to much confusion regarding her lineage. Indeed, the name has seen many manifestations of spelling, including Hammock, Hammack, and Hammick. Unfortunately, she has been wrongly identified on many family trees and web sites as, “Elizabeth Jane Hammac.” The origin of the first name, Elizabeth, is unknown. I will demonstrate, with sufficient and convincing evidence, that she was actually, “Mary Jane Hammock,” the daughter of Jacob Hammock and Hannah Jones Hammock of Georgia and Alabama. The following pieces of documentary evidence build a structure of support for this conclusion.
Evidence
1. Marriage Record – Ezekiel Hollingshead and Jane Hammac – This record was entered in Autauga County, Alabama, on 01 Aug 1833. The Rev. Joseph D. Lee recorded that he performed the rites of matrimony on 08 Aug 1833. Since the Holligshead family was settled and established in nearby Bibb County, it is logical to surmise that the bride’s family resided in Augauga County. The place to begin searching for clues to her parentage was the most recent Federal Census taken in 1830.
Ezekiel Hollingshead / Jane Hammac Marriage Record – Autauga County, AL 1833
2. 1830 U.S. Federal Census – Capt. Samples District, Autauga, Alabama – J. Hammock hh. – This is the household of Jacob Hammock. There are actually two other Hammocks, apparently not immediately related to Jacob, in Capt. Brack’s District in Autauga County. They are William (father) and John (adult son) Hammock. Neither have female children in the age range of Mary Jane Hammock (born ca 1820). Note that Jacob has one daughter, age 10-14. This is Mary Jane.
1830 US Federal Census – Autauga County, AL – J. Hammock Head of House
3. 1850 U.S. Federal Census – Plantersville, Perry County, Alabama – 1850 – Ezekiel Hollingshead, hh. – This record shows clearly that Ezekiel Hollingshead and his wife of seventeen years, Jane Hammock, have established their home in Perry County, Alabama. They were enumerated on 29 Dec 1850, and appear on page 4 of the Perry County record.
1850 US Federal Census – Perry County, AL – Ezekiel Hollingshead Head of House
4. 1850 U.S. Federal Census – Plantersville, Perry County, Alabama – 1850 – Jacob Hammock, hh. – This record shows Jacob Hammock, with his wife, Hannah, and family also in Perry County, Alabama, in 1850. Indeed, they are on page 8 of the county listings, enumerated on 31 Dec 1850.
1850 US Federal Census – Perry County, AL – Jacob Hammock Head of House
5. 1850 Alabama State Census – Perry County, Alabama, 1850 – Jacob Hammock, hh., Ezekiel Holingshead, hh. – This state census record is one of the most compelling pieces of evidence of the connection between Jacob Hammock and Jane Hollingshead. Note that the two families are located on adjacent properties in Perry County, which supports the hypothesis of a familial connection. Note also that there are two slaves in the household of Ezekiel Hollingshead. These two slaves are critical, as they establish that Jane Hollingshead is the same person as a Mary J. Hollingshead listed in the 1860 census in Arkansas.
1850 Alabama State Census Showing Jacob Hammock and Ezekiel Hollingshead on Adjacent Farms
6. 1850 U.S Federal Census – Slave Schedule – Platnersville, Perry, Alabama – Ezekiel Hollingshead, Slave Owner – Note that Ezekiel Hollingshead owns two slaves, a male, age 9, and a female, age 6.
1860 US Federal Slave Schedule – Perry County, AL – Ezekiel Hollingshead, Slave Owner
7. 1860 U.S. Federal Census – Beech Creek, Ashley County, Arkansas, p. 44 – Mary J. Hollingshead hh. In this census Jane Hollingshead is listed as, “Mary J. Hollingshead.” Clearly, her name is Mary Jane. She is a widow, with Ezekiel Hollingshead having died sometime between 1850 and 1860. Her sons Alex (with wife, Ann), William, John, and Thomas (my great-grandfather) are still in the home.
1860 US Federal Census – Ashley County, AR – Mary J Hollongshead – Head of House
8. 1860 U.S. Federal Census – Slave Schedule – Ashley County, Arkansas, p. 18 – Mary J. Hollingshead, Slave Owner – Note that Mary J. Hollingshead retains the two slaves, a male listed age 20 and a female listed age 15. These are clearly the same two slaves listed under Ezekiel Hollingshead in Perry County, Alabama, in 1850, and confirm that Mary J. Hollingshead is, indeed, Jane Hammock Hollingshead. She, apparently, began to use her full legal name after her husband’s death.
1860 US Federal Slave Schedule – Ashley County, AR – Mary J Hollingshead, Slave Owner
9. 1860 U.S. Federal Census – Lauderdale County, Mississippi, p. 49 – L.J. Hammock, hh. – By 1860 Jacob Hammock, father of Mary Jane and wife of Hannah Jones Hammock, is dead. His widow, Hannah, is living in the home of her son, Lewis J. Hammock in Lauderdale County, Mississippi. Another of her sons, William Hammock, is on the adjacent farm.
1860 US Federal Census – Lauderdale County, AL – LJ Hammock, Head of House
10. 1870 U.S. Federal Census – Lauderdale County, Mississippi, p. 40 – Jane Hollingshead, hh. – Ten years later, the widow Jane Hollingshead is in Lauderdale County, Mississippi, where her mother and two elder brothers lived in 1860. The Hammocks are no longer in the county. Note that her older son, Frank (Benjamin Franklin) Hollingshead, lives on the adjacent farm with his family. We know that the two families were in Lauderdale County early in the decade because Benjamin Franklin Hollingshead enlisted in the 13th Mississippi Regiment (The Lauderdale Zouaves) in July 1862 (per his pension application). This would indicate at least a brief few years of overlap when Jane Hammock Hollinsghead lived near her mother and at least two of her brothers. Note: It appears that the census enumerator began to write the name of Thomas on the first line, then wrote “Jane” over the top. Clearly, the head of house is a 50-year-old female who is “Keeping House.” It is not a man named, “Thomas.”
1870 US Federal Census, Lauderdale County, AL – Jane Hollingshead, Head of House
11. 1880 U.S. Federal Census – Lauderdale County, Tennessee, p. 28 – William Hammock, hh – By 1880 the Hollingsheads had relocated to Lauderdale and Haywood Counties in West Tennessee, with their farms scattered along the border of the two counties. This census record shows that William Hammock, the younger brother of Mary Jane Hammock, son of Jacob and Hannah Jones Hammock, and uncle of the Hollingshead brothers, relocated with them. Indeed, William Hollingshead (son of Mary Jane) is on page 14 of the same county enumeration. Brothers James and Thomas are just across the county line in Haywood County. And an interesting side note: William’s oldest son, Jacob (line 3), actually married Joesphine “Josie” Hollingshead, the widow of his first cousin (and son of Mary Jane Hammock Hollingshead), James Hollingshead. James died in 1881 and Josie married Jacob on 28 Sep 1886.
1880 US Federal Census – Lauderdale County, TN, William Hammock, Head of House
Conclusion
There is no single document that lists Mary Jane Hammock as the daughter of Jacob and Hannah Jones Hammock. However, the evidence of proximity and an intimate, ongoing connection of the families and descendants of Jacob Hammock and Ezekiel Hollingshead, which spans almost fifty years through the states of Alabama, Mississippi, and Tennessee, is compelling. I think I have demonstrated that Mary Jane Hammock was, indeed, the daughter of Jacob and Hannah Jones Hammock. It seems apparent from her date of birth (ca 1820) that she was, most likely, their oldest child, born shortly after their marriage in January 1817.
Baggett Ancestry Research 
Thank you for the excellent research on M J Hammock! My husband is a descendent of Benjamin Hollingshead (Bibb Co) to W. Ezekiel Hollingshead (Perry Co) to John Augusta Hollingshead (Lowndes Co) who apparently returned to AL at age 18 and married and lived there till his death. We have been trying to find out where and when Ezekiel died–Ripply TN and Ashley Ark in 1870 seemed questionable. Your research leads to my theory that he died in Perry Co shortly after the 1850 census. Ezekiel had a young wife, but no more children were born after the census and he seems to have disappeared. If you know any more about this, please let us know.
Gov Moore was a Perry Co Circuit judge from 1851-1857. Perhaps Jacob Hammock died without a will and the court had to settle the estate–but then there might be some records somewhere–loose court records?
Thanks to your research we can now trace back the Hammock family 6 or 7 generations!
Thanks, Diane! It’s been awesome to make a couple of breakthroughs in this family line. Actually, there was a son, James, born around 1854 (he appears on the 1860 census in Ashley County on the second page … separated from Mary J and the rest of the family). He definitely did not die in Lauderdale Springs, MS< or Ripley, TN. For sure. He was dead before 1860. Curiously, I have located an 1860 U.S. Census Mortality Schedule for a "James Hollingshead," age 60, who died in Ashley County in January 1860. Ezekiel had a brother James, but he did not die that year. He was living in the Hot Springs, AR, area all the way through 1870. My theory is that this is the record for Ezekiel, and that the land purchase that Mary J. Hollingshead made later that year was a deal that he had already made, and that she completed. But it's just a theory …
Be sure to check out my most recent stuff. I've found several more documents. You're right about being able to go back many generations. I have researched the line all the way back into the 1600s, to the first Hammock to come over on the boat! 🙂
We’ve been trying to find out where Ezekiel is buried and at least guesstimate a graveyard. Is the main reasoning behind Arkansas as having his burial site that a James Hollingshead died there and Ezekiel’s wife bought land there in 1860?
Before we eliminate Perry Co as his death site, have those Courthouse and court records been checked? Since he had only $300 of property (slaves) on 1850 Census, he probably was a tenant farmer and would not have owned land to sell, so there probably aren’t been any deeds or leads. However, we are probably going that way this fall, and can check the records if they have not already been checked.
Another mystery we are trying to solve is Benjamin Hollingshead’s wife’s last name. All the records we have found so far only refer to her as Jane. How was Jacobs was determined to be her maiden name?
Diane,
I’m not sure where the “Jacobs” came from. I think I picked that up on another tree on Ancestry and just added it to mine. I’ve just never taken toe time to take it off (which I should …).
I was just down there last month. I went through every record I could check. I found nothing with Ezekiel Hollingshead’s name on it. Anywhere. It was disappointing.
I surmise that the Ezekiel Hollingshead was living on the Jacob Hammock farm (adjacent on 1850 Alabama Census). They were with his father, Benjamin, on the 1840 census in Bibb County (or at least very close … adjacent). There are no land records anywhere, which means (as you said) he was a tenant farmer or sharecropper on someone else’s place. His proximity to parents or in-laws makes them excellent candidates.
Since we know Jacob Hammock died some time before 1857, it is likely that they departed Perry County around that time. Again … just a guess. But it seems unlikely to me that a middle-aged widow woman would have taken off to a remote frontier area with a house full of younger kids. I’m not sure what to make of that hefty sum of cash that she paid fore her Ashley County, AR, property.
Please check there again if you’re in the area. I certainly might have missed something. Their records weren’t very well organized.
Another thing … Jacob Hammock’s place was actually in Dallas County (Perrysville was in Dallas County). The area was just so remote that the people thought they were in Perry County. Census takers even thought so. I found no Hollingshead records there, either.