Margaret E Gorham

PROOF CLASS: FATHER = DIRECT (Owen, 22 Sep 2026) - John Gorham Sen'r of Fayette Co., Ky. A 1843 deed calls her "an heir at law of said Jno Gorham dec'd" and places her in Randolph Co., Mo. Registers K790 K791. AUDITED 22 Sep 2026 - HER FATHER IS NAMED IN A RECORD, AND THE RECORD ALSO FIXES THAT THE WOMAN IT NAMES IS THIS ONE. Margaret E ("Peggy") Gorham was a daughter of John Gorham Sen'r of Fayette County, Kentucky, who wrote a holographic will on 15 October 1825 and whose will was proved at the December 1836 term of the Fayette County Court. THE DEED, WHICH STATES THE RELATIONSHIP. Fayette County, Kentucky, Deed Book 19, p. 427: "This Indenture made this 16 day of Oct'r Eighteen hundred and forty three between William Cavens and Margaret his wife of the County of Randolph and State of Miss[ou]ri of the first part and William Cromwell of the County of Fayette and State of Kentucky of the second part", conveying for $1,154 a tract in Fayette County on the waters of Cane Run, "being lot No 3 as laid down in the plat of land of John Gorham, and she the said Margaret Cavens being an heir at law of said Jno Gorham dec'd - Said Plat can be refered to in the Circuit Court Clerks Office". One sentence carries three things: the relationship is stated; the identity is fixed, because the grantors are William Cavens and Margaret his wife OF RANDOLPH COUNTY, MISSOURI, which is exactly where [890] died in 1846 and where she was enumerated as a female head of household in 1850; and the mechanism is her own distributive share of her father's land. Read on the manuscript image 22 Sep 2026, register K791. THE WILL, WHICH NAMES HER UNDER HER MAIDEN SURNAME. Fayette County Will Book N, pp. 44-46, located through the volume's own front index ("Gorham John Will 44. 90. 141."): "Peggy Gorham now Cavens I leve her one gold wring to be worth five Dollars for her as her dower and legacy ... and I leave to her Children as a legesy two hundred dollars". That is the same legacy form John Gorham gives the daughter he names in words - "I leave to my daughter Molly Gorham now Pearson". The children the will names, in order: Molly (Pearson); Thomas, who was lame and is maintained by the others; John A.; George; W. B.; Thornton F.; Peggy (Cavens); Letatia (Craig); Simpson C.; and Frances G. The will was signed "John Gorham Sinnor" and proved "by the oaths of Thomas B Catlett and John L. McDowell to be wholy in the hand writing of said decedent". Read on the manuscript images 22 Sep 2026, register K790. THE MISSOURI LINK, INDEPENDENT OF BOTH. The bond on the 24 September 1846 letters of administration in the estate of her husband [890] William Cavens, Randolph County, Missouri, carries among its sureties SIMPSON C. GORHAM - a son named in John Gorham's will. A brother of hers stood surety on her husband's Missouri estate. Register K789; this corrects the "Simeon C. Gorham" recorded at K204 on 16 Aug 2026, which was read from a screenshot too small to distinguish the two spellings, on a page that is in fact a typescript. WHAT IS NOT CLAIMED. Her mother is unproved and is deliberately left empty. Priscilla George, whom Bob Baird's Gorham compendium gives as John Gorham's wife, is named in neither the will nor the deed; the 1825 will's "And if I should have a wife at that time" shows only that he was a widower when he wrote. Nor is this a verification of Baird: he cites Fayette Deed Book 22, pp. 303-4, and the deed read here is Deed Book 19, p. 427 - a different volume and page, reached independently of him. Deed Book 22 has never been opened. SUPERSEDES the birthplace clause written on 1 Aug 2026. "Louisville, Jefferson Co., Kentucky" was never cited and there is no positive evidence for it; the Birth place is reduced in this same write to "Kentucky, USA", which is what the 1850 census (citation 6961) actually says. Her father's land lay in Fayette County on Cane Run and a son was born in adjacent Scott County in 1823 (citation 6976), so Fayette is the likely anchor - but no record states her birthplace, so none is written. Audited 1 Aug 2026 — her first, and her first citation. 1850 census, Silver Creek, Randolph Co., Missouri, dwelling 38: 'Margaret Cavens, 54, no occupation, real estate $400, b. KENTUCKY' — matching [891] Margaret E Gorham b.1796 on age, and on birth STATE - the tree's 'Louisville, Jefferson Co.' was never cited and is withdrawn 22 Sep 2026. Three children matched, all already in this tree. ⭐⭐ SHE IS A FEMALE HEAD OF HOUSEHOLD WITH NO HUSBAND ENUMERATED, which is the shape of a widow — her husband [890] William Cavins died in 1846. ⛔ The record does not say 'widow'; that is an inference, and it is why [890] gets this note but NOT a citation. ⭐ The image corrected the index here: 'John L Cavens' is 'John T.' on the page = [914]. ⭐⭐ THE GENERATION'S FINDING, from the four households read together: A MIGRATION COHORT IN SILVER CREEK, RANDOLPH CO., MISSOURI. Two unrelated families arrive in the same township within a few years of each other in the 1830s, from two different states — MANSFIELD from Virginia (flip at Elizabeth, 17) and CAVENS from Kentucky (flip at Margaret E, 12). That is REGION x ERA x ANCHOR as `stopping-rules.md` sec.3 asks for it: Randolph Co., Missouri, the 1830s, the push west, with four named ancestors standing in it. THIS IS CARPENTER'S ERA HOOK AND IT DID NOT EXIST BEFORE 1 Aug 2026. ⛔ THE LIMIT, STATED: in both households the entries above the flip are DITTO MARKS whose referent is inferred from the parents' state. Each flip is legible; the extent above it is not. Re-read at higher zoom before either bracket is written as a fact. Worksheet: ancestry/carpenter-gen7-census-worksheet-2026-08-01.md