Mary LAIR ^{1 2 3}

  Research Notes:

Mary is tentatively identified as one of the two presumed daughters of James and Sarah born 1805-1810 per census records. However, she is so identified more as a matter of gut instinct than on the evidence. There is no marriage record nor any other record in Wayne County to indicate James and Sarah had a daughter named Mary and/or that Austin Franklin married a Mary Lair. Instead, what we have is family oral history to that effect. This oral history was documented by Nova May Merten in her cited book as follows: "According to family tradition Mary was from the Hamilton family. The Hamiltons were from Kentucky, so this may be true." It seems the oral history then evolved that she was the daughter of Sarah Hamilton Lear and thus her name was Mary Lair.

The context, if not the evidence, lends support to this family oral history. First, it would not be surprising for Austin to have married a Lair daughter, since it is known that Austin's sister, Nancy Franklin, married a Lair son, William. Second, Austin and family appear to have moved to Jackson Twp., Brown Co., IN, which is where Jacob and Hannah (Lair) Fleener had moved to earlier. Hannah would be Mary's older sister. Note, also, that Sarah Hamilton Lear and the remaining unmarried daughters also moved to this general area of Indiana about the same time, joining several Hamilton brothers and sisters who had moved there earlier. Third, Rachel Franklin Merriman, daughter of Austin and Mary Franklin, is buried at the Fleener Cemetery and her only known connection to those buried there would seem to be through the Lair family.

While Mary was not mentioned in James' Will, it was not uncommon for Wills of that time to fail to mention married daughters. Note that Hannah was also not mentioned.

I have been working with Franklin Merriman, Jr. of Zionsville, IN <fme9802z@yahoo.com>, a descendant of Austin and Mary, to try and develop some hard evidence that might identify Mary as a Lair. He has been very helpful. He is in the process of obtaining death certificates for all the children to see if their mother is identified by her full name. The one we had the most hope for was that of James L. Franklin, but it identifies his mother only as Mary. Frank's own records show his full name as James Lair Franklin. If such could be established by an official record, I would think that would be persuasive evidence that his mother was a Lair. ¹

  Noted events in her life were:

1. Census: 1810, Wayne County, Kentucky. ⁷

Household of James Lear: May be one of the females age 0-10.

2. Census: 1820, Wayne County, Kentucky. ⁴

Household of James Layer: May be one of the females age 10-15.

3. Census: 1830, Wayne County, Kentucky. ⁸

Household of Austin Franklin: Presumed to be the female age 20-30.

Mary married Austin FRANKLIN, son of James FRANKLIN and Sarah RUS. (Austin FRANKLIN was born about 1804 ⁹ and died after 1850 ¹⁰.)