A Moving Place of Birth

John Hart was the eldest son of Martin and Ann Hart (actually the surname was "Ehrhardt" but the enumerator got it wrong). They immigrated from Germany to the United States in 1832 and settled in Virginia. Later, they moved to Maryland, and then on to Missouri, which is where I met them.

Martin was a prosperous farmer by 1850, and he owned real estate valued at $2900, or over $900,000 today. His wealthiest neighbor owned land worth about a third of that amount, so Martin, although he was not able to read or write English, could consider himself an American success story.

But it wasn't Martin's wealth that caught my attention. It was his son, John. He was, as I said, the eldest son, but he was not born in American. Nor was he born in Germany. Here, let me show the 1850 U.S. Census report and you can read it for yourself:

Do you see it?

John Hart was born at sea.

I hope that John has a sense of humor and enjoyed telling people where he was born. I can picture him talking to the official who came to register him for the draft during the Civil War. Mr. Abner Comingo, Provost Marshall, asked all of the serious questions: name, age, marital status. And John somberly replied. Then Marshall Comingo asked the one John was secretly waiting for: place of birth. And with a straight face John replied "On the ocean."

Oh how I hope that it went something like that. And that John had a good laugh.

And I hope that the Provost Marshall had a good laugh, too.

Family history is fun that way. You never know who or what you are going to find. Sometimes it's a man who was born at sea.