Genealogy Story – Illiterate Ancestors

I was recently watching an older episode of Who Do You Think You Are? – the British version. At one point in the episode they were looking at a document that was signed by the individual’s ancestor and noted that it was “signed” with an “X”, indicating that their ancestor was illiterate. This got me thinking about my own ancestors and whether any of them were illiterate.

I had noted in an earlier blog (http://ramblinrussells.blogspot.com/2017/08/changing-names.html) that literacy in England was only 5% in the late 1400s, but that by the time that my ancestors came to the US in the early 1600s it was nearly 50%. The US did not begin asking questions about the ability to read/write until the 1850 census. So the only way to find illiterate ancestors would be individuals who were still living in 1850 or who were born after that or to find a document that required their signature.

Generally, an individual’s literacy will be based on their parents, so if their parents were literate then they will be also. One’s educational achievement will also tend to be at least as great as their parents. People also tend to marry others in their same economic strata so both parents pass on the same level of literacy to their children. My grandparents had a grammar school education. My parents’ generation generally had a high school education, and those in my generation will often have a college education. The only exceptions to this being based on your parents will be if there is some sort of significant event in the family/individual – such as an economic crisis where the family is plunged into extreme poverty.

An example of a “significant event” from my own ancestry is when my maternal grandfather’s mother died in childbirth and his father, either feeling not able to raise an infant or feeling reminded of his wife’s death every time he saw his young son, sent him to the next town to be raised by foster parents (my grandfather’s older siblings were not sent away, so I tend to favor the latter reasoning). Thus, my grandfather’s education would have been influenced by his foster parents instead of his own father.

Armed with this information, I began looking back through my family tree to see if I could find any illiteracy.

My mother’s family all seem to be literate. Since her direct ancestors were early immigrants to America in the 1630s and included ministers and others who attended college, the level of literacy was quite high. I could not find any examples of illiteracy there. And since Pierponts were minor royalty in England it is likely that they were literate for several centuries before. The same was true of my paternal grandmother’s line. Her family was Jewish and lived in Brooklyn where they were involved in industries such as watch making. I could not find any examples of illiteracy there either. That left only my paternal grandfather’s line.

I went back another three generations through those who were listed in the 1850 census or later. It was not until I looked at my great*3 grandfather, Silas Russell (1803-1886), and his wife, Hester [Disbrow] Russell (1807-1898), that I was able to find any illiteracy. All the census records from 1850 and forward record them as not able to read or write. I was also able to locate a document where they “signed” with a mark of “X”. The document was an application for a civil war pension for their daughter whose husband was killed in the war. Since she was born at home, they had to attest to that fact and on one of the 45 pages of the application that attestation and their “signature” can be found. This is as exciting to me as to such a similar mark was found by the person on the TV show!

I have not been able to document any other instances of illiteracy among my ancestors. Since older census records, either in the US or in England, do not ask that question, and since finding other documents that require signing is like looking for a “needle in a haystack” that would be quite difficult. So finding one such document is quite amazing.