Not a deleted record

No images uploaded for this person yet

People Names and Dates

Full Name Francis M. Downen
AKA Full Name
People ID 667939
Title
First Name Francis
AKA First Name
Nickname
Middle Name M.
AKA Middle
Patronymic/Matronymic
Priorsurnames
Surname Downen
AKA Surname
Father's Surname
Mother's Surname
Suffix
Gender Male
Full Birth Date If Known 1858-08-21
Birth Year 1858
Birth Month 8
Birth Day 21
Full Death Date If Known 1859-01-27
Death Year 1859
Death Month 1
Death Day 27

Events, Dates and Places

No events added for this person yet

Event Date Geo Top Level Geo 2nd Level Geo 3rd Level Geo 4th Level Geo 5th Level Notes

Relationships

Relationship Related To Relative's People ID Relative's Birth Year Relative's Death Year Other Date (typically Marriage Date)
Grandson ofJohnson Downen66813318051855
Grandson ofHicksy Bowden Downen66800518071869

Military Service
No military service added for this person

Rank If Known Or Highest Or Final Rank Branch of Service Beginning Date if Known End Date if Known

Military Actions Served During

No military actions added for this person


Interment, Inurnment or Memorialization Information

Cemetery Vail Cemetery
Address East Main Street east of town on the south side of the road before it turns north and becomes County Road 409
City/Town Industry
County/District McDonough
State/Province Illinois
Postal/Zip Code 61440
Country/Principality USA
Organization
Property Type
Has MarkerYes
No Marker
Is Cenotaph
GPS/LatLong Coordinates
End of Interment RecordIf there are additional interments or cenotaphs for this person they will appear below
  

Inscription Information

No inscriptions added for this person yet

Other Information

Biographical or other information about the person

https://mills-sfv.com/Genealogy/GLS/People/Text/667939.txt

Francis's (I am assuming this was a baby boy, although the spelling is sometimes used for a woman's name as well, although rarely) situation is very similar to that of Evaline Downen, who is buried in the same cemetery. It is entirely possible they are siblings, although there is still some question about the parentage of both children.

In addition to the tragedy of Francis's life being cut so tragically short, since he died before the 1860 census was taken, there is no way to know for sure who his parents were. The possible parents are:

David Downen and his wife Manerva Standard Downen

Henry Downen and his wife Anna Reed Downen

Samuel Downen and his wife Mary Hendrickson Downen

I picked through the census records and other information on the three families. Henry and Anna are possible candidates, except for this data point, which if true, rules them out. Anna was still alive for the 1900 census and she noted she had born three children, and those three children are all known and accounted for (one with Henry and two with her second husband Daniel Shoop. So it seems that we can rule out Henry and Anna as the parents.

David and Manerva are still a possibility, and it's a bit of a tossup between them and Samuel and Mary. I will also note that Manerva seems to have been exceptionally fertile. With David Downen and her second husband Michael Lawyer, she is known to have had 11 children in the span of 19 years. More particularly, Manerva is known to have had six children with David Downen in the span of eight years, between 1856 and 1864. There is a gap between Basil who was born in June 1857 and Gideon, who was born sometime in 1859. The next known child, Ida, was born in October 1860.

That being said, the logistics of a woman having a baby every year are impressive, especially considering the relatively primitive conditions of the time. We can't quiz Manerva on how many children she actually had, since she passed away a few months before the 1900 census was taken, which had that exact question on it.

I want to do a bit of math just to see how likely it is that Francis is Manerva's son (or daughter, as the case may be). Basil was born in June 1857 (at least according to the 1900 census, and it seems likely to be correct). Ida was born in October 1860. That's a span of about forty months. Since we don't know Gideon's birth month or even year (most of the census records are nothing if not imprecise) he may have been born in 1858 or 1859. Let's just go with averages just to see what happens. If Manerva bore three children in that time period, she was averaging one baby every 20 months. That may seem like a lot it's consistent with her long-term averages, so it's at least plausible. But if we throw another child in, that drops the average down to one child every 13 months, more or less. That's also possible (especially if there was another adult woman who could wet nurse) but quite a bit more difficult than having a child every 20 months. It does leave the door open for Manerva being Francis's mother, though.

This brings us to Samuel and Mary Downen. Samuel died in 1861 and it looks like Mary remarried her second husband Andrew Wilhelm around 1865. She is known to have had at least three children with him. When she was noted in the 1900 census, she was recorded as being the mother of six children, of whom two were still alive (these would be Edith and Jesse Wilhelm, her son Thomas Wilhelm having died at the age of four or five). There is a good likelihood that one of those deceased children could have been Francis, since there are no recorded children being born to Mary and Samuel. If Evaline and Francis were both children of Samuel and Mary, that would account for two of the three unknown deceased children that are noted for her in the 1900 census.

Doing some more looking at the Vail Cemetery, I also notice there is a Samuel P. Downen who was born and died in 1861. Was this the third missing unknown child of Samuel and Mary's? At a later date I will look at him and write some notes and post them.

Anyway, that's my speculation on Francis's parentage. Most likely Samuel and Mary, some possibility of David and Manerva, and very little possibility of Henry and Anna being her parents. Since I am certain that he was a grandson of Johnson Downen and his wife Hicksy, I have recorded those relationships as fact.

The Vail Cemetery is in west central Illinois, so I am unlikely to get there any time soon to see if the proximity of the markers to each other gives some clues as to who belongs to which families. There are at least 17 Downen family members buried in this cemetery, if not more. The only family with more members there than the Downens is the Vail family (presumably the people the cemetery is named for).


No keywords added for this person
Small notes (field in database                      
50 characters max)
Family Search ID
Find A Grave 1 93432562
Famous per Find A Grave
Famous per Consensus
Find A Grave 2
Find A Grave 3
BillionGraves Record ID
Other websites
Record Entry Date 2018-11-01 12:44:40
Record Last Edit Date 2020-04-24 22:45:00

Contact Us

We're not set up yet to do direct edits on these records through the web interface. To contact us about this person (re: add or change information or for questions) or send photos or request a photo, click on the link below and modify the email address as instructed, then include your information or questions or attach a photo or photos to the email. If you wish to upload more than a few photos please contact us to make other arrangements to upload your photos. Also, depending on the size and quantity of images you attach to the email, some email servers may bounce your email as many email services limit total attachments per individual email to between 10 mbs and 50 mbs.

Also, do not change the Subject line in the email, it should prepopulate with the correct people ID for the page you are on, if the subject line is changed it may make it impossible for us to know what person you are emailing about.

Send us photos, request a photo, send updates or corrections

Image Not Found



For information on contacting us or emailing or requesting photos, click here.


Main PageSearch CemeteriesSearch PeopleSearch EventsSearch PlacesLogout