Nancy Donovan Salt (1788-1845) – 52 Ancestors # 48

When I look at my ancestral chart, the next to last couple on my Salt line are John Salt and Nancy Donovan Salt.  I have written before about John but not about Nancy.  Nancy is also the next to last on the Donovan line as far as I have tracked it so far, so she is an appropriate choice for today’s theme of next to last.  She is my 3g-grandmother.

Nancy was born in Havre de Grace, Maryland in 1788 to Daniel Donovan and his wife Elizabeth or Eliza Covey (I believe; my caveat is that I have no hard evidence of this parentage yet).  She may have been their next to last child, as I have only found one child younger than her in the family so far.  The date and place of her birth were taken from a gravestone that is no longer viewable but was transcribed prior to its disappearance.  The date of birth is a calculated one:  she died 5 Jan. 1845 at the age of 56y 11m 1 d¹.  There is still a family obelisk in the cemetery where she was buried and a face with her name and date of death along with her age at death.

By about 1792 Nancy and her family had migrated to Mason County, Kentucky part of which which became Bracken County a few years later (in 1796).  I know nothing  about Nancy’s upbringing or life as a young girl and woman since she left no letters or records of activities until the marriage bond showing she was licensed to marry John Salt.  She was 21 years old when they married and he was 5 years older.  Based on her signature on a deed of partition of land I think she could write, at least enough to sign her name.  As it has been reported that John Salt did some teaching in Kentucky as a young man, he and Nancy may have met this way.  Just how much schooling she might have had is not known, nor whether she would have attended a school or been taught at home.

Nancy and John had at least 7 children (who lived to adulthood), although the years of their births show that there might have been several others born that did not survive.  Most of the children were born in Kentucky, until the last one or maybe two who would have been born in Clermont County, Ohio where John and Nancy had purchased a large tract of land in October 1826 with his brother Edward and his wife Priscilla.  This land was eventually partitioned, and is the site of the still-standing brick house that was built around 1843-44.  The family had lived in another house on the same land, until a fire destroyed it completely one Sunday while the family (which would have been John and Nancy and the 4 younger children) were all at church, around Christmas in 1842.  The church they were attending was probably the Calvary Methodist Church.

A little more than 2 years later, Nancy died.  I have not found any recorded evidence for her death, except the gravestones which record a full date of death.  In Ohio deaths were not required to be registered until 1867 so there is no death register.  I do not know of any Salt family Bible that goes back to John’s family (I wish I did!).  With no registration and no family stories I do not know what she died of.  All in all, Nancy Donovan Salt is a good example of a woman who is pretty much invisible in the records, leaving me with more questions than answers.