The Elusive Mary McDaniel (c) 1833-1838 Davie, NC

The Mary McDaniel in question was born circa 1838 in Davie County, North Carolina. She was the oldest daughter of Allen and Rebecca McDaniel and older sister to my grandmother America A.C McDaniel.

The first place I am able to locate Mary McDaniel is on the 1850 Census for Davie County, North Carolina. She is living in the household of her parents. The census record states she is 12 years old. That makes her one year older than my Grandmother Amanda. Now, given the fact that Amanda was born at best account in the year 1834 that would put Mary being born in 1833, however, this census has a birth date of 1838 which is a 4 year difference. So I am going to narrow my research to about 1833-1838.

"United States Census, 1850," index and images, FamilySearch (https://familysearch.org/pal:/MM9.1.1/M4BM-VD3 : accessed 13 Mar 2013), Mary Mcdaniel in entry for Allen Mcdaniel, 1850.

 To help me with my research I decided to check the soundex for variations in spelling of the surname McDaniel. This is what it turned up:

• MacDaniel
• McDanal
• McDonnol

and several others. For the time being I am going to try and conduct a search for Mary using the variations of spellings of the surname. I have also seen it listed as Daniel, Daniels, McDaniels, McDaniel as well.