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mcc-jrr_374-010
Rawlings - Lanier, 37-4 Summary Report, page 10
The above 1840 census record shows Eldred Rawlins and family in Limestone County. None of the children of this record would be Mary Ann Eliza Rawlins, who married William G. Love in 1843 in Autauga County, AL. She was apparently sent away to live with someone else by her father after her mother's death in 1823. The only census record of 1830 among her relatives in Madison County that has an entry to fit her age (5 - 10 age bracket) and gender was that for Mary (Dickson) Lanier, widow of the senior Isaac Lanier. This would have been her maternal grandmother, and it would be one of the more expected choices for sending a young daughter to live there, if Eldred had indeed remarried as the 1830 record for him suggests. The female at age 15 - 20 in Eldred's household in 1830 Madison County cannot be a daughter born to Ann Rawlins between their marriage date (1821) and Ann's death in 1823, because the age bracket doesn't fit for 1830. Of course, it would be possible that Mary Ann Eliza Rawlins was born to an earlier wife of Eldred's, before he married Ann. However, that doesn't fit the ages of minority (“infant of Eldred”) for Mary Ann Eliza as seen in the various Probate and Orphan's Court records through the 1850s. Therefore, it is pretty well conclusive that Eldred must have taken another very young wife after Ann's death in 1823 and before the time of the 1830 census. The age bracket shown for the female in 1830 (15 - 20 yrs.), while Eldred was shown as age 40 - 50 yrs., fits precisely for the oldest female in his household in Limestone County in 1840 (20 - 30 yrs.). The 1850 federal census of Alabama further confirms that Mary Ann Eliza Rawlins was sent to live with her grandmother Mary Dickson Lanier by showing that Mary Lanier at age 74 was living beside her daughter Clarissa Lanier Boddie Dickson (Dixon), who in turn was living beside Mary Ann Eliza Rawlins Love and her husband William G. Love in Autauga County. Apparently, Mary Lanier and Mary Ann Eliza Rawlins moved to Autauga County to live beside Clarissa between 1840 and 1850, and that is where Mary Ann met William G. Love, who became her husband in that county. 10 - (1846)