12 for ’26: Update on Lancaster Research

This month, I spent a lot of time researching the Lancaster family, particularly these three gentlemen: George Warren Lancaster (1893-1964), his father William Carlton Lancaster (1873-1946), and his grandfather, George Wilson Lancaster (1839-1919).

I searched at FamilySearch using full-text search for William C. and George Wilson Lancaster. See 12 for ’26: Full-text Search for William C. Lancaster (1873-1946) and Searching for George W. Lancaster (1839-1919) in Full-text Search.

I also searched for newspaper articles at the Portal to Texas History for all three men:

12 for ’26: George Warren Lancaster in Newspaper Articles

12 for ’26: Newspaper Search at Portal to Texas History for William C. Lancaster

12 for ’26 Locating George Wilson Lancaster at the Portal for Texas History Newspaper Collection

I have also written up the full-text search for George Wilson Lancaster in records of Rockwall County that are locked, but the task is not completed, as I ran out of time at the FamilySearch Center.

During a course I am taking this spring called Writing for Discovery, one of the techniques to help getting started in writing up a family history is to create a timeline. I have spent the past two weeks working on George Wilson Lancaster’s timeline because I have so much information. It is currently at twelve pages and I am only up to 1905. In this timeline, I am recording the date, the activity, my comments about the record, and any new research to be done. Here is an example of a couple of entries:

1850     September 18. Census. Lewis County, Missouri, census, District no. 48. Living as a 11-year-old child in the household of Ellis W. Lancaster. Born in Missouri. Attended school. His father had 4 enslaved people: Female 19, female 12, female 10, female 8.[1]

1859     December 5. Acquired tracts of land from E.W. and Elizabeth S. Lancaster in Kaufman County, Texas, with Reece Brown and James R. Lancaster. 1st tract part of B.F. Boydston headright, adjourning town of Rockwall (120 acres). 2nd tract part of 206-acre tract to A Hanna at east Bank of Bois D arc Fork of Trinity River (80 acres). 3rd tract part of A Hanna survey (50 acres). $4000.[2] 

            COMMENT: Brown is likely Ruben Bourn, their daughter Sarah’s husband, James R is their son-in-law. George W is EW’s son. So, these three are owning the 3 tracts together, as opposed to owning each separately.

1860     July 5. Census. Lived in Kaufman Co, Texas, with father, E.W. Lancaster. He is 21 years old. He has $500 worth of personal property.

COMMENT: Was it an enslaved person? His brother, W.T. also had $500 personal property. Are there slave schedules? Slave schedule for Kaufman County shows no Lancaster man owning an enslaved person. Looked at all 8 pages, line by line.

1860     September 4. A deed where Reubin Bourn & Sarah A. his wife, James R Lancaster and Mary Ann his wife, and George W Lancaster of Kaufman Co, sold to William Neal for $800 a tract of land, described as 80 acres of A Hanna tract on Bois D arc fork of Trinity River.[3]

COMMENT: This is the 2nd tract the three had purchased from Ellis and Elizabeth Lancaster.

I am using blue text for my comments and red text for things to further research. In the footnote section, red texted items need some work, mostly revisiting the image so get a more current URL and IGN numbers with image numbers. Most of the red items are from locked records, so I need to visit the FamilySearch Center to take care of those. I also would like to create a table of deed transactions so I can keep track of the purchases and the sales. I will have to revisit the complete land descriptions in the transcribed deeds to do that.

There are only two days left in the month. I will start another family in April. I hope I have made enough notes to remember what I need to do when I return to this family.

This 12 for ’26 exercise this year is to determine which families would have enough information to work on as a KDP for my upcoming renewal. This family is definitely a candidate.

[1] 1850 U.S. census, Lewis Co, Missouri, District No. 48, p. 355 (stamped), line 1, Ellis W. Lancaster.

[2] Kaufman Co, Texas, deeds, v. I, p. 414-416, no. 308, EW & ES Lancaster to R Bourn, JR Lancaster, & GW Lancaster, 1859, imaged, FamilySearch ( );

[3] Kaufman Co, Texas, deed, v. I, p. 476-77, no. 346, Reuben Bourn, James R Lancaster & George W. Lancaster to William Neal, 1860, imaged, FamilySearch (). 


Copyright © 2011-2026 by Lisa S. Gorrell, Mam-ma's Southern Family, All rights reserved.

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