Why Separate Hendrickson and Eve Citth Are the Wrong Names

We need to dispel this myth: there is no Separate Hendrickson married to Eve Citth.

Let me explain how the mistake got made…and then got replicated all over the internet.

How John Hendrickson became Separate Hendrickson

We know Simeon Hendrickson’s grandmother’s name is Eve, because he says so in his Mormon (LDS) 1841 “baptisms for the dead.”

But you must look at the original documents from the Baptisms for the Dead, and not the “annotated” book about them, because the annotation is wrong: Simeon NEVER gives the first name of his grandfather, he only indicates “Hendrickson” and “?” for a first name. The annotation in the book says his first name is “Hendrick” but that’s an incorrect assumption on the part of the annotators. (It’s no surprise that Simeon doesn’t know his grandfather’s name. Simeon is born about 1783 and his grandfather dies in 1787. The Baptisms for the Dead occurred in 1841, 54 years after his grandfather died.)

Simeon also baptized the Case family: Separate Case, Ledy (Lydia, noted as Simeon’s aunt), James (noted as Simeon’s cousin), John, Hannah, and Phebe Case. In the same document, he baptizes Kisiah Skimhorn (who is Kezziah Case, daughter of Separate Case, Sr. She married to Joseph Scammerhorn/Skimmerhorn).

Simeon does not indicate the relationship between himself and Separate Case, but Separate Case and Simeon Hendrickson would be related in the same family in some way.

When John Hendricks/Hendrixson dies in 1787 Nelson County, Kentucky, Separate Case acts as the Administrator for the estate/probate.

In 1802, Eve Hendrickson, along with her son William Hendrickson and daughter-in-law Nancy Moore Hendrickson, join the Deep Creek Baptist Church in Harrodsburg, KY. So, she’s still Hendrickson in 1802.

So people assumed Separate Case was the second husband of Eve because he administers her husband’s estate, with no documentation or proof. He’s actually related to the family through marriage: his wife is Lydia Hendrickson, daughter of John and Eve. (DNA has proven the relationship to the Hendrickson DNA line through the Separate Case descendants.)

Note: Simeon has an uncle named Separate Case and a cousin named Separate Case. But Separate Case, Jr dies in 1844, so this LDS baptism in 1841 must be for Separate Case, Sr. married to Lydia Hendrickson.

So, we have this couple: Eve and ___ Hendrickson. Eve signs a marriage consent for her daughter, Barbara, so we know she’s still alive in 1797 Mercer County, Kentucky. But no one knows the husband’s name.

What happens? People researching their family tree decided to combine the two people, ___ Hendrickson and Separate Case, and came up with “Separate Hendrickson.” After all, there were other Separate Hendricksons later on in Indiana, so it appeared that the puzzle pieces could fit together that way. Keyword here: appeared.

However, you can’t just combine two people together because it “feels” right or “looks” right when doing family tree research: you need actual records to prove it.

Fast forward to how Eve Citth got started

In 1820, there are two Separate Hendricksons listed on the Mercer County, Kentucky census…one marked “Big” and one marked “Little”. The census taker is talking about their physical size, not Senior and Junior — the two men are not father and son, but actually cousins. One is the son of Leonard Hendrickson and one is the son of William Hendrickson.

But a transcriber couldn’t read the Big and Little on the blurry copy, so thought Little said “Citth” and put that in the transcription note on FamilySearch. I’m assuming these were the records that also went out on CD with the early versions of Family Tree Maker. (There is a much clearer copy of the actual document from FamilySearch where you can easily see it says Big and Little. The copy on Ancestry is extremely blurry, easy to mistake the notations after people’s names. The clear version is below.) On Ancestry, the transcriber wrote “Laprate Hendrickson Esquire” so they couldn’t read “Big” or “Little” and they couldn’t read “Separate,” either.

People started to put Separate Hendrickson and Eve Citth into their trees online, and the story was replicated without any records to back it up.

Also on FamilySearch, the transcriber thought Separate was “Leprate” because they mistook the “S” for an “L” in the old-fashioned writing. If you look at different entries from the same census taker, you can see he uses that same form for the “S” in Sarah or Silas.

Researchers, looking for Eve Hendrickson’s husband’s first name, grabbed on to the name Separate and assumed “Citth” referred to Eve’s maiden name. But never has a census taker indicated a maiden name of a married woman on a census, and certainly not on a 1820 census where only the head of household name appears. They have, however, tried to identify two men with same name by putting notations after their names.

Plus John, Eve’s husband, was dead by 1820. Come to find out, he died in Nelson County, Kentucky, in 1787…we have his probate information.

So if Eve is still alive in 1820, she’s listed under someone else’s census record, perhaps living with a son or grandson. She’s alive in 1802 when she joins the Deep Run Baptist Church in Harrodsburg, KY. We know she’s dead before 1841 because Simeon blesses her in his “Baptisms for the Dead” in 1841.

So, YES, there were Separate Hendricksons in the world. Dann Norton has written about the 13 men named Separate in his blog post here.

And NO, Eve’s husband was not named Separate. There are no records during his lifespan that ever said Separate. He’s always referred to as John in land and tax records. And NO, Eve’s maiden name is not Citth.

If you’re interested, here’s how I figured out his name was actually John.