An Early Divorce Preserved in the Record

A broken marriage, a court case, and the life that followed

Why this post?  

This post explores a moment in the life of my 2nd great grandmother, Nancy Webb, when her own words entered the court record and reshaped her future. By telling this story, I want to honor the lived experiences behind the names on my family tree and the life Nancy later built with my 2nd great grandfather, George H. Peterson.

Abandoned and Far from Home

In the summer of 1842, Nancy Webb Wells found herself far from safety, holding a young child, with no clear way forward.

She had been born a Webb, the daughter of John Webb. In June of 1838, she married Larkin Wells and entered a life that, at least on paper, followed the expected course. She lived with him as his wife. She bore children. For a time, the future would have looked settled from the outside.

Then he left.

An interpretive illustration

In the words Nancy later placed before the court, Larkin Wells abandoned her among strangers, leaving her with an infant and without the means to support herself. She did not describe a sudden separation or a mutual parting. She described cruelty. She described being struck. And when he was gone, she said, he did not stop there. He attacked her reputation, accusing her of immoral behavior without any foundation, at a moment when she was least able to defend herself.

Nancy did not remain where she was left.

John Webb travelling to get his daughter

Her father, John Webb, traveled two or three hundred miles to reach her. The distance mattered to Nancy. She made sure the court understood it. This was not a short journey or a convenient rescue. He crossed that distance, gathered his daughter and her children, and brought them back into his household in Adams County, Illinois.

Even there, the sense of threat lingered. Nancy stated that Larkin Wells sought legal advice to determine whether he could punish her father for sheltering her and her infant child. Home was safer, but it was not yet secure.

So Nancy made a decision that would place her life permanently into the record.

She filed a bill of divorce in Adams County. In it, she laid out what had happened to her, not as rumor or grievance, but as fact. She asked the court to dissolve her marriage and to grant her custody of her children. She placed her story into the formal language of the law and trusted it to speak for her.

The case did not fade away. It moved forward.

On Wednesday, October 4, 1843, the court was in session. The record states that the cause came on to be heard upon the bill and the evidence adduced therein. Whatever form that evidence took, it was considered. The court reached its decision that same day.

The bonds of matrimony between Nancy Wells and Larkin Wells were fully dissolved. Custody of the children was awarded to Nancy. Larkin Wells was ordered to pay the costs of the proceedings. The ruling was decisive and complete.

An artistic rendering of Stephen Douglas in the early 1840s.

At the time, Adams County fell within the judicial circuit presided over by Stephen A. Douglas. The decree was issued under his authority. Whether Nancy stood before him, sat in the courtroom as her case was heard, or waited while her words were read into the record cannot be known. What is known is that her account was placed before the court while he presided, and the court believed her.

Two years later, Nancy married again. Her second husband was George H. Peterson, the man who would become her partner for the remainder of her life and the ancestor through whom this family line continues. That marriage often appears on family trees as a clean beginning.

But before there was that beginning, there was this moment.

A woman named Nancy Webb Wells, abandoned and accused, chose not to disappear. She trusted the law with her story. She asked to be heard. And in October of 1843, the court answered.

Sources

Bill of complaint

Adams County, Illinois. Illinois Circuit Court (Adams County), Chancery Record, bill of complaint, Nancy Wells vs. Larkin Wells, filed prior to October 1843. Digital image, FamilySearch, image group number 008526190.

Final decree

Adams County, Illinois. Illinois Circuit Court (Adams County), Chancery Record, final decree in divorce case Nancy Wells vs. Larkin Wells, dated 4 October 1843. Digital image, FamilySearch, image group number 008526190.

Court Jurisdiction and Presiding Judge

Illinois Circuit Court system, Adams County jurisdiction, early 1840s; Stephen A. Douglas serving as circuit judge during the period. Information corroborated through contemporaneous Illinois court records and legislative histories.

What’s in a Name? Apparently… Everything and Nothing at the Same Time

How Early Records Turn Perfectly Good Names Into Chaos

One of the great lies of genealogy is the idea that names are stable. We tend to approach records assuming a person has one name, spelled one way, used consistently, and recorded faithfully by every clerk, minister, and courthouse employee they ever encountered.

That illusion usually lasts right up until the first deed, census, or court record proves otherwise.

Lately, I’ve been living in name confusion. Not dramatic, soap-opera confusion…just the slow, grinding realization that early records treat names far more casually than modern researchers would like. And when you are trying to reconstruct families, children, and relationships, that casualness can feel personal.

Take Joel Webb.

Joel… or Joseph?

Most records I’ve found refer to my ancestor as Joel Webb. That’s the name that appears again and again, the one that fits the timeline, the geography, and the family cluster. And then there is one deed that calmly drops this phrase like it’s no big deal at all: “Joseph Webb, otherwise called Joel Webb.”

Otherwise called.

No explanation. No apology. No clarification. Just… there it is.

Naturally, this raises questions. Is Joel short for Joseph? Was Joseph his formal name and Joel his everyday name? Are there actually two men here who I’m accidentally merging? And to make matters worse, I’ve found other records for a Joseph Webb living in the same place and time Joel should be living.

So which is it?

Which is it? The name tag or everything else?

Here’s the thing that record-heavy genealogy teaches you very quickly: one record does not get to overrule all the others just because it sounds official. But it also does not get ignored.

When a contemporary document explicitly states “otherwise called,” that tells me something important. At least one clerk or witness believed those two names referred to the same man at that moment in time. That doesn’t prove Joel always used Joseph, or that Joseph was his birth name, or that every Joseph Webb in the county was secretly Joel. But it does carry weight.

What I do not do is panic and rename him across my entire tree based on a single record. Majority usage matters. Context matters. And sometimes the most accurate conclusion is not certainty, but caution.

Then there’s the sibling problem.

John… and Jonathan.

Another layer of confusion comes when looking at Joel’s children. Did he name one son John and another son Jonathan? Could those be the same person? Or is this just another case of clerks being creative?

Here’s where modern instincts can get us into trouble.

To us, John and Jonathan feel very close. Practically interchangeable. Surely a family wouldn’t use both, right?

Except… they absolutely did.

In the late 18th and early 19th centuries, John and Jonathan were understood as distinct names. They show up side by side in families all the time. Parents didn’t worry about confusion the way we do. Communities knew who was who. Clerks usually knew who they were writing about. And when confusion does happen, it’s often the record keeper’s fault, not the family’s.

So no, the presence of both names does not automatically mean duplication. It means I need to look for overlapping lives… shared land, shared wives, shared timelines. Names alone are not enough to collapse identities.

And just when you think you’ve sorted the men out, the women enter the picture.

Nancy… Nanny… or Fanny?

Joel’s wife may have been named Nancy. Or Nanny. Or Fanny.

Or maybe she was Frances and everyone just did what they felt like that day.

Nancy and Nanny are often interchangeable in records. Fanny can be a nickname for Frances, but it also sometimes appears when clerks hear something vaguely familiar and write what they think makes sense. Add in handwriting quirks, dialects, and the unfortunate reality that women appear less often in records, and suddenly you’re left squinting at spellings and wondering if you’re chasing three women or one.

This is where genealogy stops being about finding answers and starts being about evaluating evidence.

What I’ve learned (the hard way)

Here’s the approach I keep coming back to when names start misbehaving:

Most records matter more than one record, but one record can still matter.
Explicit statements like “otherwise called” deserve attention.
Names are clues, not conclusions.
People are identified by patterns of place, family, associates, and behavior… not spelling.
And sometimes the most honest thing a researcher can say is “this remains unresolved.”

It’s frustrating. It’s messy. And it’s also exactly what real historical research looks like.

So if you’re feeling confused because your ancestor seems to have gone by two names, or named children too similarly, or married someone whose name changes depending on who’s holding the pen… you’re not doing it wrong. You’re doing it accurately.

Names, it turns out, are both everything and not nearly enough.

Source:

Patrick Hanks, Kate Hardcastle, and Flavia Hodges, A Dictionary of First Names (Oxford University Press).

This is one of the standard academic references for English given names. It treats John and Jonathan as separate entries, with distinct histories and usage patterns in English-speaking societies. 

Joel Webb in Illinois: Following a Father and Son Through Land Records

A father, a son, and a forty-acre trail west

Why this post? This post continues my ongoing use of land deeds as a primary tool for tracing family history, particularly during periods when other records are sparse or silent. By examining two related deeds from Adams County, Illinois, I seek to document the continued life of my ancestor Joel Webb into the 1840s and to better understand how land transactions reveal patterns of family migration, settlement, and generational transition as the Webb family moved westward.

One of the most reliable ways to trace families during periods of migration is through land records. Deeds often capture moments of transition, revealing not only where people lived, but how families moved together and supported one another. Two related land deeds recorded in Adams County, Illinois, provide an important snapshot of my ancestor Joel Webb and his son John Webb during the early 1840s and help clarify when Joel was still living and where the family was settling before their later move west.

These deeds do not stand alone. When read alongside independently established family relationships, they become key pieces of evidence for understanding the Webb family’s presence in Illinois and the timing of their migration.

A Land Transfer from Joel Webb to His Son

Interpretive view of Adams County, Illinois, near the Mississippi River, c. 1840s.

On 18 July 1840, Joel Webb and his wife Susan Webb executed a warranty deed conveying land in Adams County, Illinois, to John Webb. At the time of the transaction, Joel and Susan were residing in Jo Daviess County, Illinois, while John Webb was already living in Adams County. The land conveyed was the southwest quarter of the northeast quarter of Section 16, Township 3 South, Range 5 West.

The deed identifies Susan as Joel Webb’s wife and includes her separate acknowledgment, a standard legal safeguard confirming her voluntary participation in the conveyance. This transaction places Joel Webb alive and active in Illinois in mid-1840 and shows him transferring property to John Webb at a point when John was already established in Adams County.

The Same Land, Sold Three Years Later

Just over three years later, on 2 August 1843, John Webb and his wife Elizabeth Webb conveyed the same parcel of land to B. L. Frame, also of Adams County. Elizabeth Webb executed her own separate acknowledgment, confirming her role in the transaction and documenting her identity as John Webb’s wife.

The legal description in this deed is identical to the one used in the 1840 conveyance, establishing a clear and uninterrupted chain of title from Joel Webb to John Webb and then to a third party. Together, these deeds trace the full life cycle of this particular landholding within a short window of time.

Correlating the Deeds with Family Relationships

Independent evidence identifies John Webb as the son of Joel Webb and identifies Elizabeth Chappell as John Webb’s wife. When these known relationships are correlated with the Adams County deeds, the transactions align closely with a father-to-son transfer of land during a period of family migration and settlement.

The timing, marital pairings, stated residences, and sequential ownership all fit naturally within the known structure of the Webb family. Joel Webb appears in Illinois at a time consistent with later-life movement alongside adult children, while John Webb was already positioned in Adams County before selling the land and eventually moving on to Missouri.

What These Deeds Tell Us About the Webb Family

Together, these records confirm that Joel Webb was still living in the early 1840s and had migrated to Illinois in proximity to his son John Webb, and possibly other children. They also demonstrate how land transactions can serve as durable markers of family movement, settlement, and generational transition during a period when many Americans were moving westward.

For the Webb family, these two deeds anchor Joel Webb firmly in Illinois and provide a documentary bridge between earlier family history and the later move to Missouri.

Sources

Adams County, Illinois, Deed Records, Joel Webb and wife Susan Webb to John Webb, 18 July 1840; recorded 1 November 1847; images, FamilySearch, Image Group Number 008547722.

Adams County, Illinois, Deed Records, John Webb and wife Elizabeth Webb to B. L. Frame, 2 August 1843; images, FamilySearch, Image Group Number 008547722.