Sorting Fact from Fiction in the Morehead Family

A Researcher’s Look at Untangling Generations of Repeating Names

AI-generated artwork representing the early Fairfield County landscape.

When you spend time in early Ohio and Pennsylvania records, you start to hear echoes. The same names repeat across generations and counties: John, Alexander, Calvin. These echoes are part of the Morehead story, and they are also the reason this research has taken patience, careful reading, and more than a few returns to the same documents. My goal has been simple: identify the parents of my fourth great-grandfather, Alexander Morehead, using only what the records truly support. The first step was to set aside online trees and begin fresh with evidence.

My current focus is on the older John Morehead, the man whose name keeps appearing in the earliest Fairfield County, Ohio records and who may hold the key to placing my own line in the right generation. His name appears alongside Alexander, Thomas, and Calvin in Fairfield County during the early 1800s, suggesting a family group moving through the same community at the same time. The elder John may have come from Westmoreland County, Pennsylvania (1790 census), and by 1801 he is in Fairfield County purchasing land with Barnabas Golding. He shows up again in Fairfield County court documents in the years that follow, and by 1850 he is in Putnam County, age eighty-five, still recorded as born in Pennsylvania. It is records like these that have led me to consider that he may be the patriarch of my own line, though that is something I am still testing carefully against the evidence.

County histories add another layer to the picture. I've discovered that county histories can be useful, but they often mix documented facts with family recollections, so every detail should be verified against primary records. The few regarding my Morehead clan suggest relationships that I can explore as I collect primary sources. One detail is the mention of an older John Morehead whose wife is identified as Susan Porter. No marriage record has been found to support this claim, but it provides a lead to pursue rather than relying on chance discoveries.

1830 Fairfield County guardianship bond for Emanuel Morehead.

One significant record I found while searching for Moreheads in Fairfield County, Ohio is a set of guardianship bonds dating from 1830. These documents involve my ancestor, Alexander Morehead, who was appointed guardian for his own children after the death of their mother, Rebecca Cook. Thomas and Calvin Morehead appear as sureties on these bonds. My early hypothesis is that Thomas and Calvin may be Alexander’s brothers, though this is something I am still working to confirm.

This is the heart of the challenge. Many names, many counties, and many overlapping lifespans can make it easy to merge the wrong individuals together. Part of good genealogy is resisting that temptation. Another part is learning when a document belongs to the right person and when it belongs to someone else entirely. With the Moreheads, every new record forces a fresh look at the structure of the family.

For my research, the central question remains: was the elder John Morehead the father of my Alexander? The available evidence leans in that direction. John appears in Pennsylvania and then in Fairfield County at the right time for him to be part of Alexander’s earlier family circle. The movements of other Moreheads—such as Thomas and Calvin—from Fairfield into Putnam County match the same pattern I see in Alexander’s records. Still, this conclusion needs direct confirmation, and that is the focus of my ongoing work.

What I have right now is a growing body of records that place these individuals in the same time, the same places, and the same family networks. Guardianship records, land purchases, court appearances, county histories, and census entries each offer small pieces that, taken together, start to clear the fog.

This Morehead research is far from finished. But each document brings the echoes into sharper focus, and slowly, a single voice begins to stand out—my Alexander, walking the same ground as the others but leaving a path that was his alone. The work now is to keep following it, one verified record at a time.

Sources Referenced in This Blog Post

• 1790 U.S. Census – Westmoreland County, Pennsylvania. Used to establish the earliest known appearance of an older John Morehead.
• Fairfield County, Ohio Land Purchase (1801) – John Morehead & Barnabas Golding
• Fairfield County Recorder
• FamilySearch digital images
• Shows John Morehead purchasing the east half of Section 17, Township 18, Range 17.
• Fairfield County, Ohio Court Records (1804–1807)
• Fairfield County Court Memorandum Books
• FamilySearch digital images
• Place John Morehead, and sometimes Alexander, Thomas, or Calvin, in Fairfield County in the early 1800s.
• 1850 U.S. Census – Putnam County, Ohio. Shows an elderly John Morehead, age 85, born in Pennsylvania, living in Putnam County.
• Guardianship Bonds for the Children of Alexander Morehead (1830)
• Fairfield County Clerk of Courts
• FamilySearch digital images
• Documents Alexander as guardian of his own children after the death of his first wife, Rebecca Cook, with Thomas and Calvin Morehead as sureties.
• County Histories (Specific Passages Used.) These were referenced for contextual clues, not treated as stand-alone proof. All require corroboration, per your warning in the post.
• Genealogical and Biographical Record of North-Eastern Kansas (1900)
• Mentions the elder John Morehead and his wife, Susan Porter
• Provides migration clues and family structure that require further verification
• Putnam County (Ohio) Histories and Atlas Entries
• Mention Sarah (Morehead) Crawfis
• Identify her parents as Calvin Morehead and Susanna Good
• Help clarify what family information belongs to the Good line and what belongs to the Moreheads