Individual Details

From the Randel family Bible which belonged to Caroline Comstock Randel.
Nancy Comstock - 1805-1855

According to family stories, Nancy Goodman was half Indian which is highly questionable for several reasons. The tribe usually named is Choctaw. The Comstock Book says she was reared in Graves County, Kentucky, and the court house "burned" in 1887, but this is not true, and Graves Co was not formed when she was a child - it was still Indian Lands at this time. This was Cherokee Land, not Choctaw. However, during the years of the Indian Removal in Mississippi where the Choctaws were located, many did drift northward into the Tennessee mountains to avoid removal.
[Recent DNA test for ethnicity shows that I carry no traces of Indian blood - 100% European descent, making the "Indian" story in the family even less likely than before.]

Research in a Kansas City library revealed the marriage took place in Maury Co, Tennessee.
Bondsman was Robert Bates. I have found a marriage of Robert Bates to Mahala Goodman, same location 25 Apr 1819. A good guess would be that Nancy and Mahala were sisters.
In the 1830 census, a widow, Nancy Goodman, was enumerated next to Ephraim Comstock in Carroll Co TN. She could be Nancy's mother.

Nancy Goodman of 1830, does not appear again in a Tennessee census - either she remarried or died.

Mahala Goodman Bates was probably living in Hickman Co, TN in 1830. There were three Robert Bates listed, none quite fit and one of the names indexed as “Bates” doesn't really look like Bates. Bates researchers do indicate Robert was some older and likely had an earlier marriage, so there could have been older children, etc. in the household. One Robert Bates, the one whose name is questionable, had no young woman in his home, only a lady who was 40-50. One Robert Bates was age 70-80 - it's doubtful that Mahala's Robert was that much older! The remaining Robert Bates had a large household: a boy under 5, 2 boys 5-10, and a man age 50-60, two girls under 5, 1 girl under 10 and a girl 10-15, one female age 20-30 [possibly Mahala] and a female age 40-50.

Mahaly Bates was living in Williamson Co TN in 1840, now widowed, apparently recently since she as three children under five. She had a son under 5, 2 sons age 15-20, 2 daughters under 5, a daughter 5-10, 2 daughters 10-15 and a daughter 15-20. Her age listed as 30-40. Interestingly there is also an older Robert Bates, age 80-90 - he would seem to be the old Robert from Hickman Co in 1830. Bates researchers state that Robert's father was a James Bates, but I wonder…. At any rate, the old Robert was still living in 1850 when he was in Williamson Co at age 105, born in England - he was living with Barnett Jones and family but there was also a Jane Bates, age 80, born in South Carolina in the household and previous censuses had indicated a younger wife.
In 1850, Mahala was also still in Williamson Co - living with John Hargrove who she would marry. She gave her age as 42, b. SC; John age 34, b. VA. Hargrove had five children ages 14 to 3. Bates researchers say they married in Maury Co TN, 10 Mar 1851, placing Mahala back in Maury Co. Mahala had only a two year old daughter, Amanda Bates, who could not have been the child of her deceased husband Robert. Hargrove had five children from his first marriage in the household. By 1860, John Hargrove and Mahaly were living by themselves in Maury Co TN - he was 44 and Mahaly 56 [or born 1804]. In 1850 Mahala said she was born in South Carolina; in 1860 she said North Carolina. One wonders what had happened to the younger children from 1850 - Amanda Bates who was two, and the youngest Hargrove child, Jerome, who was age three in 1850. There is no indication Mahala and Nancy had any further contact after Robert Bates served as bondsman for Nancy's marriage. They were both marked as being “unable to read and write” in the censuses.


Goodman resesarch in Maury, Carroll, Hickman & Perry Counties from 1810 through 1850 has not produced any conclusive evidence for Nancy's family. There were many Goodmans in these areas and undoubtedly she belongs, but no connection is evident.


1850 U S Census, Perry Co TN. p.145. Widow Nancy Comstock, age 44, is head of her household. Born in South Carolina. Cannot read or write. Leander age 20, William age 17, Warren age 15, James E age 13, Elijah age 11, and Harvey A. age 9. All children born in Tennessee.

Birth	2 Jun 1805	South Carolina
Marriage	14 Oct 1823	Maury County, Tennessee - EPHRAIM FLOR HUBER COMSTOCK
Death	24 May 1855

Spouse	EPHRAIM FLOR HUBER COMSTOCK (1795 - 1847)
Child	Caroline Zelphia Ann Comstock (1823 - 1909)
Child	Hugh Bonaparte Comstock (1827 - 1856)
Child	Leander Brown Comstock (1828 - 1877)
Child	William Decatur Comstock (1832 - 1864)
Child	Warren Harris Comstock (1834 - 1864)
Child	James Irving/Ervin Comstock (1837 - 1893)
Child	ELIJAH THOMAS "Tom" COMSTOCK (1838 - 1917)
Child	Harvey Alexander Comstock (1841 - 1882)

Father	Abraham GOODMAN (1775 - 1825)
Mother	Nancy [Goodman] (1770 - 1840)
Sibling	Hosea GOODMAN (1798 - 1857)
Sibling	Abisha GOODMAN (1800 - )
Sibling	Mahala GOODMAN (1804 - 1870)
Sibling	Manerva GOODMAN (1806 - )
Sibling	Lemuel Oliver GOODMAN (1813 - 1874)
Sibling	Telitha GOODMAN (1814 - 1896)
Sibling	B. Ervin GOODMAN (1817 - 1870)