Joseph Daniel Martin

Joseph Daniel Martin

TennesseeProbable

Great-grandfather · 1832–1899

Born

1832

Died

1899

Married

Nannie Chenault

Children

Nancy Louise Martin

Sources

6

Research status

Evidence: His headstone, the 1870 census and his father's 1849 will. Weak or missing: The will never writes “son”; the family tree's dates are withdrawn. Not yet confirmed. Know more? Confirm or correct this →

Life in the order the records give it

Birth1832

Born 1832, Tennessee

the year on his double headstone S86; aged 37 in the 1870 census, District 12, Sumner County, a farmer with Nannie, 26, Louisa, 3, and Mary, 1 S202

Death1899

Died 1899 — the headstone S86. The FamilySearch tree's later dates S12 are withdrawn: the headstone, the 1870 census and his father's 1849 will all place his birth in the early 1830s.

Family parents, marriages, children, siblings

Children—

Father of Nancy Louise Martin (Timberman line) S12

Marriage—

Married Nannie Chenault S12

Parents1849

🔑 Named in his father's will, 30 June 1849 S172

"To Joseph D Martin I give unto a light bay filly now two years old", inside the passage disposing of Peter H. Martin's estate for the benefit of my children, beside David B. and after Robert B. Martin. His parentage no longer rests on two census households S98 S161. ⚠ The will never writes the word son; the structure of the bequest carries it.

In the record Generation 4 — Earl's great-grandparents

1. S12FamilySearch Tree public pages, no login required for deceased persons — William Harry Proeger KC1N-799, Aileane Marie Silva L9GZ-NDP, William Leonard Proeger L7GK-VBK, Queen Anne Proeger LHQW-W1L — ancestors.familysearch.org. User-contributed; event lists are treated as PROBABLE unless separately sourced.
2. S86Joseph D. Martin and Nannie G. Martin — double headstone. Member-submitted photograph dated 4/2012, from the Coffman family tree shared by Earl's uncle David. Re-read off the full-resolution image, enlarged, on 17 September 2026. Inscribed JOSEPH D. MARTIN, SEPT. 22, 1832 – SEPT. 28, 1899 and NANNIE G. MARTIN, JAN. 26, 1844 – APR. 4, 1915. ⚠️ This source previously transcribed the stone wrongly, and the error is recorded here rather than quietly overwritten. It gave the husband's middle initial as a C and put his death a decade too early, and built an argument on that: that the stone contradicted the family tree, and that the tree's "Daniel" and "1899" had no record behind them. The opposite is true. The monument plainly reads D. and 1899, so it corroborates the tree on both the middle initial and the death year — which makes it evidence for "Daniel", not against it. Two of the wife's figures were also out by a digit each (Jan. 26 not 28, Apr. 4 not 14). A misread document is worse than no document, because it is quoted with confidence. Their identification as Nancy Louise Martin's parents is still from the tree [S30] and remains Probable — a stone proves two people and their dates, not a parentage.
3. S981850 US Federal Census — Jane Martin household, District 12, Sumner County, Tennessee. Jane Martin, 56, Head (b. ~1794); David, 19; Joseph, 18; Martha, 16; Louisa, 14; Mary McMurry, 7; William Bell, 65. NARA M432, Roll 897, Page 286a. Ancestry collection 8054, records 6921047 / 6921049. Re-read in full on 18 September 2026, and it carries two names this entry had left off. Jane heads the household with no husband present because Peter Hines Martin died 4 July 1849, the year before [S105]. And William Bell, aged 65 — a man of her parents' generation, living under her roof — is her maiden name walking into the record on its own legs, independent of the marriage index [S106] and of the family chart [S103] that first supplied it. ⚠️ This household is still what makes Joseph Probable rather than Confirmed as Peter's son: right name, right age, right county, in the widow's house the year after the father died — but a census names a household, not a parentage. Peter's 1849 Sumner County probate file was what would close it [S107] — and it has: his holographic will of 30 June 1849 [S172] names Joseph D Martin in the children's division, and calls William Bell Jane's brother.
4. S1611860 U.S. Federal Census — Jane Martin, widow and head of household, District No. 12, Sumner County, Tennessee. Ancestry collection 7667, record 22611436, image 4297417_00518. Post Office Gallatin, enumerated 16 June 1860, page No. 30, dwelling and family 209, lines 30–32. Read from the image at full resolution — 4690 × 6621 px, 130/130 DeepZoom tiles, 22 September 2026. Jane Martin, 62, F, Farmer, real estate $9,240, personal estate $11,840, born TENNESSEE; Jo. D. Martin, 27, M, do [Farmer], born Tennessee; M. L. Martin, 21, F, born Tennessee. The estate figures are written once on line 30 with a brace drawn down the three lines. 🔑 JOSEPH D. MARTIN IS IN THE WIDOW'S HOUSE A SECOND TIME, TEN YEARS ON. The tree held him only from his 1866 marriage forward S95, with the link to Peter and Jane resting on the single 1850 household S98. Here he is again under the same roof, now entered as a Farmer in his own right, six years before he married Nannie Chenault. ⚠ It does NOT upgrade Probable to Confirmed, and the reason is the kind of evidence: a census names a household, not a parentage. Ancestry's own index says inferred child, and inferred is the right word. Two household enumerations make coincidence hard to argue; neither states the word "son". Peter's 1849 Sumner County probate S107 was the document that would close it — and it has been read, 22 September 2026, as [S172]: Joseph D Martin is named in his father's own hand, inside the children's division. 🔑 Her birthplace reads TENNESSEE for the second time, on her own line, ten years after the 1850 sheet said the same S98. Nothing read in this research gives Virginia for HER. Her husband Peter Hines Martin was born in Virginia S105, and a birthplace copied sideways from a husband to a wife is the commonest error in an online tree. 🔑 She was worth better than $21,000, in her own name. $6,000 of real estate in 1850; $9,240 real and $11,840 personal here, in a household of three, with Farmer in her own occupation column both times. 🔴 THE TWO AGE COLUMNS CANNOT BOTH BE RIGHT. 1850 gives 56 (born 1793–94); this sheet gives 62 (born 1797–98). Ten years apart the ages advance six. The disagreement is printed rather than smoothed: the 1818 marriage S162 favours the earlier year (a bride of about 24 rather than 20), the 1820 tally leans the later S163, and 1840 is neutral S164. No record read gives a month or a day. The year is UNSETTLED and a row stands in the review queue. ⚠ M. L. Martin's initials are not clean — a large looped capital reading M or Jn — and the age reads 21 with 24 possible. At 24 she is the Louisa, 14, of 1850; at 21 she matches no child on that sheet. Transcribed as read, not resolved. ⚠ Abram Martin, 65, born NORTH CAROLINA, $10,000 real and $11,950 personal, stands two dwellings from Jane in 1860 and two doors from her in 1850, with Mary Martin 53, Malvina 26 and John Franklin 20. A brother of Peter is the obvious hypothesis and it is recorded as a hypothesis only: Peter was born 1793 and Abram about 1795, Peter's grave names his own father John — the name Abram gave a son — but Peter was born in Virginia and Abram in North Carolina, and that is a real obstacle, not a detail. Captured, not researched, not added to the tree.
5. S172The last will and testament of Peter H. Martin — Sumner County, Tennessee, written in his own hand 30 June 1849, proved August Term 1849. Tennessee, U.S., Wills and Probate Records, 1779–2008; Sumner County Will Books 1789–1904; Ancestry record 3819223, image 004776071_00479. Read from the image at full resolution, 22 September 2026. "I Peter H. Martin of the County of Sumner and State of Tennessee, being in my usual health and of sound and disposing mind, do make and ordain this my last will and Testament." To his wife Jane Martin, for life: the home plantation, the timbered tract bought of William Walton, the horses Charley and Rhoda and choice of three more, eight cattle, the farm gear, a year's provisions, the household furniture, twenty stock hogs, and "Choice of my Servants to the Number of three." The residue "to be sold at public sale for the benefit of my children." "My Town property to be Sold at a Credit for the benefit of my Children. Robert B. Martin has had an advance of three hundred & seventy dollars for which he will account to the other children in the division of my estate … The Shoe Store may be sold to the Crutchers & R. B. Martin and the latter allowed to retain the use of the Capital I put in." "To David B. Martin I give … a dark bay filly four years old. To Joseph D Martin I give unto a light bay filly now two years old." "To Mr. Wm Bell I leave a house and a support with his Sister as long as he Shall choose to accept it." "Witness that I have written with my own hand this 30th day of June 1849 … P. H. Martin (Seal)." Witnesses Thomas Crutcher, J. B. Wilson, W. H. Crutcher; proved in open court, Sumner County Court, August Term 1849, on the oaths of Thomas Crutcher and Wm H Crutcher; recorded by Wm S. Munday, Clerk. 🔑 This is the document the line page named as the one that would close the Joseph question [S107] — and it had never been read. 🔑 Joseph D Martin is named by his father, inside the passage disposing of the estate for the benefit of my children, in the same breath as David B. Martin and immediately after Robert B. Martin is told to account to the other children in the division of my estate. Three named Martins stand inside the class "my children" in the testator's own instrument. ⚠ The caveat travels with it: the will never writes the word son beside any of the three names. The filiation is carried by the structure of the bequest, not by a kinship term. It is far stronger than the two census households the link rested on [S98] [S161], and it is still not the word. 🔑 William Bell was Jane's BROTHER — with his Sister, in Peter's hand. S98's open brother or uncle is answered, and it explains why he was living in her house in 1850: her husband provided for it. 🔑 Peter Hines Martin kept a SHOE STORE, with capital still in it in 1849 and partners in the Crutchers, and held town property apart from the plantation. Read with Persons engaged in Manufactures: 4 at Gallatin in 1820 [S163], it is one trade across thirty years — and David, 19, "Clerk" in 1850 [S98] was clerking in his father's store. 🔑 Holographic, and four days before his death — written 30 June 1849, and his grave gives 4 July 1849 [S105]. 🔑 Nine people in an instrument Ancestry indexes under one name: Jane Martin, Robert B., David B. and Joseph D Martin, Wm Bell, William Walton, and three witnesses. ⚠ Ancestry's Probate Date 30 Jun 1849 is the date the will was written and sealed; probate is the August Term. ⚠ The will bequeaths Servants by choice of three; it names none of them.
6. S2021870 U.S. Federal Census — Joseph D. Martin household, District 12, Sumner County, Tennessee (P.O. Gallatin). Ancestry record 14376304. Read from the image at full resolution, 22 September 2026. Joseph D. Martin, 37, farmer; Nannie, 26; Louisa, 3; Mary, 1. 🔑 Louisa is Louise Bell (Martin) Harsh [S191] [S204]; Mary (c.1869) is new. ⚠ His age of 37 agrees with the 1832 headstone; the card's dates are under review.