Matilda Pauline Howard

Matilda Pauline Howard

Confirmed

1847–1912

Born

in 1847

Died

on 14 June 1912

Married

Solomon Alfred Brock

Children

Iona Belle Brock

Sources

11

Images

7

Research status

Research status: CONFIRMED as the mother of Iona Belle Brock Confirmed. Earl’s 3rd-great-grandmother. Two records read from their images carry it: Iona B., 14, is in the household she headed in June 1880 S166, and Iona’s 1947 death certificate gives her mother’s maiden name as Matilda Howard S170. The 1865 Harlan County register, which marries Matildia Howard to Salomon A. Brock, ties the Howard of the certificate to the Mrs Brock of the census S151. The 1870 sheet has Iona B., 4, in the house S153. Open points: the certificate’s informant was a grandchild of hers, reporting eighty years on; the day of her birth is on no record read; her death on 14 June 1912 is on the pension payment card S1767 and the headstone S1768, and the place of death is on no record read. Her own parents are graded separately and are Probable. Know more? Use “Add to this record”.

Life in the order the records give it

Birth1847

Born in 1847, Kentucky. Four schedules agree: age 13 in 1860 S165, 23 in 1870 S153, 33 in 1880 S166, and January 1847 with age 53 in 1900 S138. Each requires a birth between 2 June 1846 and 1 June 1847. The 1910 sheet’s age of 62 S154 and the headstone’s 1848 S1768 are later and do not outweigh four. No record read gives the day.

Census1880

On 18 June 1880 she headed her own household at Hilburn Township, Madison County, Arkansas, with Iona B. 14, Mary E. 11, Ellen 9, Ida C. 7, John B. 6 and James B. 3 S166; Solomon was enumerated at Eureka Springs two weeks earlier S168. Both sheets say married.

Death1904

She filed for a widow’s pension from Texas on 23 May 1904 as Matilda P. Brock S152, and in April 1910 she was a widow heading her own household at Clyde, Callahan County, Texas S154.

Military1912

Matilda Pauline Howard died on 14 June 1912. The Veterans Administration pension payment card for Brock, Matilda P., Army widow, certificate 585190, read from the image, is stamped Dead and has “June 14, 1912” written on its Died line S1767. Her headstone gives the same day S1768. The stone names her with the middle initial R. and a birth in 1848, where the pension records made in her lifetime have Matilda P. and four census pages put her birth in 1847; a stone is cut after the death from what the family tells the mason, and the earlier records are followed here. Neither record gives the place of death, and no state death certificate has been read.

Burial2026

History of this card. 13 Oct 2026

the death line, which gave the year 1912 and said no death record had been read, now gives 14 June 1912 from the pension payment card (S1767) and the headstone (S1768), both read from their images; the grade is unchanged. 13 Oct 2026 — the status line had said the 1870 sheet writes the four-year-old girl Sara B.; that was an early transcription, the image reads Iona B. (S153), and the line now says so. 13 Oct 2026 — card written from the records already cited on the Bowles, Williams and Brock line page, where this ancestor had stood as a chain entry only; no new record was read and no grade was changed. 13 Oct 2026 — status raised from Probable to Confirmed as the mother of Iona Belle Brock, re-derived from the records already on the card (S166 and S170, with S151); no new record was read. Her documents were attached to the card the same day.

Family parents, marriages, children, siblings

Marriage1865

Wife of Solomon Alfred Brock. They married on 6 March 1865 in Harlan County, Kentucky; the register gives her maiden surname in the clerk’s hand as Matildia Howard S151.

Children—

Mother of Iona Belle Brock, Mary E. Brock, Ida C. Brock, John B. Brock, Lorena Lucille Brock and Ada May Brock.

Open questions what is probable, weak or missing — confirm or correct it

Probable

Probable daughter of John Covey Howard and Matilda (Brock) Howard: she is Matilda, 13, in the Howard household at Harlan Courthouse in 1860 S165. The census states no relationship; their cards give the rest of the evidence.

Photos & documents 1 portrait · 1 photo · 5 documents

Portraits (1)

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Photos (1)

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Documents (5)

Documents · 5 page images all documents

Retrieved from FamilySearch. Any other image names its source in its own entry. Each thumbnail opens the full image, which can also be downloaded.

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VA pension payment card — Matilda P. Brock, Army widow of Solomon A. Brock (cert. 585,190)

VA pension payment card · 17 January 1904 (commenced) / 7 January 1905 (certificate) / 14 June 1912 (died)

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1860 United States Federal Census — SCHEDULE 1.—Free Inhabitants ... in the County of Harlan, State of Kentucky, enumerated by me, on the 20 day of Aug 1860. C. B. Brittain, Ass't Marshal. Post Office: Harlan Courthouse, page 126, lines 1-6 (Ancestry coll. 7667, record 39163902, image 4230650_00446) · full resolution 4836 x 6469 px — page census page

Federal census schedule · 20 August 1860

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1880 United States Federal Census — SCHEDULE 1.—Inhabitants in Hilburn Township, in the County of Madison, State of Arkansas, enumerated by me on the Eighteenth day of June, 1880. Aaron L. Thompson, Enumerator, page 27, E.D. 104, stamped 554, dwelling/family 228/234, lines 11-17 (Ancestry coll. 6742, record 5406340, image 4239811-00834) · full resolution 3888 x 4560 px — page census page

Federal census schedule · 18 June 1880

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VA pension payment card — Matilda P. Brock, Army widow of Solomon A. Brock (cert. 585,190)

Pension payment card · 7 January 1905

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Ancestry coll. 7884 (1910 United States Federal Census), record 27738158, image 4449748_01049, Justice Precinct No. 5, Clyde Town, dwelling/family 74, lines 47-49 · full resolution 4295 x 2980 px, 54/54 DeepZoom tiles — page sheet A

Federal census schedule · 1910-04

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In the record Generation 6 — Earl's 3rd-great-grandparents

1. S1381900 U.S. Federal Census — the Solomon Alfred Brock household, Justice Precinct No. 5, Callahan County, Texas. Ancestry collection 7602, record 70304882, image 4112117_00044. Supervisor's District 4, Enumeration District 16, sheet 2 B, stamped page 6248, dwelling and family 29, enumerated 6 June 1900. Read from the image at full resolution — 3822 × 3736 px, 21 September 2026; read-only, nothing accepted, attached or edited. Lines 58–62: S. A. Brock, head, April 1838, age 62, Farmer, renting, married 35 years; M. P., wife, Jan 1847, age 53, 10 children born, 7 living; John B., son, Dec 1874, Preacher; M. L., daughter, Jan 1883; Ada M., daughter, Feb 1885. What it settles and what it cannot. Matilda's birth month is confirmed January; the year stays open — the sheet reads Jan 1847 against the tree's 9 January 1848, and the 1900 schedule carries month and year but no day column, so no census can close it. The same wall stands on Solomon's April 1838 against the tree's 8 April 1837 — the next source must carry a day: a Texas death certificate or a gravestone. The surname is written plainly Brock; Ancestry's alternate index reading "S A Breck" is a transcription artefact, not a name variant. Migration window: both parents and all four grandparents are Kentucky, all three resident children are Arkansas, the eldest born December 1874 — which with Iona Belle Brock's December 1865 Kentucky birth brackets the move to between December 1865 and December 1874. ⚠ This is a fact about Solomon's household; it reaches Earl's line only through Iona Belle's Probable FindAGrave parentage [S23].
2. S151Harlan County, Kentucky marriage register — Salomon A. Brock and Matildia Howard, 6 March 1865. Ancestry collection 61372 (Kentucky, U.S., County Marriage Records, 1783–1965), record 902259827, image TH-1971-28951-10144-30, register opening pp. 98–99. Read from the image at full resolution — 4320 × 3837 px, 72/72 DeepZoom tiles, 21 September 2026. Their line, verbatim: "Salomon A Brock — Matildia Howard", by whom married left as ditto marks, "march 6 1865", then John C. Howard, Lenard Farmer, J. W. Foster. 🔑 The marriage is on a register. The 1900 census gives only a bare "married 35 years" [S138]; this register gives the day. 🔑 And her maiden surname is documentary: the clerk writes Matildia Howard. 🔴 STRUCTURAL FINDING — the form is a SCHOOL-CENSUS SHEET REPURPOSED AS A MARRIAGE REGISTER, and the column semantics are genuinely uncertain. The printed headings (CENSUS REPORT OF SCHOOL CHILDREN, Signature of Parents Guardians or Heads of Families, Post Office Address of Parent, Guardian, Etc.) are struck through in ink and overwritten by hand as MARRIAGE REGISTER · PARTIES NAMES · BY WHOME MARRIED · Date · PLACE OF MARRIAGE · NAME O WITTNESS · PRESENT. The two schemes do not line up, so the cell holding John C. Howard could be read as place of marriage, given as a householder's name, or as the printed parent or guardian column. The reading kept is PLACE OF MARRIAGE: it is the only one consistent across the neighbouring rows, which put a householder of the bride's own surname in that cell both times (Sarah Hulton, or Helton, above; Littleton Marcum below, for Silas J. Howard — Emily Marcum). The wedding was held at John C. Howard's. ⚠ The register does not say that he was her father. The cell names a place; read as the printed parent or guardian column it would name him as her parent, and that reading is not adopted. ⚠ CRITICAL NEGATIVE: this register has no age column, no birthplace column and no parentage column, so it cannot touch the 1847-versus-1848 question. The Owsley County register [S143] has those columns; Kentucky county registers of this period are not uniform. ⚠ The officiant is not recoverable — her by whom married cell is ditto marks and the run is long. 🔑 The register runs across both leaves, and the right leaf carries the place and the witnesses. Ancestry indexes only the left leaf. The right leaf's PLACE OF MARRIAGE column reads "John C. Howard" for this couple. A wedding at his house is a SECOND INDEPENDENT CHAIN to John C. Howard as Matilda's probable father, alongside the two census households that list her with him: Paulina, 5, in 1850 [S967], and Matilda, 13, in 1860 [S461] [S165]; the death certificate of the couple's eldest daughter names her mother's maiden name as Matilda Howard [S170]. 🔑 John C. Howard was a JUSTICE OF THE PEACE, officiating at other marriages in this same register. 🔑 Also on the right leaf: witness Lenard Farmer, and J. W. Forster in the third column. ⚠ Two chains are not a statement of parentage. No document read says Matilda was John C. Howard's daughter in words, and he is graded Probable father on his card; the sheet PRECEDING image 4230650_00446 carries the head of dwelling 822 and has not been pulled.
3. S152U.S. Civil War pension index card — Solomon A. Brock, invalid 1872; Matilda P. Brock, widow 1904. Ancestry collection 4654 (U.S., Civil War Pension Index: General Index to Pension Files, 1861–1934), record 11728726, image 32959_032717-04066. Read from the image at full resolution — 2067 × 1366 px, 15/15 DeepZoom tiles, 21 September 2026. Printed card, form 3-H-3: NAME OF SOLDIER Brock, Solomon A.; DEPENDENT — Widow Brock, Matilda P., Minor blank; SERVICE Co. 3 Ky. Inf. and Co. 7 Ky. Inf., and 156 Co. 2d Battn. V.R.C.; 1872, Nov. 2 — Invalid, application 179,175, certificate 248,266; 1904, May 23 — Widow, application 807,122, certificate 585,190, filed from Texas. It dates his death to on or before 23 May 1904. A widow's application is filed after the soldier dies, and hers was filed from Texas, where the 1900 census [S138] already had the household, in Callahan County; the 1910 sheet enumerates her as a widow [S154]. Her pension payment card gives the widow's pension a date of commencement of 17 Jany 1904, earlier than this filing [S1767]; neither card says what that date marks, and neither gives the day he died. Her middle initial is P on this federal form, and on the payment card; her headstone has the initial R. [S1768], and the two federal cards are followed. The card shows military service in two Kentucky infantry companies and in the Veteran Reserve Corps, and an invalid pension he drew himself from 2 November 1872, at about 34. No birth, marriage or death date appears on the card, and it does not bear on whether she was born in 1847 or 1848. It is an index card, not the file: the widow's application 807,122 / certificate 585,190 at NARA would carry the marriage proof and his date of death, and it has not been ordered.
4. S1531870 U.S. Federal Census — Salomon Brock household, Valley Township, Madison County, Arkansas. Ancestry collection 7163, record 12720236, image 4259273_00413. Page 9, dwelling and family 62, lines 26–29, enumerated 12 July 1870, post office St Paul, by the assistant marshal. Read from the image at full resolution — 3428 × 4528 px, 63/63 DeepZoom tiles, 21 September 2026. Brock, Salomon, 32, M, W, "Teaching School", personal estate $100, born Kentucky; Matilda, 23, F, W, keeping house, born Kentucky; Iona B., 4, born Kentucky (line 28, first transcribed here as Sara B.; the image, read on 22 September and again on 13 October 2026, has Iona B., and she is Iona Belle Brock); Mary E., 2, born Kentucky. 🔑 The age column says 23, and that requires January 1847 — not 1848. Enumerated 12 July 1870, a woman born January 1847 is 23; born January 1848 she is 22; born June 1848, as the headstone has it, she is 22. This is the second schedule whose own age column backs January 1847, and it is independent of the 1900 sheet [S138], which reads Jan 1847, age 53. 🔑 The family is in ARKANSAS in 1870, and the Kentucky → Arkansas move is now bracketed at both ends. They married in Harlan County, Kentucky in March 1865 [S151]; both daughters on this sheet were born in Kentucky; and by July 1870 the household is in Madison County, Arkansas. The move happened between about 1868 and mid-1870 — and the 1880 sheet [S166] narrows it further to 1869 × July 1870, since Mary E. was born in Kentucky and Ellen in Arkansas. 🔑 Solomon's occupation is "Teaching School" — new to the record. He is a schoolteacher at 32 with $100 of personal estate and no real estate, two years before the invalid pension he began drawing in November 1872 [S152]. 🔴 This sheet is the reason the Harlan County non-population schedule was rejected. That row indexes a Matilda Howard in Harlan, Kentucky on 28 July 1870 — sixteen days after this enumerator wrote Matilda Brock, aged 23, keeping house in Arkansas with two children, and five years after she became a Brock. The Harlan Matilda Howard is a different woman, and the row is closed on that ground rather than on a guess about the schedule's contents. ⚠ No month and no day. Pre-1900 schedules carry age only; this sheet narrows the year and cannot give a date. ⚠ The enumeration-date digit reads 12 and 13 cannot be wholly excluded; nothing here turns on it, since both fall in July 1870 and give the same arithmetic. 🔑 The name on line 28 is settled. Line 28 reads Iona B., not Sara B., not Jane B., and not Ancestry's Imma M. — settled on the image, and independently by the 1880 Hilburn Township sheet [S166], where the eldest daughter is Iona B., 14, born Kentucky: four in July 1870 and fourteen in June 1880 is the same child. The four-year-old on line 28 is Earl's great-great-grandmother. 🔑 And the move from Kentucky narrows. With Mary E. born in Kentucky and Ellen in Arkansas on the 1880 sheet, the arrival closes to 1869 × July 1870, from the wider December 1865 × December 1874 bracket.
5. S1541910 U.S. Federal Census — Matilda P. Brock, widow, head of household, Clyde, Callahan County, Texas. Ancestry collection 7884, record 27738158, image 4449748_01049. State Texas · County Callahan · Justice Precinct No. 5 · incorporated place Clyde Town, dwelling and family 74, lines 47–49, the last household on the sheet, enumerated April 1910. Read from the image at full resolution — 4295 × 2980 px, 54/54 DeepZoom tiles, 21 September 2026. Brock, Matilda P., Head, F, W, 62, Wd, 10 children born / 7 living, born Kentucky, both parents Kentucky, occupation "own income"; Ellen, daughter, 38, single, born Arkansas, teacher of music on own account; Lorna, daughter, 27, single, born Arkansas. The first schedule to record her as a widow (the column reads Wd) and as head of her own household, living on her own income. It agrees with the pension index [S152], which dates Solomon's death to on or before 23 May 1904, the day she filed as his widow from Texas. "10 children born, 7 living" is the same pair of figures the 1900 sheet gives [S138]: ten years apart and from two enumerators, so the two households are one family, and no child of hers died in between. Her middle initial is P here too, as on the two pension cards [S152] [S1767]; her headstone has the initial R. [S1768]. Both daughters were born in Arkansas, which is where the 1870 sheet puts the family [S153]. Its age column says 62, and that points to 1848, not 1847: at an April 1910 enumeration a woman born January 1847 is 63, born January 1848 she is 62. This is the one census page read for her that points to 1848, and the image agrees with the index. The 1900 sheet states a month and a year, January 1847, and its own age column, 53, agrees with that cell; the ages on the 1860 [S165], 1870 [S153] and 1880 [S166] sheets each require 1847 too. This sheet carries no month: an age alone, reported ten years later. January 1847 is settled, on four age columns, and the 1910 age is recorded here as a disagreement. No census page gives her birth day. The Ancestry tree carries 9 January 1848; her headstone has a birth line with the day 9 and the year 1848, and its month is not legible in the photograph held [S1768]. Only the NARA widow's pension file (application 807,122 / certificate 585,190) or a Kentucky birth record can give a day.
6. S1651860 U.S. Federal Census — Howard household (tail), Harlan Courthouse, County of Harlan, State of Kentucky. Ancestry collection 7667, record 39163902, image 4230650_00446. SCHEDULE 1.—Free Inhabitants, enumerated 20 August 1860 by C. B. Brittain, Ass't Marshal, post office Harlan Courthouse; page 126, dwelling and family 822/822, lines 1–6. Read from the image at full resolution — 4836 × 6469 px, 22 September 2026. Mary 15, Matilda 13, Jacob 11, a girl of 4, Henry 3, Araminta 1, all born Ky; Mary and Matilda both entered dom. laborer and all three eldest ticked attended school within the year. Age 13 excludes the family tree's 9 January 1848. The census reference day is 1 June 1860, so 13 puts Matilda's birth between 2 June 1846 and 1 June 1847; born 9 January 1848 she would be 12. It is one of the age columns that agree on January 1847, with the 1870 Madison County sheet at 23 [S153] and the 1900 Callahan County sheet, which writes Jan 1847 with an age of 53 [S138]; the line page gives her birth as January 1847. A schedule of 1860 carries an age only, no day and no month. She is at work and at school at thirteen; neither fact is in Ancestry's index. No surname is written on any of the six lines. Dwelling 822 begins on the preceding sheet, page 125, read from the image on 25 September 2026: John C. Howard, 53, Mary, 35, and Elizabeth, 17 [S461]; this image holds the last six of the family under a ditto of the surname written there. The 1860 schedule states no relationships on either sheet, so the link from Matilda to John C. Howard is a household inference here; his card grades it Probable and gives the other records it rests on. A second Howard household five doors on. Dwelling 827: Wilkerson Howard, 62, farmer, $4,000 real and $2,100 personal against page totals of $5,600 and $4,520, with Mary, 57, born Virginia, Samuel L. 32, Wilkerson A. 24, Elizabeth 20, Calvin 18, Green 16 and Gerusha 14. This sheet states no relationship between the two houses. John Covey Howard's card has his parents as John Howard and Mary Risner, Probable, and names a Wilkerson Howard among the Howards living near him in an earlier census [S642]; where Wilkerson, about eight years the elder, stands in that family is not shown by any record read. Ancestry indexes Henry as 2; the image reads 3. The four-year-old is indexed Idress, and the hand will not settle the name.
7. S1661880 U.S. Federal Census — Matilda Brock household, Hilburn Township, County of Madison, State of Arkansas. Ancestry collection 6742, record 5406340, image 4239811-00834. SCHEDULE 1.—Inhabitants, enumerated the Eighteenth day of June, 1880 by Aaron L. Thompson, Enumerator; page 27, S.D. 2, E.D. 104, stamped 554; dwelling and family 228/234, lines 11–17. Read from the image at full resolution — 3888 × 4560 px, 22 September 2026. Brock, Matilda, 33, head, MARRIED, Keeping House, born Kentucky, both parents Ky; Iona B. 14 (Ky), Mary E. 11 (Ky), Ellen 9 (Arkansas), Ida C. 7 (Ark), John B. 6 (Ark), James B. 3 (Ark). Age 33 is the fourth age column to exclude 9 January 1848. Reference day 1 June 1880; 33 puts her birth between 2 June 1846 and 1 June 1847. With 1860 (13) [S165], 1870 (23) [S153] and 1900 (Jan 1847, age 53) [S138], four independent schedules close the year on 1847 and the day remains unattested by any document. She heads her own household and the tick is in the MARRIED column, not Widowed — while Solomon heads a separate household at Eureka Springs, Carroll County, sixty miles north, fourteen days earlier [S168]. These two sheets must be read as a pair. This is NOT early widowhood: the pension index dates his death to on or before 23 May 1904 [S152]. The Kentucky-to-Arkansas move narrows to 1869 × July 1870. Mary E., 11, was born in Kentucky; Ellen, 9, in Arkansas, and the 12 July 1870 sheet already has the family in Madison County with both then-living daughters Kentucky-born [S153]. The wider December 1865 × December 1874 bracket closes to a little over a year. It settles S153's one open reading. The eldest daughter here is Iona B., 14, born Kentucky; four in July 1870 and fourteen in June 1880 is the same child, so the 1870 line-28 given name is Iona B. and Sara B., Jane B. and Ancestry's Imma M. can be retired. A sixth child, James B., 3, born Arkansas — Ancestry's index truncates its household list at "John B. Br" and he has no card on this site. No month, no day. The page gives no reason for the split household, and no separation, desertion or estrangement should be inferred from it.
8. S1681880 U.S. Federal Census — Solomon A. Brock, alone, Eureka Springs, County of Carroll, State of Arkansas. Ancestry collection 6742, record 6102587, image 4239800-00647. SCHEDULE 1.—Inhabitants, enumerated on the 4th day of June, 1880 by C. G. Davis, Enumerator; page 11, E.D. 25, stamped 157, dwelling and family 94/99, line 40. Read from the image at full resolution — 3784 × 4312 px, 22 September 2026. Brock, Solomon A., 43, head, MARRIED, Farmer, born Kentucky, both parents Kentucky. The other half of a household split across two counties. He is alone here on 4 June 1880; Matilda and six children are in Madison County on 18 June [S166], about sixty miles south. BOTH sheets tick MARRIED — not widowed, not divorced. Publish the pair together; neither alone. The first census to carry his middle initial — Brock, Solomon A. It cuts against S167 and S169 on the birth year. The 1850 (12), 1860 (22) and 1870 (32) schedules give the identical window June 1837 × June 1838 and exclude 8 April 1837; this sheet, at 43, is the only one that admits it. The year is unsettled — a review-queue row, not a correction. Page context, and it proves nothing. Eureka Springs was a one-year-old mineral-spring resort, the sheet is full of hotel boarders with Rheumatism and Sore eyes, and he had drawn an invalid pension since 1872 [S152] — but the page does not say he was there for the water, and no reason for the split household is on either sheet.
9. S170Texas standard certificate of death no. 31724 — Mrs. Iona Belle Bowles, Potosi, Taylor County, 4 July 1947. Texas Department of Health, Bureau of Vital Statistics; file no. 225, filed 11 July 1947 by local registrar Lila Fern Martin, Abilene, received by the Bureau 8 August 1947. Ancestry collection 2272, record 82067279, image 40394_b062310-02504. Read from the image at full resolution — 2048 × 1713 px, 22 September 2026. Date of birth December 31, 1865; birthplace London, Kentucky; age 81 years 6 months 3 days; widowed; housewife; father SOLOMON ALFRED BROCK (b. Kentucky); mother's maiden name MATILDA HOWARD (b. Kentucky); informant Iona Reah, Hermosa Beach, California; date of death July 4, 1947; burial Potosi, July 6, 1947; undertaker Garrison Funeral Home, Abilene; cause coronary thrombosis. Ancestry files the hint under Solomon Alfred Brock because he is named on it. The certificate is his DAUGHTER's, and it is cited on Iona Belle Brock's card. Four facts move off Find a Grave onto a state certificate filed seven days after the death — the birth date, the birthplace, the death date and the burial were all cited to a memorial [S23]. S170 is cited ahead of S23 for all four. The same pattern as S160 over S22 for her husband. Her parentage is stated in words for the first time. Field 10 names her father and field 12 her mother's maiden name, independently corroborating the 1865 Harlan County register's Matildia Howard [S151]. London is the seat of Laurel County, the county the 1860 schedule puts her father's family in [S167]: Solomon grew up in Laurel, married in Harlan in March 1865, and his first child was born at London nine months later. The place fits the family's movements as well as the certificate. An informant on a death certificate knew the deceased, not the deceased's parents. Iona Reah, named for the deceased and almost certainly a daughter, was reporting her own grandparents. The parentage is strengthened, not made primary; what would make it primary is an Owsley or Harlan County record naming Iona as a child of Solomon at the time. The duration of the fatal illness is smudged — 1 day is the reading, 5 is not impossible. It says nothing about Solomon himself beyond his name and Kentucky birth, and does not touch the 8 April 1837 question.
10. S1767Veterans Administration pension payment card — Brock, Matilda P., Army widow of Solomon A. Brock, certificate 585190. FamilySearch, “United States, Veterans Administration Pension Payment Cards, 1907–1933” (NARA M850, FHL film 1634288), image ark:/61903/3:1:939K-XQ3Q-HZ. Image examined, 2279 × 2987 px, downloaded 24 September 2026 and read again 13 October 2026. Confirmed Name “Brock, Matilda P.”, stamped Dead; class Army widow, General Law; name of soldier “Solomon A.”, service “Sgt. Co. C, 7 Ky Vol Inf”, stamped Dead; rate 12; date of commencement “17 Jany 1904”; date of certificate “7 Jany 1905”; transferred from Knoxville, Tenn.; Died: “June 14, 1912”; Bureau notified: a file number and a letter to the Commissioner dated 8/24/12; former roll no. 395. The card gives her death day and no place of death, no birth date and no child. It does not say what the commencement date of 17 January 1904 marks, and it is earlier than the 23 May 1904 filing on the pension index card [S152]; the pension file, which has not been ordered, would say. The film frame carries a second card below this one, for Merritt Brock, an Army invalid of another regiment, who is not of this family.
11. S1768Headstone of the wife of Solomon A. Brock, died June 14, 1912. Photograph from the gallery of a relative’s Ancestry tree; the cemetery is not named with the image. Image examined, 239 × 640 px, read 13 October 2026. Probable The stone reads a first name and the initial R., “wife of Solomon A. Brock”, “Born” with a day 9 and the year 1848, and “Died June 14, 1912”. The death line is clear and agrees with the pension payment card [S1767]. The image is small: the first name was catalogued as Mathilda and the birth month as June, and at this size neither the spelling of the name nor the birth month can be confirmed from it. The middle initial R. and the year 1848 disagree with the federal records made in her lifetime, which have Matilda P. [S152] and ages that put her birth in 1847 [S153]. The photograph is a relative’s copy with no cemetery stated, so the stone itself is graded Probable; the death day rests on the payment card.