Last week, I posted about marriage records from the book, Ohio County Kentucky Records, Volume I by Michael L. Cook and Bettie A. Cummings Cook. In my photocopy of the book, I also a copy of page 242 which contains information about the apprenticeship of John Thompson as a blacksmith.

P. 480 13 May 1811, Charles Henderson, Clerk of the County Court, to John Taylor, blacksmith, does Apprentice John Thompson, infant orphan of [blank] dec’d, aged fourteen years, two months and fourteen days, to learn the craft of blacksmithing until he is twenty one years old. Taylor agrees to tech the Apprentice, John Thompson, reading, writing, and common arithmetic, and to pay him $100 and a new suit of clothes at the expiration of his service. Recorded 13 July 1813.

When I first tried locating this apprenticeship in the original records, I was looking for a record on page 479 with an 1811 date. I retried my search of court and land records for just the date and I found a similar record!

This document was recorded in the Order Books for Ohio County, Kentucky courts. While the information in the order book is similar to the photocopy for John Thompson’s apprenticeship, there are discrepancies between the book, Ohio County Kentucky Records and the order book. First, the page numbers do not match. Secondly, the information in the court order book before and after the entry for John Thompson do not match the information in my photocopy above and below John Thompson. Lastly, the order book does not mention the payment John Thompson was to receive when he completed his apprenticeship.

The next question is whether this is my John Thompson. My ancestor

• married Sarah Iglehart on 1 February, 1820 in Ohio County, Kentucky, thus placing him in Ohio County nine years after the apprenticeship record.
• was born March 4, 1797 which would have made him 14 years, 2 months and 9 days old on May 13, 1811 instead of 14 years, 2 months and 4 days old.
• was recorded as a farmer on the 1850 census at the age of 53. While he is mentioned in two county histories, neither mentions blacksmithing.

Since the court record refers to an ‘orphan estate’, I will need to read these unindexed order books to see what other information I can glean about John Thompson and his family.