Parents for Florida Pioneer, Seth Howard: Part 1
Unsolved Origins
The origins of James Seth Howard (c. 1804–1887) remained a "brick wall" for Florida researchers and his numerous descendants. While Seth was a well-documented figure in his adult life and a registered Florida Pioneer with the Florida Genealogical Society, the identities of his parents were lost to time. This first article in this series introduces the man, the mystery, and the conflicting evidence that served as the starting point for a professional-grade genealogical investigation.
Known Facts at the Start of the Project
Headstone at Joshua Creek Cemetery
Within the documentary record, he went almost exclusively by “Seth Howard.”
He was born in 1804 per his headstone and he died in 1887 and is buried in DeSoto County, Florida.
Find A Grave, database with images (http://www.findagrave.com: accessed 2019), memorial # 31342741, Seth Howard, (1804-1887), gravestone photographed by Jeff Griffis, member # 42090893.
Birthplace
On every census (1850-1885) he was reported to have been born in Georgia.
1850 U.S. Census, Hillsborough, Florida, p. 263 (stamped), p. 509 (penned), dwelling 167, family 170, Seth Howard; Ancestry (https://www.ancestry.com : accessed 2019); citing NARA microfilm M432, roll 58.
1860 U.S. Census, FamilySearch (https://www.familysearch.org/ark:/61903/1:1:M6CM-F18 : accessed 8 Jul 2024).
1870 U.S. Census, FamilySearch (https://www.familysearch.org/ark:/61903/1:1:MNZN-F7B : accessed 29 Jul 2017).
1880 U.S. Census, FamilySearch (https://www.familysearch.org/ark:/61903/1:1:MNZW-LMQ : accessed 19 Apr 2017).
1885 Florida State Census, FamilySearch (https://www.familysearch.org/ark:/61903/1:1:MNJH-3DQ : accessed 16 Feb 2025).
Residence in Florida
In 1842, Seth Howard applied for land under the Armed Occupation Act and he self-reported that he “became a resident of Florida in February of 1816.”
Armed Occupation Act Settlers Records, Seth Howard application No. 299.
A Life on the Florida Frontier
Even though Seth Howard appeared to have been so well-researched, I thought, “Ahh yes, but he’s never been researched by ME. I’ll work some FAN club magic and get this all figured out.”
James Seth Howard first appears in the historical record around 1826 as a resident of Alachua County, in the Territory of Florida. At approximately 22 years of age, he was among the citizens who signed a petition requesting a circuit court for the county, a sign of an early settler engaged in the civic life of the frontier.
Florida, Territorial Legislative Council unicameral period records, 1822–1838, Petition by Citizens of Alachua County Requesting a Circuit Court, c. 1826, State Archives of Florida, Series Number S 876 Box 2 File 01_31; Florida Memory (https://www.floridamemory.com/items/show/347086 : accessed 10 November 2024).
From there, I can track him almost yearly using county election rolls, tax lists, church minutes, Seminole War muster rolls, and census records (just to name a few!). I have completely sourced his profile within FamilySearch, Wikitree, and my own publicly available tree on Ancestry.
His life followed the southern movement of the Florida boundary. He was listed on jury lists and voter registrations in Newnansville and Columbia County through the early 1830s before moving toward the southern frontier near Tampa Bay. By 1836, he was serving as a private in Smith’s Regiment of Florida Volunteers during the Second Seminole War.
I completed that research and I recorded his Friends, Associates, and Neighbors (FANs) diligently. The good news is that I could easily track his movements alongside a FAN Network of other settlers from Alachua and Columbia Counties down to modern-day Hillsborough County.
He had close ties with his wife’s family – mainly his brothers-in-law.
In the 1830s, he attended the same church as his wife’s great-aunt and great-uncle (Old Providence Baptist Church in Columbia County).
The Silent Record
Despite this robust paper trail of his adult life, Seth’s birth family remained invisible. Exhaustive research into his FAN Club provided no initial links back to a Howard family in Georgia. He associated with many men born in Georgia, but none shared his surname, nor did any marry a Howard woman.
The only consistent clue was his birthplace: Georgia. However, without a specific county or a known family group, Seth appeared to have arrived in Florida as a young man with no known past.
Looking Ahead
To solve this mystery, I had to move beyond the traditional paper trail. It was time to utilize autosomal DNA (atDNA) and see what clues it could provide.
In my next article in this series, I will show you how I chose my test-taker for this project and I how I used his match list to cast a wide net to “fish” for the descendants of Seth Howard’s siblings. I am thrilled to share this case study with you and I look forward to publishing my step-by-step process and collaborating with other researchers on this mystery! Please reach out if you would like to share you match list with me and potentially be included is a future phase of my research.
