Stewart vs. Gwinn: Who are we?

As a genealogist when you don’t know a direct surname you often think of a distant grandma’s forgotten name, that name that was changed when the family moved to another country or maybe even a family secret.

This is the story of a family that changed their name, well some that did and some that didn’t and it was rather confusing, and to some it still is.     

Marked as the Stewarts- Harvey, Lillie Mae and three of their children  

My paternal Grandmother’s maiden name was Gwinn, her father was Jasper N. Gwinn Sr. That is what I always knew. When I started doing genealogy I went to my Grandmother and she told me that her father was the son of Harvey and Lillie Mae (Potter)Gwinn.

Then she told me that her father was one of four full-blooded siblings, but one of the sons went by the name Stewart. My first thought was that they had to be half, but as she went on she told me that for reasons unknown her grandparents had named the eldest boy Harley Stewart and that the other three children Icel, Jasper and Herschel were all given the name Gwinn. Confused? I was.

So I took the notes that I was able to gather and went to ancestry.com. Now that I knew my Great-Great-Grandparents’ name I could find the “Gwinns” in the 1920 census, knowing that my Great-Grandpa was born in 1914 I knew he would be in it.

I found nothing. That is until I looked for the family under the Stewart name. So, even the children that later used the Gwinn name were Stewarts. I found them in Hillsdale, Indiana.

Then the 1930 census. Still in Hillsdale, still Stewarts.  

Stewart/Gwinn family about 1930 Harvey, Lillie Mae, Herschel and Jasper 

 Harvey E. Stewart died in 1932 in Vermillion co., leaving behind a widow and the four nearly grown children. I knew that Harvey had to have some record somewhere that would help, so I looked for a census that would have him at home in his childhood. 

I found the 1900 census listing a Harvey Stewart age 20, son of Delany and Elizabeth, with five other younger children. I looked at the document itself and saw a note that was not transcribed (at the time). Harvey was listed not as a son but a step-son. So now I know that Harvey was not born a Stewart, but was he born a Gwinn?

I looked for the 1880 census that would list a woman named Elizabeth and her one year old son Harvey. I thought to myself, was Elizabeth a Gwinn? Did she have a son out of wedlock? But why did Harvey go by Stewart, and why did two of his three sons change their name to Gwinn, naming their children Gwinn as well. After all they were listed as Stewarts most of their lives?

I did find Elizabeth and son Harvey, but she was married and the boy had a father John Gwinn! So what do I know about John Gwinn? He was 26, husband and father. I found that he married Sarah Elizabeth “Liza” Simmons in 1877 in Park County, IN.  He was out of the picture prior to 1885 when Liza married Mr. Stewart. Was it by death? I believe it may have been desertion, I know divorce was “uncommon” then but you didn’t need to file to just walk away.  

Harvey’s mother Liza died in 1914 she was only 47. I hope that her life was a happy one.

So now to the Gwinn/Stewart clan after the death of Harvey, the oldest boy was already married and had two daughters with the Stewart name. Icel was married to Isaac Petty.  Jasper married in 1940 to my Great-Grandma Anna Marie Hahn, their four children were given the name Gwinn. The young boy also named his children Gwinn. (Also Lillie Mae and the two youngest sons were listed as Gwinn in the 1940 census, they were now living in Anderson, IN.)     

Lillie Mae Gwinn and daughter Icel 

My family were Gwinns, that became Stewarts and became Gwinns once again.