Here is the little information that I have on Omega
Isaacks and his/her family:
The mysterious Isaacks/Isaacs family of
Chariton and
Linn Counties,
Missouri was headed by the equally mysterious Omega Isaacks/Isaacs. This person was born c. 1795 in
North Carolina, but appears as a male on the 1850 U.S. Federal Census of
Chariton County,
Missouri and then as a female on the 1860 U.S. Federal Census of
Linn County,
Missouri.
In 1850, Omega
Isaacks was age 55 and the head of the household. Other family members included John Wood (age 21), Martha Wood (age 17) and Charles Wood (age 17). The census taker did not make note of the relationships of any of these people to Omega
Isaacks. Living next door to Omega was the family of George F. Wise and his wife,
Lovey (spelled Love on the census).
In 1860, Omega
Isaacks was listed as 70 years of age and living in the household of Thomas J. Curtis (age 26) of St. Catherine,
Linn County,
Missouri. Other household members were Nancy Curtis (age 27), George T. Curtis (age 7) and Mary E. Curtis (age 4). Again, the census taker did not comment on the relationship of Omega
Isaacks to the Curtis household.
After a search of the
Missouri marriage records, I found that the maiden name of Martha Wood (one of the family members in Omega Isaacks’ 1850 household) was
Isaacks. Also, I found that Nancy Curtis (a member of Omega Isaacks’ 1860 household), had been married twice, but that her maiden name was also
Isaacks.
My conjecture is that Omega
Isaacks was a woman and that she had at least four daughters:
Lovey
Isaacks, born 17 April 1824 in
Indiana. She married George F. Wise in 1845 (but where? I could not find their marriage record in
Missouri). Lovey
Isaacks Wise was Omega
Isaacks' next door neighbor in 1850
Chariton,
Missouri.
Sarah
Isaacks, born c. 1828 in
Indiana. She married David
Irwin Curtis on 22 February 1848 in
Chariton County,
Missouri.
Nancy Ann
Isaacks, born c. 1830 in
Indiana. She married Thomas Wood (could he be a brother of Martha Isaack’s husband, John Wood?) on 24 November 1847 in
Howard County,
Missouri. On 12 October 1851, she married Thomas
Jefferson Curtis (brother of Sarah Isaacks’ husband, David
Irwin Curtis) in
Chariton County,
Missouri.
Martha
Isaacks, born c. 1833 in
Iowa. She married John H. Wood on 23 November 1849 in
Chariton County,
Missouri.
I am thinking that Omega must have been the widowed mother of these girls. When she lived in
Chariton County,
Missouri, in 1850, her youngest daughter, Martha
Isaacks Wood, her son-in-law (John H. Wood), and his younger brother, Charles Wood, were living with her. Next door was her oldest daughter,
Lovey Isaacks Wise and her family.
In 1860, the aged Omega
Isaacks lived in the household of another son-in-law, Thomas
Jefferson Curtis, the husband of her daughter, Nancy Ann
Isaacks.
If Omega
Isaacks had been the father of these girls, I would think that his name would have appeared in a census somewhere before 1850 -- either in
North Carolina,
Indiana or
Iowa. It seems that Omega
Isaacks appeared out of thin air in
Chariton County,
Missouri in 1850.
In subsequent generations, the name Omega was used as a female name. I believe that
Lovey Isaacks Wise had a daughter named Omega Mary
Wise, leading me to believe that Omega was a woman’s name.
There are a lot of unanswered questions. Who was Omega Isaack’s husband? Was Omega her given name her middle name or a nickname? If Omega was a middle or nickname, that may explain why she does not appear anywhere before 1850 in
Chariton County,
Missouri.
Of course, my conjectures could be all wrong. Omega
Isaacks may have been a man and the father of the
Isaacks girls. Or, if a woman, she may not be their mother at all but a maiden aunt, stepmother, or some other female relative of their father’s. Who knows?
If anyone has any information about this family, please let me know.
