Michael Napier

Michael Napier is the name assigned to a “mystery” child of Nancy Anne Branson. The name is taken from a vague memory of a distant relative who may not have had the facts straight. There may have been no such person as Michael Napier, but just enough evidence exists to show that someone like him was once a part of the world that it feels right to create a page for him in this Branson/Ousley archive. Given the questions about his precise identity, please regard this page as a placeholder of sorts.

At the beginning of the 20th Century, censustakers widened their data collection to include noting the number of births each woman of a household had experienced, along with listing the number of her surviving children. According to the 1900 census (for the city of Merced, Merced County, CA), Nancy Anne Branson had given birth seven times, but one child had died. The names of the six survivors are well known. The six were all progeny of Nancy’s first husband Peter Harrington. All six grew to adulthood and had offspring of their own. The dead child, by contrast, is not described in any available written family record of the era. The baby was probably stillborn. If it lived, it must have died in early infancy. It could have been the child of Harrington, but it is more likely it was a child conceived in the early years of Nancy’s second marriage, to John James “Babe” Napier. Nancy and Babe were married in 1895 (or 1898 if one goes by the 1910 census). Merced would have been the site of the birth. The death occurred before the census was taken in early 1900.

Perversely, the 1910 census (Castoria Township, or Manteca, San Joaquin County, CA) lists Nancy as having given birth only six times.

More is not known. Anyone with further information is urged to supply it.