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.