Archive for the ‘Smith Genealogy’ Category

by Sherry Stocking Kline
16 October 2011

I love to check out the Saturday Night Genealogy Fun challenges that Randy Seaver sends out way each Saturday Night, and this one looks like a great way to quanitfy what research I need to do next!  So tune up the “Mission Impossible” music, check out the challenge, and play along!

Hello, genea-world! 
It’s Saturday Night (in the USA!) — time for some worldwide 
Genealogy Fun! 

Your mission, should you decide to accept it is to: 
1)  Participate in the Ancestors GeneaMeme created by Jill Ball on the Geniaus blog. 
Thank you to Jill for the SNGF idea!  Jill is collecting Ancestors MeGeneaMeme entries too.The rules, and the Meme list, is given below in my response. 
Here’s mine:  The Rules:  

2)  Write your own blog post, or add your response as a comment to this blog post, in a Facebook Status post or note, or in a Google+ Stream item. 

 The list should be annotated in the following manner:

Things you have already done or found: bold face type
Things you would like to do or find: italicize (colour optional)
Things you haven’t done or found and don’t care to: plain type
You are encouraged to add extra comments in brackets after each item

The Meme:

Which of these apply to you? 

 

3.  Have photographs or portraits of my 8 great-grandparents.  (I do have photos of all of them, thanks to my mom, and my generous aunts and uncles who have shared their holdings so that I might scan and digitize them.)

4.  Have an ancestor who was married more than three times. (I have some who were married three times, but haven’t located any that I know of that were married more than three.)

5.  Have an ancestor who was a bigamist.  (Not that I know of… Would  make the family tree more interesting though, wouldn’t it?)

6.  Met all four of my grandparents. (I Couldn’t.  Both grandfathers passed away before I was born. I did meet and know both of my grandmothers.)

7.  Met one or more of my great-grandparents.  (I remember my great-grandfather even though I was about 2 1/2 years old when he passed away.)

8.  Named a child after an ancestor. (We did, though not intentionally. My husband’s great-grandfather was named James Kline, and we gave that name as a middle name to our son without knowing that there was an ancestor bearing that as a name.)

9.  Bear an ancestor’s given name/s.  (Not only do I not bear an ancestor’s name, my grandmother was unhappy with my mom, her daughter, for giving me the name of an alcholic beverage.  Unhappy enough that for a time, when I was very, very small, I wondered if the “Carrie” that took an axe to the bars and saloons in Kansas was my grandmother…)

10.  Have an ancestor from Great Britain or Ireland. (I have an ancestor from Great Britain, and I probably do from Ireland as well, but have yet to find that link or proof of it.  Very difficult with the name Jones!)

11.  Have an ancestor from Asia (No.)

12.  Have an ancestor from Continental Europe. (Probably. My geography isn’t what it should be….)

13.  Have an ancestor from Africa. (No, but my granddaughters do.)

14.  Have an ancestor who was an agricultural labourer (in the US and UK) (Yes, most of my ancestors were involved in farming, right up to my own father, and the same on my mother’s side.)

15.  Have an ancestor who had large land holdings (what’s large?  Larger than 40 acres?  Yep.  Larger than 640 acres?  Probably.) (Yes, by yesterday’s standards my ancestors had large land holdings.)

16.  Have an ancestor who was a holy man – minister, priest, rabbi (Jonathan Oatley in Killingly CT in 19th century, several more in 17th century) (We have ministers in my family, and one of my ancestors was “Deacon Samuel Stocking, son of George Stocking.  George was born in circa 1582 in Suffolk, England.  Deacon Samuel was born in England also and immigrated to America in 1633.  They became part of Thomas Hooker’s party, and George was one of Hartford, CT’s founding fathers.)

17.  Have an ancestor who was a midwife (unsure) (Not that I know of.)

18.  Have an ancestor who was an author (unsure) (Not that I know of.)

19.  Have an ancestor with the surname Smith, Murphy or Jones (many Smiths, no Murphys, only one Jones line) One large Smith line, one Jones line that quickly turns into a huge brick wall.

20.  Have an ancestor with the surname Wong, Kim, Suzuki or Ng.  (No.  Not that I know of.)

21.  Have an ancestor with a surname beginning with X.  (Not that I know of.)

22.  Have an ancestor with a forename beginnining with Z (three generations of Zachariah Hildreths, and a Zechariah Barber)  (Not that I know of.)

23.  Have an ancestor born on 25th December.  (Yes, my great-grandfather, Roderick Remine Stocking was born 25 December 1853.)

24.  Have an ancestor born on New Year’s Day.  (Not that I know of.)

25.  Have blue blood in your family lines (supposedly if Royal Descendants book is right) (No.  Not that I know of.)

26.  Have a parent who was born in a country different from my country of birth.  (No.)

27.  Have a grandparent who was born in a country different from my country of birth (nope, one great-grandparent born in Canada is the last one born in another country) (No. Two lines came to America in the 1600’s. Need to get other lines back that far.)

28.  Can trace a direct family line back to the eighteenth century (all but 3 or 4 of my 32 3rd great-grandparents.  (Have several lines back to the 18th century.)

29.  Can trace a direct family line back to the seventeenth century or earlier (quite a few) (some, not as many as to the 18th century.)

30.  Have seen copies of the signatures of some of my great-grandparents (Austin Carringer, Della smith, Georgia Kemp, Frank Seaver, Thomas Richmond) (Just Roderick Remine Stocking, thus far.)

31.  Have ancestors who signed their marriage certificate with an X (not that I know of) (My earliest Stocking ancestor, George Stocking, Hartford, CT founder, signed his will with an X.  He was, besides being a farmer, a surveyor, so I wonder if he was just no longer able to sign his name due to advanced age, rather than not being literate.)

32.  Have a grandparent or earlier ancestor who went to university (not that I know of) (Yes, both my grandparents on my father’s side, Elmer and Maud (McGinnis) Stocking attended college, though I believe neither graduated with a four year degree. My grandmother received a teaching certificate and taught for a year or two, perhaps a bit longer.)

33. Have an ancestor who was convicted of a criminal offence (several are in Sex in Middlesex book)  (Not that I have found yet.)

34.  Have an ancestor who was a victim of crime (logic says someone in 12 generations must have been, not sure about this one) (Probably, but I have not found it yet.)

35.  Have shared an ancestor’s story online or in a magazine (probably in Genea-Musings…) (I have shared several ancestor’s short stories online on my blog here, and in the small town history book that I co-authored, “Mayfield: Then & Now.)

36.  Have published a family history online or in print (two books self=published and shared with family) (I haven’t published a book, just a notebook that I take to family reunions.)

37.  Have visited an ancestor’s home from the 19th or earlier centuries (several in New England, and the Ranslow Smith Inn in Wisconsin) (Yes, several here in Kansas, and one ancestor’s home in Kentucky.)

38.  Still have an ancestor’s home from the 19th or earlier centuries in the family (not in the family…the Ranslow smith Inn in Wisconsin would qualify if I’d bought it) (My grandfather’s farm was bought by my parent’s and is still owned by my mother.  It has been in the family now since 1903.  The house burned down several years ago, however.)

39.  Have a family bible from the 19th Century (have Bible pages for births, marriages, deaths, but not the Bible) (The only family Bible that I know of is owned by my Uncle and his family.)

40.  Have a pre-19th century family bible  (No.)



by Sherry Stocking Kline
February 23, 2010

When I snapped the photo of this stone in the Caney Fork Cemetery at Temple Hill I knew from our KY cousins that they were part of our family, but we didn’t get into just how, and census research this week along with other previous research has shown exactly how he ties into the family.

039 - James L. & Nancy J. Hawley - Caney Fork Cemetery, Barren Co, KY

On The Stone:

HAWLEY
James L
24 June 1850
09 January 1929

Nancy J.
09 March 1849
03 August 1925

James is the son of John and Mary (Whaley) Hawley, and John is my great-great grandmother Virginia (Hawley) Smith’s brother.

John and Virginia Hawley are the children of James Hawley.  James was  born 11 AUG 1781 in Stafford County, Virginia, and died about 1842 in Falls Creek, Sullivan County, Tennessee.

Nancy J., James L. Smith’s wife  may also be a part of our Smith family.  Her father’s name was W. W. Bell, and her mother was Margaret Smith, but digging into Margaret’s family will have to wait for another day!

What fun it is to put together the puzzle pieces, then double check and make sure they ‘fit’ where I’ve placed them!

by Sherry Stocking Kline
13 April 2010

I snapped this Tombstone for a couple of reasons. One, I hoped he was family, and Two, it just caught my eye.  It stood there, and though it said  “Gone, but not forgotten,” it seemed, well, lonely.

And like some tombstones that you see, it just made me wonder, who was he?  Why is he buried there all by himself?  What did he  do for a living? What did he die of?

All those questions ran through my mind, but I guess first and foremost, was the question, is he part of my family?

Julian Jones - Caney Fork Baptist Cemetery

On the Stone:

Julian Jones
1863 – 1932
Gone But Not Forgotten

Today I don’t have those answers, and even though he is buried near my Smith family stones, I don’t have the answer to the  “is he family” question.

But it’s a puzzle that I plan to solve!

Sherry Stocking Kline
February 20, 2010

It’s Saturday night!   Time for some more Saturday Night Genealogy Fun with Randy Seaver!  He wants us to tell him about our genealogy “Happy Dances!”

Sounds like Happy Dance Party fun to me!

Saturday Night Genealogy Fun – Happy Dance, Ah-ha Moments or Genea-gasms!

Hey, it’s Saturday Night (again), time for some Genealogy Fun! Your mission, if you decide to accept it, is to: 1) Think of any number of genealogy events or moments that make you have a genealogy happy dance, an ah-ha moment, or a genea-gasm. 2) Tell us about them in a blog post, in a comment to this blog post, or in a comment on Facebook.

I didn’t even know there was a Corson book!

Here we go! I just did  a Happy Dance this past week.  When I was doing a few minutes research on my own father, I found he was listed in the  Corson Family Book!

I didn’t even know there was a Corson book!  I love family history books, especially the kind that adds in some tidbits about the people, like what their occupation was, and if they served in the Civil, Revolutionary, War of 1812, Spanish-American War, etc, etc..

I love a ‘peek through the window’ of their lives…

And while I just love filling in the blanks on ancestral charts, I love it even more when I find a newspaper clipping, story, or a family history that gives me a peek ‘though the window’ into their lives.

Corson was the maiden name of my Dad’s grandmother, Margaret “Maggie” Corson McGinnis. And this is a line I’ve just simply not researched much at all, so this may be a fantastic springboard for further research.

Most of my “Happy Dances” haven’t been posted about yet, but that sounds like a fun course of future action!

More Happy Dances…

The Day the Genealogy Serendipity Angels Smiled… is one of those moments when you really believe in Genealogy Angels.  The day I called the South Central Kentucky Cultural Center, hoping to learn a bit about our family history, and connected with a real, live, living cousin.  It just doesn’t get any better than that!

by Sherry Stocking Kline
February 16th, 2010

William Arthur Smith - Smith Cemetery, Temple Hill area, Barren Co, KY

I photographed this child’s stone in a small Smith Family Cemetery in the Temple Hill area in Barren County, KY. (the same cemetery as this Tombstone Tuesday post).

William Arthur Smith photograph - Barren County, KY

On the Stone:

William Arthur
son of
M. H. & B. C.
SMITH
July 27, 1910
Nov 2, 1915

Taking the photograph, and looking at the stone, I had to wonder, who was this handsome little five-year-old boy so obviously loved by his parents?

How did he die?  Was it one of the many illnesses that were fatal in that era, and are so treatable now?   Did he fall from a horse?  Was he a “blue baby” a  heart defect that is so treatable now, but eventually killed it’s victims even in the 1940’s?

I did do a little quick research to try to learn who his parent’s were, and if they were related to ‘my’ Smith’s, but that question wasn’t easily answered.

So, on another day when I have more time I will set out and hope to solve at least some of these mysteries.

RELATED POSTS:

Tombstone Tuesday: Lute and Sabina Smith Ruby’s parents.

J. Thomas and Nancy A. (Smith) Harrison down the road a few miles in the Caney Fork Baptist Church cemetery. They may (or may not) be related.

Warner LaRue Jones Tombstone. Warner was born in Kentucky to Willis and Martha Ellen Smith Jones.

George W. Smith & wife Lucy’s Tombstone

The Day the Serendipity Genealogy Angels Smiled

by Sherry Stocking Kline
February 2, 2010

My Tombstone Tuesday is Ruby L. Smith, buried in a small Smith Family Cemetery, Barren County, Kentucky, near the Temple Hill area.

Ruby L. Smith - buried in the Smith Cemetery - Temple Hill, Barren County, KY

On the Stone:

Ruby L. Smith
Mar 15, 1901
Jan 15, 1919

According to the Kentucky Death Record information I found online, Ruby was the daughter of L. H. and Sabina Smith.

What Did Ruby Die of?

She was so young that I had to wonder, what did Ruby die of at the age of not quite eighteen?  It was shortly after Christmas and the New Year?  Did she have flu?  Pneumonia? An Accident?

To get to this small cemetery, we crossed a bridge over a shallow but fast-moving creek that was rushing down the hill, then drove up a long, shady lane where the trees met overhead in places.  This seemed like a road, but it was narrow and may actually have been the home’s private driveway. It led past a home, past the small cemetery, and back to a field.

The home and the cemetery were on a hill that sloped away to a rolling little valley on the west (I think it was west, but I could have been turned around!) The cemetery was located past this home along the lane.

My first thought was that the home was deserted, as neither the yard  nor the cemetery had been mowed for some time.  But looking again at the photograph of the home that I took that day it’s obvious that there are flowers on the porch along with outdoor furniture.

I Kept Thinking About Snakes…

We parked our cars and hiked through the grass to the stones, (I kept thinking about snakes…) and all the time I was hoping to find names that I knew were “ours” but that day, it wasn’t to be.  That day, none of the names were familiar, so we went on down the road where we did find my mother’s great-grandfather’s farm, and then on to the Caney Fork Cemetery where we found numerous family members.

This cemetery’s proximity to other Smith’s that were our family leads me to believe that these Smith’s are related, and I was able to carve out some time today to do more research on this family.

From the death records that I’ve located today, Ruby is the daughter of last week’s Tombstone Tuesday, Lute H. and Sabina Smith.

Drat! The Name Fits But the Dates Do Not…

According to Lute’s Death Record, he was the son of William Basie Smith. (I’ve not done any fact-checking on these facts yet.)    There is a William in my Charles Smith family, but the dates are simply wrong for Lute’s father to be my family’s William.

I’m disappointed, but this small cemetery is very near to my great-grandparent’s farm, Charles and Virginia Hawley Smith, in the Temple Hill area of Barren County, Kentucky, and while they may not have been related, there is a good chance, too, that they were.

Another puzzle to solve, for another day, but as of today I have more clues to work with!

Other Related Posts:

Tombstone Tuesday: Lute and Sabina Smith Ruby’s parents.

The tombstone of  J. Thomas and Nancy A. (Smith) Harrison is just down the road a few miles in the Caney Fork Baptist Church cemetery. They may (or may not) be related to each other.

Warner LaRue Jones Tombstone. Warner was born in Kentucky to Willis and Martha Ellen Smith Jones.

George W. Smith & wife Lucy’s Tombstone

The Day the Serendipity Genealogy Angels Smiled

By Sherry Stocking Kline
February 1, 2010

Smith, Hawley, Laird, Breneman, Stocking & Jones, too
Also McGinnis, Ames, Crabb, Corson, and other names it’s true.
What inspired these ancestors and led them to leave home
To go far from their homeland and bravely roam?

Who are these brave people who came before?
Oh, How I love it whenever I learn a bit more.
I’m curious about what they sold or they bought,
About their lives and beliefs, even what they thought.

What brought them to America?  Why and when did they come?
What ship did they sail on, where exactly are they from?
All these questions I have, about each and every one,
I love finding clues, solving puzzles is such fun!

Was my Laird ancestor a highland Scots’ ‘prince’ or a pauper’s son?
It’s the hunt and the challenge that makes genealogy such fun!
Each answer brings new questions, then those answers I seek
To answer just one question, solve one clue sometimes takes weeks.

Who was this man, my Jones grandfather so elusive?
Must I dig deeper into the life of his mother and yes –  get intrusive?
Was she un-married/ widowed/ divorced when she married a ‘Crabb’
What was she like, how did she dress? Fashion plate? Or drab?

For religious freedom, in the 1630’s my Stockings sailed
To America on the Griffith, ‘twas from England they hailed.
Part of the history books they became, & helped found a new town
It was Hartford, Connecticut, with Thomas Hooker’s party they founded.

An Anabaptist, our Breneman ancestor left a dungeon deep,
Walked across castle floors and out of the castle keep,
His life spared, he came to America where freedom to worship would be
And down through the centuries, many have fought to keep America free.

In the Revolutionary War, 1812, and World Wars One and Two
Korea, Vietnam, and the Civil War, too.
My ancestors were there, along with many others who served
For keeping our land free, it’s our thanks they deserve.

Great-Grandma (Corson) McGinnis lived to be a whole century old,
My brother still remembers the story she told
About singing for then campaigning Abe Lincoln as a wee child,
When he promised her statehood for Kansas, a territory wild.

My ancestors were farmers, blacksmiths, merchants and more,
Teachers who taught, and those who owned stores
As we build for the future, on their shoulders’ we stand
And our family still has teachers, and farmers who farm the land.

There are plane builders, engineers, and more than one preacher,
There are programmers, a writer, and an NASA astronaut once a teacher
So many different folks now make up our family tree,
As we live here in America, land of the brave and the free…

I tried to intersperse some of the stories and legends that come along with my family.  I can’t prove that my Great-grandmother McGinnis (she would have been a Corson then) did sing for Abraham Lincoln as a child when Lincoln was campaigning, but she did live in the Springfield, Illinois area, did have a famous photograph that became part of the family story, and that is the story that she told her children, grandchildren, and great-grandchildren, so I believe it to be true.

My Stocking ancestor, George Stocking’s name is on the founding father’s stone in Hartford, CT, and there are many documents on-line (and off) about George and the Thomas Hooker party that founded Hartford.  It’s a small world when I found out years later that my Junior High Latin teacher was a descendant of the Hart family that Hartford was named for.

My cousin has been to the castle in Switzerland and even down in the dungeon where my Breneman ancestor was kept a prisoner.  She said that it gave her goosebumps…

by Sherry Stocking Kline
January 26, 2010

This tombstone is located in a Smith Family Cemetery in or near the Temple Hill area in Barren County, Kentucky.  (there are several Smith Family cemeteries in Barren County.) It is a small family cemetery, but I would guess there might be as many as 20 or 30 burials there.

The cemetery was located behind a farmhouse, and the whole area was overgrown with tall grass.  One clue to note is that someone (probably on Memorial Day given the plastic flowers are only slightly faded) had placed flowers on their grave. So most likely they have living children or grandchildren in the area.

Lute & Sabina Smith - Barren County, KY - Smith Cemetery

Smith
Lute H.
1857 – 1936

Sabina
1860 – 1940

While I suspect Lute and Sabina Smith may be family, I haven’t verified it yet, and I hope that can be part of this year’s adventures.  I think Sabina is a very pretty name, one that I’d never heard before, and if it truly is unusual, that should make sorting her out of the other Smith’s easier. The name Lute doesn’t seem that common, either.

My next steps when I start working on this couple will be to check on the census for them, get a copy of their obituaries, will(s), and perhaps even give the local funeral homes a call as that has worked well in the past.  Those are my first steps.

If it looks like there is a family connection, I will also contact the South Central Kentucky Cultural Center, as they have several family histories there, along with miscellaneous family information, and see if perhaps they have a family history for the family there that I can use as a springboard to use to locate the documents that would verify relationships.

We were at this cemetery  5  July 2005, looking for our own family burials, but we did not find any names in the cemetery that we knew to be our kin.  We had my mother with us and were trying to locate her grandfather’s homestead.

We did not find my mother’s grandfather’s homestead, but were able to locate her great-great grandfather’s homestead about three miles on past this farmstead.  Unfortunately, my ancestor’s Smith cemetery had already been returned to farm ground.

Related Posts:

The tombstone of  J. Thomas and Nancy A. (Smith) Harrison is just down the road a few miles in the Caney Fork Baptist Church cemetery. They may (or may not) be related to each other.

Warner LaRue Jones Tombstone. Warner was born in Kentucky to Willis and Martha Ellen Smith Jones.

George W. Smith & wife Lucy’s Tombstone

The Day the Serendipity Genealogy Angels Smiled

by Sherry Stocking Kline
January 19, 2009

The following stone is the final resting place of my great-grandmother’s sister and her husband.

J. Thomas and Nancy A. (Smith) Harrison

The Stone Reads:

HARRISON

J. Tom.
May 13, 1844
July 10, 1911

Nancy A.
November 9, 1846
October 13, 1927

Caney Fork Baptist Church - Temple Hill, Barren County, Kentucky

This Stone is located in the cemetery of the  Caney Fork Baptist Church, Temple Hill, Barren County, Kentucky.

Nancy A. (Smith) Harrison was the sister of my great-grandmother, my great-aunt.  And until I began doing genealogy and doing research,I didn’t even know she existed.

Somehow, that feels strange to me, that I have fairly close extended family all over the United States that I don’t even know.  That the person I hand money to in the store, even here in town, might be a cousin that I don’t know exists.

My husband and I experienced a situation very much like that in 2006, and probably I should blog about that soon.  It was one of those serendipitous moments that we’ve had at least three times, meeting people that we were related to, and never knew about.  But I digress.

Nancy A (Smith) Harrison was the daughter of Charles and Virginia (Hawley) Smith, and the sister of my great-grandmother, Martha Ellen Smith Jones.  Now I know where my great-aunt was buried, but to this day, so far, I haven’t a clue where Martha Ellen was buried.

My great-grandmother is not buried next to her husband, and I don’t believe she was alive when he lived in the area he is buried in. Nancy Harrison’s other sibling, children of Charles and Virginia Hawley Smith (the ones that I know about) are: Calvin, George W., Sarah A., Mary E., Martha Ellen, Jones (my great-grandmother), William,  and I believe there was one more child, but I don’t have that child’s name.

Nancy’s brother, George, married Miss Julia Harrison, but I’ve not yet tried to learn if Julia and J. Tom are siblings.  That would be a great addition to my Genealogical Goals for 2010! And a goal that should be fairly straightforward.

For more information about the Smith family, see the following posts:

George W. Smith Tombstone

The Day the Genealogy Serendipity Angels Smiled…

And if you are reading this, and you’re my kin, please leave a note so we can say “hello, nice to meet you!”

Warner LaRue and Carrie Esther (Breneman) Jones Ryan Township Cemetery, Milan, Sumner County, Kansas

By Sherry Stocking Kline
October 20, 2009

Warner LaRue and Carrie Breneman Jones, my grandparents…

Warner LaRue Jones was born in Kentucky. Probably Barren County, to Willis Washington and Martha Ellen Smith Jones on March 13, 1880, and died in Sumner County, Kansas on November 1, 1947.

Carrie Esther Breneman Jones was born (I believe in Nebraska. I do not have all of my info here where I can double check), to Constantine “Tom” Breneman and Salinda (Rose) Breneman on Aug 15, 1876, and died Sept 13, 1956.

They are both buried in Ryan Township Cemetery, Milan, Sumner County, Kansas.

My grandmother, Carrie Breneman Jones, was gifted at painting & hand crafting things…

I never got to meet my grandfather, and I was young when my grandmother died. But I remember that she was extremely gifted at hand crafting things, crocheting beautiful doilies, and pretty doll clothes.  She  taught herself to paint when she was already a senior citizen, and painted very life-like pictures of animals, particularly our families’ registered Ayrshire cattle.

We visited her often, and how I wish I had been old enough to ask the many questions that I now have!

Here is a photograph of their young family. My mother is the youngest child in this photograph, and there was one more child, Fern, born later. Fern died from pneumonia when she was sixteen, and is buried next to her parents.

Warner & Carrie Breneman Jones & children, Floyd, Rose, Daryl M, and Dorothy

My grandfather, Warner Jones, loved his favorite team of mules!

I can’t resist adding one more photograph that I just love!  Wish I knew the name of the mules, but my mother told me that my grandfather loved those mules very much!

Warner Jones and his favorite team of mules