Laurie's Family History Notebook

 Some ancestors leave behind thick trails of records, stories and descendants. Others - like Riley Gouge Robinson , born about 1835 in Cole County, Missouri  - leave only faint traces. But faint does not mean unimportant And forgotten is not the same as gone. Riley was my 3rd-great-granduncle , the eldest known child of Nelly Gouge and an unknown father . His life was shaped by circumstances far beyond his control, and after his mother's death, he lived almost entirely on the edges of society. Yet he deserves to be remembered with accuracy, empathy, and respect. Early Life and Family Riley was born in Cole County and grew up in his mother's household. Over the next twelve years, Nelly had several more children -- all listed as his half-siblings : Dellcenia (1840) William Gilbert (1841) Serena (1843) Luthena (1844) Milla (1845) Joshua N. (1846) John A. (1847) The 1850 census places Riley, age 16, living with his mother. The enumerator recorded him as "idiot"  - a term...

 For several years I've been dealing with an unknown paternal line. I discovered this line when I did my DNA at Ancestry.com a few years ago. I started noticing close relationships (not parent or aunt, but 2nd and 3rd cousin close) that I had no clue where they belonged. They all had the following surnames in common: Bohannon - Butterworth - Culpepper - Marler - Mason Who are these people? Why are they in my matches? How am I related to them? This week I have been working on just these questions. Before we get to the DNA we need to document the families that keep coming up. This week I will start with Henry Mason and his wife Elizabeth Culpepper: Henry Mason (c. 1801 - bef 1866) Henry Mason was born about 1801 in Georgia, according to his ages in the 1850 and 1860 U.S. censuses. No contemporary records provide a specific birth date or birthplace, and the often-repeated claim that he was born "14 January 1801 in Wrightsville, Johnson County" is not possible. Johnson County...

  My mother first found him by accident. She and my dad were walking through Salem Cemetery, searching for family burials, when one small, plain marker kept pulling her back — a simple footstone carved with the number 54 . No name. No dates. No story. She wrote it down anyway, the way genealogists do when something feels unfinished. Years later, her grandmother — Carrie Louvica (Rector) Parker Smith Waggoner Rodgers — took her on a tour of the family graves. They ended up at Salem Cemetery again. Without hesitation, Grandma Carrie walked straight to that same unmarked spot, pointed to the lonely footstone, and said: “This is where my brother, William, is buried.” That was the moment the anonymous “54” became a person again. A Son Without a Name -- At First William Thomas Rector , the firstborn child and only son of Thomas Henry Rector and Lucinda Ellison Lee , entered the world on 28 April 1880 in Beaman, Pettis County, Missouri. He arrived so new and unexpected that the 1880 ce...

 Losing a mother at a young age leaves a mark on any child, and for David Wesley Kelley , that loss came early. When his mother, Mary Emma (Irvine) Kelley , died in January 1909, the family's world shifted. Within a year, David's father, David Andrew Kelley , moved his children from Missouri to Jordan Valley Township in Pawnee County, Oklahoma . The exact reason for the move is not documented, but the timing places the family squarely in the middle of several powerful regional forces shaping the American Midwest and Southwest. Between 1889 and 1906 , Oklahoma underwent a series of land openings and lotteries that made it one of the most aggressively promoted settlement regions in the country. Even after statehood in 1907, the push for new settlers continued. By 1909-1910 , all major rail lines -- the Missouri Pacific , Frisco , and Santa Fe -- connected Missouri to Oklahoma. Pawnee County itself sat along the AT&SF line, making it a practical destination for transporting a...

  The Tragic Death of Emil R. Farmer, 1918 In March and April of 1918, newspapers across southwest Missouri followed a heartbreaking story from Linn Creek—one that rippled through Camden County and left a young widow and a widowed mother in deep grief. This week’s look back brings us the short, bright life and tragic death of Emil R. Farmer , age 22, whose name appeared repeatedly in the headlines during the spring of World War I. A Dispute at the Ford On Sunday afternoon, March 17, 1918, Emil Farmer was driving his buggy across the ford of the Niangua River near Linn Creek on his way to church. According to multiple reports, he encountered Earnest (Ernest) Kendrick , also 22, a neighbor and fellow draftee. Tension had been brewing between the two young men over their draft classifications—Farmer had been placed in Class IV as the sole support of his widowed mother, while Kendrick was in Class I and expected to be called up sooner. Witnesses later told authorities that Kendrick h...

  Fountain County, Indiana Nancy A. Morine lived a short but well-documented life that spanned Ohio, Kentucky, and Indiana during a period of rapid migration and settlement in the Midwest. She became the first of three wives of John B. Lindsey (1815-1894) and the mother of three known children before her early death in 1851. Early Life According to compiled timelines and family trees, Nancy was born in 1815 in Ohio. Her childhood appears to have been spent in or near Kentucky, where several individuals believed her siblings were born. Nancy's parents and siblings are not yet proven through primary documentation. However, based on current evidence -- including geographic proximity, naming patterns, and the appearance of Morin / Morine individuals in Kentucky and Indiana -- the most likely candidates for her parents are Josiah Morin and Mary "Polly" Shipp. The individuals listed as her siblings should likewise be considered probable but unconfirmed pending further research....