This Week in the Family History: March 31 – April 6

April 2
Elmer Dennis Hopkins was born in Wallins Creek, Harlan County, Kentucky in 1894. 

April 3
Samantha Angeline Petty was born in Dalton, Whitfield County, Georgia in 1861.

Lily Vashti McCauley died in Greenville, Muhlenberg County, Kentucky in 2001.

Wordless Wednesday: Henrietta Krueger

Today is the anniversary of Henrietta's death in 1931. 

She had just turned 17 a few days earlier.

I believe this is Henrietta on the left. I know that the other three people in this picture are Henrietta's mother, Susie Taylor Krueger, (back center) and her two sisters, Tiny (front) and Marie (right). They are standing beside the Krueger home on West Main Street in Mt. Vernon. (Granted she looks older than 17.)

I believe Henrietta is 2nd from left in this photo. Again, the other three are known — Anna Rose Taylor (the Krueger girls' young aunt), Tiny and Marie.   

In both cases, there is simply no one else in the family this could be. 

Will DNA Lead Us to William Taylor's Parents?

The image below may not look like a road map but it is. It's part of the DNA route to William Taylor's parents. William was my 3rd great-grandfather. He came to Kentucky from somewhere in Virginia sometime before 1825. 

Chromosome 4 match for two of William's descendants with four other Taylors.

Many Taylor researchers believe that William was the son of William Taylor and Jean Guffey. The older William was a Revolutionary War soldier from Rockbridge County, Virginia who settled in Rockcastle County, Kentucky about 1810. It appears the connection to my William was made because they both lived in Rockcastle County and they were both named William. At least, I haven’t found anyone with a more solid reason for making them father and son.

The problem is there are a few other facts that muddy the waters.

1830 census records in Rockcastle and Garrard Counties give us five different William Taylors. That is down to one in each county by 1840. 

• Two of the Garrard County Williams in 1830 and the one in 1840 match my William's household composition for the respective year. 
• None of the Rockcastle County Williams in either year match.

William married Martha Ramsey in Garrard County in 1825 and it appears (based on those census records) they lived there for many years before moving to Rockcastle County sometime between 1840 and 1850.

• Did he live in Rockcastle County (with his assumed father) before that marriage or did he live in Garrard County and just happen to move to neighboring Rockcastle County later?
• If William moved to Rockcastle County for the first time after 1840, it’s entirely possible that older William was deceased by then and they didn’t even live there at the same time.

James Taylor and his wife, Sarah Hicks/Hix, lived in Garrard County. In 1870, a five-year-old named William Hix lived with William’s daughter, Elizabeth Taylor Ramsey, in Rockcastle County.

• What does that mean? Maybe nothing but it warrants exploring.

Frankly, I’ve put off working on this for years because it’s easier to ignore the difficult problems and work on something, well, easier. But now we have DNA results.

DNA results are available for four of my William's descendants. Two are Y-DNA; two are autosomal. 

The Y-DNA results give us one exact 37-marker match and two others that are distance one at 37. That exact 37-marker match is especially interesting because several of members of his Taylor line have also done autosomal tests. Four of his 2nd cousins match my mother and me (see image above). That means five people in that Taylor line match four people in our William's line. We are related to these people. Somehow.

Based on information provided by this Taylor family, they descend from a Revolutionary War soldier named James Taylor from King and Queen County and Patrick County, Virginia who eventually settled in Franklin County, Tennessee. There is no obvious connection between James and old William of Rockbridge County, Virginia and Rockcastle County, Kentucky. 

I believe we are finally on the road to finding William’s parents. It’s going to be a very long trip but now we have a map.

This Week in the Family History: March 24–30

March 25
John Emerson "Jack" Goodloe was born  in 1811 in Hopkins County, Kentucky.

Columbus “Lum” Hopkins died in 1981 in Cincinnati, Hamilton County, Ohio.

March 26
Hiram Brock Howard died in 1915 in Harlan County, Kentucky.

March 27
James Bailey "Jimmy" Hankins was born in 1901 in Dalton, Hopkins County, Kentucky.

Henrietta W. Krueger died in 1931 in Mt. Vernon, Rockcastle County, Kentucky.

Wordless Wednesday: Happy Birthday

Today is this little girl's birthday.

She doesn't enjoy a camera pointed in 

her direction as much as she once did.

This Week in the Family History: March 17–23

March 18
Henrietta W. Krueger was born in 1914 in Mt. Vernon, Rockcastle County, Kentucky.

March 19
John William “Will” Lanier died in 1902 in Aberdeen, Monroe County, Mississippi.

Emma Jane Owens Taylor died in 1968 in Mt. Vernon, Rockcastle County, Kentucky.

March 21
Madison Crawford Owens died in 1920 in Rockcastle County, Kentucky.

Women’s History Month: Marie and Tiny

Marie and Tiny, May 1993

I began and ended elementary school with Mom’s cousins as my teachers. In the first grade, it was Marie Krueger Cox. In the eighth, it was her sister, Christine Krueger.

As a five years old, it was strange when the other kids in my class were a little afraid of the teacher but she was just Marie to me, nothing to fear. As an eighth grader, remembering to say Miss Krueger instead of Tiny was a challenge.

Marie was born on 14 Sep 1915 in Mt. Vernon, Kentucky, the second child of August Krueger and Susie Taylor. Tiny was the youngest of their four children, born on 21 Feb 1922 in Mt. Vernon. 

1st Photo: Marie (on right) with older sister, Henrietta
2nd Photo: Tiny

1st Photo: Marie with their brother, Bill, and their aunt, Anna Rose Taylor
2nd Photo: Tiny with Anna Rose and Bill

Tiny and Marie with their cousin, Edna Hopkins (center)

Marie and Tiny both attended Eastern Kentucky State Teachers College (now Eastern Kentucky University) for one year before beginning their respective teaching careers but later graduated after attending college part-time while working. They both started out teaching grades one through eight in one-room schools in Rockcastle County before spending most of their tenures at Mt. Vernon Grade School.  

On 23 Nov 1955, Marie married Henry Houston Cox, son of Edward Cox and Mattie McFerron, in Rockcastle County. Tiny never married. Neither of them had children.

1st Photo: Marie with their aunt, Emma Taylor Hopkins; 2nd Photo: Tiny

Marie died on 10 November 1993 in Lexington, Kentucky. Tiny died on 27 Oct 1998 in Mt. Vernon. They were both buried in Elmwood Cemetery in Mt. Vernon.

Marie and Tiny were outstanding teachers. Over the course of their long careers, they had an enormous positive impact on Mt. Vernon students. 

This Week in the Family History: March 10–16

March 10
Henry Lewis Goodloe was born in 1779 in Virginia.

John Covey Howard married Mary Morris in 1856 in Harlan County, Kentucky.

Mary Madore Hankins was born in 1863 in Hopkins County, Kentucky.

Joseph Fredrick Lanier died in 1960 in South Carolina.

March 13
Harriet L. Ramsey Proctor died in 1915 in Rockcastle County, Kentucky.

Delinda Younger Weeks married Elisha Shaw in 1831 in Pope County, Illinois.

March 15
John T. Bennett died in 1910 in Morgan County, Alabama. [At least, that’s the date on his headstone. I have doubts that it’s correct since he appears in the 1910 census.]

Mary Bennett Hester died in 1933 in Joppa, Morgan County, Alabama.

James W. Hankins died in 1930 in Providence, Webster County, Kentucky.

William Washington Lanier was born in 1813 in Jasper County, Georgia.

March 16
David Gamble married Anna Finney in 1814 in Laurens County, South Carolina.

This Week in the Family History: March 3–9

March 4
George Washington Lanier died in 1904 in Sunflower County, Mississippi.

John Covey Hopkins died in 1969 in Tampa, Hillsborough County, Florida.

March 5
Elizabeth Owens Craig died in 1937 in Kentucky.

March 6
John Covey Howard was born in 1806 in Knox County, Kentucky.

March 8
Grant Hopkins died in 1963 in Tucson, Pima County, Arizona.