The Kelley Maze and the Researcher Who Helped Me Find My Way!

John Ward Kelley & Melvina Robertson - My 3rd Great Grandparents

I have been doing genealogical research for over 20 years now.  Hard to believe that I have been doing it that long…but really I have been doing it most of my life.  I learned at an early age to ask a lot of questions and listen to the stories that many of my older relations enjoyed sharing.  There have been a lot of people who have helped me and taught me through the years.  I learned that one of those people passed away this past summer. 

I think that I met “Lucy” through another researcher.  I don’t think that she ever got online.  She was old school and did everything through letters and phone calls.  I learned so much through those phone calls.  She had grown up on the farm that my great great great grandfather was born on back at Sexton’s Creek, Clay Co., KY.  It is one of those amazing things about genealogy when the young and the old get together.  There is a mix of generations that shouldn’t fit.  Lucy’s father died when she was quite young and she lived with her grandparents, Francis Marion Kelly and Fannie Jane Sparks.  Francis Marion Kelly was the younger brother of my 3^rd great grandfather, John Ward Kelly.  (Their parents, William Kelly and Ailey Allen were the parents of eleven children.)  So, I was talking with someone who had memories with her grandfather who was my 3^rd great grandfather’s brother and lived on the home-place that William Kelly and Ailey Allen had lived on in Clay Co., KY.

It is my observation that there is a special kind of “crazy” for anyone who decides to dive in on families lines in Kentucky or West Virginia.  I know it occurs in other areas, but in my experience, these areas are some of the most difficult to get the information correct.  I am not only talking about names, dates, and places but connecting them to the correct families.  There are so many intermarriages, similar names and places.  I have some experience doing this…so I know what it is like to go down in that deep hole.  I have always tried to add siblings of my ancestors and once you go down that road, it has endless branches that seem to interconnect.  This is especially true if you are looking in a relatively small geographic area.  You might wonder why I characterize West Virginia and Kentucky in this category…mostly because I have gone into the maze many times and sometimes it is weeks before I get out.  Having said that, it was an enjoyable experience to get lost in that maze with someone like Lucy.  She knew the area, families and connections like no one else, mostly because she had lived there and could personally share the experience.

Lucy and I spent several years pursuing both independently and together the connection between Adoniram Allen and Ethan Allen.  We had both heard the story and wanted to find proof of the connection.  It was surprising when we both came to the same conclusion almost at the same time.  The connection wasn’t through Adoniram and Ethan’s father,s but rather through their mother’s.  They were sisters with the last name of Baker.

Lucy had heard stories from her grandfather who told her that his father had traveled with his parents from the Clinch mountains by wagon out to Kentucky as a young man.  She was also the one who found documentation about the Hammer family traveling from Pennsylvania through the Cumberland Gap to Knob Creek, Washington Co., TN.  While we never found documented proof that our “Kinchen Kelly” and the one that came from Knob Creek were one and the same – we had pretty good circumstantial proof.  I hope that I can give someone else guidance that is as valuable as what Lucy gave me.  I haven’t been able to talk to my friend for some time because she hadn’t been well.  I will miss her and treasure the knowledge that she gave me and will try to pay it forward.  Writing this family reminds me that I need to dig back into this family.  I am sure is more info to add that wasn't available the last time I went researched the family!

This is the family of William Kelly and Ailey Allen that Lucy and I shared.

William Kelly b. 1818 TN d. 9 Jun 1899 Clay Co., KY
 m. Ailey Allen b. 12 Apr 1823 Clay Co., KY d. 05 Apr 1890 Clay Co., KY

• Rachel Kelly b. 1842 d. aft 1880 m John R Banks m2 Granville Bishop
• Susan Laura Jane Kelly b. 25 apr 1843 d. 26 Aug 1928 m. Granville Bishop (Yes it is the same one)
• Drucilla Kelly b. 30 Oct 1845 d. 7 Oct 1884 m. Lunsford Banks
• James Kelly b. 01 Oct 1847 d. 01 Oct 1923 m. Sarah Ann Bishop
• John Ward Kelly b. 08 Aug 1849 d. 20 Feb 1910 m. Melvina Robertson m2 Laura
• George W. Kelly b. Jun 1851 d. aft 1910 m. Elizabeth North
• Joseph Matherly Kelley b. 16 May 1853 d. 4 Sept 1929 m. Drucilla Alice Morgan
• Francis Marion Kelly b. 13 Nov 1855 d. 6 Dec 1939 m. Fannie Jane Sparks
• Kinchen Kelley b. 30 Apr 1858 d. 1930 m. Julia A Sparks
• Henry Kelly b. 1 May 1861 d. 1 May 1913 m. Nancy Napier
• Jobe Kelly b. 20 Feb 1864 d. 14 Dec 1941 m. Martha Lucinda Edwards

From Pennsylvania to Kansas - Kelley trails

I've been interested in history for most of my life.  Some of my earliest memories involve sitting and listening to stories by my great grandmothers.  So a degree in History and later an obsession with genealogical research seemed to be a natural progression for me.  The older that I get and the more I learn about history, the more I am frustrated at the knowledge of History exhibited by many of the younger generations and many in my own.  My family stories are not necessarily unique, but I am certainly glad that I have taken the time to learn about them.

One of the topics that I remember studying a bit in high school was about the Cumberland Gap.  Essentially, I knew it was a pathway where immigrants coming in from the north would travel to the south and that Daniel Boone was one of those responsible for establishing the trail and that it was part of the Wilderness Road.  I didn't realize how much that passage way would impact my own family history.  I have family members that came through Philadelphia and stopped in West Virginia (Shawvers & Amicks) and I have families that continued clear down to the Clinch Mountain's in TN such as the Kelly's and Hammer families.

Kinchen W. Kelley was the son of Johnathan H. Kelley and Margaret E. Matherly  who were most likely Irish immigrants who came in through Philadelphia like many other immigrants from the Pre-Revolutionary War period.  Kinchen was born on 19 Jun 1759 in Pennsylvania and probably traveled down to Tennessee as a young man.  He married Elizabeth "Betsy" Hammer in abt 1787.  I  believe from what I have read that the Hammers were already in Tennessee by the time that Betsy married Kinchen.  Like Kinchen, Betsy was born in Pennsylvania on 14 Dec 1764.  She was the daughter of John Melchior Hammer II and Maria Margaretha Kaupp who were both from Oberjesingen, Wurttemberg, Germany.  According to some sources, the Hammers traveled down about 1780 and settled near Knob Creek, Washington Co., TN.  The family got two land grants of 200 acres and had a home that was built at the first spring above Jonesborough.  John Hammer was an important man in the area - serving as a Missionary, Farm, Census Take, Property Assessor, Counter of Taxables and served on several juries.  In addition, he was appointed by John Sevier as a Magistrate after the State Constitution was formed. He died in 1817 and his wife, Margaretha died 10 years later in 1827.

When I first started studying the Kelley family, I talked to the granddaughter of William Kelley and Ailey Allen.  She was the youngest child of one of the youngest children of William Kelley and Ailey Allen and actually spent her young years on their farm.  Family legend said that William Kelly as a boy came to Clay Co., KY with his family probably in the 1840's.  They had a wagon that carried their goods...but the older children walked along side the wagon.  They came from the Clinch Mountains in Tennessee.  Researchers before me had pieced together that William's father John Kelley was the son of Kinchen Kelley.  This information seemed to be confirmed by a copy of Kinchen Kelley's will.  Even though it seems strange to have a John and Johnathan mentioned in the same will.  That seems to me to be practically the same name. The connection also seemed to confirmed to me by the prominent use of the name Kinchen within the Kelley family.

So, in just a few generations the Kelley family traveled from Pennsylvania (Kinchen b. 1759) to Tennessee (m. Elizabeth "Betsy" Hammer abt 1787) and then moved to Clay Co., KY around 1840 (John Kelley & Elizabeth Hunter).  My Great Great Grandfather was the son of William Kelley and Ailey Allen and the grandson of John Kelley and Elizabeth Hunter.  John Ward Kelley moved his own family out of Kentucky and to Kansas and Oklahoma in 1885.  Sarah Rachel Kelley, John Ward's daughter, married John Lyons Tannahill and their son, Oliver Richard Tannahill was my grandfather.  My grandfather's family didn't stay that long in Kansas and Oklahoma and left in the 1920's although I don't think it was for better opportunity but rather running from the law...but that is a story for another time.

I wonder how many Americans who had ancestors who traveled the same pathway from Pennsylvania to Tennessee and how many have tried to trace that pathway back.  I'm not sure I would have ever known where the Kelleys and Hammers had lived if it wasn't for some genealogists and historians who spent time and effort to locate the Killey Cemetery in Knob Creek, Washington Co., TN (See Killey "Kinchen" Cemetery for more info)  Here is a link to Kinchen Kelley (Killey)'s gravestone on Find A Grave and that of his wife Elizabeth "Betsy" Hammer.  Here is my Kelley Line:

Kinchen Kelley m. Elizabeth "Betsy" Hammer
John Kelley m. Elizabeth Hunter
William Kelley m. Ailey Allen
John Ward Kelley m. Melvina Robertson
Sarah Rachel Kelley m. John Lyons Tannahill
Oliver Richard Tannahill m. Capitola Esther Friddle
My Parents...then Me

Pennington Surprise in Clay Co., KY

My great grandmother was born in Clay Co., KY and was the daughter of Melvina Robertson and John Ward Kelley.  We had the information of where Sarah Rachel Kelley was born, so I began doing a bit of wandering through census records to see if I could find some further information on the family.  It turns out that the Kelleys lived in Sexton Creek, Clay Co., KY.  Once I began looking at census records, I came across a very familiar name…one that I have a “passing” interest in…Pennington.

One of the families that I was looking at was the Robinson/Robertson family.  Sarah Kelley’s mother was Melvina Robertson who was the daughter of Charles Robinson and Catherine Shelton.  Now…the Robertson/Robinson surname is usually one variation or the other and they are the same family.  There were nine children and Melvina was the youngest of the family.  Her father died just a few years after she was born, and her mother remarried a Julius Spivey.  Melvina had an older sister named Elizabeth who was born 20 Oct 1838 in Clay Co., KY and died on 9 April 1921 also in Clay Co., KY.  She was married to a John Brummett on 31 Jul 1856 in Clay Co., KY.  They had two daughters, Lucinda Jane born 1857 and Mary Elizabeth born 29 Jul 1859.  It turns out that the Pennington I found up on Sexton Creek was the husband of Mary Elizabeth Brummett.  John W. “Curly” Pennington and Mary Elizabeth Brummett were married 13 Jan 1875 in Clay Co., KY and they were the family that I had located in the census. 

So now I had to figure out where John W. “Curly” Pennington fit into the Pennington puzzle.  John W. Pennington was born in Harlan Co., KY on 20 May 1855.  His parents were James Pennington and Mary “Polly” Lewis.  Of course when I find him in the census in 1860 with his parents, he is living in Clay Co., KY and they are in the household of Ephraim Pennington and Matilda.   (Clay Co., KY, Pg 58 #367 – Flat Creek PO) It is obvious that James is the son of Ephraim and Matilda…it is not so obvious which group that they fit in.  Just prior to Ephraim, I see another Pennington name so I go to the previous page and locate a Levi Pennington on line 365.  This is the older brother of Ephraim and there is an older woman who is most likely a mother-in-law by the name of Polly Lewis.
 

Clip from the 1860 census showing the James Pennington family.

So, now I have something to take to my own Pennington contacts.  One of those is a descendant of Group 31 – who are labeled as the descendants of Aaron Pennington and Ann Coldiron.  It turns out that the two brothers that I have found living near my Clay Co., KY relatives were actually the sons of Aaron Pennington and Ann Coldiron and were mostly likely born in Ashe Co., NC which is where a large chunk of my family comes from.  So, the John W. Pennington that married Mary Elizabeth Brummett was the son of James Pennington and Mary “Polly” Lewis and the grandson of Ephraim Pennington and Matilda Fields.  It turns out the Ephraim’s full name is Ephraim Aaron Pennington and he is the third son of Aaron Pennington and Ann Coldiron. 
I am the group leader for Group 7 of the Pennington Research Association.  During my research, I’ve had to look at a lot of Levi’s and Ephraim’s and the surname of Lewis has come up more than once.  Since I have been a member of the PRA, there has been a lot of DNA testing and we have pretty much established that several of these groups that we have identified actually have a DNA connection even though we have never found a documentary connection.  I can’t tell you how much time that I have spent untangling Penningtons in Ashe Co., NC – it was almost a bit disappointing to come across them in Clay Co., KY as well while researching a whole other family line.  If it hadn’t been for my PRA buddy sending me in the right direction, it might have taken a lot longer to figure out.

So while the Group 31 Penningtons are not directly related to me in anything that may resemble a close connection, the children of John W. “Curly” Pennington and Mary Elizabeth Brummett are a bit of a closer connection.  After all, Mary’s mother Elizabeth, was the elder sister of my great great grandmother and in genealogical terms…that is pretty close. 

Happy Birthday - Grandma Cappy

Gwen & Capitola Shearer - about 1965 in Clarkston, WA near Wasems.

Today would have been my grandmother's birthday.  Ironically, it was also her first mother-in-law's birthday as well.  Sarah Kelley Tannahill was not one of her favorite people, so it was a bit funny that they had the same birthday.

I don't really remember celebrating her birthday much when she was alive.  For one thing...they lived in Elk City for a lot of my childhood and I was in school and unaware of such dates.  When she passed away in 1985, I was on the brink of adulthood and since she died on the day I went to college, I probably took her death a little harder.  As I got older, I appreciated the person that she was more and more.  Mom and I would often talk about her mother.  I also got a chance to read some of her diaries.  I read about the excitement of new grandchildren, the day to day details of her normal life and the heartbreak at the loss of her husband and later her father.  Through those diaries, Grandma became a real person to me.  Through those diaries, I got to know my grandmother as an adult.

In 2005, it was 20 years since she had passed.  Mom was particularly sentimental about her mother that year.  Perhaps she realized that we wouldn't have her much longer.  Mom asked me to put an artificial poinsettia on Grandma's grave in time for her birthday and Christmas.  I had no idea that I would be back there before the end of the year burying my mother after her death from lung cancer on December 26th.  That poinsettia was still there - there was comfort to me that my mother was with her momma again.

Today, both of their graves have poinsettia's on them - which is a flower that I associate with both of them.  They don't make me sad but they are instead a celebration these two women.  So...Grandma, Happy Birthday!

If you would like to read a bit more about my Grandma Cappy - Take a look at the blog I wrote last year for her 100th birthday!

http://genheirlooms.blogspot.com/2011/12/happy-100th-birthday-grandma-cappy.html

My DNA Journey - The Results

Several weeks ago, I wrote about taking the Ancestry.com Autosomal DNA test and I promised that I would let you know what the results were.  In my previous blog (http://genheirlooms.blogspot.com/2012/07/my-dna-journey.html) I talked about what I expected to find out from my test…here is what I found out.

My supposition was that I would be 100% European – with the possibility that I might have some Native American ancestry or an Asian lineage.  Despite every family story – the test shows that I have no Native American ancestry.  Like most people, the story of that Indian in the background is just that…a story.  In fact, there weren’t a lot of surprises in my results…except one.

Most of my ancestry is Scandinavian or from Norway, Sweden and Denmark.  I would imagine that most people tested whose families come from England and Ireland will most likely have the same result.  The Vikings left a lot of descendants all over Europe both as merchants and raiders.  I suspect that most of this ancestry for me comes through England and Ireland.  From what I have been able to surmise – most of my English ancestors came to England  through the Norman Invasion in 1066.  Since there isn’t a lot of record keeping…going much beyond that is difficult.  The Scandinavian portion is 55%.  Most of my paternal side of the family probably comes from England and probably makes us the majority of this Scandinavian branch.  There is also ancestry on my maternal lines that are Irish and Scottish and could also be part of this Scandinavian portion.

I have 16% Central European ancestry which includes Austria, Belgium, France, Germany, Netherlands, Switzerland, Slovenia, Czech Republic, Luxembourg and Liechtenstein.  I am actually surprised that this isn’t a bigger chunk of my family background.  My paternal great grandmother’s ancestry primarily came out of this region – mostly likely Germany and Austria.  My paternal grandfather also had ancestry from Germany.  Most of my German ancestors left Europe in the early to mid-1700’s and ended up in New York and West Virginia. 

The Southern European label is the one that confuses me the most.  According to my test, I have 13% Southern European ancestry which includes Italy, Spain & Portugal.  As far as I know, I have no ancestry from that area.  It is a large enough chunk that it leads me to believe that it might come from my Friddle ancestry.  I make this guess…because of all my family lines, this is the one I know the least about.  My great great grandfather first shows up in 1858 in a record.  By that point, he has been married and already had several children and the 1858 record is his second marriage.  I’ve never been able to locate an 1850 census record for him nor any mention of parents.  My great uncle told me that his father had told him that Moses Friddles was supposedly a foundling child.  He was taken in by a family and raised by them and his ancestry is unknown.  I have no proof of the accuracy of this story.  Most of my family lines trace back to before the 1700’s with only a few exceptions and most of those lines come through either England or Germany.  So…this is definitely a puzzle.

My test also says that I have 12% British Isles ancestry.  Since, there is such a predominance of Scandinavian ancestry in my family that I think comes through England…this ancestry is also puzzling.  I suspect that is an area that had little contact with the pillaging Vikings which leads me to guess that it might be Wales.  According to some of the information that I have read, my mother’s paternal grandfather’s mother was supposedly from a Welsh background.  With a surname like Jones – I’m not sure how you can make that assumption because that name is so common.    However, it is a decent theory to look into.

The test leaves me with a lot of questions and possible contacts.  Several matches have come up that are likely 4^th to 6^th cousins.  With as many family lines that I have – I suspect that it won’t be easy to really establish a true match.  However the question that I have always had about the Native American ancestry is answered and like most others…is proved false.    (See Blog – Do I have Native American ancestry? - http://genheirlooms.blogspot.com/2011/11/do-i-have-native-american-ancestry.html for more info!)

So here are some of my main family lines and my best guess as to where they came from:

Paternal Lines:

• Johnson – England
• Gage – England
• Gallup – England
• Montanye – France
• Shawver – Germany
• Pitsenbarger – Switzerland
• Lyons – Ireland
• Pope – England

Maternal Lines:

• Tannahill – Scotland
• Brown – England or Ireland
• Bailey – Ireland
• Jones – Wales
• Dollar – Scotland
• Friddle - ???
• Pennington – England
• Allen – England
• Kelley – Ireland
• Fillinger - Ireland

Leander Franklin Kelley

Since I started researching my family lines, I have always recognized the importance of the peripheral lines as well.  Just as I have spent a lot of time on my direct line, I have also spent a great deal of time on the siblings and families of my direct ancestors.I have always thought that Leander almost seemed like a feminine name to me, but I know it to be a male name.  My great grandmother was one of 14 children.   All but two of them lived to be adults.  Most of the children were born in Clay Co., KY until 1885, when John Ward Kelly and Melvina Robertson moved west to Chautauqua Co., KS.  Melvina died in 1890 after having three more children; the youngest and Melvina dying during childbirth.

Leander Franklin Kelly - abt 1909

  Leander Franklin Kelly was almost 10 years when his mother died.  I’m sure it had to be difficult for John Ward Kelley to take care of such a large family on his own, so within a short time after his wife’s death to a Laura or perhaps Sarona Spivey.  I’ve never found proof of either marriage.  Lee (as Leander was called) had problems with this step mother and he took off at the age of 13 to make his own way.  He started out working through northwestern Oklahoma (which was known as the Cherokee strip) and then within three years he ended up near the Arkansas line.  He stated there until 1902, when got the chance to ride a train to Seattle, WA.  That fall he headed down to Lewiston, ID.  Lee met and married Lucinda Ella Powell in 1906 and married her in Orofino, ID.  Lee and Lucinda quickly added children to their family.  By 1930, they had 5 living children – including 4 daughters and one son.  Lee worked ranch work around Idaho Co., ID and near Teakean, Clearwater Co., ID.  Lee died on 23 Jun 1936 after committing suicide.  Earl, his son, told me that he was in terrible pain from stomach cancer and took his own life to stop the agonizing pain.  His wife, Lucinda married a widower and died in 1961 in Lewiston, ID.

Leander & Lucinda Kelley

Several years ago I had the opportunity to meet Lee’s son, Earl.  I had wondered why Lee had committed suicide and wanted to know if he knew that he had family that had also moved to Lewiston.  Lee’s brother –in-law, John Lyons Tannahill moved to Idaho in the 1920’s.  He had followed his brothers up north from Oklahoma.  I found it interesting that they ended up the in the same area.  Earl told me that his father was aware of the family that had moved to Idaho.  He came home one day from work and told his family that he had helped his niece when she had car problems and had fixed the car.  That niece was my grandfather’s twin sister, Rachel.  I also learned later that John Ward Kelley had actually traveled up to Idaho to visit Lee before he died in 1910.  I’ve often wondered if he made the long trip to mend fences with his son.  Learning about Lee Kelley reminded me of the importance of researching these siblings.  I learned a lot about the Kelley family that I never would have known.

Teakean Cemetery - Teakean, ID

 

Lee Kelley's grave

Lee's baby's grave

One of the other significant things about Lee Kelley for me personally is that it was one of my first cemetery trips.  I had no idea where Tekean, ID was…and had never heard of it until I found out that Lee Kelley was buried there.  So, one stormy fall afternoon, my father and I took off to find Teakean, ID.  We traveled out through Juliaetta, ID and up through Southwick and further on through to the top of the high plain.  There - seemingly in the middle of nowhere – was Teakean, ID.  All that remained of the town were a few houses and a cemetery.   Dad and I got our coats on and started walking the cemetery, and found Lee’s grave quite easily…and 

buried next to him was their young baby that had died shortly after birth.

I have since located Lee’s wife’s grave in Normal Hill Cemetery in Lewiston, ID and all of his daughters and have learned recently that Lee’s son, Earl had passed away as well.  Leander Kelley was the first relative that I was able to research first hand.  I researched him through records, personal interview with his son, his obituary, and traveled a few hours to go and find his grave.  You might say that he helped me become addicted to genealogy.  

A Clay County Kelley

I’ve been very lucky in my genealogy research.  I’ve had whole families open up with just a small bit of information.  Since so much of my ancestry is in New England, I have benefited from many early carefully researched genealogies.  Somehow I knew I wouldn’t always be so lucky!

John Ward Kelley & Melvina Robertson

John Ward Kelley is my great great grandfather.  He was born on 8 Aug 1849 in Teges, Clay Co., KY and died 12 Mar 1909 in Sparks, Lincoln Co., OK. (His gravestone has a different date - I don't know which is correct)  My mother had such a limited amount of information on her father’s family – mostly because he had died when she was very young and she had little contact with him.  I don’t remember exactly how we discovered the names of my great grandmother’s parents – but it wasn’t a clue that immediately yielded benefits.  Kelley is a name somewhat like Johnson, Smith or Jones (I have all four of these names in my ancestry)!  It is very common and very difficult to trace especially when your ancestor has a common first name like John.  I began my search for John Ward Kelley many years ago on a Clay Co., KY newslist.  Back then, the internet was still a new player in genealogy research and these newslists were a wonderful opportunity to learn more about the geographic area as well as the families of a particular county.  Clay Co., KY – I soon learned was one of the poorer counties in Kentucky and had been a site of feud violence in that latter part of the 1800’s which is when my ancestors left the area.  I soon learned that I should contact a lady by the name of Lucy.  From then on my research opened up to new vistas.

Gravestone of John Ward Kelley and his son Louis Cass Kelley.

Gravestone of John Ward Kelley's wife, Melvina Robertson.

Lucy’s grandfather was John Ward Kelley’s younger brother.  She actually remembered Francis Marion Kelly and well knew the old Kelly home place in Sexton Creek, Clay Co., KY.  I learned from her that John Ward Kelley was one of eleven children and was the son of William Kelly and his wife Ailey Allen.  William Kelly was probably born in Knob Creek, Washington Co., TN and walked alongside a wagon from Washington Co., TN to Clay Co., KY around 1838 with his parents John Kelly and Elizabeth Anna Hunter.  Not too long after his arrival in Clay Co., KY, he married Ailey Allen and they built their own place at Sexton Creek.  Their son John Ward Kelley married Melvina Robertson on 2 Sep 1867 in Clay Co., KY and by the time she died in 1890 they had 14 children.  John Ward Kelley and Melvina Robertson left Kentucky in 1885 and traveled to Kansas around the Chautauqua Co., area.  I don’t know if they left for new opportunities or left because of the unrest in their home county.  Clay County at this time was considered to be one of the most lawless places in the country torn apart by family feuds.  Either way, they left for new horizons.  Melvina died in 1890 during childbirth with her last child…and the child died with her.  John married a woman named Laura sometime after Melvina’s death.  Evidently, this new step mother’s wasn’t to the liking of some of John’s children…his son Leander Kelley left supposedly because he couldn’t get along with the stepmother.  He married for a third time to Sarona Spivey…and I’ve no idea if she outlasted him or not.  I can’t really find much trace of either wife since records weren’t kept at that time.  I’ve never even been able to confirm that John Ward Kelley died in Lincoln Co., OK.  He is buried with Melvina at Oak Hill Cemetery, Belleville, Chautauqua Co., KS – so I wonder at the accuracy.  It is around 150 miles between the two locations – although if there was a railway, it could be possible.  I know from another cousin that John Ward Kelley made a trip to Idaho to visit his son, Leander – which seems like quite a trip in the early 1900’s.

So, during the past decade or so I have slowly peeled back the layers of John Ward Kelley’s life.  It hasn’t been an easy process and I still make attempts at peeling back more layers.  I would like to know more about his second and third wives…or at least have the information confirmed.  There are still some of his children that I don’t feel like I have complete information on and I am hopeful that I will be able to make some progress when the 1940 census comes out in a few months.  So after all the facts that I have found from census records to names and dates of his life, marriage, and children – I am left to fill in the blanks.  Why did he leave Kentucky?  Was it because of the unrest in Clay County or because there were new opportunities further west?  Perhaps he followed his brother Kinchen to the Kansas-Oklahoma area.  Where did he die…was it really in Oklahoma or was he in Kansas where he is buried and which date is the correct death date?  I figure if I keep looking…I may find some of the answers to my questions and perhaps some new questions to research. 

Is it Genetic?

I think it is pretty horrifying to most modern women to think of what some of our ancestors did in the realm of childbirth.  You rarely ever see a family with more than 4 children and when you do, it is a bit shocking to our modern sensibilities.  For a wife in the early 20^th century or earlier – large families were common and even necessary.  Every family needed a lot of hands to get the work done.  Everything that I have learned about my great great grandmother has come from other cousins whose family members had knowledge of her.  What I have found out…has raised some interesting questions!

John Ward Kelley & Melvina Robertson

Melvina Robertson was born about 19 July 1849 to Charles Robinson, Jr. and Catherine Shelton.  In all my research of the Robertson/Robinson family, the name changes back and forth quite often –  from census records, marriage records, or birth/death records, the name is never quite the same.  Anyway, Melvina’s father died when she was about 3 years old and her mother remarried to a local widower, L. Julius Spivey.  This widower was actually a cousin to her husband and they probably knew each other when they lived in Washington Co., TN.  In 1867, she marries John Ward Kelley.  Both of them were raised in Sexton’s Creek, Clay Co., KY and their families probably emigrated about the same time from Washington Co., TN.  Clay Co., KY to this day is one of the poorest counties in KY and from what I have learned; Sexton’s Creek wasn’t too prosperous.  Within the first 10 years of her marriage, Melvina had 7 children and by the time they decided to leave KY in 1885 they had 11 children.  They settled in Chautauqua Co., KS and started a new life.  John Ward Kelley had family in the area so it was a logical place for them to go after leaving KY and there was land to be had in the area for a new start.  By late 1890, Melvina was pregnant with her 14^th child and on 21 Dec 1890 – she and the child (a daughter) died during childbirth.  She left behind 13 children with 10 still living at home. (Including my great grandmother Sarah Kelley Tanahill who married John Lyons Tannahill)

During the past 15 years or so, I have corresponded with many descendants of Melvina Robertson and John Ward Kelley.  One of the most interesting things that I have learned about her is that she was said to have something called “Wolf’s Bite.”  Today, we would call it Lupus.  I don’t know how she was diagnosed – I suspect it was the rash that is common with the disease. I have talked to many of her descendants and have found a common theme in many of them with health problems.  Many have auto immune diseases.  Diseases like Rheumatoid Arthritis, Lupus, Multiple Sclerosis, Diabetes and many others are considered to be auto immune diseases.  I know of two close cousins who have Multiple Sclerosis – my mother had Lupus, Rheumatoid Arthritis and Diabetes…and several distant cousins have Lupus and Rheumatoid Arthritis.  Within the descendants of Melvina Robertson – I know of at least 10 who have at least one of these diseases.  I asked my doctor about it – whether there was a genetic component to a disease like Lupus.  He said that he didn’t know of one – but there is certainly one with Diabetes and Rheumatoid Arthritis.

 

As genealogists, I think that it is an interesting and important to look at diseases or tendencies that run in families.  Just as we can see resemblances in photographs that follow through generations, we should pay attention to health patterns as well.  Who knows what future health professionals will discover about genetic tendencies with diseases…it seems something new is coming out all of the time.  Perhaps we should note these diseases within our genealogy files for future reference.