Solen E. Kerley

I've been thinking about my 3 great-grandfather, Solen E. Kerley.

He was born in December 1851, in Tennessee (likely Wayne County, TN); the son of Henry L. Kerley and Sarah Staggs.
He was on the 1860 Census of Randolph County, Arkansas with his parents and siblings, 1870 with his parents and siblings; and he married Sarah Mariah Williams 28 Sep 1871 in Randolph County, Arkansas.
He and Sarah Mariah had 3 children;
Robert Louis Kerley (1872-1944)
William Albert Kerley (1874-1948)
Emily Ina Kerley (1877-1922)

Solen and family are on the 1880 Census of Randolph County, Arkansas.
Sarah Mariah died around 1878 and Solen married Susan Larkins (Brentlinger) 6 May 1888 in Randolph County, Arkansas.
Solen and Susan had 6 children:
May Janie Kerley (1889)
Harvey Lehman Kerley (1890-1956)
Grover Cleveland Kerley (1892)
Sherman Kerley (1894-1978)
Henry Bryan Kerley (1896-1963)
Rufus Harmon Kerley (1899-1966)
He is on the 1900 Census with his family in Randolph County, Arkansas.

Susan died in 1908 and Solen married again (age 56). He married Rebecca G Owens in Clay County, Arkansas on 26 Oct 1908. He is on the 1910 Census in Brown, Clay County, Arkansas with his third wife, Rebecca.
I am not sure if DeWitt Kerley is the son of Solen and Susan (per the 1910 Census).

Here is where it gets cloudy as far as Solen and his marriages.
26 Mar 1911, he married N.A. Kelly in Clay County, Arkansas (age 59)
7 Aug 1915, he married Rebecca Jane Meeks in Randolph, Arkansas. (age 63)
1920 Census he was in Siloam, Randolph, Arkansas with Rebecca Jane and DeeWitt.
29 Apr 1925 he married Lulla Lutisia Ballsworth in Randolph County, Arkansas. (age 73)
1 Mar 1926 he divorced Lutisia Ballsworth in Clay County, Arkansas
24 Mar 1926 he married Mary Jane Switzer in Randolph County, Arkansas (age 74)
4 Oct 1926 he divorced Mary Jane Switzer in Clay County Arkansas.
9 Oct 1926 he married Sarrah Mounts in Clay County, Arkansas (age 74)
4 Oct 1927 he divorced Sarah Mounts in Clay County, Arkansas
4 Oct 1928 he married Dora Payne in Clay County, Arkansas (age 76)

On 6 Feb 1930, he died in Randolph County, Arkansas (age 78).

All I can think is that Solen must have either been really good looking and/or a smooth talker to have married so many women, especially as he was in his 50's, 60's, and 70's and still marrying! I only know he divorced because of a divorce index - there is nothing to tell me the cause of divorce. I have no photos or stories of Solen, but I imagine he would have a few good tales to tell.

I would love to hear from descendants of Solen E. Kerley. If you are his descendant or know of any photographs, stories, or tales of Solen, please email me: decegherardini@hotmail.com

Now, to figure out how Dee Witt Kerley fits in... :-)

Dece

Genealogie

I am learning French.

The genealogie way! LOL

It is funny that my daughter just began taking French in high school, as I just began "taking" French in genealogy. I'm working on my dear husband's family lines and, as I often do, I like to look at the oftentimes neglected maternal lines.

I think the push came because it was time to renew my membership to ancestry.com and they came at me with a much lower cost for their super-duper-world wide records access plan and it was only about $25 more than the regular plan for a year, so I decided to do it. I figured, well, I will see what I can do with my family lines as well as Tony's lines. Yeah, there's not a lot on ancestry for either one of us across the pond.

However, it made me start looking at what information I do have and looking for information. And I discovered that, in fact, there is the Archives Departementales online that has loads of information. However, it is not indexed. You must go page by page and dig... Yes, you have to *gasp* do good old genealogy research just like the old days. The good thing is, you can do it at home in your pajamas with music playing in the background! LOL There is a 1906 Census, Marriages, Births, and Deaths, in 10 year chunks. Luckily, it is alphabetized, so you're not having to go by year. http://www.archivesdepartementales.cg59.fr

Another wonderful site for the area I'm working in - Dunkerque - is:
http://www.gennpdc.net/ It is: Les forums de genealogistes du Nord-Pas-de-Calais
Especially helpful for me has been this page:
http://www.gennpdc.net/releves/tab_mari.php?args=Dunkerque

It is refreshing to see people helping people.

I love doing genealogy. I love the research, the looking, the finding, the connecting. Now, if I can just find pictures of some of these people to "flesh out" the names and dates and places. :-) That would be the icing on the cake!

I wish you happy searching and finding in your genealogy pursuits,
Dece

Kerley's...

I'm working on the Kerley line once more because I feel drawn to them right now. That is just how it is with genealogy -- being pulled one direction or another.

I'm so frustrated though. I started this journey with so little information and I've had to comb through piles of census records, spend hours and hours digging and shuffling through microfilm and microfiche, straining my eyes as I try to decipher if something is an E or an I or an L or a T. I am very grateful for those who have gone before me and indexed records, who have kept track of their sources, and who are willing to share their transcriptions of courthouse records, especially for places that are across the country from where I live. It's a long way from Maricopa County Arizona to Wayne County, Tennessee! (or Randolph County, Arkansas, or Ripley County, Missouri, etc)

Here is my frustration. My line is not thoroughly researched and because I live 1500+ miles away from the Kerley's starting point, I cannot simply go to the courthouse and sift through records myself. Ancestry.com, while a wonderful tool, does not have all of the in-depth records that I need. And if they had the records, they would not be indexed correctly for me. So many other names come up for Kerley or its misspellings: Kirley, Kirby, Curly, Curby, so on and so forth.

Some of the Kerley's who are distantly in my line would like to connect us to the Henry Kerley and Sallie Garrett line. I just cannot get my information to match up neatly to what I've found online about that line and so I will not do it. I think that William Garrett Kerley (b. 1835), the son of James Willis Kerley (and brother to my ancestor, Henry L. Kerley b. 1827) and Elizabeth Ann Roric, knew his parents' names and his ancestry better than I do and if he says his grandfathers both were in the Revolutionary War, then doggone it, I believe it! If he says his father's parents were Daniel and Ann Kerley of Albemarle, Virginia, then that is exactly who they were and where they were from. He would know better than I would, 100 years after his interview was given.
This is what I am pretty sure of:
James Willis Kerley and his wife and children were in Wayne County, Tennessee as of 1835, but not before 1830. James was born in North Carolina, his wife was born in Virginia. They are listed on the 1840 Census of Wayne County, Tennessee as James Kinley/Kirley/Kirby, depending on who is transcribing the census. The ages all match for their children. The only age that is off is James - as he is listed as being 50-60 years of age, but in the 1850 census he lists his age as 51. Either he was mis-marked in the 1840 census or the 1850 census. For me, it does not matter.
It puts to rest the notion that somehow my line is the same line that ended up in Macon County, Tennessee. I felt sure that my James and his family did not go to Macon County, so I looked at a map. Wayne County is in the lower, middle section of Tennessee, on the path that many of my other Northeast Arkansas/Southeast Missouri ancestors took from Tennessee. Why would they go all the way up and east to Macon county which borders Kentucky? It did not make any sense. One cannot automatically assume that a Daniel Kerley or a James Kerley who is of a similar age as my James IS my James. How could be be enumerated in the 1850 census twice, in totally different counties, with different children, etc. It's because they are not the same person.

I probably sound really grumpy about this. I guess I am, a little! LOL Even though these Kerley ancestors are generations removed from me, they are still mine. I think about them, about their lives, about how these great-great-grandparents met, what songs they sang, how they lived, what they believed, and I have no tangible link to them. I only have 2 photographs of my great-grandmother Lillie Kerley. I have only 1 letter that she wrote. Each census record, each tax record, each mention of MY line of Kerley's makes them more real to me, reminds me that they were living, breathing people who loved each other, who had children, who made sacrifices, who were ALIVE. Connecting my line to another line just for the sake of having a neat little pedigree chart is not acceptable to me. I will keep working on the Kerley family tree until there is nothing left to find... and believe me, there is always something left to find. I hope that there will be a clear connection to an established line, but even if there is not, I am not worried about it. I know that Lillie and her parents, her grandparents, great-grandparents, and back to James Willis Kerley and Elizabeth Ann Roric, and even the elusive Daniel and Ann Kerley of Albemarle, Virginia will be remembered.

And if any of them are reading this blog post from Heaven, I sure would appreciate a little nudge in the right direction to find the documentation for Daughters of the American Revolution... LOL

Dece

New Finds

It's a funny thing how I can work on one line of my ancestry and come up completely dry and then I'll have something bug me and I'll wonder and wonder and still come up dry or with the same old stuff that doesn't fit... And then, I have this window open up and I see things differently.
That is what has happened in the last few days.
And it's not exactly a direct line, but sort of, so bear with me.
Below are some photos of my Great-Grandpa's cousin, Dorothy Matthews (Hallford). She was the youngest child born to Susan Sullivan and James E. Matthews. (Sometimes it's Matthews, sometimes Mathews, Mathis, Mathes, depends on who's writing, I guess) She was born in 1915, and her father died in 1916.




This photo is of Dorothy, I think her husband Millington "Mig" Elzie Hallford, and the girl is probably the child that they raised. I do not know her name, but she was Mig's niece and my Grandma did not like the way they treated the little girl. That sums up the story with this branch of the family and all that I have discovered in the past few days.
Well, Aunt Sue (Dorothy's mother), had 11 children. Jane (also known on records as Jennie and Emma D), Bertha, Pearl, Julia, Everett, Arlie (Orlie), Edd, Addie, and Dorothy. There are two born in the 1890's whose names I do not know, as they died before the 1900 census.
Julia and Edd passed away before 1920, as did James E. Matthews, their father. Pearl married Burt Blunt, but I cannot find them after their marriage in 1920.
While I cannot find the family as a unit in 1930, I did find Arlie working for a family in Clay County, Arkansas as a hired hand.
In 1932, Dorothy married Mig Hallford in Muskogee, Oklahoma. That is where Aunt Sue's brother (my great-great Grandpa George was on the 1930 census as head of household including my Grandma, Aunt Darlene, and Uncle Ray; as well as others of Grandpa George's children and grandchildren) was living.
About 1933, Aunt Sue came out to Arizona with Grandpa George and the other Sullivan kindred. At that time, it was likely only Dorothy and Everett left with Aunt Sue. Everett was disabled in some fashion, though my dad told me that he worked very hard. Everett trusted my Grandma to help him with keeping his bills and money - he worked for a well known citrus grove here in Mesa - and lived in a shack on the citrus grove.
In 1946, Aunt Sue passed away. I had a few pictures of Dorothy. I think these probably came from Everett's things after he passed away in 1971 and my Grandma held onto them. But what about the other children? What happened to them?
But I kept thinking about Jane/Jennie, the oldest of the children. I have a marriage record for her, a census record for her, and then... ?
She was born in January 1891, Arkansas. She was on the 1900 Census with her parents as Jane, 1910 Census with her parents as Emma D. and new husband, John Cantrell. She married John Cantrell 31 July 1909 as Jennie Matthews.
So, I went digging. In 1920 I found John Cantrell with his wife Delia and 2 children Edna Cantrell b. 1912 and Thurman Cantrell b. 1915. Well, those all sounded reasonable to me. I chalked it up to Jane was going by yet another name, now Emma D was Delia.
But it kept bothering me. For months it's been bothering me.
I went through marriage records again. I discovered there was a Delia Taylor who married a John Cantwell. Do not trust indexes, my friends. Go to the source if you can. So, I looked at familysearch.org at the actual films of the marriage records and I still think that W looks like a W, but I also think that it should look more like an R and someone was just being lazy at the recorder's office that day.
Why? Why would I make such a pronouncement upon the good, kindly folk of 1912 at the county recorder's office in Randolph County, Arkansas?
Because of what else I've read on marriage licenses.
In 1927, Mrs. Delia Cantrell married Mr. George W. Barnett. I believe John Cantrell had passed away. In 1930, Delia lived with George Barnett and her son Thurman Cantrell. That is reasonable, right? And at first I thought, well, Edna probably was married and left home, that's why she wasn't living there, too.
Until I went looking for a marriage record for Edna Cantrell.
I did find that Edna Cantrell married Troy Miller 25 May 1928 in Clay County, Arkansas. What struck me was the note of permission to marry written by Troy Miller's father:

"I hereby signify my consent to the marriage of my son, Troy Miller, age 20, to above named Edna Cantrell, who has no living parent or legal guardian and now lives with me. S.M. Miller"

She was sixteen years old and had no living parent or legal guardian?
Then, today it hit me.
YES! Her mother died when she was an infant - thus the reason that her father married (a 16 year old) Delia Taylor in November 1912. When her father died, probably in early 1927, she lost her only living parent. I felt very sad for Edna Cantrell today. Her mother gone when she was an infant. Her father gone when she was only a teenager - basically the age my oldest daughter is right now - and her step mother, the only mother she has ever known, taking her brother and going off to live with another man.
Truly I do not know the circumstances of their life in 1927/1928.
And I think of Aunt Sue. Did she know what was happening to her granddaughter, Edna? Her own daughter Jane, Edna's mother, had died many years before. Perhaps there were already too many mouths to feed and not enough food to go around?
I do not know.

From what little I am gleaning from reading posts online about Thurman Cantrell, it seems as though no one knows much about his parentage, if he had siblings (which he had one sister, to be sure), and so forth. I am finding the ancestry for John Cantrell in my digging. I hope that someday I will find a descendant of Jane "Jennie" Emma D. Matthews and John Cantrell and be able to share what I've found on the Sullivan line and maybe some about the other lines around, too. The trick is finding the descendants. I know that Edna Cantrell Miller had descendants as they put markers on her grave and her husband's grave. I hope they will be receptive to finding their ancestry.

So, what do we do with these sad stories? I know most people just want a chart to put on the wall, but I want the volumes of the tales... I want to know what made them tick... I want to know what made people smile, how they handled the trials of life, what they made for dinner and what they dreamed for the future.

But now, I have to get back to being the Mom to this generation instead of the genealogist digging up the past. :-)

Dece

Pushing Through

It's been a few months since I have actively been searching for my ancestors in books and online. I've been writing and when I write, one of my other avenues usually slows down. When I am working fervently on genealogy, writing slows down. That's just how I am. But right now I'm thinking a lot about my family.
My brother will be leaving for pharmacy school in a few short weeks. I will miss him and his family very much as he is the one I am the closest to of my brothers. So, we're taking time to do a few family things and I am hoping they will help us to keep those bonds strong.
I'm also thinking of my dad's family, especially my grandma and her parents. I never knew them, her parents, but I feel connected to them. I love this photo (1 of only 2 that I know of with my great-grandmother, Lillie Kerley Sullivan)



I see many things that I recognize in those faces. Stories they tell me in my dreams. I hear Lillie's voice and some day, when my time on earth is through, I will see her and hear her voice again. She will be glad that I kept her memory alive. She will be glad that my brother named his daughter Lillie - an honor to our Grandma Starks' mother. I'm sure that our Grandma Starks was smiling and proud of Edward that day.

Birthdays

Birthdays are such special days... an anniversary that someone came into this world. Ninety years ago today, my Grandmother came into this world in Reyno, Randolph County, Arkansas, daughter of Lillie Kerley and James Bryan Sullivan.

I have not been actively working on my own genealogy much in the last few months, but I have been doing indexing at familysearch.org. I keep hoping it will inspire me in my own genealogy search. Since it's Grandma's birthday today, I thought I'd go look around some of my favorite websites and see if there is any new information out there for me to sift through. :)

I am not sure why I am the person that is so interested in genealogy and the search for my ancestors. It seems I come across a handful of people in each of my lines, usually further up the line or VERY distantly related, that have caught the "genealogy bug" but I've yet to have anyone in my Kerley line or Sullivan line (well, I take that back. Peggy Aston is in my line, too, through my great-grand aunt, so we are on the same line) but why can't I find descendants that have photos of my "people"?

So, I will go make my son lunch and when he takes his nap I'll get back to searching for my "people". I hope they know I am looking for them and will, perhaps, whisper a little in my ear and get me headed the right direction to find the records that must exist out there! :)

Dece

Names are Important

I was reading a scripture this morning that struck me as speaking directly to ME.
From Helaman Chapter 5:6-7
"Behold, I have given unto you the names of our first ^aparents who came out of the land of Jerusalem; and this I have done that when you remember your names ye may remember them; and when ye remember them ye may remember their works; and when ye remember their works ye may know how that it is said, and also written, that they were ^bgood.

7Therefore, my sons, I would that ye should do that which is good, that it may be said of you, and also written, even as it has been said and written of them."

It made me think about my name. I was named for my grandmothers, as my parents wanted to name me after the two women who meant the most to them, people to emulate and admire, as well as having a name that would inspire me to do that which is good, so that it will be said and written that I would be as my grandmothers were.

My grandmothers were ordinary women, as far as the world is concerned. However, they both were examples of loyalty, fidelity, strength, and love, having left the world a fine posterity and a wonderful example of how to live. They were not perfect, but they were striving to do and be better.

They had plenty that they could have complained about, but I did not hear them complain. They did not lament their lots in life but continued forward with the talents and gifts they were given.

My Grandma Starks had tragedy and adversity early in life. Her mother, Lillie, died when my grandmother was only 5 years old. She was the oldest child and many responsibilities fell upon her in her mother's absence. She loved her younger sister and brother. She loved her husband, her children, her grandchildren, and great-grandchildren. If she was here today, she would even have a great-great-grandchild. Grandma Starks loved babies and never let anyone leave her home hungry. She knew how to use every scrap, every bit of everything, and is an example to me of how to be happy with what you have, saving for things you need, and making people happy through their stomachs. :)

I want to leave a legacy of faith and love for my children. My grandmothers are both an example of what I want to become. I am so grateful I have their names and can remember them every time I hear my name, see my name, write my name. I am blessed.

I have named my children after people and places that are important to me, to our family. I hope that they will always remember to do something good with the names they have been given.

Dece

FamilySearch Indexing

I took a break from serious genealogy research during the holidays - between NaNoWriMo in November and then the Christmas holidays, I knew I did not have time to really DIG into genealogy...

Well, with the new year I was feeling down. Missing my mother took center stage and frustrations with daily life was weighing heavily on my mind. I needed something to focus on, something to help me feel "better". Of course I began with prayer. I wanted to do something for someone else. And I thought back to the Sundays when I would do FamilySearch Indexing before church.

So, I have decided that I will set aside a chunk of time every day to index. I think of all the hours I've spent at http://www.familysearch.org using the indexes and records that are available to the public, free of charge, to move forward in my genealogy search, and I am grateful for those who take a little time to index a census record, a batch of marriage records, and the like. Every name really does belong to SOMEONE and that SOMEONE may be an ancestor that you need to find out more information.

I've been working on marriage info in Illinois. Since I have kindred from Illinois, I felt like that would be a good series to work on. Some of these records have the names of parents, location of birth for the groom and bride, etc. What a treasure it would be to find that someone had indexed MY ancestors' information and then made it possible for me to find it! So, that is what I'm doing.

I am hoping that by helping with records, some windows and doors will open for me in my own genealogy research. I feel as though I'm at a brick wall with many of my names. I look at ancestry.com and only find people who have the same information as I do about my brick walls.

So, I'll focus on the indexing until I feel the push to begin back at my own lines. Who knows. Maybe I'll find my gg grandfather in one of these records I index! :)

BTW, my own grandfather became a Great-Great-Grandfather during December. I cannot imagine what it is like to see one's posterity grow into a fifth generation! And at the same time, I became a GrandAunt (great-aunt to the non-genealogist). It's exciting! :)

Dece