Nathaniel Kelly, son of John and Elizabeth: Who’s The Daddy, Part 3

Candidate #3 on my list of potential 3rd great-grandfathers is Nathaniel Kelly, son of John Kelly and his first wife, Elizabeth Loar or Lohr.

Nathaniel Kelly was born January 13, 1806, in Greenbrier County, Virginia (now West Virginia). He married Margaret Smith in Logan County, Ohio, on June 30, 1831, at the age of 25.

Logan County Marriage Records 1774–1993, Ancestry.com

The 1840 census has Nathaniel living in Lake Township, Logan County, Ohio, with a woman his age, who I assume is Margaret. There is also a boy between 10 and 14 and a girl under 5 in his household.

In 1850, Nathaniel and Margaret are in Monroe Township, Logan County, Ohio. They are listed immediately after his brothers: Peter, John Senior. Included in the couple’s household are Samuel Smith, aged 28, who I assume is a relative of Margaret’s, and Sarah Burgess, aged 9. The ages of these two don’t match the ages of the boy and girl in 1840. Also, Sarah Burgess is a name that has come up before in two places: Nathaniel’s grandmother’s name, and the wife of Abraham Kelly, another prominent Kelly in the county who I believe is related.

Nathaniel’s death is not known at the time I write this. His wife remarries a man in 1867, which most likely means Nathaniel passed away before then. His missing name from the 1860 census may mean he passed before 1860. 

Analysis:

I can’t rule Nathaniel out as the father of my ancestor, John W. Kelley.

Arguments against include the family bible only listing one marriage for him. Since Nathaniel married Margaret six years after my ancestor was born, Margaret is probably not the mother. 

Arguments for include that Nathaniel was within the age range, lived in the area, and had a boy living with him in 1840 that is about John’s age at that time. Nathaniel was 25 years old when he married, so that leaves room for him to have had another wife and family.

John Kelly, son of Peter and Mary: Who’s the Daddy, Part 2

So with Peter Kelly, Jr, off my potential daddy list, I turn to his brother, John.

According to a family bible and his father’s will, John Kelly, son of Peter and his first wife Sarah Burgis, was born July 18, 1781, in Shenandoah County, Virginia. He married Elisabeth Loar in Augusta County, Virginia, on May 6, 1803. He and Betsy had two children: Polly, born in 1804 in Staunton, and Nathaniel, born in 1806 in Greenbrier County, Virginia (now West Virginia).

John married Susannah Osborn on August 3, 1806, in Greenbrier County. (Since John remarried the same year Nathaniel was born, I am inclined to believe Elisabeth died in childbirth.) Susannah was the daughter of a well-known Baptist minister, Josiah Osborn. A biography of one of their sons states that John and Susannah had 12 children. I have only been able to nail down 6 from records so far: John in 1807, Sallie in 1809, Elizabeth in 1812, Martha in 1814, Peter in 1816, and Harriet in 1819. Other researchers of this family have listed children younger than Harriet, but how do we know whose children they are. As you will read in the next paragraphs, this family was big into housing extended family. In 1820, the family moved near Bellefontaine, Ohio.

There’s a John Kelly in the Logan County census records for the years 1820, 1830, and 1840. As this family has so many Johns in it, I wasn’t sure these records were for this John Kelly and his family. Remember that censuses before 1850 listed just the head of household’s name and their families were recorded as hash marks representing their age and sex.

The 1820 census has 8 people total in the family. The hash marks match the ages of John and Susannah’s children. The only kids missing are Polly and Nathaniel, John’s children by his first marriage, who would have been 16 and 14 years old. It could be that they may have stayed behind in Virginia with other family members.

The 1830 census lists 18 people in John Kelly’s house. That’s certainly more than the 14 (12 children, 2 parents) I was expecting. But even 14 is too many because it assumes John and Susannah had a dozen children who survived. Three of the new people are easily spotted; there are a thirty, a sixty and a seventy-year-old man in the hashes. Their presence on the census makes me believe John is housing more than one family—probably his or his wife’s parents and a brother or brother-in-law. Four of John’s children would be in their twenties at this time so they may not be living with their parents. Most interesting, there’s a boy between 5 and 9 years old, and a boy under 5 years old on the record. My John Kelley ancestor was born in 1825 or 1826. More on this in a few paragraphs.

John’s family is back down to 8 people in the 1840 census. Of course, most of his children were married and gone by this time. Harriet, the youngest daughter that I know of so far, would be 21. I looked ahead and noticed she would marry in 1842. There is a 90-year-old man listed. The two boys listed in the 1830 census also appear on this census, ten years older. Could one of them be my John Kelley?

John the elder’s wife passed away in 1844.

In the 1850 census, John is listed with people this time. John is 68, Martha Price is 36, Jonathan Yeck is 18, Mary Ann Williams is 16, John Price is 9, and Harriet Fuson is under the age of 1. I’ve verified that Martha is this John Kelly’s daughter, and Harriet Fuson is his granddaughter. I’m not sure who the others are yet. The fact that this is the right man in the right county makes me think the previous censuses are also him. My thinking here is, if we know he moved there in 1820 and he is listed there in 1850, he most likely stayed there in between.

In the winter of 1859, John Kelly dies in Logan County.

Analysis:

I can’t rule out this John Kelly as the father of my ancestor.

Reasons I’m leaning toward him not being the daddy: John Senior already has a son named John. The family bible lists Senior’s children rather meticulously; there are only 8 births listed, which leads me to believe 4 children did not survive birth.

page 9 from the family bible in my possession (but procured from Margaret Gerdeman)

On the other hand, John was 43 in 1825 when my ancestor was born, so he could still have children. My ancestor named one of his son’s John Henry Osborn, which makes me think there’s a connection to Susannah. There’s the question of the missing six children John and Susannah are to have had, and the question of the two boys in the 1830 and 1840, who may be John’s or maybe somebody else’s. Of course, there’s also the possibility that John and Betsy or Susannah are my ancestor’s grandparents. John’s sons Nathaniel and John Junior are old enough to be my ancestor’s father. I guess I have my Who’s The Daddy? Parts 3 and 4 now.

Peter Kelly, Jr.: Who’s the Daddy, Part 1

Now that I’m 97 percent certain I’m researching the right Kelley/Kelly family, my next task is narrowing down potential fathers.

Using Peter Kelly’s will, I determined that two of his sons, Peter Junior and John, could be my third great-grandfather’s father.

I had already known that Elizabeth Enoch had a brother named Peter because they were mentioned in a biography of Elizabeth’s husband, John.

Peter Kelly, Junior, was born in Staunton, Augusta County, Virginia, in 1799. He moved to Logan County with his family in 1820 when he was 21 years old. He married Sarah “Sally” Smith in Logan County in 1822.

The Ancestry community in general believes he and Sally had Mary in 1823, Jeremiah in 1824, Henry in 1826, Elizabeth in 1829, and John in 1830.

In the 1830 census, he is listed as having 2 sons between the ages of 5 and 9 and 1 son under the age of 5. Jeremiah and Henry are probably the two sons between 5 and 9; John is probably the one under age 5.

As the History of Champaign and Logan County excerpt above states, Peter Kelly was a county sheriff, not an easy job so early in the European history there. At the Logan County Library in Bellefontaine, Ohio, I confirmed that a Peter Kelly served as sheriff of the county twice: from 1831 to 1834 and again from 1839 to 1840. The couple had more children that I won’t mention here because I am only concerned about his children born around 1825.

In 1840, he has 1 son between 15 and 19 and 2 sons between 10 and 14, which corresponds with Jeremiah, Henry, and John’s birthdates.

In 1850, everyone except Jeremiah is present and living in the same county they were in the previous censuses.

A newspaper clipping index I discovered at the Logan County Historical Society lists a Judge Peter Kelly (Junior) dying in West Liberty, Ohio, on 10 December 1856 of Lung Fever. He was in his 58th year and was a native of Augusta County, Virginia. The index says this information was in the 12 December 1856 edition of the Bellefontaine Republic newspaper. I need to find this obituary because an index isn’t a strong source.

Findagrave confirms a Peter Kelly was buried in Fairview Cemetery in West Liberty, Ohio, in 1856. He is next to Sarah Kelly, Elizabeth, and Belle, and his other children are also linked in his record. They are Sarah Kennedy, Anna Deck, Martha Patterson, and John Kelly.

Analysis: I don’t think Peter Junior is likely to be the father of my ancestor John Kelley, who was born (most documents agree) in July 1825.

1. The censuses agree as to the number of sons Peter had in 1830, 1840, and 1850, and they consistently match the ages of Peter’s known children.

2. Peter’s son Jeremiah became a well-respected reverend in this county. His life is well documented. He was born in October 1824, exactly nine months before my John Kelley relative was born. It’s possible Sally bore two sons that close together, but not probable.

3. Peter and Sarah named a son John in 1830. It’s possible they named two sons the same name, but not probable.

4. As an upstanding member of the community—earning a mention in his brother-in-law’s biography I might add—Peter Kelly and his family would be well recorded even at this early time. All of his living children would have been recorded.

Where There’s a Will, The Two John Kelleys Part 16

On the second day of my trip, I visited the Logan County Historical Center in Bellefontaine, Ohio. The center is a converted old mansion with several modern additions strung behind it. The building just behind the mansion is a history museum. The genealogy and archival departments are on the second floor in the very back building.

I met with two volunteers that day. Beth in the archives looked up newspaper articles on the Kelley family for me. Deb helped me locate records of the Kelly family in the area.

Most of the records on hand were from the 1870s and after. Remember that my Kelly family had left the community by 1856. So I mostly collected information on the family members who stayed. But Deb did find one gem of a record.

It is Peter Kelly’s will written on November 27, 1822. The will was executed March 27, 1826. Peter Kelly is Elizabeth Kelly Enoch’s father. I am only including the first page of six here for the sake of space. If you’d like to see the rest of the will, please contact me through this blog.

To his wife, Mary, he gives all the furniture except the bookcase, two cows, all the sheep, geese and poultry, and a third of all the real estate. To his son John*, he gives 50 dollars and the book case. His books are to be equally divided among his children. He gives 100 dollars to be divided among the three children of his deceased son, Nathaniel, when the youngest comes of age. His son, Peter (Junior), received the wagon, harness, all of the farming utensils, and the responsibility of taking care of his mother the rest of her life, including making sure she had a good horse “when it shall be her pleasure to ride during the whole time of her widowhood.” Daughters Sally Houver and Betsy Enoch receive one “horse beast” each. They, along with a third daughter, Patty Knox, also receive a third of the money due to him in Virginia. (They lived in Augusta County, Virginia, before moving to Ohio in 1817 or so. Apparently, he still had business dealings there.) Daughter Caty Blag receives 25 dollars. David and Madison Watts or Walts, Sally’s children by her first marriage, receive a portion of the money when they turn of age.

* This John cannot be the John Kelley whose parents I’m looking for. This will was written in 1822, and my John was born in 1825 or 1826.

There’s so much information on the family here. Its immediate members are listed and there are hints to other relationships. Reading was important to them, though it seems wife Mary either couldn’t read or didn’t favor it as much as Peter’s children. Peter Kelly seems to favor his daughters equally with his sons. Poor Caty Blagg seems to have gotten a raw deal with just 25 dollars bequeathed.

I’m mostly interested in who of Peter’s children could be my John Kelley’s father. This document offers me just two candidates, John and Peter, Jr. Nathaniel is not a candidate because he died before my John Kelley was born.

So my findings lead me to research more into John and Peter Kelley, Jr. More to come!

Location, Location, Location: The Two John Kelleys, Part 15

Where to start…at the end, maybe?

I’ve been back from my genealogical adventure to Ohio for a few weeks now, and my big news is that I did NOT achieve my goal of finding out who John Kelley’s parents were.

But…

I literally stumbled over a huge piece of evidence in a cemetery in the middle of nowhere.

The first thing you should know is West Central Ohio is beautiful. These photos flatten out how hilly it is there. Pictured is Mt Tabor Church and Cemetery due east of West Liberty, Ohio, in the middle of nowhere. The church is no longer in use, and the cemetery is small and very old.*

I went there to find Elizabeth Enoch’s grave and to find out who was buried near her. Quick recap (to save you the trouble of reading the previous 14 posts in this series): Elizabeth, whose maiden name was Kelley, was the wife of a prominent man in the area. In the 1850 census, she and her husband employed a farmhand named John Kelley, who I suspect was my 2x great-grandfather. I believe this because my John Kelley ancestor was definitely married in this county four years after this census was taken, the age listed matches the age I believe he was, and my father and I have DNA matches to the Enochs.

1850 US Census, Salem Township, Champaign County, Ohio

I found a dozen or so Enoch family graves in this cemetery, most of them clustered toward the front right side as you’re facing the church. Many gravestones around them were tipped over or broken.* Engravings were worn down so much that you could barely tell what they said.* John and Elizabeth Enoch had the tallest monument. Plaques for them were mounted on either side of it, and five of their children were buried next to them in a row.

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When I was backing up to take the picture of the Enoch monument, I stumbled over a gravestone—it was a little thing, just ankle high. It couldn’t even fit a full name on it, just the initials “JTN.” It looked like a toadstool compared to the large edifices of the wealthy Enoch family. I was curious so I checked out the larger gravestones next to it, and I found these graves:

The shadows on these photos are distracting, but descendants of John Kelley and his wife, Eliza Hurd, will recognize the last name right away. They are Philip and Rachel Nitchman. Philip and Rachel are the parents of Eliza Hurd’s stepmother. Let me say that another way: Eliza’s mother, Mary Reynolds, died young, and her father married Mariah Nitchman when Eliza was 10 years old. Mariah helped raise Eliza. Philip and Rachel are Mariah’s parents.

What are the odds that Eliza’s family just happened to be buried DIRECTLY IN FRONT OF the woman I suspect is Eliza’s husband’s relative in a cemetery of maybe a dozen families three miles outside a tiny farming community in rural Ohio?

This confirms a few things. The Nitchmans passed in the 1860s, Elizabeth in the 1870s, and John in the 1880s. That means the Kelley family that I suspect were John’s relatives DEFINITELY knew Eliza’s stepmother and her family. Eliza’s father and Eliza herself probably attended this church. Eliza may have even met and/or married John here. If not, she probably met someone who knew John here.

Now I’ve already mentioned the Enochs I found in this cemetery. I also found a few Kelleys here.

These are the graves of Griffith Evans Kelley, Jemima wife of Abraham Kelly, and Robert M. Kelly. I have DNA matches with all three of these people. I’d like to point out that Griffith Evans Kelley shares his name with the original land donor of the church mentioned in the Mt Tabor Historical marker sign in the first cluster of photos. These families have deep, deep roots in this area.

So everything about my trip to this cemetery had me thinking I was right to think that my John’s family lived in this county and not in Erie County, Ohio, like so many of my family researchers on Ancestry claim. And then I went to the local library and discovered even more evidence…

More to come!

*Did you notice the asterisks? They mention facts about the cemetery that will come into play in my next post.

Going There: The Two John Kelleys, Part 14

I’ve been quiet on this research lately because I’ve been preparing to go to the county in which my 3x great-grandparents John Kelley and Eliza Hurd were married.

This is my first time traveling to a location to conduct research, and it’s a lot of work. So many questions have come up. How will I know I will find something new when I get there? What will I need to bring with me? Where are the best places to do my research there? How much time will I need to accomplish my goals?

The answers are all “I don’t know. We’ll play it by ear.”

I’ve found some advice on other researchers’ blogs. Most of them say to make a research plan before you go so you stay on task. That makes sense; it’s easy to get distracted by all of the shiny resources at a new library.

I’ve decided my main question to answer will be “Who are John Kelley’s parents?”

Before I made that my goal, I had planned to visit 6 libraries in 4 counties. I wanted to chase all of the leads. But a second piece of advice—Review the information you have—made me realize that I don’t know much about these two ancestors. Here’s what I know for sure:

• John Kelley and Eliza Hurd were married in Champaign County, Ohio, in 1854 by a justice of the peace.

• Eliza Hurd definitely lived in that county in 1850. She was a local.

Not much to go on. I feel like it’s a pretty safe assumption that John was local, too. It’s at least more likely.

So I pared back the number of libraries and genealogy centers I was going to visit and focused on Champaign County. Because of that, I cancelled my reservation at a nice lake house in Logan County, one county north, and instead booked a very nice apartment in downtown Urbana. Those other locations are still researching possibilities, but I’m going to let what I find in Champaign County tell me where to go.

Another bit of advice was to take stock of the missing research in your records and try to fill in the gaps before you conduct research on site. Like, if you’re missing a census or marriage record, it’s a better use of time to find them online beforehand.

As a result of this advice, I’ve been reading up on Champaign County history. On the Library of Congress web site, I found this landowners map from 1858, four years after my great-grandparents moved to Iowa.

You’re looking at Salem (yellow), Concord (pink), and Harrison (blue) townships in Champaign County. I’ve boxed and circled a few things on the map since the type is so tiny.

The red box toward the top of the map is John Enoch’s sizable farm. Remember that in the 1850 census a John Kelley is listed as a farm hand on the Enoch farm. John Enoch married a woman named Elizabeth Kelley. I suspect this John Kelley is my ancestor because he’s the right age, and I have DNA matches to the Enochs, though I don’t know how John Kelley and Elizabeth Kelley Enoch are related.

The blue box underneath is a farm owned by Colonel David Kelly. I should say that there was no difference between Kelly and Kelley back then. This is all taking place before the spellings of names were standardized. After combing through the map, David is the only Kelly listed as a landowner in this county. I have DNA matches to two of David Kelly’s sons. These Kellys have Osborn relatives, and there are several women named Arietta among David’s nieces and granddaughters. Osborn and Arietta are names John and Eliza gave to two of their children.

The green circle is where I believe Eliza Hurd lived, based on her father’s listed neighbors in the 1850 census. So Eliza and this John lived pretty close together, right? They easily could have met in town or at church.

I don’t know if the John Kelley on the Enoch farm is my dude. I don’t know how the Enochs and David Kelly are related to me; I just know that it can’t be a coincidence that I have genetic ties to both of these families. So, this is my researching starting point:

• Try to find a John Kelley, born in 1826, in bibles, wills, and tax records of the county.

• Visit the cemetery where the Kellys and the Enochs were buried. Most of them were buried at Mt Tabor church on the property just north of David Kelly’s farm on the map. It’s a Methodist church, the denomination I know John and Eliza were involved with in Iowa when they were older. Seeing where Kellys and Enochs were buried and who they were buried near might give me some more clues.

• Dig into the David Kelley family tree. There were so many John Kelleys in that family. Hopefully, it won’t be hard to find my guy.

David Kelly and John Enoch were both considered early pioneers of the county, so I’m hoping there’s a lot of documentation on their lives at the library. Eliza’s uncle, John Hurd, is listed as a prominent member of the community in that same county history book. I also learned that the Hurds were pioneers of Clark County, Ohio, the county to the south of Champaign. Hopefully there’s a lot of records on them as well.

And that’s my plan. I hope to also visit the Ohio Caverns near the old Kelly farm and the Piatt castles while I’m there. And I’m going during my favorite time of year, so I hope to visit an orchard and score some cider house donuts!

Elizabeth’s Obituary: The Two John Kelleys, Part 13

Start at the beginning or just go back to Part 12.

I found an obituary for Elizabeth Kelley Enoch. It’s not terribly helpful. I have confirmation now that her husband was well-known. The article’s mention of his business and the fact that her obituary appears in a town 150 miles from where she lived tells me the Enochs were known. Also that John did business in Cincinnati. I know now that Elizabeth died of pneumonia. And I can safely assume that the West Liberty newspaper ran this article, probably with more details since that was her local paper.

Sources for this post can be found here.

Looking Up: The Two John Kelleys, Part 12

Start at the beginning or just go back to Part 11.

In my hunt for finding Elizabeth Kelley Enoch’s family, I’m homing in on the basics. I want to start with when was Elizabeth was born.

The 1850 census says she was born in Virginia and she was 47 years old. That means her birth year was 1802 or 1803. I find her in Salem Township, Champaign County, Ohio, in the 1860 and 1870 censuses. Her birth year is consistent at 1802 or 1803, and her birthplace is listed in both as Virginia.

Findagrave.com has a listing of an Elizabeth Enoch at the Mount Tabor Church Cemetery in Mingo, Champaign County, Ohio.

The county is right; the husband is right. The page also lists children buried nearby and their names match up as well. Doing the math on the gravestone, Elizabeth would have been born 9 April 1803. Those age breakdowns on gravestones are so exact I tend to trust them.

Plugging her and John’s name into the family search database, I pull up a death record.

This is the death record of Elizabeth and John’s son John Enoch III. It states that Elizabeth was born in Augusta County, Virginia. With that lead in mind, I go to Google looking for Kelleys in Augusta County. That’s where I find this:

These are a few pages from The Papers of John C. Enoch III, Sterling, Kentucky, a book by an Enoch family member! How perfect is that? I immediately see the info here matches what I’ve come up with so far. Looks like John Enoch Sr.’s death might be a typo since this page says he died three years before his first child was born. But mistakes happen. We have Elizabeth’s parents’ names, though. I notice, though, that this book either doesn’t have source documentation or it isn’t on a page that Google books allows me to see. So this info isn’t the most reliable at this point.

Further down on my list of Google hits, I find the following excerpt from David Enoch Family in Ohio, 1798–1953:

He [John Enoch, Jr.] lived with his family and aided in the operation of the mill at West Liberty until his marriage, which important event in his life occured on the 25th of July, 1822, the lady of his choice being Elizabeth Kelley, a native of Augusta County, Virginia, born in 1803. Her parents were Peter and Mary Mole Kelley. Mrs. Enoch came to Logan County, Ohio, with her parents, at the age of seventeen year, the family locating near West Liberty. There Mr. Kelley was engaged…

It’s an unfortunate place for an ellipses. What was Mr. Kelley engaged in? That’s the info I want to know! Mental note: Somewhere there’s a record where that paragraph continues! Argh.

There’s so much more about the Enoch family in this book, including:

He [John Enoch, Jr.] was married to Miss Kelly, a sister to Peter Kelly, now deceased, formerly Sheriff of Logan County.

The good news is that this book is well-documented. And now I know that Elizabeth left Virginia to live in Ohio with her parents in 1820. And she has a brother named Peter who was the sheriff in town. That’s quite a bit to go on. Things are looking good!

Sources for this post can be found here.

Starting Over: The Two John Kelleys, Part 11

Start at the beginning or just go back to Part 10.

Okay, then. We have one DNA match to the Enoch family. I want to look again at the 1850 census in Champaign County, Ohio, where a John Kelley is listed with them.

My first question is: Are Champaign John and the Enochs related? Or, put another way, is Elizabeth Enoch a Kelley?

Transcript: Marriage Licence Given to John Enoch & Betsy Kelly – 26 July 1822 groom of lawfull age

State of Ohio Logan County Thereby certify that on the 25 day of July I joined together in the holy State of matrimony J[ohn] Enoch & Elizabeth Kelly of lawfull age. [illegible] have this 26 July 1822 Wm Hopkins J.P. [Justice of the Peace] file 10 August 1822 & register 10 Sept 1822

Elizabeth and her husband would have been 19 in 1822 (since they were 47 in 1850). Logan County is next door to Champaign County. There weren’t many people in this part of Ohio at the time, so I think it’s pretty safe to assume I have the right people.

My next question is: What is the relationship between Elizabeth and Champaign John?

In the census, Elizabeth is 47 and Champaign John is 24. That’s a pretty dramatic age difference. I don’t think I can be sure they are siblings, although it’s possible their poor mother was still having children 23 years after having Elizabeth. They could be cousins. Elizabeth is even old enough to be John’s mother. Maybe John was born out of wedlock and that’s why he has her last name?

How closely related am I to harryenoch, the descendant of Elizabeth Kelley and John Enoch I found in my DNA matches?

We only share 22.3 centimorgans (cM) of DNA. That’s not much. Using a tool that tells me all of our potential relationships based on the centimorgans we share, he could be anything from a half first cousin three times removed (Half 1C3R on the tool) to an 8th cousin (8C).

(Sidenote: Are you wondering what “removed” means? True cousins belong to the same generation. If they are not of the same generation, then they are removed. Think of your first cousin. Now think of her/his daughter. See her pigtails? She is your first cousin once removed because she is not of your and your first cousin’s generation. That daughter and your child are second cousins.)

Looking at the tool whose link I shared above, I notice the relationship that has an average of 22 cM shared is 4th to 5th cousins. Plotting out harryenoch’s and my lineage, we would be 4th cousins once removed if Champaign John and Elizabeth Enoch are siblings, 5th cousins once removed if they were first cousins. That checks out.

If Elizabeth were John’s mother, harryenoch and I would be third cousins once removed. 3C1R share an average of 48 cM, so while it’s possible, it’s not as probable.

Whew! Okay. So where do I go from here?

I want to get to know Elizabeth Enoch a little better. So my plan is to:

• verify her birthdate
• find a death date
• find a death record
• find an obituary
• dig up the censuses in between
• Google her and John Enoch

That should point me in a direction, I think.

Sources for this post can be found here.

Screeching Tires: The Two John Kelleys, Part 10

Did you hear that tire squeal a couple days ago?

Yeah, that was me.

I ordered all of the documents I came across, checked all the newspaper archives for obituaries, and I googled and googled and googled. Pretty sure there’s not another record of this family on the Internet. None of the documents indicated Milan John was or was not my family.

I made a list of death records I could order and genealogy organizations I could contact. Hopping online, I looked up Milan John’s family in my DNA records. Typed in Beardsley and Shailer and Collins, the married names of Milan John’s sisters, and Erie County, where Milan is located. A few matches came up, none of them seemed to connect to Milan John’s family.

I looked up Champaign County, Ohio, in my DNA matches and there were so many. To narrow things down, I searched the family Champaign John lived with in the 1850 census: Enoch.

Really? First entry? That’s all I had to do?

Yup. That’s the Elizabeth Kelley Enoch who housed John Kelley in the 1850 census in Champaign County, Ohio.

So that’s the squeal you heard—me stomping on the Milan John brakes and turning south to look into Champaign John.

Anybody need some obituaries and death records of a family I’m fairly certain now are not my relatives?

More to come.