Cousins in our Neighborhood

We live in a St. Louis suburb where people don't go to school with cousins. My daughter Rachel on the left (pink) was in class with her 3rd cousin once removed Heather (with glasses). Even the teacher couldn't believe that we KNEW that they were 3rd cousins once removed. Heather's grandmother (Fay Long Buxton) was the first cousin of Rachel's great-grandfather (Roy Long). Family historians just know these things.

Catana, Leah, Glenice

So, I was at a baby shower with Leah's friend since Kindergarten, Catana. I knew her mother was from DeSoto where my Dad's family is from and I'd asked her about her family from time to time, but couldn't find a connection. . .in 25 years. . .

Glenice, Lois, Jean

So, in 5 minutes after meeting Glenice's sister, Jean (a family historian), I found the connection. Glenice, Jean and I have the same great-great-great grandparents Jacob Tyrey and Celicia Kilpatrick. Lois was my father's 3rd cousin; Glenice and Jean are my 4th cousins; Leah and Catana are 5th cousins.
My grandfather Roy Long was 2nd cousin with Lawson Valle (Glenice and Jean's grandfather); my great-grandmother Mary Reiter Long was first cousins with Julius Valle; my great-great grandmother (below) Eliza Tyrey Reiter was the sister of their ancestor Caroline Tyrey Valle.


So these two munchkins (below), who have been all through school together (Kindergarten through college) are 5th cousins. If the teachers at Henry School couldn't believe I knew that Heather and Rachel were 3rd cousins once removed, what would they have thought about 5th cousins?

Presidential Cousins

Four of the men above are cousins of mine, sadly one is not. . . How do I know? Ancestry.com has a little button you can press that says, "Find famous relatives." For some reason, this only works on my "Maupin" family tree. So, maybe Barack Obama is a cousin on one of my other family lines. . .
The chart above says, "Living Clinton", but it is William Jefferson Clinton. If you double click on the chart, it will enlarge and you can actually read the names of our ancestors. He is my 8th cousin, twice removed (notice how his chart has 2 entries more than mine---that's the "twice removed.") Double click on the charts to enlarge them.
This is for Jimmy Carter---you may or may not note that he, Clinton and I have the same ancestor Thomas Swann. I also made it a little easier to see how Carter is my 8th cousin once removed. For more information on cousins, click here. This has more information on cousins than even I can digest. But the chart above shows how Carter is "once removed" from me---we are a generation off.Here's a little test. So, what is my "cousinship" with George Herbert Walker Bush?Did you say 6th cousin twice removed? Well, look again at the chart above. . . .He's my 8th cousin on that one. If you look carefully at his family tree, you'll see everything is all right---mine is the probem. I'm related to myself twice---Margaret Via is my common ancestor for both charts: I'm descended from two different brothers: John (b. 1725) and Gabriel (b. 1720) while the Bushes are from their sister Mary (b. 1723)
But, those four living former presidents are not all. If you look on the chart above, I'm also cousins with William Henry Harrison (5th cousin, 4 times removed) and Benjamin Harrison (7th cousin, twice removed). Yes, they were both Presidents of the United States.
But, the one that surprised me the most was John F. Kennedy---I thought his family was all from Ireland. But, apparently the Fitzgeralds were in the United States for many generations. He's my 7th cousin, 3 times removed)

The last one, Zachary Taylor, is probably my closest presidential relative (not counting the Bushes who are "double cousins"). He's a 3rd cousin to my great-great grandfather. So, he's my 3rd cousin, 4 times removed.

So, to all my Cousin Presidents, I wish "Happy President's Day." For the record, I don't think I'm that unusual to be related to so many presidents---this just happens to be a very well-documented family. And, President Obama, I'm keeping my fingers crossed. . . .but, if that means I have to be Dick Cheney's cousin, too. . . .

****UPDATE*****  Barack Obama is my 6th cousin 4X removed through the Jennings line(Maupin) AND Bill Clinton is 9th cousin through his father's side (William Jefferson Blythe---through Harris line which is also my Maupin line).  So he is also a double cousin.

No word on Hillary Rodham or Donald Trump. . . .

Fry Genealogy

Thanks to Suzy and Buddy Fry for bringing this information to the reunion last week. Double click on the pages below in order to enlarge them. This first page begins with William Fry b. 1528 in Corston, Wiltshire England and 12 generations later there's Isaac Henry Fry b. 1877 in Peterstown, WV.

Alderson History from Family Bible

This first page taken from the Alderson Family Bible, first tells a little about Polly and Joseph Alderson but then lists the children of Jennett Mc Cleary and Colonel George Alderson (married July 1813): John Marshall Alderson (high sheriff of Greenbrier), Jane Creigh Alderson (married James Remley and moved to Iowa), Thomas Creigh McCleary Alderson (a merchant in Russel,VA), Margaret Alderson, Jonathan Newman Alderson(died at 20 while preparing to study medicine), Joseph Allen Alderson (successful lawyer and in the Virginia legislature), Mary Newman Alderson, Peggy Katy Alderson(married William Aston a lawyer and former VA legislator), Sabina Isabella Alderson(died at 14 while her father was in Richmond with the Legislature), Sarah Martha Alderson (". . .gave her father the slip and married William Zall. They went to Missouri), George Alderson, Jennet George Alderson and several infants that died unnamed. To read the pages, double-click on the photos to enlarge them. Italics information from a document written in 1860 by their father Col. George Alderson. After Jennet McCleary Alderson died, he married Eliza Ann Davis(daughter of Captain Charles Lewis Davis, of Ameherst VA. She is related to the Ellises and Floyds) and had more children: Jennet Creigh Alderson (grown and at home), Georgia Ann Alderson (married S. McClung, "a well-doing farmer of Nicholas"), Rebecca White Alderson (grown and at home), George Henry Clay Alderson (my husband's great-grandfather), Josephine Davis Alderson, Alice Ellis Alderson, Francis Lewis Alderson, Overton Davis Alderson, Lewis Newman Alderson plus several unnamed infants. Do you get the feeling they were running out of names? (4 had the name George/Georgia, 3 were Creighs, 2 Davises, 2 Lewises, 2 Jennets) But my favorite is Jennet Creigh who was named for his first wife!

In another document, Col. George Alderson mentions that the other children are all minors and adds: ". . .I have lost in my family an affectionate wife and twelve children, beside eight servants, three grown and five children."


I photographed these pages at the Fry Family Reunion in 2009. It seems that I'm missing a few pages. Col. George Alderson (father of George Henry Clay Alderson) wrote this in 1860. This page 5 does mention William Morris. Click here for more information and his daughter-in-law "Caty Carroll" who was married to William Morris, Jr.Page 6 discusses William Morris, his son and his grandchildren. It also mentions John Mathews of Lewisburg.
Page 7 discusses George Alderson uncle of the man pictured at the top of the page (nephew of William Morris) and his father Elder John Alderson and the development of the Greenbrier Church. Most of the rest of the document is about the Alderson family.

Searching for Wicker Roots, Part One

Wes Wicker and Vennie Watson Wicker, 1920's

My mother grew up with two young parents who didn't know much about their family history. Vennie's father died when she was very young and Wes's died before he was born---both from horse-back riding accidents. So, my bicentennial birthday gift for my mother Louise Wicker Long was some information about her family.

First, I wrote letters to family members to try to get some information (double click to read Peck's notes, then use the back arrow to return).

Then, we took our young daughter Rebecca to Mom's house for a few days, told her we were going on our "second honeymoon" but didn't really tell Mom where we were going---to Hornersville, Mo, Obion County, Tennessee and Hickman County, Kentucky to find her roots.

In Hornersville, we interviewed Peck Wicker (of Bar-B-Q Fame, above)and then headed to the courthouse in Obion County. Peck had told us his father was one of three brothers: Con (Hugh Cornelius), Johnny B.(John Bedford), and Walker (Marion Walker) Wicker who were born in Missouri. I later found out they had a sister, too. Click here for more photos and information about them.

Hugh Cornelius, Marion Walker, Francis, Jasper and John Bedford were all the children of John W. Wicker and Virginia Sampson. Click here for a blog and photos. Obion County, Tennessee had two Wicker families: John and Naomi Wicker who didn't live too far from Hugh M. and Sarah Wicker. The hard part was their children often had the same or similar names. (Two with the names John W., Sarah, William, Mary) The two deeds above are for J.W.Wicker. I'm sure the second one is our family because it mentions his siblings and their spouses' names, but I don't know about the first one. Below shows the marriages of the Wicker children in Obion County. As you can tell by the page numbers, they were all within about 20 years.
I spent hours trying to figure out who was who. I finally concluded with the help of the census that we belonged to Hugh and Sarah Wicker's family. After Hugh Wicker's death all of his children moved to Missouri and that helped me separate the two families. Click here for the blog about this. So, I had the Wicker family traced back to Hugh M. Wicker, but there I was stuck. The 1860 Census was the source of a lot of confusion. The census taker had poor handwriting and only used initials. My notes indicate that he was born in NORTH Carolina. But, the 1850 census is the one which has caused the most headaches. In that Lincoln County Tennessee census, the census taker wrote that Hugh M. Wicker was born in SOUTH Carolina which in Wicker World is a big deal. I felt pretty sure the two Wicker families in Lincoln County and Obion County Tennessee were brothers because the names of their children were so similar and they lived close to each other, but I couldn't prove it.
This began 10 years of letter writing to Wickers everywhere. I learned that there were two Wicker families---some from North Carolina and some from South Carolina.
I learned that a book was being written about the Wickers but R. Fenton Wicker believed we were Newberry Wickers because of that ONE census. I bought a "rough draft" of the book for $10, tried to convince Fenton that we belonged there, but with no real proof. .. . When he didn't include us in the final copy, I didn't buy the book.
Note on the family tree above, I have a dotted line for Hugh where I thought he should be. Also, note the name Ambrose. I was so convinced that we belonged there that when we went to England in 1987, we visited where the North Carolina Wicker's ancestors were from.

Glanville-Reed Missouri Mysteries

There are several stories that I've been trying to track down. First, my dad always said we were related to the Ambruster/Armbrusters (who have a mortuary in St. Louis) on the Reed side. It's a beautiful mortuary on Clayton Rd. in a Tudor style building---I couldn't find any exterior shots.

Morgan Family Tree by O. E. Morgan

This sort of thing makes my eyes gloss over, but it might be needed for the next post. Double click to make it larger.


I wanted to do a bit of research before I posted this. Of course the Morgans were really from Wales not England. On Ancestry.com, someone has that Abraham Morgan and Elizabeth Ealy died in Wales, but I don't believe this history would have been handed down that they were the immigrant ancestors, if someone didn't know that (it also states his father's name and where he lived, but I'm waiting to hear where and how the person got the information)
I believe this was compiled in the late 1930's by Oley Estel Morgan, son of Felix Ellison Morgan (see above). I just can't imagine how he was able to assemble all of these names. Gradually, I'm getting dates to go with these names from Ancestry.com.
Some of you have asked about Harry Byron Morgan's name---here is where someone wrote in that his name changed at an early name. Speaking of names, it's interesting that Ellice's name is "Ellis".