Welcome!
My family tree has
nearly 18,000 members so one can certainly get
lost in the midst of the many names involved but
the searchbox will help locate almost any name
or location that I have researched..
I
managed to locate my dad's parents Luella
Coonfield and Frank Delbert Cochran on a few
census images, the one in 1930 included my daddy
at age 3 and then the four great grandparents
were also traced back a ways. Frank Delbert's
parents were Clora Jane Miller, a pipe smoker
who could read the ashes and Jacob Benjamin
Cochran, a Civil War Vet who had moved his
family to Kansas in 1882 from Iowa..
Jacob had been married and had six
daughters before he was widowed and met Clora. I
had heard that he had joined in the California
Gold Rush and sure enough, found him and his
brother in the California census, while I also
found his wife remaining in Ohio with the
children on another census, right next to his
brother Alexander Cochran. Most of them migrated
into Iowa Territory by 1870
His daughter
Elzira wrote a letter, in my files, about her
daddy coming back with socks of gold dust and
about the move to Iowa where she married her
true love.
Clora's brother John Miller
seemed to have followed them and I do have
pictures of my daddy with some of the Miller
boys who were his cousins.
Luella's
parents were Lattie Cedonia Little born in
Kentucky and Benjamin Wallace Coonfield of
Indiana, but his parents had migrated to
Arkansas many years before..
I had found
that Jacob Cochran was born in 1822 Ohio to
parents from Pennsylvania, Martha Henderson and
William Cochran, a son of Alexander. Apparently
William and Alexander were the only two Cochrans
in Guernsey Ohio at that time. Clora Jane's
parents were Mary Clara Parker and James Madison
Miller of Illinois, while Mary's father was a
Doctor Wanton Horatio Parker, so the story is
told that Mary would help the Indians with
medicine needs. Wanton's parents were Sarah
Tefft and Archelaus Parker who's families were
in Massachusetts and Rhode Island during the
1600s and then into New York Indian Country, but
also with connections to the history of King
Phillip where he killed one of the Tefft
brothers.
Many tribes of these areas migrated
into Ohio and Kentucky...blending with the early
settlers.
Lattie was a beautiful mixed
Cherokee indian and family tale is that her
father refused a land allotment in Oklahoma's
Indian Territory and moved his family into
Arkansas.
Benjamin's family of
Indiana were Benjamin Wylie Coonfield, another
Civil War Vet and Martha Frances Young and the
photos of this family indicate they mixed. The
Youngs and Coonfields go way back into 1800
Kentucky near where Daniel Boon's family lived,
finding Squire Boon on the
census..
Lattie Little's parents were
Mary Catherine Crigler and John Wright Little, a
Civil War Vet, both having family in early
Kentucky history books, pages I have copied into
my webpages. Catherine's parents were Nancy
Catherine Roby, (daughter of Reason Roby) and
Abraham Crigler. John's parents were Catherine
G. Wright ( daughter of Catherine Weatherford
and John C. Wright. Catherines father was
Charles Weatherford and we know his wonderful
place in history with Sehoy) and Doctor Hiram
Lucius Little who was a surgeon in the Civil
War.
Hiram's parents were Betsy
Douglass and Jonas Little who were married in
1798 Union County South Carolina. Hiram was
widowed young and moved to Texas with a very
young teen bride ( 14 !! ) and started a new
family in Bosque County.
Parents of Betsy
Douglass were Mary Handley and Alexander
Douglass and after his murder in Pennsylvania,
she moved to South Carolina and later on married
her daughter's father in law.
It was Mary
Handley's brother, Captain John Handley, a
surveyor like Daniel Boon, who urged these
families to move into Vienna, Kentucky and gave
land to his sisters.
John Handley and his
son became wealthy land owners and Senators who
are mentioned in the History of Kentucky books.
Hiram Little's brother was named Douglass and he
had his own wagon making shop, but became a
wealthy lawyer as well as his own son Powhatan
Little, also mentioned in those books, as well
as the controversial murder of brother Wesley
Little.
While the Criglers connect to
the historical Germanna Colony of Virginia and
the Millers connect to 1700 Rockingham Virginia
where Reverend Alexander Miller is written about
and buried, I find the story of Captain George
Little born 1733 Scotland so very awesome, as he
settled into Union County South Carolina, served
in the American Revolution, had ten children,
and moved into Kentucky in 1802 where he is
mentioned in several pages of the Kentucky Bios
and Kentucky History Books
Most of these
families also had a great grandfather who served
in the American Revolution.
My mother's
side was a little difficult to trace at first,
since she was orphaned at age 4, but it soon
came to light. Her parents were Alice Emma
McClain and Cecil Earl Fenn Carter but he did
not use the name Fenn, since his mother Anna Lou
Stone had remarried a few times. Cecil's death
certificate was signed by his brother Emmett
Marvin Fenn who added the parents names of Annie
Stone and William Franklin Fenn, so I ordered
William's death certificate and found his
parents were Emily Harrell and John F. Fenn of
Tuskegee, Macon County, Alabama, and census
records show they were born in Georgia in 1829.
Anna Stone's family also came out of
Georgia into Macon, Alabama on the 1850 census,
Augustus Marvin Fenn and Mary Ann
Hendrick.
One item to disrupt our
genealogy of Cecil Carter is that his brother
Frank Fenn, often told his children, that Cecil
and Carrie were only "half-siblings" and that
puzzle will haunt us forever.
Perhaps
Uncle Frank Fenn did not want to be related in
any way to the indian blood that ran through
their veins - perhaps he lived as white and
shunned his siblings - perhaps they were darker
skinned than he was - perhaps their mother did
fool around with a Mr. Carter long before she
married him - we will never know the truth, but
she did remarry and give Cecil the Carter name
that he used for the rest of his life, and his
sister Carrie did marry a Choctaw Indian Ben
Johnson and they died in Indian Nation Oklahoma.
Ben signed an affidavit that his mother was full
blood indian America Mills from Alabama and that
his father would not let her sign onto the
Indian Rolls so this sets a fine example of the
difficulty our families dealt with and how it
affects our research. But my grandfather Cecil
Earl Fenn Carter was proud to be a Cherokee and
so was my mother. Another tidbit in the puzzle
was Cecil's younger son being named William
Lawrence Carter in 1935 - where does the name
Lawrence enter the family history? Was Cecil's
adopted father a Lawrence Carter? There are no
records, no paper trail thus far to confirm
anything! Then again where does the name Earl
enter the family? It was not Anna's father's
name nor her husband's name? Cecil's other son
was Cecil Earl Carter Jr and he named his sons
Cecil Mark Carter in 1950, Jeffrey Earl,
Michael, and Bradford Earl Carter.
Parents of Alice McClain were Lorena
Emma Bozeman born 1890 Ramer, Alabama and
Charles Allen McClain born 1886 Ramer. His
parents were Elizabeth Broadway and Josiah
Marion McClain, a Civil War Vet, but I never
found a marriage record. Elizabeth's parents
were Mary Susan Stephens and Abner Broadway.
Lorena's parents were Alice Lorena
Stephens and John Thomas Bozeman of Ramer,
Alabama. The Bozeman lineage has been a
fascinating study of our ancestors in 1700 North
Carolina, living among the indians and fighting
in our War of Indiependence, before Peter sold
his Land Grant in 1826 and migrated into Hope
Hull, Montgomery County Alabama and beginning
this new legacy, where he lived amongst some of
the most historical families of our state.
The Stephens families had several
plantations around Dublin and Ramer and a family
history book was written by cousin Clyde
Stephens, with a copy in the Ramer Library.
Perhaps Lorena and Charles were cousins a few
generations back. But Clyde wrote that our
grandfather John Stephens joined the American
Revolution in the Carolinas and then married a
full blood indian, then migrated into Montgomery
Alabama. Some of his descendants ventured into
the new Texas Territory and returned with most
going into Florida and then into Panama where
they now grow bananas and sell to the world.
Lorena's grandmother was Nancy Jane
Anderson and I found her grave at Greenwood
Cemetery!
Elizabeth Broadway had a
sister, Rebecca Lou Broadway who married Clopton
Gibson and had a son named Jason
Gibson.
Jason Gibson married Lorena's
sister Ethel Mae Bozeman, and had a daughter
named Ruby Gibson.
When I talked with
Ruby and her sister Peggy, on the phone years
ago, she told me that Charlie McClain and Jason
Gibson had talked about being first cousins so
this gives a better confirmation to this
research.
Ruby's daughter Elizabeth gave
me a copy of a letter written by Ethel about her
childhood days, about the death of her mother,
and how they had to live with grandma Nancy Jane
for a while and the difficult times they
had.
I can remember the ladies all wore
long dresses, no such thing as slacks for women
back then!!! But Lorena could buy dresses for a
nickel at the Salvation Army and we enjoyed
shopping there. She could also cut older
garments into squares to make her quilts and I
still possess three of them that I helped her to
make in the 1960s.... .
When I began
researching my husband's family tree, his cousin
Clarence helped out a lot, sending old photos
and letters. Clarence had studied a cemetery in
Hope Hull where one of their grandfathers was
buried but it was also on property once owned by
my Bozeman ancestors.
Cousin Clarence
wrote the article you will find on the website
called Alabama Cemetery Preservation regarding
the cemetery in Hope Hull that they just call
Stokes - Carter but I would like to call it
Bozeman - Carter for the wonderful families we
have buried there affecting both my family and
my husband's family who came together then just
as they do now.
My husband's parents
were Mary Ella Thornton and James Edgar Brooks,
Jr. Mary's parents were Bessie Mae Hood and
Milton Elijah Thornton. Milton's parents were
Mary Angeline Partridge and Charles Thornton of
Georgia. Bessie's parents were Ella Olivia
Baxley and L. Wesley Hood of Holtville Alabama
and Ella's mother was a Holt. The parents of
James were Susie Mae Cooper and James Edgar
Brooks of Montgomery. Susie's parents were Sarah
Elizabeth Carter and Levi Benjamin Cooper of
Hope Hull, Alabama.
Sarah's parents were
Mary Josephine Hereford of Virginia and Thomas
Randolph Carter, a Civil War Vet, but he had
been widowed from his first marriage to Lacy
Jane Bozeman. Parents of Levi were Sarah F. Lee
and Charner P. Cooper, both from Chambers County
Alabama until he moved after serving in the
Civil War.
Parents of James Brooks came
from Tennessee, Annie Clark Ballard and John E.
Brooks. John's parents were Roxanna Permilia
Smith and John Brooks. Parents of Annie were
Dora Craig and James C. Ballard, all with rich
Tennessee History of the early 1800s.
All of these families are linked within
this webpage
where I have a little study on each of them and
on this
page and for a much longer list of documents
that I have collected click
here and the memorial I made for my husband
is here and
of course the Family Tree
Maker page.
I hope that my
children and theirs will someday realize that
all of the people named above are their family -
they are your grandparents and great
grandparents and bring you a vast family history
worth much more research than I can offer. We
have dozens of men who served in the American
Revolution, which set our country free, and then
dozens more in the Civil War, and many listed in
stories of our colonial history.
Credits:
My children and my
sister.
My daughter's mother in law
My
dad's sisters and cousin Stanley.
My Gibson
and Bozeman
cousins in Montgomery AL
My cousin Jimmy Ray
Bozeman
My cousin Wayne Bozeman who is
married to my husband's cousin.
LDS
USGenWeb
My
cousins Dick and Connie
Rootsweb
Charlie's
cousin Glenda Baxley who introduced us to Coosa
River and the many patriotic men in this
line.
Charlie's cousin Clarence who
introduced me to Hope Hull and his article in
Alabama Cemetery Preservation and their cousin
D.J. Smith who has the nice webpage on
Rootsweb.
And many more who corresponded
by email when they viewed my family tree
webpages!
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