I have made some progress in identifying the mystery individuals in Nancy (Owens) Kelly's 1860 bill to partition husband John Kelly's estate in Kershaw County, South Carolina. Those mystery people were Thomas Thomas Jr., John K. Thomas, William Thomas, Frances Booth, Nancy Redding, and Charlotte Staggs. You can read about the mystery heirs here.
My breakthrough came when I dug back into my files and double checked John Kelly's probate records. I was looking for each of the individuals named in the bill. None of them were mentioned in the estate settlement by name. However, I did find a reference to the heirs of Mrs. Thomas. That was important and disappointing all at once because there was no indication of her name or her husband's name or her relationship to John Kelly.
Then I readjusted my theory. What if these people were not the children of John Kelly, but the children of Mrs. Thomas, who was obviously deceased? She could be a daughter of John Kelly, and they could be his grandchildren.
With the new idea that these individuals were younger than I originally thought, I went to FamilySearch and searched through the trees. The floodgates opened when I entered the following fields--
First Name: Frances
Last Name: Thomas
Spouse last name: Booth
Father's last name: Thomas
Mother's last name: Kelly.
As a result, I found Frances Emaline Thomas, wife of John Thomas Booth, Jr, daughter of William B. Thomas and -----Kelly. Frances Thomas and John Thomas Booth had married in Tuscaloosa County, Alabama in 1858. In the online tree, she was the only child of William B. Thomas. However, when I went to William B. Thomas and began looking for additional matches, I pulled up a William B. Thomas of Pickens County, Alabama who in 1850 had children: Frances, Charlotte, Thomas, and William. There is also a Jane A. Thomas in the household but it is hard to say if she is a young second wife or a daughter. In the 1860 census, I found a Charlotte Staggs in Pickens County. In 1880, I found a Nancy Redding, niece of William Thomas Jr. This younger Nancy Redding is evidently the daughter of the Nancy Redding I am looking for.
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| 1850 Pickens County, Alabama Census |
This is a very good fit for the mystery people I am seeking. I still have questions about Mrs. Thomas. Was she a daughter or sister to John Kelly? My best guess is that she was a daughter from a previous wife. Based on the probate settlement, she was probably the only "surviving" child from that marriage with children. What was her name? Where was she born? Who was her mother? Answers to all of these questions would shed more light on John Kelly.
Keywords: Nancy Missouri Owens Kelley; John Kelley
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