Dexter Rebecca (Duncan) Honeycutt

   © Kathy Duncan, 2026

My ongoing quest for family obituaries has finally turned up an obituary for my grandfather Fred Duncan's sister, Dexter Rebecca (Duncan) Honeycutt. I had searched for it several times before. I don't know whether the newspaper was finally digitized or whether I varied my keyword search in some way. I am delighted to have found it. 

Aunt Dexter married Ira Honeycutt in Red River County, Texas. They moved to Lamesa, Texas, in the 1920s. Her two sons were Everal and Richard Honeycutt. Everal traveled back to Avery, Texas, many times to visit my grandparents.

Susan (Nevill) Duncan, 1940 Obituary

   ©  Kathy Duncan, 2026

I have never found an obituary for my great-grandmother Duncan in the Clarksville Times, which was the most logical newspaper to print her obituary or death notice. Due to the owners of the Clarksville Times deliberately burning the older newspaper morgues, I did not think I would ever find a reference to Susan Gertrude (Nevill) Duncan's death.

As luck would have it, her brother Bud Neville (Solomon Neville) lived in Broken Bow, Oklahoma. The Broken Bow News reported his trip to visit her in Avery, Texas, when she was extremely ill with heart trouble in February 1940. Note that Duncan is misspelled in this notice. I found it by searching for articles referencing Bud Neville. If you are neglecting your ancestor's siblings in your searches, then you are missing out on information about your direct line that you might not find any other way. 

When Susie died a few months later, Bud Neville's trip to Avery for her funeral was referenced in the Broken Bow News: 

Old House Location, Fred and Myrtle (Dendy) Duncan

  ©  Kathy Duncan, 2022

Many people don't use Facebook because of the negativity and drama, which, granted, is the downside of the social media site. The upside is that a lot of family and genealogy information travels through it on a regular basis that would be missed otherwise.

Someone from the area where my parents were raised posted this picture recently. It happens to be the footprint of the first house where my paternal grandparents, Fred and Myrtle (Dendy) Duncan, lived when they first married. My father was born there.

The jonquils mark the exterior of the old house. This spot is currently located in the Burkett's pasture off of County Rd 3325 N west of Avery, Texas and north of Hwy 82. The house was some distance off the east side of the road. My great-grandparents, Richard and Susie (Nevill) Duncan lived on the west side of the same road, and a bit south, closer to what is now Hwy 82. 

Grandison D. Nevill's Teaching Career

       ©  Kathy Duncan, 2021

Before Virgil Nevill died, he was interviewed by a great-nephew about the Nevill family. In that interview, Virgil revealed that when he was a young boy, he had gone on a short trip with his grandfather, Granville D. Nevill [Grandison D. Nevill Jr.], from Avery, Texas to Mt. Pleasant, Texas. During their journey, they supposedly visited the grave of Granville's father, and the old man told his grandson that he had negative feelings for his father because of his parents' divorce, that his father had been a horse trader and harness maker, that he had a quick temper, that he had been a school teacher, and that they had run a freight line together from Mt. Pleasant, Texas to Jefferson, Texas. Virgil also recalled that his grandfather had a brother that he visited in Beaumont, Texas. Over the years, I have been able to document everything except the freight line.  

On the 1880 census in Crawford County, Arkansas, G. D. Nevill Sr's occupation was listed as being a school teacher.

Crawford County, Arkansas 1880

Teaching seemed to have been a fallback profession for Grandison D. Nevill Sr. Something he could do when he was not operating a tannery or farming or too old to do anything else. 

Many years prior to 1880, Grandison D. Nevill can be found in Stoddard County, Missouri when he was involved in a lawsuit against Ransom Ladd. That suit was in the courts from September 1851 to March 1853. This was in the immediate years after Grandison lost his tannery and property in Dickson County, Tennesse, and after the dissolution of his third marriage to Annette Travis. There were no other Nevills living in Stoddard County on the 1850 census, so he was likely the only Nevill in Stoddard County in 1851. 

The following information can be found in S. C. Turnbo's Early School Days Near Bloomfield: 

"In speaking of early day schools in Southeast Mo., Mr. Austin Brown who has lived many years at Peel, Ark. gives this account. "I was 12 years old [when] I received my first schooling. This was in 1847 and we lived near Bloomfield in Stoddard County. The school was taught in a little log hut by a man of the name of Macum. Some of my school mates were Anthony and Daniel Clubb who were brothers and there were 3 or 4 of the teachers sons and nephew of his was also named Macum. When I was 16 years old or in 1851 a man of the name of Neville taught on Delaware Creek 4 miles west of Bloomfield and I went to it. The only names other than myself that I call to mind who attended this school was Susan Chappelle and her brother Leiper. I studied my lessons in Noah Webster's old Blue Back speller and during the first school I got to Baker and the next one I reached the pictures which pleased me well." 

It is reasonable to think that this teacher was Grandison D. Nevill, and it indicates that he was teaching school as early as 1851. 

Then in 1873, a single man by the name of Nevill was teaching in the Black Fork Township of Scott County, Arkansas. Grandison D. Nevill Jr. had married the daughter of John C. Walker and Hannah Holcomb of Scott County, Arkansas around 1867, and they had moved to Titus County, Texas by 1870. They did not stay there long before returning to Arkansas, probably in the vicinity of her family. It is reasonable to think that Grandison D. Nevill Sr was also in the vicinity since he seems to have lived near his son from 1860 on. Grandison Sr. can be found in Sebastian County in 1863, where Grandison Jr's children married years later. Senior can also be found next door to his son in Crawford County, Arkansas in 1880. His exact location in 1870 is currently unknown. This may have been during the period that the Nevills were running a freight line from Mt. Pleasant to Jefferson. 

This description can be found in the book From Memory's Scrapbook: A History of the Early Days of Scott County, Arkansas vol 2 by P.M. Claunts:

"One of the early teachers of Blackfork valley was Prof. Nevills, to whom the writer attended school when a small boy. This was about 1873, not sure about the year. It was taught in a little log house which stood just north of the valley road about one mile west of the John M. Martin Sr. home and on the north side of Blackfork creek. It was made up of all ages and sizes none being larger than the teacher who weighed bout 200. It was a winter term beginning in September and continuing until the following March. Many children, ten or [?] years of age learned their alphabet at this school and the grown-ups all studied the old McGuffey's, a blue-backed speller and the readers from No. 1 and No. 4, and Ray's arithmetic. At intervals during the day he would have the whole school lay their books aside and sing a little sing-song ditty beginning with the words of two letters and continuing to words of three letters, for example: 'Except that I cannot give the tune---' Ba Be bi-biby-bi bo-biby-bi-bo-bu-biby-bi-bo. (One would have to hear it to appreciate it). Another sing-song was the states and capitals. Beginning at Wisconsin, following with the capital repeating each or since each twice; taking in all the states and capitals. This was not so silly as the "Ba's" for we learned these states and their capitals and the writer can yet repeat them in this sing-song way. Special:--(If any of the Waldron readers want this story verified and a sample of the singing, just make an appointment with Judge W.A. Bates and advertise it and you will have an audience and be well entertained for he attended school to this same teacher, at Vise schoolhouse on Jones Creek). The teacher boarded at the R.G. Richmond home and from this home two boys and three girls attended: Jerry, Ben, Lou (who later became Mrs. L.O. Day), Lila who later became Mrs. Bud Gist, and Mollie, who later became Mrs. John Allen and later Mrs. Aikin, the only surviving member of the Richmond family, at this writing. In this school there were bad boys and pranks as is found in modern schools of today. There was one boy in the school who was from a family where the father had died; the widow, in providing pants for the boy, made a pair shorter but no smaller from a pair of the father's trousers and they were supported by a string over one shoulder. This bad boy would be just behind him when he stood up for his spelling lesson as it was called. It was a warm day and the boy had on no coat; when [he] crossed his legs the string slackened and the bad boy from behind with a sharp knife clipped the string and the show started, with the trousers falling to the floor and the boy in his excited effort to pull them up, hobbled himself and fell, all the time making for the door. When he went out at the door he had only one foot in the trousers and was supporting them in his hand. The teacher like the pupils, could not hold himself and announced: 'recess for dinner.'

It was the next day before this boy showed up at school and he never did know the string was cut, but thought it broke."

It is interesting to me to note that years after Grandison D. Nevill Sr was teaching at Black Fork and Vise, Arkansas, his granddaughter Susan Gertrude Nevill married Richard E. Duncan, a nephew of Samuel K. Duncan who became a legal partner with the very same Judge W. A. Bates, who had been a student of Grandison D. Nevill Sr. 

Keywords: G. D. Nevill, G. D. Neville, Granderson D. Nevill, Granderson D. Neville

The Camera Never Lies

      ©  Kathy Duncan, 2021

This is my pride and joy. It's a solar enlargement or crayon enlargement of my great-great-grandparents, Isaac and Susan Poindexter (Reese) Duncan. Prior to her marriage to Isaac Duncan, Susan was married to Anson Hodges. 

Like many owners of one of these enlargements, I had never seen the original photograph from which it was made. Was the original actually two photographs or one? 

A few years ago, I saw another solar enlargement that was supposed to be of Isaac and Susan, but the woman looked very different. She was much older, and the enlargement had been damaged and repaired so that the left side of her face (the viewer's right) looked droopy, and the eye was very odd looking. While I was sure that the man in the photograph was Isaac Duncan, I did not recognize the woman as being Susan. 

This is the solar or crayon enlargement: 

Last week, Becky Roseman, a distant cousin of mine, emailed a photograph of Isaac and Susan to me. After being able to see the original photograph and comparing it to the enlargement, I can see all the liberties that the artist took with the enlargement.

They both look much younger. In fact, Susan looks fifteen to twenty years younger with smoother, firmer skin. Part of this is due to their darker coloring. 

I've also realized that the other enlargement that I saw was a more accurate rendering of the original below: 

"Lost Friends" and Browning Duncan

   ©  Kathy Duncan, 2020

One of the disadvantages of being willing to jump from one family to another at a moment's notice is that nothing gets "finished," but in genealogy, nothing is ever finished anyway. The advantage of doing a little leaping from project to project is a bonanza of information that seems to be never-ending, so there is that. 

Yesterday, I took a break from laundry and going through the Harding/Dabbs Collection to read the novel The Book of Lost Friends by Lisa Wingate. Like many novels, there is a dual storyline that converges as the novel progresses. The Book of Lost Friends takes its title from the "Lost Friends" column of advertisements that appeared in the form of letters from freed slaves searching for family members and appeared in the Southwestern from 1879 until at least 1900. Facsimiles of their letters appear throughout the novel between storylines. 

As I was taking a break from reading, I wondered if there was really a "Lost Friends" column and if it might be accessible through an online database. The answer is yes and yes. That's all it took. I was off and researching like you do when you are receptive to shifting gears at a moment's notice. So far, I've only found one advertisement that pertains to my family.

This advertisement mentions my great-great-great-grandfather, Browning Duncan. After only a moment of puzzling, I realized that the "Peters" family members that Ned and Lucy Boyd were searching for were actually named Pettus. The name Pettus, especially when it is spelled Pettes, might be misinterpreted as Peters. 

This letter is especially difficult to decode, but here is what I have figured out so far based on what I know of Browning Duncan and the Pettus family. Browning Duncan, a native of Madison County, Kentucky, married Rebecca W. Pettus on 25 December 1823 in York County, South Carolina. She was the daughter of William W. Pettus, who died in 1818, leaving a widow, Mary Pettus. One of Rebecca's sisters was Mariah Pettus who married Stephen Partlow Sutton. Additionally, Rebecca had brothers Samuel Knox Pettus, William Watkins Pettus, and Thomas Newton Pettus. 

Here's how I have interpreted the "Lost Friends" letter above. Enslaved persons Ned Sutton and Lucy Peters [Pettus], who was owned by the widow Polly [Mary] Peters [Pettus] of York County, South Carolina were the parents of Martha Peters [Pettus]. Manda and Peters [Pettus] went off with Browning Duncan at the same time. Does this mean Manda and Martha Pettus left with Browning Duncan? When?

By 1827, Browning Duncan and wife were in Madison County, Kentucky, when Mary Pettus deeded a slave man named Frank to her daughter Rebecca (Pettus) Duncan. By 1850 Browning Duncan and his wife were living in Dyer County, Tennesse near the Gibson County, Tennessee border where Rebecca's brother Samuel K Pettus lived. Additionally, brother William Watkins Pettus lived near the Duncan's in Dyer County. Brother Thomas Newton Pettus remained in York County as did their sister Mariah Pettus who had married Stephen Partlow Sutton. 

Then we learn through the letter that Manda was the daughter of James Greer and Liberty Peters [Pettus] who belonged to the widow Polly [Mary] Peters [Pettus]. The reference to Mary Pettus being a widow encompasses the timeframe from 1818 to her death in 1855. 

Then it looks like Emeline Peters [Pettus] was a cousin to Manda and Lucy Peters [Pettus]. Is Emeline a mother to Peggie, Annie, and Lucy? Then Watkins Peters [Pettus] moved to Tennessee, taking Annie and Fannie with him. All the indexers of this letter have Watkins Peters [Pettus] as an enslaved person. However, that's not how I read this. Rebecca W. (Pettus) Duncan brother William Watkins Pettus had removed to Dyer County, Tennessee by 1850. Browning and Rebecca Duncan can be found there in the same year. From Dyer County, the two families removed to Sebastian County, Arkansas by 1860. 

The William Peters [Pettus] who was in Nashville, Tennessee in 1880, is most likely to be a relative of Ned and Lucy's. 

It makes sense to me that the Sutton who sold Ned and Lucy to Louis M. Boyd was Stephen Partlow Sutton who administered William and Mary Pettus's estate for many years. 

One way to begin untangling this is to look at the Pettus estate papers. One document, in particular, was created in 1855 when Mary "Polly" Pettus died and is indexed as being her husband William Pettus's estate.

Among the inventories and appraisements of William Pettus's estate is a list of enslaved people, their ages, and who they were sold to. Those names coincide with most of the names in the letter above.

A girl Amanda age 15 sold to S K Pettus

A girl Martha age 11 sold to S K Pettus

A woman Peg age 35 sold to C L Clawson

A woman Lucy age 28 sold to T N Pettus

A woman Ann and two children sold to S P Sutton

A girl Emmeline age 14 sold to B Dunkin 

You can see from the estate records of the sale of these people how closely the name Pettus looks like Peters:

This sale was held in December 1855 at the home of S P Sutton, so that is the point at which some of these enslaved people were taken away from York County, South Carolina.

My takeaway from the letter in the "Lost Friends" column, combined with the William Pettus estate records, is that in the turmoil and trauma of separating these enslave families there was some resulting confusion over where people went and with whom they went. This combined with the fact that the Pettus name appears erroneously as Peters in the newspaper, that Browning Duncan and wife and been deceased since the 1860s, that S P Sutton is named only by his surname, that Ned and Lucy have been using the Boyd surname unbeknownst to their surviving Pettus family who had been carried off, and I believe it would have been next to impossible for Ned and Lucy Boyd formerly, known as Ned Sutton and Lucy Pettus, to be successfully reunited with their family.

In all likelihood, they invested 50 cents in having their advertisement placed in the Southwestern only to have the information become so garbled as to make it useless. Neither Ned nor Lucy could read. They would not have known that the names were published incorrectly until someone read the newspaper to them. The 50 cents they invested in this effort would be equivalent to nearly $13 today. Since it only appeared once, it is evident that the newspaper did not run a correction, and they could not afford to make a second effort. 

Manda and Martha Pettus were most likely taken to the Samuel Knox Pettus home in Gibson County, Tennessee. It is possible that S K Pettus did not attend the sale in 1855 and that Browning Duncan transported these girls to Tennesse for his brother-in-law. That would be why Lucy believed they were taken away by Browning Duncan. Instead, Browning Duncan purchased Emeline Pettus and would have transported her to Dyer County, Tennessee as well. At age 14, she seems unlikely to have had more than one child. That sentence in the letter about her relationship to Manda and Lucy is still confusing to me. 

In 1880, Lucy Boyd, wife of Ned, was aged 55 on the Kemper County, Mississippi census, and had been born in South Carolina. She was the same age as the Lucy who was listed in the William Pettus estate and sold to T N Pettus. Evidently, at some point after 1855, she must have been sold to S P Sutton, who later sold Lucy and Ned to Louis M Boyd. 

It is possible that additional information might be found in deed records, but anyone seeking the extended family of Ned and Lucy Boyd should be looking for the Pettus family not the Peters family. 

 

My Grandparents

©  Kathy Duncan, 2020

At one point, my grandparents all lived in the same small town - Avery, Texas. Some of them knew each other from a very young age. 

This is one of my favorite pictures, which I've told is too blurry to restore. My maternal grandmother, Bertha Brown, is tugging on my paternal grandfather, Fred Duncan's, tie. He was twelve, and she was about nineteen. He told me that he had a terrific crush on her and that she always teased him by calling him her "boyfriend."

This photograph captures that time in their lives perfectly. Even though it's blurry, I can see my grandmother still had long hair and a cheerful, toothsome smile, so I know that it was taken before she was stricken by the flu. I would guess this photograph is from about 1918 or 1919. 

Fred Duncan and Bertha Chapman

The Time My Father Sold a Depot

©  Kathy Duncan, 2019

Genealogybank.com is currently beta testing a new search engine that connects to your account on FamilySearch.org. I could not resist taking it for a test drive. More on that later.

This little gem turned up in my search.

During the 1980s, my father, Doyal F. Duncan, was the Superintendent of the Middle Division of the Santa Fe railroad, headquartered in Newton, Kansas. Evidently, he was the point of contact for anyone wishing to purchase the old depot at Offerele, Kansas.

D.F. Duncan

According to Kansas Remembers, which is run by the Kansas Historical Society, the depot at Offerle was built in 1907 and is no longer standing. If it sold, it would not be standing in the same spot. Did it sell or was it razed?

In the 1960s - 1970s, the little depot was still in pristine condition:

Later it was in need of paint. I wonder if this unknown newspaper clipping could have been in connection with the depot's sale or demolition:

I would love to hear from anyone who knows what became of the Offerle, Kansas depot.

As for Genealogybank's beta test, you can try it here.

I found it to be very limited and clunky. The system selects which individuals on your branch of the tree for which it will search. Most of these are direct ancestors. It seems to search for women by maiden name only. My husband turned up in my list of choices, but I could not search for anyone else in his family. It seems to search by time periods rather than locations, so there can be a discouraging amount of hits to search through, even more so if it's a fairly common name.  If the individual has an unconventional name entered in FamilySearch like "Mary or Molly Thompson," don't expect to find much.

For the time being, I think I will stick to searching Genealogybank without this aid. For full disclosure purposes, I have a paid subscription to Genealogybank.

Nelson, a Slave in the Kavanaugh Family

©  Kathy Duncan, 2019

I follow lots of blogs where the blogger establishes their rules of research, so I am going to do the same.

Rule One: Always check the original source.

It is a mistake to rely on abstracts and transcripts of documents. We've all done that, and some of us for years, perhaps decades even, because the original documents were unavailable or prohibitively expensive. However, FamilySearch has remedied much of that problem by placing primary sources online and at our fingertips. Many of them are still unindexed and will never be indexed in detail. It is possible, however, to search a record group in the same manner that we once scrolled through microfilms - only now we can do it from the comfort of home.

William Kavanaugh's will is a case in point. His will was dated 15 March 1823 although most secondary sources place that date as 1825. It was proven six years later on 2 November 1829 in Madison County, Kentucky.

An abstract of his last will and testament appeared in Kentucky Pioneer and Court Records, page 59, by Mrs. Harry Kennett McAdams and was repeated on Mary Ann (Duncan) Dobson's webpage: E-21: March 15, 1825, will of William Kavanaugh. Wife Ruth, children, Archibald, Charles, Philemon; daus. Susanna Duncan, Ann Briscoe, Polly Oldham, Sally English. Witnesses, Henry Goodloe, John Harish, John Robertson and Thomas Warren. Exec's., Son, Charles Kavanaugh and William Goodloe. Probated Nov. 2, 1829.

This is the basic abstract that has been used by researchers for generations. There are, however, two sons of William Kavanaugh's who are missing from the list above, but who are named in William's will. One son was Nicholas who was deceased. There was, however, another son, and there are only a couple of reasons why this extra son might have been omitted. An earlier abstracter might have found the wording of the will confusing although it seems crystal clear, or the abstracter may have been too squeamish to include him. It is hard from this point in time to assign motives.

First, a look at William Kavanaugh's will as filed in Madison County, Kentucky, Will Book E, beginning on p. 21:

Click Image to Enlarge

Transcript:

W. Kavanaugh
Will

In the name of God amen I William Kavanaugh of the County of Madison and State of Kentucky being Sound in mind and memory make this my last Will and Testament. First I give and bequeath to my son Archibald Kavanaugh two negro Slaves viz Maklin and Sophia and their increase from this time. Item I give and bequeath to my two Grandchildren the son and daughter of my deceased son Nicholas Kavanaugh on the 25th of December in the year one thousand eight hundred and thirty four  two negro slaves viz Martha Ann and William or the Surviving one of them should one die. Item I give and bequeath to my beloved wife Ruth Kava-naugh all of my right title and interest of in and to all the Estate both real and personal that she possessed or was any way entitled to before our marriage with the increase thereof if any also one half of the cloth not made up at my decease and one half of the Bed and Bed furniture made by us, Also I give and bequeath to my Said wife, One hundred dollars and one good Bed and furniture and one third of all the neat gain we may have acquired while together. Also I lend unto my Said wife negro Martha Ann until the 25th day of December 1834 Should She live that long and in case of the death of my Said wife my son Charles Kava-naugh is to have the use of said Martha Ann until the 25th day of December 1834. Item I lend to my Son Charles Kavanaugh negro boy William until the 25th of December 1834. Item it is further my will and desire that my two negro slaves viz Lett and Nelson be emancipated and set free. And I give and bequeath to said Nelson on half of my Tract of land on Owsby's fork of the Station Camp Creek to be taken off at the lower end Said Tract. And I give and bequeath to my daughter Susannah Duncan fifty dollars. It is further my will and desire that all the negroes I may die possessed of (and not otherwise disposed of) be sold among my Children to the highest bidder on the credit of one year  No person to purchase but them. Negro Nancy excepted and she is to chose her master or mistress among my children and the one she choses is to have her at her valuation. But should the one she choses refuse to take her then in that case she is to sold under the same restrictions

the other Negroes are to be Sold and the Money arising from the value of Negroes aforesaid and arising from the Sale of all the residue and remainder of my estate both real and personal which is hereby directed to be Sold at one year Credit to the highest bidder be (after paying all my Just debts and Legacies) divided equally between my daughters Susannah Duncan, Anne Briscoe, Polly Oldham, Sally Engish, Sons Philemon Kavanaugh, Charles Kavanaugh, Archibald Kavanaugh, and Nelson (whom I have and do by these present Set free). Item I hereby Constitute and appoint my Son Charles Kavanaugh and William Goodloe Executors of this my last Will and Testament and I do by these presents revoke and make null and Void all former wills made prior to this present date. In testimony whereof I have hereunto Set my hand and Seal the 15th day of March in the year of our Lord Christ One thousand eight hundred and Twenty three.

William Kavanaugh his seal

In presence of Henry Goodloe, John Harris, John Robertson, Thomas Warren
Kentucky Madison County
At a County Court held for Madison County on Monday the 2d day of April November 1829 this instrument of writing was produced in open court and proven to be the last will and Testament of William Kavanaugh Decd by the oath of Henry Goodloe, John Harris and Thomas Warren all Subscribing witnesses thereto and Ordered to be Recorded and the same has been done all accordingly. Atteste David Irvine


This will leaves little doubt that Nelson, a slave, was yet another son of William Kavanaugh's. Even if one tries to dismiss his inclusion in the list of sons as an awkward listing of heirs, one cannot dismiss the fact that he was to inherit a full share along with other recognized children of William Kavanaugh. In other words, he was to receive a full child's share.

I can't help wonder what the other Kavanaugh children knew of Nelson's existence as their brother. Did they know all along that Nelson was a brother? Was his connection only acknowledged in hushed whispers? Were they in denial? Did they only find out at the reading of will? If Nelson's existence was William Kavanaugh's secret from his family, he was willing to let Henry Goodloe, John Harris, John Robertson, and Thomas Warren in on that secret.

I do have a few insights. If Nelson was old enough to be emancipated, he must have been of age by 1823. That means he was probably born during the marriage of William Kavanaugh and his first wife Hannah Woods.

However, I have far more questions. What was significant about the date 25 December 1834? That is the day when many of the slaves would no longer be serving the Kavanaugh children. What was supposed to happen then? Was Nelson still living when William Kavanaugh died in 1829? Was he set free? Did he receive his land and his child's share? What name did he go by after 1829? A quick peek in Madison County, Kentucky does not reveal a Nelson Kavanaugh.

There is a lot more research to be done on brother Nelson. Probate and land deeds need to be searched thoroughly for starters.

Nelson Kavanaugh Gets His Freedom and His Land

Will of William Kavanaugh; Madison Co., KY

Nelson Kavanaugh's Emancipation

Nelson Kavanaugh in the Republic of Texas

Nelson Kavanaugh Loses his Papers

Nelson Kavanaugh Owes Land Tax

Fred Duncan, 1988

©  Kathy Duncan, 2019

Old newspaper clippings are so wonderful. This one is of my grandfather, Fred Duncan, which appeared in the Citizens Tribune of Bowie County, Texas on 22 March 1988. He got a huge kick out of winning this little bit of money and having his picture appear in the newspaper. This was just a year before he died.

He would have driven in his blue truck to pick up his prize in DeKalb, Texas. While his truck is no longer in the family, it has been restored and can frequently be seen in local parades.

Charles Duncan of Culpeper County, Virginia

©  Kathy Duncan, 2019

The biggest problem facing us as genealogists is erroneous secondary sources. They take on a life of their own and are hard to combat. They become even more problematic when they are used to create new records that many of us think of as primary sources, such as FindaGrave memorials.

Charles Duncan of Culpeper County, Virginia is a case in point. Many online sources, including his FindaGrave memorial and FamilySearch contributors, have cited his place of death as Muddy Creek, Madison County, Kentucky, despite the fact that tax records and his probate in Culpeper County, Virginia point to his place of death as Culpeper County. In addition, as a collective, they suggest that he probably never set foot in Madison County, Kentucky.

Here, those records will be examined in date order.

First up, is the 1788 Culpeper Tax List. Charles Duncan's entry was recorded on 8 May. You can see William Jr. and William Sr. further down this list.

1788 Tax List. Culpeper Co., VA

By the following year, 1789, Charles Duncan's estate is listed on the Culpeper County, Virginia tax list, indicating that he is deceased. Note that William Duncan Sr. is still on this list.

1789 Tax List. Culpeper Co., VA

It would be possible for a man to relocate and die, leaving land in his previous place of residence that would generate a listing in the tax records of his previous county. However, the tax list above does not reference land. The four columns next to Charles Duncan's name indicate the poll taxes and personal property taxes to be paid. Column one indicates three whites over 16 years of age; column two indicates one black over 16 years; column three indicates one black or white between the age of 12 and 16; column four indicates four horses.

The inventory of Charles Duncan's household that was filed in October 1789 paints a portrait of a residence:

Culpeper Co. VA; Bk C, p. 353

We get a picture of a farm with hogs, sheep, cattle, farm implements, a table and chairs, pewter plates, cups and saucers, a looking glass, forks, knives, a pepper box, a loom, an old chest. It's a picture of a home where people still live. If the Duncans had removed to Kentucky before this point, they would have either taken these items with them or sold them. They would not have abandoned them.

The 1791 Culpeper County, Virginia tax list is very telling.

1791 Tax List. Culpeper Co., VA.

In 1791, we see Charles Duncan's widow Sarah Duncan listed as head of household. Along with Susan are "N. S. & C." Those initials stand for the Duncan sons who were of age: Nimrod, Shadrack, and Charles Duncan. Notice that the entry below Susan belongs to "William Duncan (son to Charles)." Charles Duncan is not on this list because he is deceased. Two years after Charles's death in 1789, his widow and children were still living in Culpeper County, Virginia.

They were still in Culpeper County, Virginia, in 1792:

1792 Tax List. Culpeper Co., VA

And still there in 1793:

1793 Tax List. Culpeper Co., VA

However, something else was afoot in 1793. That was the year that Sarah Duncan sought to sell out the land and petitioned the court to allow her to sell by requesting a partition of the land.

An abstract of the petition reads as follows:

Archives, Richmond, VA: Petition of Sarah Duncan, October 28, 1793; The petition of Sarah Duncan, widow of Charles Duncan, dec'd, Mary, Nimrod, William, Charles, Shadrack Duncan, children of the said Charles Duncan and Sarah Duncan, in behalf of themselves and Isaac, John, Milly, Henry, Zachery and Elizabeth Duncan, children of the aforesaid Charles and Sarah Duncan, but now under age, humbly showeth that in March 1789, the aforesaid Charles Duncan died intestate leaving aforesaid heirs to a certain tract of land in Culpeper Co., 355 acres which according to the laws of the State must be equally divided among the said children, but such is the situation, it will by no means admit of a division and your petitioners humbly pray that an act may pass vesting the said lands in the hands of John Thornton, John Slaughter Jr., Charles Browning, Isaac Browning, Gent., or any three of them to dispose of on the most advantageous terms for the benefit of the said widow and children aforesaid. Signed Sarah Duncan. Witnesses: Mary Covington, Nimrod Duncan, William Duncan, Charles Duncan and Shadrack Duncan.

In 1794, Sarah Duncan and children were still in Culpeper Co., Virginia:

1794 Tax List. Culpeper Co.,VA

It was not until January 1795, almost six years after the death of Charles, that Sarah Duncan and household finally turned up in Madison County, Kentucky:

1795 Tax List. Madison Co., KY.

Sarah Duncan's entry on this tax list indicates she has 150 acres on Tate's Creek waterway, one white male over 21, one white male over 16 and under 21, one black over 16 (probably a male), five blacks total, four horses, and two cows.

Revised 27 August 2019.

Richard E. Duncan's Barn Burned

©  Kathy Duncan, 2019


For me, genealogy is so much more than collecting names and dates. Whenever possible, I like to flesh out the stories about my family. Newspapers are one way to that.

The following article about my great-grandfather Richard E. Duncan turned up this evening.

In the spring of 1933, in the first part of the Great Depression, his barn burned. In that fire, he lost almost all of his seed corn for the year. This would have impacted his crop for 1933 and for the following year. This is not a family story that I ever heard before, so I don't know what he did that year to make a corn crop. Regrettably, there's no one to ask.

Sarah Ann (Duncan) Knight

© Kathy Duncan, 2019

This is a long overdue post about one photograph and two women, who are strangers to each other, but who both had the same generous impulse.

Several years ago I came across a photograph of Sarah Ann (Duncan) Knight on Findagrave. Sarah was my great-grandfather, Richard E. Duncan's elder half-sister. Born 7 January 1859 in Arkansas, she was the daughter of Isaac and Martha (Sales) Duncan. On 22 January 1880, she married Joseph Oliver Knight in Sebastian County, Arkansas.

Immediately, I contacted LaDonna McKelvy who had posted the photograph to Joseph Oliver Knight's memorial. I made the false assumption that she must be a family member. She told me that she had seen the photograph in an antique shop while on vacation. She was tempted to buy it because there was enough identification on it that she thought she could track down the family of Sarah and Joseph Oliver Knight. Instead, she asked the owner if she could photograph it, and then she did the research when she got home. She found the memorials for Sarah Duncan and Joseph Oliver Knight on Findagrave and added the photograph. She thought that the photograph was in a shop somewhere in Oregon.

Well, that was both exciting and disappointing. There was another photograph of Sarah Duncan out there somewhere. But where? I couldn't help but wonder what other Duncan/Knight goodies might be in that shop. Where ever it was. But I had to let it go...

Recently, the same photograph surfaced on FamilySearch.org. I figured it was the same photograph, copied from Findagrave. Then I thought it could be a duplicate, and the contributor just might be a family member. Boy, was I wrong. The contributor was Rebecca Hammond. She told me that she bought the photograph in an antique shop in Crescent City, California, which is very near the Oregon border. There was enough identifying information on it that she thought she could research the couple. When she saw the photograph of Sarah (Duncan) Knight that I had contributed to FamilySearch, she realized that it was the same woman. Rebecca's ultimate goal was to return the photograph to Sarah and Joseph's family. I gave her the address of a descendant so that the photograph could make its way home.

Thank you, LaDonna and Rebecca, for recognizing that this photograph might have some family who would value it and for taking the time and making the effort to share it.

My best guess is that since several of Sarah and Joseph's grandchildren have died in California in recent years, one of them had the photograph. When their possessions were disposed of, it ended up in an antique shop. I can't help but wonder if Sarah had other pictures of her siblings and her father. Are they languishing in the same shop? Perhaps they are and lack identification.

Bertha (Brown) Chapman and Veva (Lane) Duncan

© Kathy Duncan, 2018

Once upon a time, small town newspapers were filled with information about local people and their activities: birthdays, invitations, trips, parties, marriages, deaths, births, anniversaries, graduations, hospital stays, and a host of other milestones. This, apparently, was a highly successful way to sell papers. The payoff today for genealogists is huge.

This clipping is loaded with information. Not only do I find how my grandparents spent one Saturday afternoon in 1958, but I also find out that my grandmother Bertha attended Jackson school and that her teacher was Miss Ola Bearden. Among her classmates was her best friend Veva (Lane) Duncan, who also married my grandfather Duncan's brother, Earl. Additionally, my uncle DeWitt Lennon's mother Daisy was attendance.

Mary (Knox) Pettus and Daughter, Rebecah W. Duncan

© Kathy Duncan, 2018

It is always nice when a single document links two generations after the younger generation has married and relocated to another state. This deed of conveyance from Mary Pettus of York County, South Caroline to her daughter Rebecca aka Rebecah W. (Pettus) Duncan in Madison County, Kentucky does just that. Included in the deed was Rebecca's sister Maria aka Mariah (Pettus) Campbell, who was living in Lancaster District, South Carolina.

The deed was recorded 19 September 1827 in York County, South Carolina Deed Bk L, p. 103.

It is interesting to note that Mary Pettus signed with her mark. Things between Rebecah and her mother and sister seem to be lacking in tension at this point, except for the fact that the two sisters have to negotiate the deed from a considerable distance.

Dora Alice Duncan, Wife of John W Gray

© Kathy Duncan, 2018


Between census years, the family of Dora Alice (Duncan) Gray experienced tragedies that were recorded in local newspapers. Dora Alice Duncan was the daughter of Isaac and Susan (Reese) Duncan of Sebastian County, Arkansas and the wife of John W. Gray.

Early in the morning, on April 27, 1916, a chicken incubator in the basement of the house caught the house on fire. At that time, they were living near Little Rock, Arkansas. Dora was in the backyard while her daughter Bertha (Gray) Jung and her grandchildren, Vincent and Rose Mary Jung, were asleep in the house. They were only able to save the youngest grandchild, Rose Mary. Walter Vincent Jung, who was only three, died of his burns. Both Dora and her daughter Bertha received burns in the fire. Walter Vincent Jung was buried in Bayou Meto Cemetery in Pulaski County, Arkansas on the following day. The house was a total loss.

Records of house fires are important in doing in research because they may indicate when family documents and photographs were destroyed.

Dora (Duncan) Gray died nearly thirty years later at the home of her granddaughter Rose Mary (Gray) Cuttings.

In 1955, Walter Jung, Dora (Duncan) Gray's son-in-law, who was a railroader, found the body of  Theodore Hubert Morris, another railroader, along the Rock Island tracks in Little Rock.

Two years later in 1957, Walter and Bertha (Gray) Jung were scammed by phony tree trimmers.

Googling the Jung's address, 2901 State Street in Little Rock, Arkansas, turned up their house as it looks today. Some of these trees, no doubt, were there in 1957.

Then  Bertha (Gray) Jung died in 1965.

Finally, Walter Jung died in 1975.

Isaac and Deletha (Wiley) Duncan's Tombstones

© Kathy Duncan, 2018

In late 1999, I was contacted by Ann Bellamy, who had seen a query of mine on the Cooper County, Missouri usgebweb page. My query was in regard to my great-great-great grandfather Isaac Duncan, who had moved from Madison County, Kentucky to Cooper County, Missouri. His wife Susan (Kavanaugh) Duncan had probably died before he made the move to Missouri. Susan Kavanaugh was the daughter of Capt. William and Hannah (Woods) Kavanaugh. My best guess is that if she had died after they arrived in Missouri, there would a grave for her there. After arriving in Cooper County, Missouri, Isaac Duncan married Delitha Wiley.

Ann was contacting me to let me know that she had found the graves of Isaac Duncan and wife Delitha on her recently purchased farm. One of the provisions of Delitha Duncan's will was that a tombstone like the one erected for Isaac be made for her. Evidently, they were buried on Isaac Duncan's Missouri farm under twin gravestones. Ann was able to provide me with a map of the location of their graves and the following photographs.

Isaac Duncan
Born August 20, 1776
Died October 5, 1842

Deletha Duncan
Born March 17, 1790
Died March 16, 1851

Duncan Graves on old Duncan Farm
in Cooper County, Missouri

Location of Duncan Cemetery