Heirs of John Kelly of Kershaw County, SC

© Kathy Duncan, 2018

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.

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

Sarah Owens, daughter of Richard Owens

© Kathy Duncan, 2018

Nineteenth century women frequently fall through the record cracks. Many of them simply cannot be found. Did they marry and move away? Die young? They are the biggest challenge in trying to do whole family research.

Sallie Owens was my great-great-great grandmother Nancy Missouri (Owens) Kelley's sister. They were both the daughters of Richard and Elizabeth Owens of Kershaw County, South Carolina. In 1850, Sallie was still living at home with her parents.

On 24 February 1859, Sarah Owens, daughter of Richard Owens married Daniel Coats. Since South Carolina did not maintain marriage records, we are lucky to have this information from the Charleston Mercury:

This obituary for Sarah (Owens) Coats appeared in The Camden Weekly Journal just ten months later. The heartbreaking entry indicated that Sallie died shortly after her newborn babe died. I have not been able to locate a tombstone for either one of them. Hickory Head Baptist Church is now known as the Bethany Baptist Church at Westville, where Nancy Missouri (Owens) Kelley is buried.

Browning Duncan's Family Tree

This is my great-great-great grandfather, Browning Duncan's family tree. I have not found any primary documentation to support that his grandmother Sarah Duncan, wife of Charles Duncan was a Browning.

Children of Browning Duncan:

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

Mansel Pinkney Kelley, Obituary 1912

© Kathy Duncan, 2018

Mansel Pinkney Kelley's obituary was included in his Confederate pension file as just a clipping with no date and no reference to the newspaper in which it was published.

Thanks to Historic South Carolina Newspapers, it can be seen in the context in which it was published in the The Camden Chronicle on 12 July 1912.

Keywords: M.P. Kelley, M.P. Kelly, Mansel Pinkney Kelly