Birthdays from my family tree for the week of Oct. 5:
Oct. 5
Mary Abigail Banks Quesenberry, (wife of Andrew Quesenberry, my 3G uncle on my mother's side) b. 1819 in Grayson, Va.; d. March 5, 1907, in Carroll County, Va. Mary married Andrew, who was the brother of my 2G grandmother Nancy Abigail Quesenberry Hall.
Troy J. Kidd, (my first cousin once removed on my father's side) b. 1926 in Morgan County, Ky.; d. May 28, 1980, in Fairborn, Greene County, Ohio. Troy was the nephew of my paternal grandfather, Elmer Kidd. He was the son of my Papaw's brother, Albert, and his wife Ludy Atlas Barker Kidd. Incidentally, one of Troy's sisters, Shirley, married Tilman Jennings, and they were neighbors and close friends of my maternal grandparents, Oliver and Leona Wilson.
Oct. 7
Clarissa Rooks Grindle Wilson, (wife of James Madison Wilson, my second cousin four times removed on my mother's side) b. 1849 in Grant, Ind.; d. June 6, 1935, in Fairborn, Greene County, Ohio. Clarissa's husband was descended from a line of Wilsons who migrated from Virginia to Kentucky to Ohio. Several became prominent citizens of Madison and Greene counties, most notable of them Valentine Wilson Sr., who had 23 children by three wives and amassed 7,000 acres and $60,000 in personal property in the early to mid-1800s. Valentine was James Madisons great uncle.
Bessie Lee Wilson, (my second cousin three times removed on my mother's side) b. 1894 in Kentucky; details of death unclear. Bessie was child of William Monroe Wilson and Ella Byron Wilson. Our common ancestors were Isaac Wilson (1814-1848) and Theodoica Lee Wilson (1809-AFT. 1880) — her her great grandparents and my 4G grandparents.
My great aunt Pearl Williams, who died at age, likely not long after this photo was taken, and Clester Burns Williams, her brother and my great uncle. Clester was born on Oct. 7.
Clester Burns Williams, (my great uncle on my mother's side) b. 1911 in Rowan County, Ky.; d. July 17, 1979, in Morehead, Rowan County, Ky. Clester was the oldest son and second-oldest child of my maternal great grandparents Andrew Jackson Williams and Nora Kendall Williams. His older sister, Pearl, with whom he is pictured here, died of diphtheria in 1913, shortly after her fourth birthday. That made Clester the oldest living sibling of my grandmother, Leona Olive Williams Wilson, who was born in 1916, three years after little Pearl's passing.
Clester died shortly after my 10th birthday, and I have no clear memory of him. He married Juanita Campbell in 1937, and they lived for a time in Springfield, Ohio, where his brother Allie Wilburn Williams also lived (as did my grandmother and her first husband, Otis Brooks, until Otis' death.) They had returned to Morehead by the 1940s, according to that year's census, which lists his occupation as a truck driver. Their daughters were Lois and Patty Ann, who I saw recently at my parents' 50th wedding annniversary party.
Oct. 8
George M. Hall, (my first cousin three times removed on my mother's side) b. 1876 in Rowan County, Ky.; d. Oct. 10, 1971, in Rowan County, Ky. George was a cousin of my maternal great-grandmother Mahala Susan Hall Wilson. He likely was named for his grandfather, George Martin Hall. The 1880 census — the first in which he would have been enumerated — lists his place of birth as Kentucky, but subsequent census reports list his birthplace as Missouri. Though possible, that seems unlikely, given that his father is listed as living in Kentucky in 1870, when he was 16. William Thomas Hall would have had to have moved to Missouri and back again, married Sarah Riddle Hall (who also was born in Kentucky) and had at least once child in that span.