My brick wall relates to my great-Grandmother Amelia Catherine White Kelso of TN/KY/IL. Cannot deter

LegacyUser · November 3, 2020

My brick wall relates to my great-Grandmother Amelia Catherine White Kelso of TN/KY/IL. Cannot determine her parents.

My brick wall relates to my GreatGrandmother Amelia Catherine White Kelso. Her first name is spelled Melia, Mellie, Melie, Emelia. I cannot figure out who her mother and father were for sure. After doing Ancestry DNA, a close match (3-4th cousin) contacted me and she says Amelia's mother's name was Minerva Lynns, not Lucinda Ann Lyons as my grandmother Daisy Bell Kelso Clark told me 45 years ago. Also, need help with Amelia's father. DBKC told me his name was Josiah White, but records indicate his name was Joseph White(ambiguous handwriting in old records may account for discrepency) but I have no other info on him. Both he and Lucinda Ann Lyons may have been Cherokee/Creek/Choctaw, as my grandmother refused to discuss ethnicity except once long ago... told her youngest daughter we "met the Pilgrims" when they came to America. Amelia was petite, had jet black hair; her daughter DBKC also was darkskinned/coppery, as was her son, my father, and myself.

I can't afford to go joining Ancestry and all those other paid subscriptions sites to figure this out. Any help and suggestions for research are very much appreciated.

Sandra Lee Clark

multiplesons1.5294187457446106E12 · November 6, 2020

What a great perplexing problem!

I did find your family in 1900 indexed under the surname 'Relso':

https://www.familysearch.org/ark:/61903/1:1:MSCM-28X?treeref=L13K-TNP

I did some searches on the brothers and sisters listed in your grandmother's handwritten document. Those brothers and sisters all appear to be children of Josiah White and his wife, Minerva (Mrs. Minerva Lyons at their 1871 marriage). But troubling for your Melia is that she doesn't appear in the 1880 census with that particular family, which if her birth date was 1876, she should have been there. There is a Kate A. White daughter of Van Buren White who looks like he's a brother to Josiah, but she's 10 years older than your Melia Catherine.

So, some questions come to mind. You may already have thought of these...

Was 1876 her correct birth year? Do all the census records agree on her age and her marriage record?

Might she have been visiting with other family on the day the census-taker came to her family?

Research suggestions:

Try to locate obituaries for her brothers and sisters. Most obituaries list siblings still alive and some who have already died. If you can find one or two obituaries that list Melia, then she has to be part of that family, even if she isn't appearing with them in the 1880 census.

How did Melia get from Russellville, Kentucky to Johnsonville, Illinois? If Josiah and Minerva are her parents, Josiah is still in Russellville in 1900. Why was Melia in Johnsonville? She might have gone to work there, but she is still fairly young (if the age is correct). Did she go with a brother? Was she staying with other extended family? It may be worth your while to search on other family of this Josiah and Van Buren White to see if any of them went to Johnsonville.

Also, folks in @Adoption and Unknown Family Research group may have some suggestions.

Nvpattt · April 7, 2021

For a list of suggestions on how to broaden your search when stuck, go to the question mark inside of the circle at the top right of FamilySearch, click on it, in the search box type in "research help." You might also want to take advantage of the 20 minute free consultation with an expert at the Family History Library. How to Sign-up for Online Consultation

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