Sources
1. The family bible of Jesse & Emma Petitt, in 1994 in the possession of Lila Petitt Chadwell. The bible was given to Jesse and Emma as a wedding present, and Emma entered birthdates for herself, Jessie, and Jessie’s brothers and sisters at that time. (Curiously, she did not enter dates for her own siblings.) Most birth and marriage entries for Jessie and Emma’s children are in Emma's hand. The death entries were mostly added by Lila.
2. William Voigt <w.voigt@worldnet.att.net>, a great-grandson of Stephen H. Dehart and Eliza Ann Clark, writes in an email message dated 8 Dec 1999 that John, Thomas, and Stephen, sons of Jesse H. Dehart, all had sons named William, and rather than using their real middle names, the family would call these three cousins “Bill John” (William Paul, the son of John), “Bill Tom” (William Madison, the son of Thomas), and “Bill Steve” (William Jefferson, the son of Stephen). To their relatives, which family they belonged to was the most important identifier, and referring to them this way was easier than having to remember which middle name went with which father. Official records use their real middle names or initials, of course.
3. The 1900 census of Rowan Co., Ky, (especially but not limited to Pearce and Hoggtown (Christy Creek) precincts) contains so many errors on birthdates that I suspect they are largely fictional. In my comparisons with other records that give birthdates in full, such as draft registrations, gravestones, death records, obituaries, and even in several cases actual birth records, the months of birth are usually different from the 1900 Rowan Co. census. The years are often different too, but one expects some inaccuracy in years. While people often get mixed up about their ages, they seldom forget the month or at least the season that they were born. The extremely high percentage of differing months, often every single one wrong for an entire large family, suggests that the enumerator (Millard F. Fouch) "saved time" by recording many families from his own personal knowledge and making up the parts he didn't know.
4. Morgan County birth, death and marriage records on LDS microfilm #0126,835. (Note for anyone cross-checking: the 1855 birth records are misbound, which since the binding runs between the mother’s given name and maiden surname, can give the impression of the wrong mother’s name if it is not noticed. They are bound in the following order, where L indicates the left-hand side of the page and R the right-hand side: 1L+9R, 8L+2R, 3L+7R, 6L+5R, 4LR, 5L+6R, 7L+3R, 2L+8R, 9L+1R, 10LR.) page 6, line 21.
6. 4-generation register report for Isaac Martin emailed to me 17 Feb 2002 from Eunice B. Kirkman, <ekirkman@starband.net>. Eunice is a Patrick County researcher who has contributed hundreds of obituaries to the Patrick County message board at Rootsweb, as well as transcriptions of the 1870 census and death records for 1853-1896 to the Patrick County VAGenWeb archives.
8. Centennial Edition, Rowan County News, May 10, 1956. A special 103 page edition published on the 100th anniversary of the founding of Rowan Co.
10. John Donohew, ““Donohew, Roe, Johnson, Taber, Brown, Gilbert, Keath Families”,” http://www.my-ged.com/donohew/, 12 Dec 2001.
11. Nearly all births recorded in Rowan Co., Ky from 1912-1918 and 1939-1972, plus some in other years, are misindexed in the Kentucky birth index as occurring in Breathitt Co. The actual birth certificates are correct.
This happened because when the index was initially compiled in the early 1970’s, it was done on index cards, and to save time in typing them up, the counties were assigned numerical codes. The codes were roughly in alphabetical order, but not exactly because some cities such as Lexington and Covington that recorded births at the municipal level had codes of their own. The number for Breathitt was 16, and the proper number for Rowan was 116. But apparently many of the instruction sheets had a typo on them, so that Rowan was also keyed in as 16.
The index cards were then microfilmed, and the microfilm was used as the basis for the computerized index. (Back in the 1980's I went to Frankfort and accessed the microfilm index at the State Archives, and they were still using a key sheet for interpreting the codes.)
This happened because when the index was initially compiled in the early 1970’s, it was done on index cards, and to save time in typing them up, the counties were assigned numerical codes. The codes were roughly in alphabetical order, but not exactly because some cities such as Lexington and Covington that recorded births at the municipal level had codes of their own. The number for Breathitt was 16, and the proper number for Rowan was 116. But apparently many of the instruction sheets had a typo on them, so that Rowan was also keyed in as 16.
The index cards were then microfilmed, and the microfilm was used as the basis for the computerized index. (Back in the 1980's I went to Frankfort and accessed the microfilm index at the State Archives, and they were still using a key sheet for interpreting the codes.)
12. Information on this family group is from email correspondence with Veronica (Highley) Baker, 7604 Timber Creek Ct., Portage, MI 49024, Paper_Tech@wow.com.
13. Barb Reininger, “Families of Floyd Co., Virginia,” http://freepages.genealogy.rootsweb.com/~barbr/zz_main_contents.htm.
14. As published in "1890 Census Floyd County, Virginia", compiled by Marjorie Fluor Moore, 1990.
Since the 1890 U.S. Census was destroyed by fire, this source deserves a special note. It is a transcription of a copy found in the basement of the Floyd Co. Courthouse. A clerk apparently copied the names and ages, but no other data, from the 1890 census before sending the census books to Washington D.C. The names are in semi-alphabetic order (that is, by initial letter of the surname, then within each letter in census line order), and grouped by district, but the grouping into households and families is not preserved, which can cause some ambiguity when several families of the same surname lived in adjacent households, though usually the family groups can be inferred from the ages. Due to the alphabetical rearrangement, information about persons of different surnames such as in-laws sharing the same household is lost.
The copy also has no record of when the census was taken, but by comparing ages of babies listed in months with an exact birthdate when it is known from other sources, it appears that it was enumerated in approximately June. (E.g., Noah P. Phillips born 17 Jan 1890 was listed as 5 months in Indian Valley; Mary Clementine Slusher born 7 Feb 1890 was listed as 4 months in Jacksonville.)
Since the 1890 U.S. Census was destroyed by fire, this source deserves a special note. It is a transcription of a copy found in the basement of the Floyd Co. Courthouse. A clerk apparently copied the names and ages, but no other data, from the 1890 census before sending the census books to Washington D.C. The names are in semi-alphabetic order (that is, by initial letter of the surname, then within each letter in census line order), and grouped by district, but the grouping into households and families is not preserved, which can cause some ambiguity when several families of the same surname lived in adjacent households, though usually the family groups can be inferred from the ages. Due to the alphabetical rearrangement, information about persons of different surnames such as in-laws sharing the same household is lost.
The copy also has no record of when the census was taken, but by comparing ages of babies listed in months with an exact birthdate when it is known from other sources, it appears that it was enumerated in approximately June. (E.g., Noah P. Phillips born 17 Jan 1890 was listed as 5 months in Indian Valley; Mary Clementine Slusher born 7 Feb 1890 was listed as 4 months in Jacksonville.)
16. from the Draper Manuscript Collection, Washington Papers, reprinted in Frontier Advance on the Upper Ohio, Louise Phellps Kellogg, State Historical Society of Wisconsin. Madison, 1916.
19. "Cemeteries of Floyd County, Va., Vol. 1, Indian Valley District", by Elza B. Cox & Phyllis G. Phillips. 1979. p. 61.
21. 1853-1872 Birth and Death Records Floyd County, Virginia and the Zion Lutheran Church Register, compiled by Marjorie Fluor and Marguerite Tise, published 1981 by Marjorie Fluor, 1920 Heliotrope Drive, Santa Ana, CA 92706.
22. Blair, Juanita, Past Images of Rowan County, Kentucky, Morehead, KY: privately printed, 1991, 3 volumes.
Out of print. Non-circulating copies of all three volumes are at Morehead State University and the Rowan County Public Library.
Out of print. Non-circulating copies of all three volumes are at Morehead State University and the Rowan County Public Library.
23. Article on John Utley Wade compiled by William G. Scroggins on 9 Sep 1998, available online at http://wgscroggins.kueber.us/Wade3_John_Utley.pdf
24. Some names and dates for the family of James A. Roberts and Effie Stacy from picture captions at Lavetta Conner’s Page on the MSN groups, http://groups.msn.com/lavettaspage/ . The group area has several pictures of James, Effie, and their children.
