John Wesley O'Dell and Mary A Yates

My son and I have been working on a surname that came to our attention thanks to help from a man named David Osborne.  For many years I had a G G Grandmother identified only as "Jane ________".  By sharing info and thoughts, we were able to identify her as Elizabeth Jane O'Dell, daughter of John Wesley O'Dell and Mary A (Polly) Yates!

Here is what I've found out about Jane so far:

BIRTH - Elizabeth Jane O'Dell - born abt 1848/1849 in Fayette County, Virginia

MARRIAGE -Benjamin Franklin Nunley on 18 Nov 1866 in Lawrence County Kentucky

CHILDREN -
Mary Adeline (Elizabeth) Nunley b. 1867
America Easter Nunley b. 1869
John Nunley b. 1872
Charles A Nunley b. 1872
George W. Nunley b. 1874
Isabell Nunley b. 1879
Ella Nunley (my Great Grandmother) b. 1882
Doliver Nunley 1884/1885

DEATH - ELIZABETH NUNLEY, MARRIED, DIED APR 20 1886 WAYNE COUNTY W VA, CONSUMPTION, PARENTS JOHN AND POLLY O'DELL

I do have more info on some of the children and some of Elizabeth's ancestors, but I'm always hoping to find out more. 

Preparing today for Hurricane Sandy to 'visit' our area, so just a quick post to add a photo of my Mom and Grandma from years past.
Grandma's name: Bessie Parks Simpson, Mom's name: Dorothy Lee Simpson.  Bessie was only 14 when she married my Grandpa, Henry Simpson, and 15 when she had my Mother.  They lived in West Virginia.  Mother was born in Printer, Boone County, WV on 28 Jan 1924.  

Getting The Family Involved

A couple of weeks ago, one of my sons and his girlfriend decided to both work on some genealogy for their respective families. This led to my son asking me for some info that I couldn't put my finger on right away, as it had been awhile since I looked at the family line he was interested in. My son managed on his own to find a whole new surname in that family, the Branscome name in Virginia, which I am excited to work on with him! Around the same time, we cleaned out the basement storage room where my genealogy file cabinet is. I decided now was a good time to go through those dusty old pre-digital era folders and see what research notes I had in it. Some had never made it to my PAF and Roots Magic programs at all, other folders had only outdated beginnings of research that I now have much more details on. My project for this fall is to go through all of the folders in that file cabinet, see that all the data is entered into my online programs, upload an up to date Gedcom file to the new Family Tree at the LDS www.familysearch.org website, and see if I can start to connect some of my surname lines that 15 years ago were dead ends before I used the internet to connect with cousins and other researchers. Moral of the story? Get the family involved in your research! Thank you, Nathan, for getting me back in the saddle of organizing. It doesn't do much good if you can't find the data you need when you want it.

Ivy Perry Hobbs

Ivy Perry Hobbs was my Dad's aunt, and he often told me stories of the time he spent with his Uncle Willie and Aunt Ivy on their farm. Here is her picture:

Hibbert Hobbs - 1940 Census

The 1940 Census is now available! Like so many people, I wasn't able to access it on the release date last week but this week things seem to be working just fine at least on ancestry.com which is the site I used for viewing it.
The first thing I did was take a peek at Logan County West Virginia to see if I could find my father. And I did. He was living with his brothers in a house in Omar, and working as a tippleman at a local coal mine. Here is the data:

1940 Census for Sandy Bottom (unincorporated place),census for Lower Omar, Logan County, West Virginia:
Hibbert Hobbs, age 20, brother, b. WV, 8th grade education, living same place in 1935, tippleman.
Herbert Hobbs, age 20, brother, b. WV, 8th grade education, 9th grade education, living same place in 1935, tippleman.
Herman Hobbs, age 19, brother, b. WV, living same place in 1935, tippleman.

Surname Sunday - Some Nunley Ancestors

No pics today, just a simple post to list some of my Nunley ancestors. Maybe you connect through one of them? These are all children of Daniel Nunley and America Skaggs
Jane Nunley b. 1837 Cannonsburg, Boyd Co KY
Benjamin Franklin Nunley b. 1847 in VA or KY, d. 11 Mar 1892 in Wayne, West Virginia
Charles L. Nunley b. abt 1856 Greenup Co KY
Milton Leonidas Nunley b. Jun 1858 KY

Daisy Sansom and Ethel Sansom Hobbs

WORDLESS WEDNESDAY - A PICTURE OF MY GRANDMOTHER AND HER SISTER

DAISY SANSOM - LEFT
ETHEL SANSOM HOBBS - RIGHT