Broken Branch – When the End of the Line Families Are Not Well-Documented

Note: this post should have originally been posted here instead of at My Trails Into the Past.

I have been researching my maternal grandmother’s side of the family for over thirty years. Her family is southern, through and through, and I have not figured out yet when they arrived in the United States or through which state or colony.

As I started out, I used census records to work my way back. Her father was a Lancaster and her mother a Loveless. The Lancaster line was straight forward until I got to Ellis Lancaster, her great-great-grandfather, because I found two Ellis Lancasters in Kentucky and I needed to sort them out.

On her Loveless side, I acquired a book, Loveless, Shockley, Flowers, Camp and Related Families by Sheila Britt Cameron.[1] Like many beginning genealogists, I took that book and entered many of the people from my lines into my genealogy program. Of course, I didn’t source the book, so now when I look at the record of these people, I don’t know where I obtain which piece of information.

Another book I used to enter lots of people into my database was Barron & Allied Families by Elois Dickson Evans. This gave me information about the Coor and Welch families and their allied families. This book I did cite and can see when I used it. My grandmother’s grandmother was Martha Jane Coor, daughter of James M. Coor and Melissa Ann Welch. Again, I took the word of someone who done research but did not cite each fact.

My goal has been to research these end-of-the-line families in original sources to back up what I have already entered and if I find conflicting evidence, further research may lead to lopping off a branch. But then, it may lead me to new branches as well.

End of the line ancestors that need further research include:

  • Daniel Coor and Jemima Porter of North Carolina
  • John Kethley and Elizabeth Whitfield of Mississippi & Louisiana
  • Dempsey Welch and Elizabeth Young of Georgia and Mississippi
  • Robert Lancaster and Sarah Ellis of Kentucky
  • James Loveless & Linna Hughes of North Carolina
  • Abner Nixon & Mary P Medlock of South Carolina and Mississippi
  • David Rodgers & Rebecca Waddell of Georgia
  • James Neal and Polly Martin of Kentucky
  • Nathaniel H.O. Polly and Lydia Margaret [--?--]

These are ancestors of my grandmother, Pansy Louise Lancaster Johnston, who I affectionately called Mam-ma.


#52Ancestors-Week 25: Broken Branches--When the End of the Line Families Are Not Well-Documented

This is my fifth year working on this year-long prompt, hosted by Amy Johnson Crow (https://www.amyjohnsoncrow.com/) at Generations Cafe. I write each week in one of my two blogs, either Mam-ma’s Southern Family or at My Trails into the Past. I have enjoyed writing about my children’s ancestors in new and exciting ways.


Copyright © 2022 by Lisa S. Gorrell, Mam-ma's Southern Family, All rights reserved.

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