Genealogy Documents
If you have a family document that you're willing to share, please email it to
. For paper documents, I'll be happy to pay photocopy and mailing costs.
I'll then scan and share them here.
Paternal
Ireland Family
McCool family
The McCool and Ireland families are closely entwined.
The McCool Family document provides a great deal of information - except that everything about the earliest ancestor, supposedly George McCool Sr.,
appears to be wrong.
All of the other information matches closely to historical records.
Our current theory is that George McCool Sr. was actually Joseph McCool - or perhaps Joseph George McCool Sr.
The Ireland documents contain a great deal of information about the McCool family as well.
Wright family
Kevin's father's paternal grandmother was Eva May Wright. Thanks to earlier genealogists, we know quite a bit our Wright family line.
Due to the large numbers of Wright families in colonial Virginia, however, information before the mid 1700s should be considered somewhat speculative.
It's relatively certain that our ancestor Allen Wright married Hannah Peebles.
There are many questions about the ancestral Peebles wives, but the genealogical path to David Peebles, born in Scotland in 1610, is stronger than many of that era.
Nichols / Coffman
Kevin's father's maternal grandfather was Clinton Wakefield Nichols.
Clint's grandparents were Thomas W. Nichols (1826-1900) and Adeline Lucinda Coffman (1826-1900).
I'm still digging through this tome, but I believe we're related to the Mennonite Kauffman / Coffman families who fled to America from Switzerland in the 1700s.
Read more:
Gwartney
Kevin's father's maternal grandmother was Grace Annis Gwartney.
Although her first cousin Isaac Gwartney isn't in our direct line of descent, his biography, written by his daughter Rebecca,
is a fascinating look at the struggles faced by rural Americans in the early 1900s.
Maternal
Lewis Family
Williams Family
Many of our family members own a copy of the 300 page red-bound "The ancestors and descendants of Ebenezer and Martha Porter Williams of Painesville, Ohio",
compiled and published by great-uncle Percy Williams Lewis. An electronic version can be borrowed at no charge for 14 days. Ancestry.com members can access it online.
Hevenor-Reineck ancestors
Hastings family
"The Hastings memorial: a genealogical account of the descendants of Thomas Hastings of Watertown, Mass. from 1634 to 1864"
is available free online from Google Books. Ancestry.com members can access a searchable version as well. The book has 190 pages, including several indexes.
The Hastings and related families were among the earliest settlers of Watertown MA - and are featured prominently in the 1,094 page
"Genealogies of the Families and Descendants of the Early Settlers of Watertown, Massachusetts".
Scott Hastings-Billigmeier argues that the "royal" connections of our Hastings ancestors are less certain than other sources describe. (5 pages)
See also:
Sollenberger surname ancestors - maternal-half
My mother's second marriage was to John Sollenberger. They had one son, my half-brother.
Davis Family
These families are related to us through marriage to Stephen Davis.
James Kenyon "J.K" White
J.K. is Steve's great-grandfather; his father's maternal grandfather. Little is known about the families of his four or five wives -
or even which of them mothered his ten children who survived to adulthood. Anyone with information about them is asked to
email it to .
J.K.'s great-granddaughter, Quintilla V. (Strength) Smith, wrote a series of recollections about her family in 1976.
Although Quintilla was born 46 years before Stephen, they're second cousins - and members of the same generation. Her stories are presented below: