KENNA'S WEB GENEALOGY

Thanks to the nice people at the Sumner County Tennessee Historical Society I now have a copy of the marriage license for George Graves and Mark Roberts (sometimes spelled Robberts). It confirms what their daughter (my grandmother) had recorded about their marriage place and date. I had hoped it would have information about their parents - but no such luck!

George Frank Graves, born 21 Dec 1862 in Elmira, Chemung County, NY.

This is my great grandfather. While I have a few details about him, the period between his birth and appearance in the 1900 federal census is a mystery, as are his parents and siblings. His name is common enough that placing him with any certainty in the intervening census records has not been easy. So, that's the next challenge for me: Locate him in records between 1862 and 1900, and hopefully find his parents.

Ancestry.com has recently made available for searching on-line three marriage index books for Georgia. So far, I've been working with two of them:

Georgia Marriages to 1850 and Georgia Marriages, 1699-1944

These indexes are just like the books they came from and thus the information overlaps (and they are not always accurate). I've already found matches on a number of Averett's who were married in Georgia. This is much easier than going to the Georgia Archives!

I recently ordered and received the civil war mother's claim pension application file for Mary (Fox) Kenna , mother of William Kenna Jr. , from the NARA. She filed for support around 1877 and the file includes testimony from friends and relatives as to her sources of income and obligations. William Jr. was killed in action at the battle of Cold Harbor, VA on 31 May 1864. His father, William Kenna Sr. was also serving at the time in a different unit, having enlisted earlier in 1864. One of the most touching contents of the file is a letter from William Jr. to his parents on 22 Oct 1863.

The file contais testimony that provides the names, birth dates and marriage information for all the children of William and Mary's family. In addition the file includes affidavits from James Kenna Sr. and James Kenna Jr. James Sr. was present at William Jr.'s birth, and James Jr. calls William Jr. his cousin. This information provides more evidence that James Kenna Sr. (my ggg-grandfather) and William Kenna Sr. were brothers, who immigrated to the US and settled in Little Falls, NY together.

The file includes new mysteries, like the other person who witnessed William Kenna Jr.'s birth with James Kenna Sr., a Mary O'Rourk (sp?). The surname O'Rourk(e) shows up elsewhere amoung documents I have, so I wonder what relationship that family has to the Kenna's.

There's a bit of a scandal mentioned as well regarding William & Mary Kenna's second son Thomas Kenna who was forced to leave Little Falls due to bad debt or forgery problems. It could not have lasted long though, since census information has him in their household in later years.

The family group sheet of Wilson B. Averett and Sarah McClendon has been updated with the 14 children they had! Also, there's a nice photo of some of the family.

The family information for John Fuller Averett has been updated with loads of information from Geneva. They had 12 children! Check out the photo of the couple too.

The family information for Newton Averett (1857-1938) and Sarah Averett (1856-1944) has been added, thanks to information from Geneva Averett. This family is unique because the couple shared the same last name, and their mothers had the same exact name: Sarah Louise McClendon

The family group sheet can be found here.

Two more 1920 census records have been posted.  One for the family of William J. and Dorthea (Ella) Kenna living in Monmouth, IL with two of his children.  This record is interesting in that William is listed as a car dealer and his son and daughter are in the car business too.  It would be interesting to locate the name of the dealership!

Another census record just posted is for Mary (Robberts) Graves living in Gulf City, FL with four of her children. The town was near Ruskin, FL but no longer exists - it is said that it was abandoned around the 1920s.  This census record is strange in that is shows Mary as divorced - which is not something I knew about.

I recently obtained the naturalization papers for James Kenna,b. 1809, from the Herkimer County, NY county clerk. The two documents can be found here and here. The first document is the one filed by an immigrant after two years of residency indicating their intent to become a citizen. It gives the most useful information, as it shows when he immigrated and where he came from. The second document is the petition for naturalization, which is filed after five years.