For today’s entry, we’re going to focus our attention on the Commonwealth of Kentucky and explore just a few of our family’s connections there. Most of these connections are on the paternal side of my family, and we’ve touched on a few of them here in the past.
As long-time readers may recall, the Sweeney branch of our family made their way from Buckingham County, Virginia, to Kentucky, where my parents and I were lucky enough to find the grave of Moses Sweeney, my 6G-grandfather. A Sweeney descendant who met a tragic end in Kentucky was fifth cousin twice removed, Blanche (Phillips) Hendricks.
But aside from the many Sweeney connections (and aside from my brother’s four years spent at Kentucky’s Centre College), I wanted to see what other links our family might have had with the commonwealth. Rummaging through a “Who Was There” report in my genealogy software, I first found lots of individuals who were spouses of relatives but not relatives themselves. But eventually I started making discoveries:
Anna Marie Bering, 1st cousin 3 times removed: Anna Marie is related through our Montgomery line. Her grandfather was my brick-wall Montgomery ancestor William through his daughter Susan. Susan’s husband was John Andrew Bering, who was a major in the 48th Ohio Volunteer Infantry during the Civil War and participated in the siege of Vicksburg. Anna Marie herself was born in 1867 in Ohio but died in Covington, Kentucky, aged 71, of a non-malignant intestinal obstruction. She is buried in Fort Mitchell, Kentucky.
Next up is the amazingly-named Burnem Cevigna Buxton, my 2nd cousin 3 times removed. He is descended from our Conklin(g) line; his grandfather was my 4G-grandfather, Stephen Conkling. Burnem was also born in Ohio but by age 43 (in 1930) was living in McKinneysburg, Kentucky. By 1940 he had moved back to Ohio; he died in Cincinnati in 1969. It seems that those recording information about Burnem throughout his life were also a little overwhelmed by his unusual name. It appears with multiple different spellings: Burchman C., Burnim S., Burnum.
Another Kentucky connection with a great name is Alvareta Charlton, my 2nd cousin twice removed. She is also a Montgomery-line descendant; she was the great-granddaughter of William Montgomery through William’s son David and granddaughter Laura Belle. She never appears to have lived in Kentucky, but she was married there (in Newport) in 1919 at age 20. She died in 1986 and is buried in Dayton, Ohio. She also has a number of different spellings of her name attached to various records: Alvarette, Alvaretta, Alzaretta.
Finally (at least for today; this is by no means an exhaustive list of every relative who set foot in Kentucky), we have Martin F. Ross, my third cousin 3 times removed. Like Burnem Buxton, he is a descendant of our Conklin(g) line: his great-grandfather was my 5G-grandfather, Joseph Conkling. Martin was born 3 March 1840 in Lake Geneva, Wisconsin, to parents originally from New Jersey and New York who moved west two years before Martin’s birth. Like Alvareta, Martin never lived in Kentucky, but he died there. On 1 February 1863, a month shy of his 23rd birthday, while serving with the 22nd Wisconsin Voluntary Infantry, he was a Civil War casualty in Danville, Kentucky, dying in a regimental hospital of wounds received in battle. Which brings us back full circle, as Danville is the home of Centre College, from which my brother graduated 131 years after Martin’s death.
