The Hunt for Wade Hamilton Kerr

Growing up, I spent time with my grandmother, Wadie almost everyday, I had a slightly unconventional family circle. I had two parents, two step-parents, numerous aunts, uncles and cousins. Rounding out the family circle were my maternal great grandparents. My mother's paternal grandparents were always in my life and I spent every summer with my great-grandmother, Elizabeth Lang Jackson. She was the matriarch of my family from my point of view. But on my mother's maternal side, the family wasn't as full. My grandmother Wadie talked a lot about her mother and her brother but never mentioned her dad. I never really noticed this until I got older and realized that I knew nothing about her dad and she never brought him up. I asked her once where her name originated and she told me she was named after her father, Wade. She changed the subject after that and I did not ask anything else because it seemed to make her uncomfortable, I assumed that he had died when she was young and I did not want to make it worse for her. Grandmama spoke often of her little brother, Bennie. The family had not heard from Uncle Bennie since the seventies and it made her sad that she did not know where her brother was or if he was alive.

Wadie Kerr

After Grandmama died, I doubled my research into her family. In 2011, I came across the death record for her father, Wade Hamilton Kerr. I was shocked to read that he died in 1972..30 years after his wife, Mama Cille, listed herself as widowed in the 1940's census. I was extremely curious about what had happened between him and his family. In my estimation it had to be bad since my mother nor her siblings had ever met him. Wade died in Wyandotte, Kansas and had lived there since the fifties. He had remarried and his wife is buried beside him in the Veteran's Cemetery. I had so many questions. Why did he move? Why did the family completely break from each other? Did he and his new wife have any children?

A few months ago, Wade had a shaky leaf on Ancestry. When I looked into it I found a record in Texas on Convicts. Apparently Wade had committed manslaughter and was incarcerated in 1936 for the murder of a Mr Fountain. I wanted to know what happened. Why did he kill this man? Is this what caused the collapse of the family? I took a trip to the local genealogical society to peruse newspaper articles and I hit paydirt:

I did a little more research and found the Appellate court records. It was called the Lock of Hair Murder. Apparently Mama Cille and Wade hit a rough patch during their marriage and separated. At this time they had three children. Mama Cille met Mr. Fountain and entered into a relationship, during which she gave him a lock of her hair. After a while, Wade re-entered the picture and he and Mama Cille decided to give their marriage another go for the sake of their family. Things were okay for a while but Wade did not like the fact that Mr. Fountain had a lock of Mama Cille's hair. He demanded the she get the hair back. Together they walked over to Mr. Fountain's home to get the hair back and for some reason Wade brought his shotgun with him. Mama Cille asked Mr. Fountain for her lock of hair, which he kept in his hat. Mr Fountain gave her the lock of hair and I am not sure what happened between them but it ended with Wade shooting Mr. Fountain. Mr Fountain succumbed to his injuries. Wade was arrested and spent almost 5 years in prison. Three days before his release, Mama Cille filed for divorce. There is no one alive that can tell us what happened between Wade and Mama Cille or what was the reason for the separation of the family. I have many question, suspicions and theories but I have to live with the fact that I may never know what happened between them


It was very gratifying to find part of Wade's story and learn about what happened to him when he was young. I later came across his obituary:

I found it interesting that they used my grandmother Wadie's nickname, Babo. Since Uncle Bennie lived in Kansas at the time I wonder if he was at the funeral. I wonder what Wade's funeral was like. Was it full of people who loved him and told funny stories at his repast? I hope so. I don't know what caused Wade to break from his first family but I know it caused a lot of pain in my grandmother. Grandmama had a full life and a large family. We really came together when she passed and her funeral was full of people who loved her and would always miss her. I hope that Wade had the same experience. I hope that whatever mistakes from his past did not stop him from making a new, happy life with his new family.

When your maternal and paternal lines collide.. Part I

When I started my genealogical journey it never occurred to me that one day I may come across a situation like this. There were two things that I knew for sure....my mom's family originated from Texas and my dad's family originated from Mississippi and the families did not mix until my parents married. There is nothing like a little genealogy research to turn your world around. Let's start with the basics.

My father is descended from the Duckworth, Keys, Peyton, and Windham family of Mississippi. The first mystery I encountered was the fact that my paternal grandmother, Vera Windham and her husband and my father's stepfather, John Keys were cousins, Once I took a DNA test, I noticed that I had numerous Duckworth matches and I could not understand why. As far as I knew at the time, the only Duckworth in my tree was John and we weren't related. Once the 1940's census was released the mystery was solved. it listed Vera, her mother Mamie and sisters living with her future husband BUT they were listed as cousins, While that answered some questions it did not answer how they were related and I could not find any more info on John's parents. One of my most, recent discoveries revealed that Mamie was a Duckworth through her mother Anna. So now I  know that Duckworth family was on both sides of my father's family. Within the last month I received information regarding the Duckworth family slave holder, Benjamin Case Duckworth.

My mother is descended from the Thompson, Kerr, Evans and Lang family from Texas. My research into her family has been relatively easy because I grew up around her siblings, parents, aunts, uncles and grandparents. I spent every summer at her grandmother's farm as a child and I heard many stories about the Langs, my great grandmother's family. Elizabeth Lang was the center of my mother's world and I believe my great grandmother doted on my mother. The Lang line was very well known to me but my mother did not know a lot about her father's paternal line, The Thompsons. We knew they had been in Texas for a long time. Her father's paternal line was something of a mystery to me because we did not know anything past her grandfather, Otha. Ater some research through Otha's obituary and census records, I found the name of Otha's parents and siblings but that was where the trail went cold.   After my mother's DNA test this year, I came across a few matches with Thompson links that created more questions than answers but still left me confused about the Thompson family origins. I know Otha's paternal grandfather was born in either Alabama or Mississippi but that is the extent of my current knowledge.

Seven months ago, I came across a surprise while looking up a match of mine. I had assumed that she was related to my dad through the Duckworth family. We have the same people on our tree. But once I received my mother's Gedmatch results back and check her matches I realized that this same cousin was on her list. My first thought was that my parents shared a cousin. But after having a more thorough look I realized that this cousin did not share any DNA with my dad...only with my mother. My first intention was to reach out to this cousin. Unfortunately she had passed away a week before. She was a warm, goodhearted person and I was very sad to hear of her passing. I remembered that she made me a contributor to her tree and I decided to take a more comprehensive look at her tree and realized that while we had the same people in our tree, she was not directly descended from those people. She was descended from a Nancy Duckworth, who appeared to be Native American. Not too long after that, my mother received another match who confused me even more. This new match was European and after looking through her family tree realized that she descended from Duckworth's as well...all Caucasian, To say that I was surprised is a gross understatement. My mother had two DNA matches who both connected to the Duckworth surname, one from the African- American side and one from the Caucasian side. Since the Caucasian Duckworths lived in New York and the African-American Duckworth lived in Mississippi, I did not want to assume that they were connected. I felt that I had assumed enough and I should just sit on that for a while.

A month ago, one of my Duckworth cousins shared the family tree of the Duckworth Family slave holder. I thoroughly searched the tree and found a connection to New York. I then compared the trees from my mother's Caucasian Duckworth cousin to the slave holder's tree and realized that the families were definitely related. Also in the slave holder's tree I found a connection to a Thompson family in Alabama. So it appears that my mother is possibly descended from the slave holding Duckworths and my father is descended from the Duckworth slaves. That is a lot to take in and I will admit that it seems unreal. Since many of the Duckworth connections are on Ancestry, I have decided to have both of my parents take a test to see if we can compare chromosomes and really pinpoint the connection. I just mailed out my mother's test this morning and will be testing my dad soon. I pray the results will give me more answers than questions.

New surnames and connections!

It has been interesting to find so many connections and surnames. When I began on this journey, I initially only knew a few of the family surnames: Keys, Lang, Thompson and Kerr. When I look back I am amazed at how little I knew. It was hard for me to determine a plan of action because I had so little information. I started by looking at my parents and moving backwards. I was a Keys along with my dad, my mother was a Thompson, her mother was a Kerr and her paternal grandmother was a Lang. I never would have gotten any further than that if it were not for Ancestry and their online records. Through working on that site I discovered more surnames such as King. Polk, Evans, Peyton, Windham and Sterling. Death certificates are a goldmine! I was so grateful to find so much information. I could not imagine another lucky find such as this.

With the growing popularity of DNA testing, I eventually realized that I would need to take one. I knew that I would have some matches and maybe, hopefully, find some great ancestor somewhere. I was wholly unprepared for the volume of matches I would get and what these new relations would mean. I realized that with every match came multiple surnames....most I had never heard within my own family and I was at a complete lost at how to find our common ancestor. Then slowly I started to realize that some surnames began to stick out. I had a few matches with the same surnames and people and I started keeping track. I figured out that while I have not found the connection yet in my tree and thanks to chromosome browsing, I could concur that we all shared the same ancestor somewhere and I could possibly include the surname into my collection. Then....the flood gates opened. Now along with the surnames that I had traced so far now there were more:
Duckworth,Glasker, Jones, Johnson, Mcwhorter, Hoge/Hogue/Hogg and Vance.

As I continue my search, I hope that I will find those connections between these surnames and my ancestors. I truly look forward to the journey.

New Year, New Discoveries

I haven't blogged in a while but the research has been ongoing and I have broke through many brick walls. Let's start with my father's family:

My father's was raised by his stepfather, John Keys and his mother Vera. John's mother was Lillie Duck(s)worth and her father was John Duck(s)worth. There were four Duckworth brothers, usually referred to as the Big Four.  Two names immediately caught my attention, Isom and John. I have always wondered if our John was "the" John of the Big Four. However I could not find any other information on him. Through my own DNA tests I have found out that I am related to the Duckworth since I pulled several Duckworth matches but I couldn't figure out how until I came across the 1940's census which listed Vera, her mother Mamie and sisters living with John in Mississippi but they were listed as cousins to the head of the household John. Now I had proof that I was not only related to John Keys by blood but also to the Duckworth family as well through him. Recently through the help of a new cousin, I have come to understand that this branch of my family is long and complicated. Vera's maternal grandmother is also a Duckworth....Anna Duckworth was the daughter of Isom and Jane Keys. It will be an interesting journey to trace this side of the family.

The Windham branch of the family is also very interesting in that some believe the American branch can be traced to the English branch, which is connected to royalty. I have seen a few extremely detailed trees leading to the Plantagenet family on paper but the DNA proof will most likely never be found.

Now my mother's side is also interesting. My mother is 97% African and 3% European. Her European has already directed me to matches who have traced some of their connections to the Visigoths! Her results are still new and there are new matches everyday. One of her first matches that I noticed was really astounding in the fact that the person is directly descended from my dads Duckworth ancestors but she only shares DNA with my mom. It seems that my maternal genealogy research is going to take me on a wild adventure and I am looking forward to it!.