Taking another look at the Taylors

Well, back to school time came early this year. Teachers returned on August 8^th!!! Way too early and it has been obvious around the school house. No one was ready to return and I think we are just now realizing that school is in session and things are getting back on track! Anyway…. Once again my job is getting in the way of family history time!

My copy of “Jackson County Past and Present” finally arrived in the mail a week or so ago. I had placed my order back in late May or early June so I had just about given up hope until... surprise! ... Dave found it waiting on the porch one afternoon! Flipping through the pages rekindled my interest in my Jackson County WV roots, namely my Taylor family line. Tracing my Taylors is much like tracing a ‘Smith’ or ‘Brown’….  

My Granddaddy Taylor’s family is ‘stalled’ with Thomas Taylor b. abt 1793 in VA and died in 1866 in Saltville VA. I descend through his son Charles W. >>> William James >>> Omer Martin >>>Donald Lee >>> then me. I have proof of the line through Charles W but the fact that Charles’s father was Thomas Ewing Taylor was acquired from a distant cousin. I seem to be spinning my wheels as far as this line goes so I decided it was time to take the advice of every experienced genealogist, “start with what you know and gather every bit of information you can before moving on to the next generation” So… it is time for me to go back and fill in all the gaps starting with Granddaddy’s siblings and then his aunts and uncles.

My first objective is to answer two burning questions:

1. What happened to Franklin Taylor (paternal great grand uncle)?

2. Who the heck is Andrew Taylor (appears to be a paternal grand uncle)?

This past week I've been filling in some blanks in Granddaddy’s family. He was the baby of 15 and I didn’t have birth/death dates for all or I didn’t have documentation proving the dates that I had. Grandmother Taylor wrote out birthdates for all of Granddaddy’s siblings (The woman had one heck of a memory!).

Children of William J. and Lucinda Westfall Taylor’s children:

Name	Birth	Death	Marriage
Amanda Jane	11 May 1876 Roane, WV	5 Mar 1925 Longacre, Fayette, WV (visiting brother ‘Ned’)	Luther Melancthon Hatcher 1898 Jackson ,WV
Leander	23 March 1878 Roane,, WV	2 Feb 1969 Charleston, Kanawha, WV	Rachel Minerva Cobb 14 Nov 1897 Roane, WV
James	27 Apr 1879 Roane,, WV	16 Jan 1939 Belgrove, Jackson, WV	Mary Carpenter 18 Dec 1898 Roane, WV
Jesse	4 July 1880 Roane, WV	6 Aug 1956 Kanawha, WV	Icie Carpenter 13 May 1906 Roane, WV
Lillie	4 Feb 1883 Jackson, WV	4 Jan 1969 Charleston, Kanawha, WV	William Alonzo Doughty 17 Nov 1909 Jackson, WV
Mary E Taylor	Dec 1884 Jackson WV
Francis Marion “Ned”	3 Feb 1886 Jackson, WV	14 Jun 1980 Orlando, Orange, FL	Beulah Dallas Fields 25 Sept 1910 Roane, WV
Henry Clay	10 May 1889 Jackson, WV	6 Oct 1964 Kanawha, WV	Ada Whited 29 Nov 1914 Jackson, WV
Cora Ann	18 Oct 1890 Jackson, WV	22 Mar 1970 Charleston, Kanawha, WV	Holly Azetta Cobb 22 Oct 1911 Jackson, WV
John Perry	30 Dec 1894 Jackson, WV	17 Jan 1972 Charleston, Kanawha, WV	Carrie Carpenter 10 Aug 1913 Jackson, WV
Icie Ivy	1 May 1896 Jackson, WV	6 Sept 1982 Charleston, Kanawha, WV
Orlie Annis	10 Aug 1897 Belgrove, Jackson, WV	25 Mar 1987 Charleston, Kanawha, WV	Benjamin Coy Cobb 28 Feb 1918 Jackson, WV
Corda Elva	19 Feb 1899 Belgrove, Jackson, WV	4 Sept 1994 Deltona, Volusia, FL	Mark Whited
Eva	4 Mar 1902	25 Jun 1989
Omer Martin	20 Sept 1904 Belgrove, Jackson, WV	21 Dec 1994 Charleston, Kanawha, WV	Reva Opal Cobb 11 Aug 1926 Charleston, Kanawha, WV