Genealogy Bits

Pleasant Adams (1790-1846) was an early settler in Clay Co, MO and one of my key ancestors. Two of his daughters, Rebecca and Hanna Lee, were mothers to my great-grandparents, Josephine Garner and Jonathan Newby. We knew Pleasant had married Ruth Sutherland in Casey Co, KY, but researchers had never been able to identify his parents or birthplace.

A casual Google Books search one evening popped up with: Pleasant Adams of Clay Co, MO in "Appendix 8, Emigrants from Albemarle Virginia to Other States." This 1901 book, "Albemarle County in Virginia", by Edgar Woods is on the shelf at two local libraries, but how could we have known to look. THANK YOU, GOOGLE BOOKS!

Once we knew 'where to look' our research pieces started falling together. The big breaktrough came on page 232 of Carol Ruth Dawson's 1983 book "DAWSONS IN THE REVOLUTIONARY WAR (AND THEIR DESCENDANTS), Volume II":

SUSANNAH (DAWSON) ADAMS, who married RICHARD ADAMS of Albemarle Co, VA had ten issues:
5-12i James Adams
5-12j Pleasant Adams
5-12k William Adams
5-12l Benjamin Adams
5-12m Martin Adams
5-12n Sally Adams
5-12o Lynch Adams
5-12p Dawson Adams
5-12q Elizabeth Adams
5-12r Henry D. Adams

There it was, the entire family laid out in correct order! Missouri researchers had suspected relationships among some of these lines for years. A couple of months work has now sketched out most of the siblings, and identified a few of the serious researchers in those lines.

Again, Google Books searching supplied a number of useful bits to support our assumptions. We found details of the family travels from Kentucky to Missouri in the winter of 1819-20, we found Jackson Co, MO voter lists, details of a murder in Ray Co, MO, and mention of Richard Adams as Elizabeth's father when she married Isaac Odell in Independence, MO. Again, THANK YOU, GOOGLE BOOKS!

Careful study of the Casey Co, KY tax records 1807-1820 has helped to validate the family, as well as estimate some of the older sons birth dates. We found Charles Adams and Benjamin Dawson, both brothers of our couple, living nearby in Kentucky at the same time.

Details can be read in my following documents:

Richard and Susannah Adams Discovery

Overview of Adams Siblings

Richard Adams Casey Co KY Tax List

Albemarle VA Adams Family Links

None of this could have happened without context searchable old books, THANK YOU, GOOGLE BOOKS!