My Biggest Brick Walls (Part One)

I have made a lot of great connections with cousins and other researchers over the years when they start searching online for my families and find my blog, Find A Grave information, or other places where I can be linked to my forebears so as to be available to exchange information. I have felt for a while that if I don't put "out there" (on the internet) more of my family information that I could miss some of these connections in the future. In particular, I worry that I'll miss the chance to break down a brick wall if no one knows I am trying to knock it down.

So I've decided to list my 10 biggest brick walls (in two parts), both what I know and what I hope to know, in hopes that in the future someone else with information that could help will be Google-searching (or whatever future search engine we're using) for my family and find my blog and reach out to me. So here they are, the conundrums in my family I have been unable to overcome (in no particular order of difficulty or importance):

1. THE VAUGHAN BRICK WALL 

Arguably my biggest brick wall concerns my 4th great grandparents in my Vaughan family. For as long I've been into genealogy, over 15 years now, I have wanted to know about my 4th great grandparents Vaughan. My 3rd great grandfather was Stephen C. Vaughan; his middle name was believed to be Clinton. He was born in Tennessee in 1828 and died in Conway County, Arkansas in 1880.

His father is believed to be a James Vaughan who was in Pope County, Arkansas at the same time Stephen and his purported brothers were in the 1850s and 1860s. I think he likely was. The problem is that in 1860, James was not married to Stephen's mother, he was married to a much younger woman, who according to family legend may have been his 3rd or even 4th wife.

James is unfortunately absent from basically any records at all prior to 1860. The man is a complete enigma. The 1860 Census says he was born in Tennessee about 1801. We don't know who his parents were. We don't know any of his siblings. We don't know anything about him except that he eventually came from Tennessee to Arkansas and he had a number of children by at least 2 or 2 women.

Some people give him the middle initial "A", but offer no proof. Worse, people have applied all sorts of names for his wives...again, without proof. Supposedly somewhere out there there was once a family record or family bible that had all the names of his wives and children, names and dates and everything. The problem is...no one seems to know IF it truly existed, where it is now or where it used to be. No one can prove it ever existed; Vaughan researchers just absorb the information attributed to this family record into their trees and never question its origins. Proof matters, but apparently not to most Vaughan researchers. They're willing to take what the internet has offered for over 20 years at face value and not question it.

But I have serious problems with relying on the information of a document that no one can verify. If it can be trusted, we should know where it is or where it was. There should be a scan or a picture of it somewhere, or should have been published in a trustworthy publication that had access to the original source. But there is nothing. Zilch. Zip. Nada. And I'm not okay with that, so I'm not going to buy into what it says without proof.

The biggest piece of information this mythical document provides is the supposed name of Stephen's mother: Mary Hawtree Tinnell/Finnell/Pinnell. It depends on who you ask which last name you think it is. Most have Tennell, but I have seen numerous (a half dozen or more) trees with either Finnell or Pinnell. People have taken this name and tried to attach this mythical Mary to various Tinnell and Finnell and Pinnell families from Tennessee. All without proof, or even proof of what he name was. Worse, people have taken this "Hawtree" name to mean "We MuSt Be NaTiVe AmErIcAnS!" Because it sounds Native American.

An unproven name from an unsourced, possibly mythical document is the ONE AND ONLY SOLITARY source for dozens of Vaughan descendants claiming Native heritage. It's pretty sad, in my opinion, but I can't change what other people want to believe. If they want to climb on board with Elizabeth Warren and claim Native heritage based on nothing, then they're free to do so to their own detriment. Those who know better will always think they're being foolish, whether or not they'll say it to their faces. They will ignore the dozens of census and vital and military records that list the Vaughans as White, White, White, some more White, extra White, as White as Mayo--most of them even blue eyed for crying out loud--and claim that the mythical document knows better--"The Vaughans were Indians, gosh darnit! Look at that Hawtree name from the family record I've never seen before! And my cousin had dark hair and high cheek bones! So there! We're Indians and that's that!"

Reuben Polk Vaughan gives his physical description when he applied for a federal pension for his Civil War service. Eye color? Blue. Hair color? Light. Complexion? Fair. Today you'll find some 1/8 and 1/16 Native Americans that meet that physical description. But Reuben was born in 1838. Any people who were 1/8 or 1/16 Native at this time were very few and far between. Reuben wasn't one of them, and therefore, his mother--whoever she was, whatever her name was--was not Native either. Deal with it.

If you can't tell, this is a touchy subject for me. I worked for 4 years in the capital of the Creek Nation and I saw the struggles of today's Native people up close and personal. And even as a non-Native, few things get my goat than a white person trying to latch themselves to a history and culture that does not belong to them. I'm not P.C. or any of that nonsense by any means--you'll never hear me cry "cultural appropriation"--but these people were persecuted worse than any other people in our country's heritage, and you make a mockery of them every time you try to pretend you're one of them and have tasted their struggles. If you're a Vaughan and claiming Native heritage because of "Mary Hawtree Tinnell", then shame on you. You need to do some serious reflection on who you are as a person if you think you have the right to attach yourself to a culture that is not your's for no other reason than the self-satisfaction you get in telling yourself that you're a Native of this land. If you are, it's not from the Vaughan family. Sorry, but I'm not sorry.

Sorry about that rant, but that's something that's needed to be said about my Vaughan family for a long long time. If it offends you, so be it. I'm not going to lose sleep over it. I like facts and proof, and no one has either for this idea, so it's best to move on from it.

If anyone has access to this mythical document or factual information on James Vaughan, his wife, or his parentage, I would be thrilled. A man named Enoch Vaughan also moved to Pope County and intermarried with the Napier family just like James's family did, but DNA tests have proven the two men were not kin, so if you have James and Enoch as brothers in your tree--sorry, that's wrong too. That's why this is such a big brick wall--there's just so little information to go on, unfortunately.

There is one good lead that has not yet born much help. If we are to believe that among Stephen C. Vaughan's siblings were Eliza Jane Vaughan, Mary H. Vaughan, Melissa Elizabeth Vaughan, Reuben Polk Vaughan, and William Riley Vaughan, then a good theory starts to form. Eliza Jane Vaughan, who married John Brown, was born in 1829 and she reports her birthplace as Missouri. This would indicate that her father (presumably James) was in Missouri in 1830. And there is a James Vaughn in the 1830 Census in Harmony, Washington County, Missouri. He has a son under 5 (Stephen) and a daughter under 5 (Eliza). And nearby? An elder Reuben Vaughn. Since James went on to name his second known son Reuben, we can logically conclude that Reuben Vaughn MIGHT have been James's father. We then should look for a Reuben Vaughn/Vaughan in Tennessee between 1801 (when James was born) and presumably 1828 (when James's son Stephen was born, if Reuben was still in TN) and go from there.

Unfortunately, I have not come up with any promising leads on the Reuben Vaughn front, so it continues to be a mystery. Likewise, since we don't know James's wife, we don't know her family. So finding all this out would give me a HUGE chunk of my family tree which is currently empty/missing.

The last helpful bit of information we have on James is a timeline of his residences from the time Reuben Polk Vaughan was born. Reuben misunderstood a question on his pension application that asked for all his places of residences since his discharge from the army. Instead, he listed all of his residences from his place of birth forward, which tells us where James was at these times: "From Green Co. to Carroll Co., Ark. when a child, thence to Yell Co., Ark. in 1849, thence to Pope Co., Ark. in 1852, thence to Conway Co., in Oct. 1865, thence to Faulkner Co. in Feby. 1879, thence to Stone Co. in 1888, thence to Cleburne Co., Ark. in 1893." For those keeping score at home, that is 8 Arkansas counties over a 55 year period. That is a lot of movement!

Anyone with information on our mysterious James Vaughan/Vaughan, his parentage, his spouses, or anything else related to him, please feel free to contact me--as long as you're not going to try and sell me on Native heritage myth.

2. THE COWAN BRICK WALL

My next big wall is on my Cowan line. I know my 3rd great grandfather was John David Cowan, per my 2nd great grandmother's delayed birth certificate. He was born in Georgia and died in Collin County, Texas in the late 1880s (presumably, have never found record of his death only my 3rd great grandmother remarrying). We believe he is the brother of two other Cowans in the household of Ann Reed in 1870 in Collin County. It is believed that Ann was their aunt.

The death certificate of John's brother William Andrew gives his parents' names as Marion Cowan and Mary Moreland. The informant was a child of William's that never knew his grandparents, so their information must be taken with a grain of salt. We have been able to find a family that appears to fit the bill: an Andrew P. Cowan and his wife Martha, who was probably Martha Moreland. Their Bradley County, TN household in 1860 includes John's brothers at the right ages (John wasn't born yet). DNA has linked us to William Moreland of Bradley County, who had a daughter Martha of the same age. At least three (probably four) of William's likely children also came to Collin County, Texas, bringing the circumstantial evidence full circle.

What is more difficult is working out the Cowan connection. Y-DNA testing from a great grandson of William Andrew Cowan shows we descend from a man named David Cowan who left a will in Sevier County in 1811 naming his children. We believe we have to close a two generation gap between David and Andrew P., but have not been able to definitively do so. Some of David's children can be well-traced and we can rule them out because they don't connect back to Bradley County. But other questions remain, like David's son James. Could he be the James of McMinn County, which is near Bradley? We don't know.

Could Andrew P.'s father be an elder Andrew who died in Bradley County in 1846 and came from McMinn County? We think so, but can't prove it. Andrew P. appears to be living with a brother (David Cowan) as a 15-18 year old in 1850 in Bradley County, indicating his parents were likely deceased. The elder Andrew fits well, but we can't prove it. Nor can we prove that Andrew Sr. was the son of James of McMinn who was the son James named in David Cowan's 1811 will. None of it can be proven, all the evidence is circumstantial and it drives me crazy!

With DNA and additional circumstantial evidence, I have been able to piece together the families of William Moreland and Andrew Cowan (presumably) fairly well, but I can't take the Cowan line back any further and technically can't prove the Moreland line without MORE DNA evidence. I have what I think to be a solid amount of genetic proof, but not yet an overwhelming amount. I am giving these lists so that descendants of these families looking for information can find and contact me.

For William Moreland, I have:

1. Harden Moreland (1812-1899) - Died in Walker County, GA. In 1850, he was in Murray County, GA, which is adjacent to Bradley County, TN.

2. John Kennedy Moreland (1816-1897) - Went from Bradley County, TN to Collin County, TX, where he died and was buried.

3. Nathaniel W. Moreland (1821-1878) - Went from Murray County, GA to Collin County, TX.

4. Eveline Moreland (1825-1874) - Married Leroy Hodges. Went from Bradley County, TN to Collin County, TX.

4. Margaret Ann Moreland (1819-?) - This one is more of a gamble. There is a Margaret A. Reed living next door to William Moreland in 1850. She is roughly the same age as the Ann Reed my Cowan brothers are living with in 1870. I believe she was Margaret Ann Moreland, a daughter of William. She was married to William Reed and it does not appear they had any children.

5. Martha Moreland (1835-pre 1870) - This would be my likely ancestress. She is living with William Moreland in 1850. Based on William Andrew's birth in 1853, I presume she married Andrew P. Cowan about 1852. Does it hurt that their first child was named William Andrew when I believe their fathers' names were William and Andrew? Certainly not. It's not proof, but it helps. I believe she died prior to 1870, when her sons are found with Ann Reed. She may have even come to Texas after her husband's death.

I found a list of indigent families from Johnson County, Texas comprised of wives left widows by the deaths of their husbands in Civil War service. Johnson County is close to Collin County with only Dallas County separating them. Among the indigent families was that of an "A. P. Cowan". This was not a common set of initials, and I found an A. P. Cowan that enlisted in Dade County, Georgia (which is near Bradley County) around the same time my John David Cowan was born in Georgia. Again, all circumstantial. If Andrew died and the family came to Texas, this could be them--but I can't prove it. The list of indigent families can be found here: https://txjohnson.eppygen.org/CW_Indigent_Families.htm

6. Caroline Moreland (1837- ) - She appears in William's 1850 household. I believe she is the Caroline Moreland who married John Mitchell Kinnamon and ended up in Whitfield County, Georgia, where both she and Harden Moreland can be found in the 1870 Census.

For the children of Andrew Cowan and his wife Mary, whose headstones states they died in 1846 and 1842, respectively, I have:

1. John N. Cowan (1814-1869) - The large Cowan family memorial at Fort Hill Cemetery in Cleveland, TN, which includes Andrew, Mary, and a number of their presumable children and grandchildren, was erected by J. N. and J. M. Cowan according to an inscription on the monument. John died in Bradley County.

2. Lewisey A. Cowan (1817-1842) - She is on the family headstone as Lewisey A. McDonald. In 1850, her children are in the household of John N. Cowan.

3. Houston "Hugh" Evans Cowan (1820-1892) - I have the least amount of proof for this child, but he is in Murray County, GA in 1850 and 1860 and is in Bradley County in 1870. DNA matches between my family and multiple descendants of H. E. Cowan indicate he was likely a brother of my Andrew P. Cowan. Since we're assuming Andrew P. was the son of the elder Andrew, then Hugh would also be Andrew's son. There is also room for him in Andrew's 1830 household in McMinn County; he has two sons aged 10-14, so if John is a little younger than his headstone indicates or else was already out of the home by age 16, then the other 10-14 year old would presumably be Hugh.

However, it is worth noting that his 1850 household is adjacent to or a part of the household of William Montgomery Cowan, a son of Christopher Columbus Cowan. Both were natives of Sevier County. So Houston may belong to that family, or if he does belong to mine, they were still cousins, since we know my Cowans get back Sevier County eventually anyway. There is no documentation either way, but DNA strongly indicates a closer cousin connection between my family and Hugh's descendants than would be indicated if he were the son of Christopher rather than Andrew.

4. James M. Cowan (1823-1874) - The other Cowan who erected the family headstone.

5. David C. Cowan (1825-1874) - Andrew P. Cowan is residing with him in 1850. At least one of his sons also came to Collin County, Texas where my Cowans came. And there is room for him in Andrew's 1830 household as one of the two 5-9 year old sons.

6. Francis M. Cowan (1831-1852) - He is on the family headstone. He is residing with a Fletcher family in Bradley County in 1850. I don't know of any connection to the Fletchers unless perhaps Mary was a sister to James Fletcher or to James Fletcher's wife, Anna Sandridge. One interesting theory I've had leads me back to William Andrew Cowan's death certificate. It states his father was a Marion Cowan. The given names of Francis Marion were quite common in this time period; I have 5 men in my tree all born between 1832-1849 who I can prove were named Francis Marion.

So there is a solid chance this man's name was Francis Marion Cowan. I have considered the possibility that he married Mary Moreland, and she was pregnant with William Andrew when he died. Then Francis's brother Andrew married his brother's widow. The ONLY way this is conceivable is if either Francis's date of death on the headstone is wrong, or if William Andrew's date of birth on his records is wrong. William Andrew was born 1 year, 11 days after the death of Francis M. based on the dates we have, so in that case this theory would not be possible unless our records are off by a few months. But since Marion Cowan is on William Andrew's death certificate, I feel it is a theory worth mentioning.

7. Andrew P. Cowan (1832-?) - My presumable ancestor. Andrew Sr.'s 1840 household in Bradley County has two males 5-9 so both he and Francis fit.

8. Nancy Ann Cowan (1833-1852) - She is on the family headstone, but I can't find her in the 1850 Census.

I would welcome contact with anyone that has further information on these Cowan or Moreland families. I would love to bridge the gap between Andrew P. Cowan and David Cowan beyond just my guesswork. I am fairly satisfied that the son James that David's will mentions is the James of McMinn County, and that Andrew who went from McMinn to Bradley was his son, but I would appreciate more documentation that ties them all together.

3. THE MILLER BRICK WALL

Up next is another extremely frustrating brick wall, and unfortunately, I have the least amount of helpful information for this one than all my others. And due to how common the names of the involved family is, my chances of ever breaking this down barring a miracle seem slim to none.

On 20 Nov 1821 in Jefferson County, Kentucky, my 4th great grandparents were married. Their names were Watts Marks and Sarah Miller. Sarah's father, John Miller, signed consent for them to wed according to the original record, which I have a copy of. Under normal circumstances, one would simply search the 1820 Census in Jefferson County for men with the name as the one who signed the consent, right? But with a name like JOHN MILLER, that's a little easier said than done.

There are six John Millers in the 1820 Census for Jefferson County, Kentucky. Assuming Sarah was under 21 but approximately the same age as Watts, she would have likely been enumerated in the 16-18 or 16-25 age brackets. Well, we get lucky in that only two of those six John Millers have females enumerated in their households in either of those age ranges; in this case, two of them each have one female aged 16-25 in their households. And that's still just assuming she wasn't on the high end of the 10-15 age bracket. She could have been almost 16 in 1820 and just turned 18 by Nov 1821. If that were the case, you could add two more John Millers, who each have 3 females aged 10-15 in their 1820 households.

But anyway, if we presume she was 16 or older in 1820, narrowing it down to two households is as far as our luck extends. Both of these John Millers lived in Louisville proper. But I have no way of differentiating them in any previous or later records because they share the exact same name. I have never been able to find the names of any other relatives of this Miller family. No siblings for Sarah, no nieces or nephews, no mentions of Miller cousins, nothing.

I have tried tracing Watts's migration pattern to see if he could be closely aligned with any Millers. It would be unusual--though not unheard of necessarily--for them to travel across the country like they did without some other family members in tow. Watts's siblings are known and easy to trace, and none of them traveled to Illinois with the family. So it would follow that it would be possible some Miller relatives made the trek to Illinois with them but...I can't find any. I can't prove that anyone in their vicinity were Millers.

We know they were in Illinois by 1833. We know they were in Pope County in 1835, Johnson County in 1838, and possibly in Massac County, where two of their daughters married in the mid-1840s. But we can gleam little else of their movements, nor identify any Millers in their direct vicinity or that they had any legal interactions with.

So my best hope is that eventually someone finds some probate records for a John Miller naming a daughter "Sarah Marks, wife of Watts" or something along those lines, or some other deed or record that names her as a sibling to a Miller. Hopefully one of these days something along those lines will turn up.

4. THE LOLLAR BRICK WALL

My third great grandmother was Sarah Jane "Jennie" Lollar, wife of Eli Calvin Baker. My 2nd great grandmother, her daughter Ella, was the informant on her death certificate which gives her parents as James Lollar and Sarah Jane Price.

I know from Jennie's children from her first marriage that she was previously married to Arch Bolton, and she married him Jackson County, Alabama. Tracing her back to Alabama, I can find her in the 1860 Census with her mother, Jane, who was widowed by that time. Tracing her mother and siblings back to 1850 in Jackson County, I find her father's name was actually Jacob Lollar rather than James. Given that Jennie was born about 1854 and her father was dead by 1860, she would have barely known him and Ella would never have known him. So it's fair to take her identification of her grandfather's name with a grain of salt. It does call into question whether or not the Price is name is accurate or not either, although she was living with her grandmother at least as a small girl so the chance of her knowing her maiden is better than her knowing her long-dead grandfather's name.

This brick wall is another two-fold one like the Vaughans in that I cannot satisfactorily trace either line. I have not identified a Price family that Sarah Jane could have belonged to. Complicating that search is the fact that she herself  seems to have limited knowledge of her beginnings.

1850 Census: [Sarah] Jane Price Lollar says she was born about 1806 in North Carolina
1860: About 1800 in Tennessee
1870: About 1815 in South Carolina
1880: About 1810 in Alabama

That's right. Four censuses, four ages, four birthplaces. It doesn't get much more convoluted than that. In that 1880 Census, she claims her parents were born in Alabama as well, which is unlikely since white people had not settled Alabama by the time her parents could have been born (based on her age range of 1800-1815, I would say her parents would not have been born any earlier than about 1790 and could have been born as early as 1755 or so).

I am inclined to attach her to a particular Price family that I have not completely pieced together. The Lollars and Prices can be found living in immediate proximity to one another in early Jackson County, even signing an 1819 petition at the same time.

1819 Cherokee County, Alabama petition: http://www.jchaweb.org/chronicles/1980ChroniclesV6N21-23.pdf

James Lollar
John Johnson
Bryant Williams
Wilson Allen
Kinchin Price
Joel Wimberly
David Martin
Samuel Scott
Jacob Lollar (T 2, R 8E, S 20)
John Price (T 2, R 8E, S 31)
Merri Harmon
Levi Sides
James Schrimpsher
Wiley Williams
Edwin Price
Isaac Lollar
Henry Lollar
John Lollar

The document states: "The Township (T), Range (R), and Section (S) for each subscriber listed above was taken from original Jackson County Plat Book records."

This shows Jacob Lollar and John Price not only signing this petition one after the other, but living in immediate proximity according to early plat books. The 1830 Census for Jackson County has James Lollar on the same page with Edwin Price and Kinchen Price, both listed above who are next door to each other that year. John Price is two pages away. Both Kinchen and John appear to be old enough to be Sarah Jane's father. Edwin is the appropriate age to be a brother, but that is not a given.

Kinchen Price came from Warren County, Tennessee to Jackson County, Alabama along with three other Price families: the aforementioned John Price, as well as Meredith and Reuben Price. (Source: http://www.combs-families.org/combs/records/tn/war12.txt) Other Prices are also listed, but the families of Meredith, Reuben, and John are documented in both Warren and Jackson counties.

Edwin and Meredith Price are both listed as defendants in a number of Jackson County suits in the 1830s and 1840s: http://www.jchaweb.org/chronicles/2001ChronicleV13N1-4.pdf

It would appear based on age and proximity that Jacob was likely the son of a James Lollar. Perhaps that is where Ella Baker Marks came up with the name to put on her mother's death certificate, mixing up her mother's father and grandfather. I cannot prove beyond circumstantial geographical evidence, but Lollar is an uncommon enough name that it seems unlikely that Jacob and James were not father and son.

A Thomas Russell names James Lollar a neighbor in his Revolutionary War application: http://www.revwarapps.org/w2700.pdf

John Price appears to have had a sizable family, and I am actively seeking out documentation of his children to look for ties between them and the Lollars: http://www.jchaweb.org/chronicles/2008ChroniclesV20N1-4.pdf

The Lollars appear to have come from Lincoln County, North Carolina, where it appears the same James and Isaac Lollars that signed the 1819 petition in Cherokee County also signed a petition in 1779: http://freepages.rootsweb.com/~gowenrf/genealogy/Gowenms096.htm

Beyond these bits and pieces, I really cannot properly put this family together. I hope that eventually documentation will come to light tying everything together, but for now this family (or rather families) remain a solid brick wall.

5. THE BARNETT BRICK WALL

The two Eastern Kentucky branches of my family have a number of brick walls. Three of them (Holland, Radford, Hensley) at least have solid leads that can connect me to where the family came from, and in time, I believe I will probably be able to work out those three walls. But my Barnett brick wall is one that does not have nearly as much supplemental information to give me a direction to pursue.

My 2nd great grandfather Andrew Jackson Barnett was the son of a Jackson Barnett, son of Joshua Barnett, son of an elder Joshua Barnett. They were from the counties of Perry and Breathitt in Kentucky. The elder Joshua's origins are unknown. We know he died between 1840-1850, presumably in Breathitt County, where he is found in the 1840 Census and his widow is found in the 1850 Census. Speaking of his widow--we also have no idea who she was. We know her name was Mary or "Polly". We know she was born in Virginia about 1787 according to the 1850 Census. But we don't know her maiden name or origins, and I have found no leads to pursue.

Many also believe Joshua Sr. was born in Virginia, but offer no proof. Some family trees has the couple marrying in Ohio in 1809...but without any proof. It appears Polly was deceased by 1852 when her children deeded land together to a Mr. Sewell. This tell us the family was composed of Joshua Barnett Jr., David Barnett, Harmon Barnett, and Franky Barnett Hays (her husband Archibald Hays also supposedly went by the surname Angel but I have not worked out all that out yet).

Some attach the War of 1812 service of a Joshua Barnett in the 2nd Kentucky Volunteers (Jennings') to this Joshua, but it's not clear to me they are the same person.

The best lead we have for the origins of Joshua Sr. are his son Joshua Jr.'s 1900 Census which says his father was a Virginia native. So I have combed Barnett families of Virginia for a Joshua but to no avail. I have DNA samples for my grandfather, his brother, and their Barnett first cousin, but I have yet to find reliable matches outside of the known descendants of Joshua Barnett. There are connections to other Eastern Kentucky Barnett families (there were at least three distinct families that we cannot connect to each other) but every time I find that, it appears they match us from another Eastern Kentucky family. Endogamy was rampant in this region so most DNA matches I have to Eastern Kentucky kin connect to at least two mutual families, and I even have an example of FIVE different sets of shared ancestors.

So DNA is only going to get me so far when I don't know if a DNA match is because of a Barnett connection, or a connection to another Kentucky family. Y-DNA is probably my next step, but I would love to find a cluster of Barnett matches that are from the same family that we match that might point us to a sibling or parent of Joshua. Until then, perhaps someone's Barnett family is missing a Joshua and when they try to find him, they'll find our's.

Part two of this list is forthcoming, but both are far from definitive. Like all researchers, I have numerous other brick walls. I have brick walls in my Selph, Jay, May, Downing, Sain, Bolin, Holmes, Graham, and numerous other family lines. But (some or most of) these brick walls are either closer to me in my family tree (generation wise) or ones I have spent frustratingly large amounts of time on to little avail. Maybe one day I'll do a part two to expand on these brick walls, but for now, these remain my larger concerns, and I hope by getting this information out there I might get lucky and eventually have one of these walls knocked down.