Monday, June 11, 2012

Does our Brick Wall Originate in Kentucky? It seems so.

The internet is a wonderful thing.  Not only does it allow us to do a lot of family history research from wherever we are, it helps links us to others with similar interests.  Since starting this blog I have happily heard from a few other descendants of Richard Redden, and one thing we all have in common is that we've encountered a brick wall when trying to learn the name of Richard's parents and any possible siblings.

Here is what we do know.  From census records, we are fairly certain that Richard was born in Kentucky in 1812 (some records suggest he may have been born in 1814).  We also find that Richard's parents were listed as having been born in Maryland.  If this is true, this means that Richard's grandparents were in the United States by the mid to late 1700s.  The Reddens have been in the U.S. for a very long time! 

One reason it's been difficult to learn more about Richard's early years is because knowing where to locate early Kentucky records can be fairly complicated.  At the NGS conference in Cincinnati early in May of this year, I had the privilege of attending a very helpful session on Researching Kentucky Records given by Mr. Don Rightmyer of the Kentucky Historical Society.  Mr. Rightmyer is the editor of the Kentucky Ancestors magazine and was a wealth of information.  He showed us how the state of Kentucky has evolved over time.  Kentucky was originally a part of colonial Virgina.  In 1776 Kentucky was actually "Kentucky County," Virginia, but by 1780 was divided into three Virginia counties.  It was not until June 1792 that Kentucky became it's own distinct entity, the Commonwealth of Kentucky.  Today, Kentucky consists of 120 different counties.  To do early research, it is important to first determine the name of the county at the time your ancestor lived there.  This can be a real challenge because of how counties have been divided over time.  Once you determine the county name, you then have to find out where any records from the time period are currently housed.  Fortunately, the Kentucky Historical Society has experts on hand to help navigate this maze of information.

So how do you determine the Kentucky county in which your ancestor lived?  It was suggested during the NGS workshop that some of the most likely sources of information will come from tax, land, and military records.  These records are especially important because birth, death, and marriage records from before about 1852 only scantily exist.  Again, Richard was born around 1812.  The vital statistics law in Kentucky did not become effective until 1911.  Although some localities kept records much earlier, many lost their records during the Civil War because courthouses were often set aflame as towns became temporary battle grounds between the union and rebel forces.

Another reason for the brick wall is that the vast majority of records that might help solve our Redden ancestor brick wall do not yet exist on line.  It seems that for now the best course of action is to use on-line resources and the help of Kentucky history experts to try and narrow down where it is that Richard's parents likely lived.  Once this is determined we can decide if an in-person visit is needed or if there are researchers who will be willing to do some of the local research for us.  I also attended a program at the NGS conference on researching Kentucky tax records, and I'll highlight some of what I learned on this subject in a later blog.  Even though the search will be challenging, I left the conference with hope, and actually with a fair bit of confidence, that armed with these new research tools that Richard's elusive history will reveal itself to us yet.

2 comments:

  1. I am not related to the Redden family. I'm transcribing the 1850 Crawford County Census and I'm stuck on a certain Redden family. I try my best to research families when the writing is difficult to read for the sole purpose of helping someone who is researching their family line. Ancestry transcribed Urias and Sofiar Redden and the children living in the household were Marthey, Joseph, William, Nancy, Elvira, James, and Mary. Urias was born in 1814 Kentucky. I'm sure there's a connection between this family and your Redden family since Crawford County adjoins Harrison County. I haven't found anything on the family before or after the 1850 Census. Does anyone have any information on this family?

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    1. Leslie, I don't recognize these names from our Redden family tree. There are Reddens from Crawford county in the early 1800s that seem like they surely must be related to Richard Redden's line, but so far no connection has been found. I think if we could break the brick wall that's prevented us from finding out who Richard's parents are, and if he had any siblings, we may be able to link these two lines of Reddens.

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