Just Plain Folk: Close Living & Distant Erstwhile Cousins

Michele, Kerry, Quinn and Erin

A few weeks ago our cousins Michele Raney Betts, daughter of Paul Raney, Erin Raney, daughter of Pat and granddaughter of Paul Raney, and Erin's son Quinn, stayed with us a few days. It was a lovely visit. 

As I search for our 4th great-grandfather Rainey's identity down one collateral Rainey rabbit hole after another, hoping to discover the direct line, I'll take a break to share some interesting photos with you of distant erstwhile cousins. I like old photos and hope you do, too.

According to my research, Susan C. Rainey (b 1815) was the daughter of James Rainey, who was born in Sussex County, Virginia, who settled early in the 1800s in Pulaski County, Kentucky.  Susan was a sister to our 3rd g-grandfather James. We have lots of DNA matches with her descendants. Susan married Robert Parsley and they moved down to Tennessee, to Missouri and finally to Arkansas.  She's wearing heavy driving gloves, odd for a formal photograph. If photographed about 1860, she would have been 45, but considering the way women aged then, she looks younger. And her husband was a farmer, so life wouldn't have been easy.  It's always possible the person who contributed the photo on Ancestry was wrong as to her identity.

Elisha Franklin Rainey

Elisha Franklin Rainey (1834-1879) was born in Tennessee and died in Tennessee. Like so many of our relatives, he served in the Confederacy during the Civil War, a member of the 11th Tennessee Cavalry. I'm pretty sure this photograph was taken just after he joined up. His grandfather John Rainey (1775-1854) came out of Virginia and died in Rutherford County, Tennessee. We have a match to John through one of his daughters, so Elisha is definitely a distant cousin. 

Dennis E. Roberts

 We are doubly related to Dennis E. Roberts (1828-1879). He was born in Pulaski County, Kentucky, the nephew of our 3rd great-grandmother Millie Roberts (wife of 3rd great-grandfather James Rainey).  Dennis' mother was Mary "Polly" Turpin, probably an aunt or cousin to our 3rd great-grandfather Moses Turpin, who was born 1814 in Pulaski County, later moving with his family to Indiana. 

 And while we're on the Turpins, this is Delilah Kent Turpin, born 1802 in what became Greenbrier, West Virginia, died 1873 in Morgan County, Indiana. She was sister to our 4th great-grandfather Moses Hosey Turpin II (1782-1838), who served in the War of 1812 with Dollarhide's Battalion of Mounted Kentucky Volunteers out of Pulaski County. Moses Turpin's daughter Ella was married in 1858 in Indiana to Whitman Hill Dyson (1836-1914) our great-great grandfather, and was Nancy Ann Dyson's mother. Delilah's photo was taken in the early1850s. Here's her husband, Lewis Coffee (1796-1854)

But, back to the Raineys. 

John Francis Rainey (1800-1886) was born in Virginia and died in Hickman County, Tennessee. He's a distant cousin. His sunk-in cheeks are probably due to his having had his teeth pulled years before. His wife was Mary Giles Rainey, a sturdy-looking woman. Note that she has laid a hand on his knee rather than keeping her hands folded; it certainly connects them and gives some animation to the photo.

James Henry Rainey  was born in 1850 in DeKalb County, Tennessee. His father, William Rainey, born in North Carolina in 1805, who died in 1885 in DeKalb County, Tennessee, was the older brother of our 3rd great-grandfather, James Rainey. So, this is James' nephew, probably named for him. And what was our James' middle name anyway? I've never discovered. The person who provided this photo to Ancestry thought it was taken in the 1890s, but I think he looks younger than 40. I didn't realize men wore patterned shirts then - with a collar no less. Most shirts were made without collars and men wore celluloid collars. But a farmer had little reason to dress up.

More to come.