Wife of William Conn

Thank you, Linda, for helping me get started on this! I’ve read through your archives, and found this to be a very intelligent, kind group of members, and hope that you all don’t mind if I ask a few questions.

I’m looking for the mother of my gggggrandmother, Amelia Ann Conn. Amelia was born in 1805 near Abingdon, Washington Co., VA. Her father’s line, and her children, have all been very well-documented. But when it comes to her mother, we draw a blank. Amelia’s gggrandfather was Reverend Hugh Conn, from MacGilligan Parish in Ireland. She married James Alexander, Jr. and we are familiar with all of their children. But Amelia’s mother and one of her siblings have very little documentation.

According to Amelia’s 1883 obituary, which gives us the date and place of her birth, as well as her maiden name, she was orphaned young and raised her siblings. We also know that she was raised in the Lexington, KY area, and married James Alexander, Jr. in Madison Co., TN. How she got from VA to KY to TN in such a short time is a mystery. She had a sister (Antoinette Conn, married to Thomas White in Bond Co., IL), a brother Harvey, and a brother Theodore Percival Conn. Theodore studied medicine at Transylvania University in Boyle Co., KY, moved to Bond Co., IL, bought land, married, began his medical practice and died young (in 1838). We never found out what happened to Amelia’s brother, Harvey Conn. We know that much of our family bounced around from Maryland to Virginia, and from North and South Carolina, to KY and TN.

This is my question. We know that we have a NA ancestor from two different sources in our family. We’ve about narrowed it down to Amelia’s mother, since all of the lines before and after her are well-researched–so how do we go about finding which NA people would have been in the Washington Co., VA area?

Amelia’s uncle, Stephen T. (sometimes mistakenly written as F.)Conn, married a woman named Elizabeth Richey. He was involved in a salt-well venture that resulted in lots of court cases in Wayne Co., KY. It turns out that many of the people he worked with are now documented as Melungeon.

Amelia’s aunt, Nancy Conn, married William Anderson in about 1811 in Washington Co., VA. They had several children, and later divorced.

It turns out that there was a lot of Masonic involvement in the family, as well. The preacher who performed the marriage ceremony was Rev. Junius Hodge, a Mason. Many of Amelia’s and James’ children and grandchildren were Masons, as well as their contemporaries (and that might just be the ones that we know of).

I say this, because Donald Panther Yates, who did research on the Melungeons associated with our Stephen Conn, also notes a Moses Looney as being a Mason. He thinks that Moses was a Melungeon or perhaps part NA and Melungeon. We also have Looneys in our family (well, both loonies and Looneys, the truth be told!). But we pretty much know who they were–or we think we do, anyway, according to the mostly “white” researchers who might or might not have regarded (or disregarded) any NA connections…

The rest of our family has been very well-documented, on paper at least. Any NA association was long before any rolls that I know of, like the Dawes rolls. And my grandmother, born 1892, certainly didn’t speak of it, except to ask why people just didn’t leave it alone–never denying it, but not wanting to talkabout it, either. Her brother, now deceased, also recalls knowing that this line was at least part native american.

I would be most grateful for any help that you can give me. I love and appreciate all of my family. If it weren’t for their hard work and love for each other, I wouldn’t be here today. But I feel a great yearning to know my unidentified ggggggrandmother–if it was indeed she, who was NA (and certainly, even if she wasn’t). My brothers, sisters and cousins are all lighter–and if I didn’t know my mother better, I could be almost convinced that she’d committed an indiscretion. But I look like my father’s mother, and now have pictures of her mother, and realize that I look like her, too. Once, while riding a pony around the block, a new neighbor actually screamed to her husband, “Bob, we’ve got wild Indians in this neighborhood!” when she saw my dark hair in a braid down my back. And people still ask me, what are you, Chinese, Japanese, or what? Sigh…

At any rate, many thanks for letting me join your list. I’m looking forward to many happy research hours here. Have a peaceful and properous New Year…

Nancy