The family tree, part 2.

Alan C. Frost (1903 Paterson NJ)

Ahnentafel #14 · his mother’s mother’s father (3 generations back) · Documented — person and parent-link established

Alan C. Frost was born in February 1903 in Paterson, New Jersey. He managed a dime store in Mansfield, Ohio, by 1940, and had moved to Marion, Indiana, by 1950. By October 1964 he was living at 316 West Dartmouth in Flint, Michigan — a chapter of his life discovered only through his wife Velma's cremation certificate. His own death has not yet been found. The earliest picture of him is a studio photograph taken about 1903 or 1904, when he was still an infant in a long white gown, seated between his older sister and brother — Katherine and Harry, each named for a parent.

Evidence

Photographed as an infant c.1903–04 with his siblings Katherine and Harry [FROST-30]. ⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐ RE-GRADED ‘part’ → ‘ok’, 6 Aug 2026, AT ALEC’S CHALLENGE [AUDIT-01]. The colour grades WHO THIS PERSON IS AND WHOSE CHILD THEY ARE — not whether every fact about them is known. Loose ends belong in Outstanding, below, and this node has some. They do not make the ancestor uncertain. 1940 census Mansfield OH (dime-store manager); 1950 Marion IN; and by Oct 1964 at 316 West Dartmouth, Flint, Michigan — a state nobody knew about, found on Velma’s cremation certificate.

Outstanding: Death unknown; a Michigan search returned nothing. Enquiry submitted to White Chapel Memorial, Troy MI, asking whether he is interred with Velma.

Photographs (described)

Evidence images (described)

Velma Gladys Roush (1907 Mason Co. WV – 1964 Flint MI)

Ahnentafel #15 · his mother’s mother’s mother (3 generations back) · Documented — person and parent-link established

Velma Gladys Roush was born on 21 June 1907 in Mason County, West Virginia, the daughter of John G. Roush and Bertha E. Roush, as recorded on the original birth register. She was five feet tall, ran away from home at sixteen, and her school yearbook remembered her as “small but oh my!” She died on 3 October 1964 in Flint, Michigan, of a perforated duodenum after years of high-dose aspirin taken for arthritis. She was, for years, the hardest figure in the family to trace, until a cremation certificate found in a family photo album, together with her granddaughter Cynthia's own memory of her, finally identified her. Two photographs of her survive: a studio portrait, and a snapshot of her laughing outdoors in a plaid coat in her fifties.

Evidence

Full dates: 21 Jun 1907 Mason Co. WV – 3 Oct 1964 Flint MI

Photographed c.1957–64, outdoors in a plaid coat [FROST-31]. The hardest wall in the project until 5 Aug 2026 — broken by a cremation certificate in a family photo album plus Cynthia’s memory of her grandmother. Five feet tall; ran away from home at sixteen; “She’s small but oh my!” in her yearbook; died of a perforated duodenum after years of high-dose aspirin for arthritis.

⭐⭐ Velma Frost was born Velma Roush — now carried by records, not memory [FROST-33–36], adversary-upheld 17 Sep 2026. Her paid death notice (Flint Journal, 5 and 6 Oct 1964) gives her birth as 21 June 1907, West Virginia — the exact date of the Roush birth register — and names 2 sisters, Mrs. Joseph Walk of Akron and Mrs. William Kirton. Those two women are Florence and Della (Claudia) Roush, whose own Summit County, Ohio marriage records (1926, 1930) name their parents as John G. Roush and Bertha Nease. Velma herself married Alfred Hesterberg at Greenup, Kentucky, on 6 Sep 1931 as “Velma Roush,” parents John Roush and Bertha Nease; he divorced her at Akron in October 1933, when she was living in Charleston, W. Va. Her husband’s 1942 draft card names her “Velma Gladys Frost.” ⭐ And a second, independent statement seventeen years earlier: in March 1947 both Marion, Indiana papers reported that “Mrs. A. C. Frost and daughter, Judy” had visited “the former’s sister, Mrs. Joseph Walk, Akron,” and gone on to Mason, W. Va., to “their mother, Mrs. William Knox [Knopp], who is ill,” joined there by “another sister, Mrs. William Kirton” [FROST-37].

Outstanding: her 1964 Michigan death certificate (it should name her parents — the one document an SAR reviewer would most likely ask for); her marriage to Alan Frost, not yet found.

⭐ Primary birth register read at native resolution, 7 Aug 2026: WV VRR id 2981877 (assessor’s register, Graham District, 1907, p. 37 line 44) — b. 21 June 1907, father John G. Roush, mother/informant Bertha E. Roush. A primary record for the parent links, independent of the tree-based citation.

Photographs (described)

Evidence images (described)

Thomas Jefferson Bell (1875/78 – 1921 Barbour Co. AL)

Ahnentafel #16 · his father’s father’s father’s father (4 generations back) · Documented — person and parent-link established

Thomas Jefferson Bell farmed near Louisville in Barbour County, Alabama. He married Alice May Bradley on 13 August 1895, when she was eighteen, and they had nine children — seven still living when the 1920 census found them together, and two already buried at Bethlehem Baptist churchyard.

He died on 30 August 1921 and was laid beside those two children. He left no estate: the county's probate minutes for the year after his death record no administration in his name, and the clerk's index to seventy years of administrators' records contains no Thomas J. Bell at all. There was simply nothing to divide.

So when his children finally received something, it came through his own father's estate instead. In April 1925 a Barbour County court divided one deceased heir's share seven ways among Tom's children, naming each of them — Ellie, Ray, Ruth, William, Ethel, little Juanita, and “Henry Bell, Birmingham.” That decree is the court's own answer to the question of who his children were, and it is the document that finally settled this family's longest-standing puzzle.

Evidence

Full dates: b. 1875×1878 – d. 30 Aug 1921, near Louisville, Barbour Co., Alabama

⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐ RE-GRADED ‘probable’ → ‘documented’, 12 August 2026, on the EIGHTH adversarial review [BELL-117] — after seven refusals. What changed: the rival reading of “Mrs. M. K. Norton” died with Katie Bradley in April 1924; Mack Norton’s own 1954 obituary calls Alice’s children Bells; and the 1925 probate decree was re-read as what it is — a court’s adjudication of who Thomas Jefferson Bell’s children were, paying seven named persons exactly one seventh each of a deceased heir’s share, with “Henry Bell, Birmingham” among them.

⭐ Corroborated from the Norton side [BELL-108]: his widow Alice remarried Mack K. Norton, whose 1954 obituary calls her sons T. R. and W. W. Bell — the same sibling set Thomas Ray Bell Sr.’s own obituary gives twenty years later, from the opposite side of the family. Mack joined Bethlehem Baptist near Clayton, this family’s church and burying ground, where Tom lies and where Alice is buried under the name Bell, not Norton.

Buried Bethlehem Baptist Church Cemetery; Find a Grave memorial 138198515 links him to John T. Bell and Sallie Cox as parents — corroboration of a hypothesis, not evidence [BELL-84]. ⚠ That memorial gives d. 27 Aug 1920 against the Clayton Record obituary's 30 Aug 1921; one is wrong by a year and the conflict is unresolved. Identified as John Henry Bell's father at probable — the chain runs through his widow, not through a document naming him [BELL-76, BELL-77]. Married Alice May Bradly 13 Aug 1895, Barbour Co. Direct Marriage Index vol. 13 p. 63. Obituary, Clayton Record 2 Sep 1921: d. 30 Aug 1921, son of John Bell Sr., buried Bethlehem “where two of his children are buried.” 1920 census, Louisville: Thomas J 44, Alice 42, Henry 18, Ray 16, William 12, Ethel 10, Juanita 2.

Outstanding: No record yet names John Henry Bell's father. His own age is unsettled — 44 in Jan 1920 (b. ~1875) against “about forty-three” in the Sept 1921 obituary (b. ~1878); the chart's old “1874” was supported by nothing. The Barbour sweep for competing Henry Bells is now RUN [BELL-82]: across the 1900, 1910 and 1920 censuses there is exactly one Henry Bell born 1899×1903 in the county, and he is Tom and Alice's son. No rival exists.

Evidence images (described)

Alice May Bradley (1876 – 1956 Montgomery Co. AL)

Ahnentafel #17 · his father’s father’s father’s mother (4 generations back) · Documented — person and parent-link established

Alice May Bradley was born on 8 October 1876 in Barbour County, Alabama, the daughter of Henry Bradley and Elvira Loveless. Her father died young: in October 1891 a county court appointed a guardian for Alice, then fourteen, and her sister Katie, twelve, noting that the minors had no father living.

She married Thomas Jefferson Bell on 13 August 1895, at eighteen, and had nine children. Widowed in 1921, she married Mack K. Norton — and there is a quiet symmetry in it, because Mack's first wife had been her own sister Katie, who died in 1924. Two Bradley sisters each married a Bell, each was widowed, and the same man married them in turn.

By 1935 she was living with Mack at 118 East North Street in Dothan, and it was that address her son wrote on his draft card in 1942 when the form asked who would always know where he was. Mack died in 1954; his obituary called her children his step-sons and step-daughters, naming them as Bells, which is how the family was finally proved from the outside.

She outlived her husband by thirty-five years and died at Montgomery on 29 December 1956, aged eighty. They brought her home to Bethlehem, in Barbour County, and buried her beside him under the name Bell — not Norton.

Evidence

Full dates: 8 Oct 1876 – 29 Dec 1956, Montgomery Co., Alabama; m.(2) Mack K. Norton

⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐ RE-GRADED ‘probable’ → ‘documented’, 12 August 2026, on the EIGHTH adversarial review [BELL-117] — after seven refusals. What changed: the rival reading of “Mrs. M. K. Norton” died with Katie Bradley in April 1924; Mack Norton’s own 1954 obituary calls Alice’s children Bells; and the 1925 probate decree was re-read as what it is — a court’s adjudication of who Thomas Jefferson Bell’s children were, paying seven named persons exactly one seventh each of a deceased heir’s share, with “Henry Bell, Birmingham” among them.

⭐⭐ The Norton question is settled [BELL-108]. Mack K. Norton’s own obituary (The Clayton Record, 22 Oct 1954) names his wife as “Mrs. Alice May Norton of Dothan” and her children as step-sons T. R. Bell of Bessemer and W. W. Bell of Jacksonville, with four step-daughters whose married names and towns match Thomas Ray Bell Sr.’s own 1974 obituary twenty years later. So the “Mrs. M. K. Norton, 118 North St., Dothan” whom John Henry Bell named on his 1942 draft card is Alice — and the competing reading, that she was Katie the aunt, is dead: Katie Bradley Norton died 11 April 1924, eighteen years before that card.

⭐ And Katie was Alice’s sister. Both women’s state death records give the same parents, Henry Bradley and Elvira Loveless. Two Bradley sisters each married a Bell and each was widowed; Mack Norton married Katie in 1912 and, after she died, married Alice. Mack joined his wife’s first husband’s church at Bethlehem and was buried apart from her.

Outstanding: ⭐ ADPH certificate #26068 names HER parents — and after the 1895 licence turned out to carry no parents' line [BELL-81], it is now the ONLY live route to the Bradley generation. Her own obituary, Clayton Record late Dec 1956, would list surviving children and is the document that would take both these nodes to documented. No marriage record for Alice × Norton exists after four bounded searches; the remarriage is proven by household, not by a return. Birth year wobbles: 1877 by the 1891 guardianship, 1876 by Find a Grave, whose provenance is unverified.

Evidence images (described)

Andrew Jackson Eaken (1881 Lauderdale Co. MS – 1922)

Ahnentafel #18 · his father’s father’s mother’s father (4 generations back) · Documented — person and parent-link established

Andrew Jackson Eaken was born on 1 May 1881 in Lauderdale County, Mississippi, and died on 20 March 1922. He is buried at Cuba, in Sumter County, Alabama — his wife's home county, correcting an earlier family record that had placed his burial in Birmingham. In 1910 he was living in Mobile with his wife Maggie and infant daughter Beatrice, and with his brother-in-law Langford Swain lodging in the household — a detail that opened up research into the whole Swain family line.

Evidence

Full dates: 1 May 1881 Lauderdale Co. MS – 20 Mar 1922

Buried Cuba, Sumter Co., Alabama — his wife’s home county, correcting the compilation’s “Birmingham.” In 1910 at Mobile with Maggie, baby Beatrice, and his brother-in-law Langford Swain lodging — the lodger who opened the whole Swain line.

Maggie Dillon Swain (1886 – 1985 Jefferson Co. AL)

Ahnentafel #19 · his father’s father’s mother’s mother (4 generations back) · Documented — person and parent-link established

Maggie Dillon Swain was born on 27 September 1886. Widowed in 1922 by the death of Andrew Jackson Eaken, she remarried Thomas J. Bloebaum in November 1925 and lived in DuPage County, Illinois, from about 1930 to 1950, before returning to Birmingham, where she died in March 1985 at the age of ninety-eight. She is the “Ms Blevon” remembered in family memory — her married name Bloebaum, softened by the years.

Evidence

Full dates: 27 Sep 1886 – Mar 1985, Jefferson Co.

Widowed 1922, remarried Thomas J. Bloebaum Nov 1925, lived DuPage Co., Illinois 1930–50, returned to Birmingham and died at 98. She is the “Ms Blevon” of family memory.

Outstanding: Her March 1985 Jefferson Co. death record would restate her parents independently.

Evidence images (described)

John Willis Stephens (1876 – 1947 Sumter Co. AL)

Ahnentafel #20 · his father’s mother’s father’s father (4 generations back) · Documented — person and parent-link established

John Willis Stephens was born in 1876 and died in 1947 at Livingston, in Sumter County, Alabama. He too went by “J. W.,” which is exactly why marriage clerks in both 1939 and 1960 wrote down “J. W. Stephens” for two different men in the family — a coincidence that the 1920 Sumter County census helped sort out.

Evidence

Full dates: 1876 – 1947, Livingston, Sumter Co.

Also “J. W.” — which is exactly why the 1939 and 1960 marriage clerks could both write “J. W. Stephens” meaning different men. The 1920 Sumter County census settles the generations.

Mary Price Williams (b. 1887 State Line, Greene Co. MS)

Ahnentafel #21 · his father’s mother’s father’s mother (4 generations back) · Documented — person and parent-link established

Mary Price Williams was born on 18 March 1887 at State Line, in Greene County, Mississippi.

Evidence

Full dates: b. 18 Mar 1887, State Line, Greene Co. MS

Thomas William Truette (1893 – bef. 1930 Clarke Co. AL)

Ahnentafel #22 · his father’s mother’s mother’s father (4 generations back) · Documented — person and parent-link established

Thomas William Truette was born in September 1893 and lived in and around Clarksville and Coffeeville, in Clarke County, Alabama. He married Sennie Lawrence about 1916 and died sometime before 1930; no death record has yet been found.

Evidence

Clarksville and Coffeeville, Clarke County. m. Sennie Lawrence ~1916.

Outstanding: Died before 1930 — no death record yet located.

Sennie E. Lawrence (1899 – 1975)

Ahnentafel #23 · his father’s mother’s mother’s mother (4 generations back) · Documented — person and parent-link established

Sennie E. Lawrence was born on 5 January 1899 and died on 13 September 1975. Like her granddaughter Willie Joyce after her, she was found in the records under a later married surname rather than her maiden one.

Evidence

Full dates: 5 Jan 1899 – 13 Sep 1975

Found under her later married surname — the same trick that found Willie Joyce.

Outstanding: A 1897/1899 birth-year discrepancy; the 1900 Coffeeville census image resolves it.

Dennis Clark Tuttle (1884 Peoria IL – 1975)

Ahnentafel #24 · his mother’s father’s father’s father (4 generations back) · Documented — person and parent-link established

Dennis Clark Tuttle was born on 25 January 1884 in Peoria, Illinois, and died on 22 August 1975. He worked forty-three years as a freight car repairman for the Pennsylvania Railroad, retiring onto its Roll of Honor, and was a Freemason, serving as Prophet of the Kerman Grotto in Terre Haute. He registered for the “Old Man's Draft” in April 1942 and, in his sixties, drew twenty dollars a week from Indiana unemployment during a lean stretch. He was married for sixty-seven years, and his own wallet, carried through much of that life, survives among the family's papers.

Evidence

Full dates: 25 Jan 1884 Peoria IL – 22 Aug 1975

Freight car repairman, Pennsylvania Railroad, 43 years; retired onto the PRR Roll of Honor; Railroad Retirement Board number 717-03-2620. A Freemason — Prophet of Kerman Grotto, Terre Haute. Registered in the “Old Man’s Draft,” April 1942. Drew $20 a week from Indiana unemployment in his sixties. His wallet survived: TUTTLE-02 to TUTTLE-10. Married 67 years.

Outstanding: Grand Lodge of Indiana Blue Lodge record — free, and Masonic bodies answer descendants.

Photographs (described)

Evidence images (described)

Leona Marie Alexander (1883 Clinton IN – 1970)

Ahnentafel #25 · his mother’s father’s father’s mother (4 generations back) · Documented — person and parent-link established

Leona Marie Alexander was born on 16 February 1883 in Clinton, Indiana, and died on 13 September 1970. She married Dennis Tuttle on New Year's Eve, 1902 — their son Gifford arrived nine months and six days later, which is how the date of the marriage was pinned down against a family tradition of 1903. She was a life member of the Daughters of Mokanna, Kerman Caldron No. 19, and is buried alongside Dennis at Highland Lawn Cemetery. Her obituary records her as a member of St. Stephen's Episcopal Church in Terre Haute, where her funeral was held — the earliest sign of a family that had been Congregational for six generations turning Episcopalian.

Evidence

Full dates: 16 Feb 1883 Clinton IN – 13 Sep 1970

A member of St. Stephen's Episcopal Church, Terre Haute, where her funeral was held in Sept 1970 — the earliest evidence of this family's Episcopal affiliation, and it is in Terre Haute, not Evanston [TUTTLE-90]. m. Dennis on New Year’s Eve 1902 — not 1903; Gifford was born nine months and six days later. Life member of the Daughters of Mokanna, Kerman Caldron #19, 1964. Buried with Dennis at Highland Lawn.

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Evidence images (described)

Joseph McGee Knott (~1851 OH – 1932 Cedar Rapids IA)

Ahnentafel #26 · his mother’s father’s mother’s father (4 generations back) · Documented — person and parent-link established

Joseph McGee Knott was born in Lowell, Ohio — 5 March 1851 by his death certificate, though the 1900 census suggests March 1855. He appears in four consecutive Terre Haute censuses and worked fifty-seven years as a steel-mill heater. He died on 15 January 1932 in Cedar Rapids, Iowa, and is buried at Highland Lawn Cemetery in Terre Haute. He is named as father on his daughter Helen's 1923 marriage application.

Evidence

Full dates: b. 5 Mar 1851 (cert; Mar 1855 per 1900 census), Lowell, OH – d. 15 Jan 1932, Cedar Rapids, IA

⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐ RE-GRADED ‘part’ → ‘ok’, 6 Aug 2026, AT ALEC’S CHALLENGE [AUDIT-01]. The colour grades WHO THIS PERSON IS AND WHOSE CHILD THEY ARE — not whether every fact about them is known. Loose ends belong in Outstanding, below, and this node has some. They do not make the ancestor uncertain. Named on his daughter’s 1923 marriage application; four Terre Haute censuses; both his own parents Ohio-born (1910).

Outstanding: ✅ Death CLOSED 7 Aug 2026 [KNOTT-05/06]: d. 15 Jan 1932, Cedar Rapids, Iowa (indexed ‘NOTT’); buried Highland Lawn, Terre Haute. Parents named on the certificate — nodes 52/53. Birth-year variance 1851 (cert + ledger) vs Mar 1855 (1900 census) unresolved; the cert is the stronger pair. 57 years a steel-mill heater.

Evidence images (described)

Martha Ellen Lamb (1865 Richmond – 1945 Terre Haute)

Ahnentafel #27 · his mother’s father’s mother’s mother (4 generations back) · Documented — person and parent-link established

Martha Ellen Lamb was born in Indiana — her 1945 death certificate gives her birth as 27 August 1865 at Richmond, in Wayne County, though the 1880 census suggests a birth closer to 1862 or 1863. She married twice: first George Ford, with whom she had a son, Percy, and then, about 1897, Joseph McGee Knott. Widowed, she was still living in her son-in-law Gifford Tuttle's household in 1940 — meaning Alec's own grandfather grew up under the same roof as her. A postcard of her two girls survives with her own pencilled note on the back: “My too sweet dauters, Mildred and Helen — Mama.”

She died on 18 January 1945 at Terre Haute, of a cerebral haemorrhage, and was buried two days later in Highland Lawn Cemetery there — in the same grave as Joseph, Section 14, Lot 386, where he had been laid thirteen years before.

Evidence

Full dates: b. 27 Aug 1865, Richmond, Wayne Co., IN (1945 cert; ~1862/3 per the 1880 census) – d. 18 Jan 1945, Terre Haute, Vigo Co., IN

Wrote and signed the postcard of her daughters Mildred and Helen, “Mama” — the only known specimen of her handwriting [KNOTT-22]. ⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐ RE-GRADED ‘part’ → ‘ok’, 6 Aug 2026, AT ALEC’S CHALLENGE [AUDIT-01]. The colour grades WHO THIS PERSON IS AND WHOSE CHILD THEY ARE — not whether every fact about them is known. Loose ends belong in Outstanding, below, and this node has some. They do not make the ancestor uncertain. Married twice: first George Ford (their son Percy appears in the 1900 census), then Joseph Knott about 1897. Widowed, she was living in Gifford Tuttle’s household in 1940 — Alec’s grandfather grew up under the same roof as her.

Outstanding: Her mother. Her father is Erwin R. Lamb (node 54); the mother recorded at node 55 is Melissa Bailey, and that identification is the weak link on this line — KNOTT-04’s reading of the 1880 census wife “Mary E.” as her mother is WITHDRAWN (Mary E. was Erwin’s second wife; Martha is a first-marriage child). Also open: her marriage to George Ford, which should name both parties’ parents and would confirm Erwin from a second direction.

⭐⭐ Her life, end to end [KNOTT-04, KNOTT-05]. Born 27 August 1865 at Richmond, Wayne County (1945 Indiana death certificate, coll. 60716 rec. 1640767); died 18 January 1945 at Terre Haute of a cerebral haemorrhage; buried two days later in Highland Lawn Cemetery, Section 14, Lot 386 — the same grave as her husband Joseph, from the city’s own cemetery ledger. ⚠ The 1900 census’s “Aug 1870”, which this node carried until Sept 2026, has the month right and the year five years out — an ordinary understatement of a woman’s age. Self-corrections #381–#382 are recorded at [KNOTT-27].

⭐⭐ PARENTS ADDED 7 Aug 2026 (nodes 54/55, both ‘part’): Erwin R. Lamb & Melissa Bailey [KNOTT-08]. ⚠ Correction: KNOTT-04’s reading of the 1880 census wife “Mary E.” as her mother is WITHDRAWN — Mary E. was the second wife (Jackson-Hall); Martha is a first-marriage child. Her birth: 27 Aug 1865, Richmond, Wayne Co. [1945 cert] vs ~1862/3 [1880 census] — conflict noted at node 54.

Evidence images (described)

Harry B. Frost (b. ~1859 England)

Ahnentafel #28 · his mother’s mother’s father’s father (4 generations back) · Documented — person and parent-link established

Harry B. Frost was born in England around 1859 or 1860 and had come to the United States by about 1865, settling in the silk-manufacturing city of Paterson, New Jersey. He married Katharine Chalmers in Detroit in 1896. He is believed to be the son of George and Frances Frost, also of Paterson, though that link is still being confirmed. His own death and naturalization have not yet been found.

Evidence

⭐⭐⭐ UPGRADED part → DOCUMENTED, 7 August 2026 — adversary pass CONFIRMED [FROST-21]. Five independent legs: the 1905 Paterson household [FROST-05]; the 1910 Bergen Co. census, Alan’s own line reading father England / mother New Jersey (re-verified at the public ark by the adversary) [FROST-15]; the 1915 Franklin Twp household [FROST-17]; Alan’s own 1942 draft card — ALAN CHALMERS FROST, b. 10 Feb 1903, Paterson [FROST-16]; and the 1896 Detroit marriage, Harry B. Frost × Kathaline Chalmers [FROST-19]. Born England ~1859/60, in the US from ~1865; a Paterson silk-city Englishman.

Outstanding: ⚠ The old “live conflict” is resolved — and self-correction #20: the “both parents English” answer was on the 1950 sample line [FROST-04], not the 1940 census, and is one loose answer against two direct enumerations. Still open: his death (Paterson? — he was 52 in 1915), arrival ~1865, naturalisation.

Photographs (described)

Evidence images (described)

Katharine Chalmers (b. 1866 NJ)

Ahnentafel #29 · his mother’s mother’s father’s mother (4 generations back) · Documented — person and parent-link established

Katharine Chalmers was born in New Jersey in January 1866, the daughter of two Scottish immigrant parents. She married Harry B. Frost in Detroit in 1896, and gave her son the middle name Chalmers, echoing her own maiden name. An obituary dated 1 February 1932 is believed to be hers, though it is not yet certain which newspaper of that name it ran in.

Evidence

⭐⭐⭐ UPGRADED part → DOCUMENTED, 7 August 2026 — adversary pass CONFIRMED [FROST-21]. Born New Jersey, Jan 1866, of two Scottish parents — which is what puts Scotland in the ancestry. The maiden name CHALMERS rests on two independent converging legs: the 1896 Detroit marriage index [FROST-19] and her son’s christened middle name (Alan Chalmers Frost, his own 1942 draft card [FROST-16]) — a naming pattern attested twice elsewhere in this family.

Outstanding: The Wayne Co. marriage record IMAGE is unpulled (index garbles her “Kathaline”). Her death: a Morning Call obituary of 1 Feb 1932 — but WHICH Morning Call (Paterson NJ or Allentown PA) is unsettled [FROST-20]. Ralph and Eleanor Frost [FROST-14] are not her children (three censuses, closed 1915 [FROST-17]) — nephews/nieces or the English Frost brothers’ families.

Photographs (described)

Evidence images (described)

John G. Roush (1876 Mason Co. WV – 1908)

Ahnentafel #30 · his mother’s mother’s mother’s father (4 generations back) · Documented — person and parent-link established

John G. Roush was born in September 1876 in Mason County, West Virginia. He married Bertha Ellen Nease on 22 February 1897 in Mason County, at the age of twenty. The 1900 census finds the couple at Hartford village, Graham District, with their small daughters Nola and an infant. He worked as a coal miner and died on 21 October 1908, killed by burns.

Evidence

His first dates ever, found 6 Aug 2026. Aged 20 at his marriage to Bertha E. Nease, 22 February 1897, Mason County — licence and clerk’s certificate, J. R. B. Smith, Clerk; married by D. W. Files, Evangelical Lutheran [ROUSH-40]. The 1900 census of Hartford village, Graham District, gives September 1876, born West Virginia, father born WV, mother born OHIO, married 3 years, with Bertha and daughters Nola (2) and an infant. Died 21 Oct 1908, a coal miner, killed by burns.

Outstanding: His own death record and burial. The 1900 birthplace (WV) is one year and one state adrift from the 1880 Sutton Twp., Ohio household — worth resolving.

Evidence images (described)

Bertha Ellen Nease (b. 1878 Mason Co. WV)

Ahnentafel #31 · his mother’s mother’s mother’s mother (4 generations back) · Documented — person and parent-link established

Bertha Ellen Nease was born on 12 January 1878 in Mason County, West Virginia, the daughter of Lewis J. Nease and Martha Jane Love. She married John G. Roush on 22 February 1897, at eighteen. Widowed by 1910, she headed her own household at Wagner, Mason County, raising her daughters Florence, Iva M., Claudia, and Velma alone.

Evidence

Full dates: b. 12 January 1878, Mason Co. WV

Her birth date is documented — West Virginia Register of Births, Mason County, p.353 line 1: 12 January [1878] · NEASE, BERTHA E. · father J. W. NEASE, FARMER, born Mason Co. · mother MARTHA NEASE · informant J. W. Nease, Father [ROUSH-39]. Aged 18 at her marriage in Feb 1897. Heads the 1910 Wagner, Mason Co. household as a widow with Florence, Iva M., Claud(ia) and Velma.

⭐⭐ Her own death certificate names her parents [ROUSH-78]: Bertha Ellen Knopp died 5 April 1950 at St. Joseph’s Hospital, Parkersburg, of Mason, W. Va.; “Father Lewis Nease · Mother’s maiden name Martha Jane Love”; informant her daughter Iva (“Mrs Ivy Swartz”); buried Broad Run (WV VRR 1391433). She had remarried William L. Knopp at Mason City on 2 March 1914 (WV VRR 12217108). ⚠ The certificate gives her birth as 18 April 1878; the 1878 birth register gives 12 January.

Outstanding: ⚠ Neither Bertha nor her father appears in the indexed 1880 census of Mason County — ONE missing household, not two negatives [ROUSH-49]. Her own death record would name both parents.

Evidence images (described)

John T. Bell (1841 – 1915 Barbour Co. AL)

Ahnentafel #32 · his father’s father’s father’s father’s father (5 generations back) · Documented — person and parent-link established

John T. Bell was born on 10 June 1841 and died on 6 November 1915 near Louisville, in Barbour County, Alabama — his death recorded not in a newspaper but in the petition his sons filed two days later, which says he died “at his house in Barbour Co. on or about the 6th day of November 1915.” He married Sarah Ann “Sallie” Cox in March 1861, weeks before the war, and they raised eleven children of whom eight outlived him.

His will names them in his own voice, and the first of them carried his name: John T. Bell Jr., who became an undertaker at Clayton and who, nine years after his father’s death, paid for the burial of his uncle William. For a long time this file could not tell the two Johns apart, and the confusion sat on the chart as a warning that would not go away. It was the record that settled it, not the argument: the 1925 clerk wrote the word Junior, and the 1929 bond that closed the son’s own estate wrote it again.

Among his children was Tom — Thomas Jefferson Bell — and that is the step in Alec’s own line. His obituary is said to record that his parents came from Darlington, South Carolina, about 1830; that sentence, still unread at the page, is one of the threads the family history is presently hanging from.

Evidence

Full dates: 10 June 1841 – 6 November 1915, near Louisville, Barbour Co., Alabama (the death anchored to the probate petition of 8 Nov 1915 — “died at his house in Barbour Co. on or about the 6th day of November 1915” [BELL-42] — a court record, not the newspaper snippet this node used to lean on)

⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐ Documented, 12 Aug 2026 [BELL-126], on adversarial review — and re-affirmed 11 Sep 2026 [BELL-715]. The link down to Thomas Jefferson Bell is stated in words in four instruments: his own 1915 will — “I give, devise and bequeath to my beloved children John T. Bell, Jr., Mack Bell, Will A. Bell, Sallie Stallings, Ed Bell, Tom Bell, Mary McPherson and Ben F. Bell”; the probate petition naming six sons; the letters testamentary (“all being sons of said deceased… their father’s Estate”); and Tom’s 1921 death index naming his father John T Bell and mother Sallie. The Clayton Record’s obituary of Tom, 2 Sept 1921, calls him “a son of Mr. and Mrs. John Bell, Sr., pioneer citizens” and lists a sibling roster matching the will seven for seven, down to a sister’s married name and town.

⭐⭐ THE ‘TWO JOHNS’ PROBLEM IS CLOSED, AND THE DOCUMENT CLOSES IT ITSELF [BELL-715]. This node long carried a warning that a 1925 citation summoned a living John T. Bell — impossible for a man dead in 1915. ⭐ The 1925 distribution list in William W. Bell’s estate names him “John T. Bell Jr. (Clayton)” in its own text [BELL-46]; only the summons omits the suffix. The Junior is a separately documented man — born 31 Mar 1862, the eldest son of this household by Sarah Ann Cox; “John, 8” in the 1870 dwelling; named “John T. Bell Jr.” in his father’s 1915 will and petition; heading a Clayton household in 1920; a living brother in Tom’s 1921 obituary; and dead in 1929, an undertaker of Clayton, with an executrix’s bond reading “the last will and testament of John T. Bell Jr. deceased” [BELL-662]. Two men, father and son, and the record distinguishes them.

⭐ William W. Bell was his brother — but not for the reason this node used to give [BELL-715]. W. W. Bell (b. 14 Feb 1839, d. 20 Mar 1924) and John T. Bell stand together in the 1850 household [BELL-123], which is what makes them brothers and Tom’s children the holders of a nephew’s share. ⛔ The old argument — that “J. T. Bell paid for William’s burial, which is what a brother does” — is WITHDRAWN: William died in 1924, nine years after this man. The mourner who paid that $400 was the Junior.

Outstanding: ⭐⭐ THE DARLINGTON CLAUSE IS VERIFIED AT THE PAGE — AND IT NAMES NO PARENT [BELL-720]. Montgomery Advertiser, 30 Nov 1915, p. 8 (Newspapers.com image 412733112, clip 29555904), read in full: “John T. Bell was born June 10, 1841 and died at his home near Louisville, Ala., Barbour county, Nov. 6, 1915… His parents moved to Alabama from Darlington, S. C., about 1830, and settled in the neighborhood where he lived at his death. He was married in March 1861 to Miss Sallie Cox.” ⭐ It is his PARENTS’ migration, not his own — he was born in Alabama eleven years later — so the migrating couple is nodes 64 and 65. ⛔⛔ But it names NEITHER FATHER NOR MOTHER, in either printing. The hoped-for direct statement about node 64 does not exist. ⚠ Weight, stated exactly: ONE WITNESS (the writer “W. Bancroft”) IN TWO PRINTINGS — the hometown Clayton Record reprinted the same text on 3 Dec 1915 without correction, which is corroboration of circulation, not of fact. It is a PLACE lead for nodes 64/65, never a parentage document. ⭐ New from the same obituary: he left “two brothers, W. W. and C. A. Bell” — a contemporary printed statement that William W. Bell was his brother, independently confirming what [BELL-715] established from the 1850 household. And all eight surviving children are named, mapping one-to-one onto the 1915 will, including “T. J. Bell of Louisville” — the link down to node 16. ⛔ A hope that FAILED, recorded as a bounded negative: John T. Bell Jr.’s own obituary (Clayton Record, 6 Dec 1929) names no parents and no grandparents. ⚠ Fenced, not attached: an 1893 petition names a “John T. Bell Jr.” at Ozark, Dale Co. — a third man, unrelated to this household [BELL-662].

Also recorded: m. Sarah Ann Cox 7 Mar 1861; in the 1850 household aged 9; head of dwelling 1440 in 1870; with Thomas J. aged 4 in 1880; aged 69 in son Ben T.’s household in 1910, in Tom’s own precinct; an 1888 railway right-of-way deed; buried Bethlehem. The rival Barbour John Bell of 1840 is excluded on household shape [BELL-140].

Evidence images (described)

Sarah Ann “Sallie” Cox (1841 – 1910 Barbour Co. AL)

Ahnentafel #33 · his father’s father’s father’s father’s mother (5 generations back) · Documented — person and parent-link established

Sarah Cox married John T. Bell on 7 March 1861 in Barbour County, Alabama. He was twenty; the war began the following month.

They raised a large family — at least eight sons and two daughters survived to be named in his will twenty-five years after her death — and one of those sons was Thomas Jefferson Bell. In April 1888 she signed her name beside her husband’s on a deed selling a right of way to the Eufaula & East Alabama Railway, giving up her dower in about forty-six acres of it.

She died in 1910, five years before John, and by the time his will was probated no widow was named.

Evidence

Full dates: 24 Aug 1841 – 11 Mar 1910; m. J. T. Bell 7 Mar 1861, Barbour Co.

⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐ Re-graded probable → documented, 12 Aug 2026 [BELL-130]. The 1880 census of Louisville, Barbour County enumerates Thomas J. Bell, aged about four, with his parents named: SARAH BELL and JOHN T. BELL. That is the direct statement of maternity this node had always lacked — and it was the exact converter the previous adversarial review specified.

⭐ Re-graded hypothesis → probable, 12 Aug 2026 [BELL-125]. Sarah Cox married J. T. Bell on 7 March 1861 in Barbour County, per the county marriage index — so the maiden name this chart had carried on a memorial’s authority alone is now attested by a record. She appears again in 1888, signing a railway right-of-way deed beside her husband as “Sarah A Bell”: a wife joins her husband’s deed to relinquish dower, which is what identifies her on it. A daughter married in 1886 was named Sallie for her.

Outstanding: ⚠ Not documented, because no record yet names her as Thomas Jefferson Bell’s mother in words — that follows from her being John T. Bell’s wife across the years Tom was born. Her parents are unknown. The will of 1915 has not been read and may mention her, though she died five years before her husband.

Henry Bradley (d. bef. 1891 Barbour Co. AL)

Ahnentafel #34 · his father’s father’s father’s mother’s father (5 generations back) · Probable — the IDENTIFICATION or the LINK rests on one source, or is in conflict

Henry Bradley lived in Barbour County, Alabama, and died before October 1891 — the month a county court appointed a guardian for his daughters Alice, fourteen, and Katie, twelve, recording that the minors had no father living.

Nothing else of him survives. He is a name given by two of his daughters on their own death records, thirty-two years apart, and an absence in a guardianship order. Both girls grew up to marry Bell men, both were widowed, and both were eventually married to the same second husband.

Evidence

⚠ Downgraded to probable, 12 Aug 2026 [BELL-109, self-correction #50]. The name rests on a transcription of an Alabama death-index entry whose screenshot was misfiled — the image on disk turned out to be a different document entirely, so this has not been verified against the record itself. What IS independently established is that Alice had a father already dead by October 1891 and a sister Katie: a Barbour County court made both girls its wards that autumn, "the said minors have no father living," and Katie’s stated age matches her headstone exactly [BELL-43].

Named as Alice’s father on her own 1956 Alabama death record, and identically on her sister Katie’s of 1924 — two state vital records thirty-two years apart [BELL-108]. He was already dead by October 1891, when a Barbour County court made his daughters Alice (14) and Katie (12) its wards, the record noting the minors had “no father living” [BELL-43].

Outstanding: Re-pull the death-record image before this name is treated as documented. Birth, death and marriage all unknown. He is a name on two daughters’ death records and an absence in a guardianship — which is exactly how a poor man of his generation survives in the record.

Elvira Loveless (fl. 1876–1891 Barbour Co. AL)

Ahnentafel #35 · his father’s father’s father’s mother’s mother (5 generations back) · Probable — the IDENTIFICATION or the LINK rests on one source, or is in conflict

Elvira Loveless married Henry Bradley in Barbour County, Alabama, and had at least two daughters, Alice and Katie. Whether she was still living in 1891, when a court made both girls its wards, is unknown — the order speaks only of the father.

She is known at all because both her daughters' death records name her, one in 1924 and the other in 1956, and both spell out the same uncommon maiden name.

Evidence

⚠ Downgraded to probable, 12 Aug 2026 [BELL-109, self-correction #50]. The name rests on a transcription of an Alabama death-index entry whose screenshot was misfiled — the image on disk turned out to be a different document entirely, so this has not been verified against the record itself. What IS independently established is that Alice had a father already dead by October 1891 and a sister Katie: a Barbour County court made both girls its wards that autumn, "the said minors have no father living," and Katie’s stated age matches her headstone exactly [BELL-43].

Named as Alice’s mother on her 1956 Alabama death record and as Katie’s mother on hers in 1924 — spelled Elvira on one and Elveria on the other, an unusual enough name that the agreement of two independent informants carries weight [BELL-108].

Outstanding: Re-pull the death-record image before this name is treated as documented. No dates, and no marriage record to Henry Bradley. Whether she was living in 1891, when her daughters were made wards of the Barbour County court, is unknown — the order speaks only of the father.

Joseph William “Joel W.” Eakins (~1838 NC – 1902 MS)

Ahnentafel #36 · his father’s father’s mother’s father’s father (5 generations back) · Documented — person and parent-link established

Joseph William “Joel W.” Eakins was born in December 1838 or 1839 in North Carolina and died in 1902 in Mississippi. He married Sarah Hudson Payne in 1861, and the 1880 census finds the family in Lauderdale County, Mississippi, with their infant son Andrew Jackson.

Evidence

1880 census, Lauderdale Co., Mississippi [BELL-08], with son Andrew J. aged 0. m. Sarah Hudson Payne 1861.

Sarah Hudson Payne (1842 MS – 1908)

Ahnentafel #37 · his father’s father’s mother’s father’s mother (5 generations back) · Documented — person and parent-link established

Sarah Hudson Payne was born in 1842 in Mississippi and died in 1908. Little else about her family has yet been researched.

Evidence

Outstanding: The Payne family is unworked.

Joseph L. Swain (b. 1861 MS)

Ahnentafel #38 · his father’s father’s mother’s mother’s father (5 generations back) · Documented — person and parent-link established

Joseph L. Swain was born in 1861 in Mississippi. The 1900 census places him at Election Precinct 6, York, in Sumter County, Alabama, with his daughter Maggie among his children — the record that ties her to him. County marriage registers show him married twice: to Eugenia Simmons on 10 February 1884, and, after her death or their separation, to her sister Rebecca A. D. Simmons on 23 December 1885. Both women were daughters of Ben and Adline Simmons.

Evidence

Full dates: b. 1861, Mississippi

1900 census, Election Precinct 6, York, Sumter Co. [SWAIN-01], with Maggie enumerated among his children — that is the link.

Outstanding: His marriage to Dillon Simmons, Sumter Co. c.1875–84, not yet found.

10 Aug 2026 [SWAIN-10/-VERDICT]: TWO register-sourced marriages: (1) Eugenia Simmons, 10 Feb 1884 (J. M. Patton, minister); (2) her sister Rebecca A. D. Simmons, 23 Dec 1885 (D. C. Langford, minister — image SWAIN-10b, the transcriber’s own “ai” correction). Both brides daughters of Ben × Adline (78/79). Which children belong to which mother is OPEN — the Patton/Langford naming echoes suggest a blended household; the 1900 fertility columns and the Bloebaum certificate are the resolvers.

Evidence images (described)