“CHANEY KILGORE”

came across an old 1998 post that Anne Green wrote at the Rootsweb Kilgore Archives: "Our family bible indicates Elizabeth Kilgore, daughter of Ralph, was called "Chaney" Kilgore. Anybody have background? I seem to recall there were Chaneys in Virginia but know of no relationship to Kilgores et al."

Most websites which show Elizabeth’s parents list Ralph Kilgore and Nancy Gray. So, why the discrepancy here?

Here's what I know about Chaney, from my grandmother's account, and why I have determined that it is correct. Elizabeth was my great, great grandmother. Chaney was Elizabeth's mother, not Nancy (Gray) Kilgore. It is possible that Chaney was actually also named Elizabeth, and that might be part of the problem. However, Ralph and Nancy are at least one generation too recent to have been Chaney’s parents, and more likely two generations too recent.

My grandmother was Susan Estelle Larkey (a granddaughter of Elizabeth Kilgore and Brooks Nickels). My grandmother died several years ago, but was quite adamant about the parentage of Elizabeth, from whom she had firsthand account. According to my grandmother Susan, Elizabeth was the illegitimate daughter of "Chainyu" Kilgore and James Culbertson (James was married to Mary Kilgore...presumed to be a distant relative of Chainyu). Chainyu came to the US as a child of about 12-15. Her passage was paid from Scotland by James Culbertson in return for a period of indentured servitude in his household.

According to my grandmother, she was told by her mother, Mary Louise Nickels (Elizabeth's daughter), and her grandmother = Elizabeth (Kilgore) Nickels, that Elizabeth went by the name Elizabeth Culbertson up until the date of her marriage, at which time she was forced to use her mother's name, Kilgore, because she could not legitimately use the Culbertson name for the marriage certificate. From about 1860-1870, even after Elizabeth's death, her aged mother Chainyu\Chaney continued to live in the household of Brooks Nickels until her death, even after he remarried.

A large majority of the records, including those at LDS, which show Elizabeth (married Brooks Nickels) as the daughter of Ralph Kilgore and Nancy Gray may be traced back to the submitted research of the late Marguerite Van Etten (my aunt and my mother's sister). My aunt was at the time attempting to collect documentation in order to gain membership into the Daughters of the American Revolution group (DAR) and - per my mother and grandmother and Robert M. Addington (noted Scott County historian, author and genealogist) - Aunt Marguerite's enthusiasm to uncover Elisabeth's lineage caused her to too quickly seize upon what she had hoped to find (descendancy from a veteran of the American Revolution, i.e., Charles Kilgore, Ralph’s father). Aunt Marguerite later admitted that she forgotten her mother's and grandmother's stories of "Chainyu." When she found an Elizabeth Kilgore born in 1816 in Scott County, VA, she assumed this to be the same one. However, the Scott County census records for the Brooks Nickels household 1850 show our Elizabeth as 30, which would indicate a 1819-1820 birth. Purportedly, Addington was furious with Marguerite, because she ignored evidence to the contrary and submitted the incorrect lineage to LDS, DAR and other record repositories. In later discussion with her sisters, Aunt Marguerite realized that she had indeed forgotten about their mother’s stories of Chainyu, and realized that her research submission had created an incorrect genealogical trail. She is said to have attempted to recall the inaccurate material from the DAR, but was told that it was too late – once accepted as valid, the material remains as part of the official records. This submission perpetuated, if not created, a still-expanding family of records showing the inaccurate lineage to Ralph Kilgore and Nancy Gray (who did indeed have a daughter Elizabeth…just not the same as the one who married Brooks Nickels). Whether Elizabeth, daughter of Ralph and Nancy, married is apparently unknown. If so, her marriage records are not in Scott County, as only one other Elizabeth Kilgore (born 1804 to William Kilgore and Virginia Jane Osborne, married 1831 to John Roach) is recorded during for the period from 1810-1840 period. The Scott County marriage records for Brooks and Elizabeth do not list Elizabeth's parents, although perhaps the certificate might…if it has survived, and could be found.

I never quite knew what to believe, until a few year ago, when I found a couple more pieces of information:

1) According to a Gaelic linguistic dictionary, Chainyu is a spelling variation of the Gaelic name Teine or Tyne (as in the name of actress Tyne Daly). The 'Ch' is how the 'T' is pronounced in Gaelic. Chaney is apparently the familiar name that people called Chainyu Kilgore. Teine means fire or flame in Gaelic.

2) Census records for 1860 and 1870 list a "Chaney, spinster" living in the household of Brooks Nickels. At the 1840 Scott County census, Chaney Kilgore is still found listed as a single head of household, under the females ages 40-50 column. Since she was apparently still indentured when Elizabeth was born in 1819-1820, Chaney was probably nearer to the 19-20 age at Elizabeth's birth, and so approximately age 40 at the 1840 census. She was found living with Brooks in Estillville in 1860 and in Johnson Township in 1870. If you have a paid membership to one of the on-line census services, you will be able to cross-verify index entries for Chaney Kilgore for 1840, 1860 and 1870. (also for Brooks, whose township location (unknown township for 1840, Western district for 1850, Estillvillle for 1860, and Johnson Township for 1870, matches Chaney's in every instance). When I first found them, I printed copies of both the 1860 and 1870 census records that shows Chaney as a “spinster” living in Brooks' household, but I can no longer the 1860 copy or a website that shows the actual household members for that census. Portions of pages 546 and 547 of the 1870 census, showing Chaney, age 78, and the rest of Brook's household (including my great grandmother Mary Louise Nickels) may be viewed here.

On the 1840 census, Chaney is found on page 306. On the 1860 census, page 305, and on the 1870 census page 547.

I also keep looking for a ship's manifest that shows a young female Kilgore (Chaney) making passage to Virginia as an indentured servant around 1802-1812, but so far have found nothing. The only other information that I have found is that another Kilgore, Hiram (son of Robert & Winnie) was apprenticed to James Culbertson in 1799, at the age of 14.

In July, 2009, I discovered a Scott County, Virginia death record for Chaney Kilgore. Chaney died at the recorded age of 73, on July 30, 1872, just two days after her son-in-law, Brooks Nickels. The listed informant for the deaths was in both cases, Brooks’ son, David Crockett Nickels. By good fortune, the death record, also listed Chaney’s parents names as Ralph & Jane. This further explains the confusion with several sources listing Ralph Kilgore and Nancy Gray as Chaney’s parents, since here father’s name was indeed Ralph. However, the death record shows Jane as the mother, not Nancy, indicating a different Ralph Kilgore was the father.

Due to the earlier expected dates for this other Ralph, it is possible, although by no means certain, that Chaney’s father was a Ralph Kilgore who was described in a letter written by G. L. (Gabriel Lee Kilgore, in 1853, to David Kilgore, in which G. L. identifies himself as a descendant of a Thomas Kilgore, Sr., his great grandfather, who arrived with four sons from Ireland “about 200 years” earlier and settled in Pennsylvania or Maryland. I believe that G. L. must have meant about 100 years earlier (vs. 200), because chronologically his great grandfather could not have been alive 200 years earlier, unless each man fathered the relevant son when he was 60-70 years of age. The four sons were named as Ralph, William, Charles and Thomas, all recurrent Kilgore family names. The correspondent, G. L. Kilgore, identifies the latter, Thomas, Jr., as his grandfather. G. L. also says that his father, Thomas III, had died recently at the age of 91, indicating a birth year for Thomas III of approximately 1762. It would follow that one could assign a birth year range to G. L. Kilgore’s grandfather, Thomas Jr., of approximately between 1722-1742, and to the great grandfather Thomas, Sr. of anywhere from about 1680-1722, depending on when Thomas, Jr. and his brothers were actually born. Since Chaney Kilgore gave birth to Elizabeth in about 1818, and was said to still been in indentured servitude to the father of her child, James Culbertson, it may be extrapolated that Chaney was born around 1800 (since indentured servants tended to be taken as teenagers). Also, the July 30, 1872 death record for Chaney in Scott County, Virginia says she was age 73. That would make the aforementioned Ralph, son of Thomas Sr., an approximate age to have been Chaney’s father. (Example if Thomas, Sr., was born in 1722, was forty-two when Ralph was born (1764, feasible since Thomas Jr was born ca 1759, in Orange County, NC), and Ralph was 36 when Chaney was born (1799 or 1800), the ages seem to fit. However, I must point out that this is pure speculation. The dates don’t work nearly as nicely if the births were when the men were younger. We still do not know whether this Ralph Kilgore is the same one listed on Chaney’s death record as her father. G.L. Kilgore’s story parallels that of the Thomas Kilgore whose sons fought at Kings Mountain, even as far as three of the four names. Only Ralph varies from that list, which specifies Robert, instead. If, however, Ralph=Robert, the dates fit fine for Robert to have fathered Chaney. Since Robert was later killed by Indians, and his son Hiram subsequently endured a period of indentured servitude to the same James Culbertson (married to Robert’s cousin Mary Kilgore), this scenario would seem more likely, except that the list of Robert and Winnie’s children do not include a Chaney nor an Elizabeth who might have been nicknamed “Chaney,” as some Kilgore family traditions specify. (Note: Some older histories listed the Kilgore killed by Indians as Charles and had him married to Winnie Clayton, but that has since been found in error. It was Robert who married Winnie, but Winnie went to live with the widower Charles (Robert’s brother) after Robert was killed.

To further complicate the story, G.L. Kilgore says that his father had three brothers who were active in the Revolutionary War, and fought at kings Mountain, where one of them was “shot through.” This would seem to indicate that indeed it is the same Thomas Kilgore said to have fathered Robert Kilgore (husband of Winnie)! Since Gabriel Lee Kilgore was obviously more familiar with his own father and uncles names than later researchers who pulled them from leases and other documents, and since I have seen Robert also specified as Robert Rufus, one might speculate that the 18^th century handwriting could have confused some, (try deciphering the signatures on the Declaration of Independence) and that Robert Rufus instead might have been Robert Ralph. Otherwise, G. L.’s letter indicates that there was another separate brother, Ralph, from the others who were at Kings Mountain, and who show up in Addington’s and others’ research. However, the 1872 death report by Chaney’s grandson (David Crockett Nickels) says that Chaney’s mother was Jane, which pretty much kills the Robert = Ralph theory. It appears that Chaney’s father is unlikely to be the same as the one mentioned by Gabriel, and that the name Ralph simply is a common one among the Kilgores. Our Ralph is most likely a relation to the other Scott County Kilgores, but the nature of that relation remains a mystery.