John Innis Family

Innis Family Tree

Moving back a generation I will now look at the family of John and Nancy Innis. From my 17 Feb 2010 post I have established the family as:

John H. Innis, born c.1800-1805, Virginia,
Nancy [Unknown] born c.1800-1805, Virginia – first wife,
Nancy [Unknown] born c. 1822, Kentucky – second wife,
John, c.1824, Tennessee,
James E., c.1826, Tennessee,
Wiley M., c.1833, Tennessee,
Mary B., c. 1835, Tennessee,
Nancy Ann, c. 1841, Tennessee,
Thomas H., Jan 1843, Kentucky,
Emily M., c.1845, Tennessee

And from 20 Feb 2010 the timeline for John’s family appears to be:

1 June 1840 – Roane Co., Tennessee, census,
9 July 1860 – Morgan Co., Tennessee census (Morgan Co. abuts Roane County),
1864 – Clinton Co., Kentucky Louisa C. (daughter of Thomas H.) is born,
25 Jul 1870 – Clinton Co., Kentucky, census
11 Jun 1880 – Clinton Co., Kentucky, census

While the primary long-term goal is still to take the line back, my short-term goal is to determine what records are available and fill in the family information. So I went to FamilySearch hoping for the same luck I had in Texas, but sadly there is nothing in the pilot search for Kentucky or Tennessee. There does appear to be quite a bit on Ancestry in their card catalog so I got a “fair start” and then I’ll go hunting elsewhere. I’m going to approach this as a family group and begin in Kentucky with the latest records and work back. I’m going to look at the children and see if they can help me get anywhere on John. The Nancy’s I’m just going to look at together and see if I can get some clarification – I’ll probably wind up looking in the family trees for some hints.

Since I have already looked at the census records for John (born 1800-1805) I’m going to do this work through the card catalog of Ancestry looking at some of the other databases available. One of things I want to point out is that I will be looking at Thomas H.’s siblings and I will use their children to see if I can establish more information for them, but I’m not going to be spending time coming down their individual lines. I’m only interested in trying to use them to establish facts about their parents, which may lead me to records to clarify John’s life and discover his records.

Before I began my search for the Innis family I went back and had another look at the 1850 census record. I wanted to look for John Innis, both the father and son, and I was bothered by the indexing of the son as John R.K. Ennis. I looked at the image to see if it could be any other middle initial(s) and I was not convinced on the R.K.. I would have probably indexed it that way myself, but the reality is that it could be anything. The double initial just doesn’t fit the family somehow. While they have some unusual names they are generally a single middle name. So I am open to anything from an A to H (which seems popular in the family) and all the way to Z. Somehow what comes to my mind is a W, but it looks nothing like anything else on the page.

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