Innis Family Tree

My first search was in Ancestry and simply for John Ennis (the spelling from the 1850-1860 census) to see if I could follow both John and his son John, who was born about 1824. Amazingly, one of the records that came up was a death record for John W. Ennis from the Kentucky Death Records, 1852-1953.1 The record lists his parents as John and N. Ennis. He died 7 Aug 1853 at the age of 28 in Warren, Kentucky. It also lists his place of birth as Warren, Kentucky, but I can almost ignore that – after all who would have reported these deaths? The thing that lends real weight to this entry is the information about his parents. If it just said John Ennis I would probably have moved on, but it’s John and N. Ennis which certainly narrows that down. He died a day ahead of his son Henry, who was born about 1850. Henry’s parents are listed as John and Rebecca Ennis.2

I believe that this John W. is the oldest son of John H. and Nancy Innis who was born about 1825. This is the John that I was questioning on the 1850 census who was indexed as John R.K..

I got very excited by Ancestry’s collection of Kentucky Births, 1852-1910 and Death Records 1852-1953, until I realized that Morgan and Clinton County were not part of the returns included in the database. I also had little luck in the Marriage Records – it’s all a conspiracy against me.

Actually, it’s time for a little history work Clinton County. A Google search for Clinton County Kentucky Genealogy took me to MyKentuckyGenealogy which has history and information on each of the Kentucky counties. According to their site for Clinton County, Most records were lost in a courthouse fire in 1864. Another fire in 1980 destroyed some records.”

However, it appears that will and probate materials exist from 1863.

According to the same site for Morgan County, “Courthouse records were lost twice: in Oct 1862 and in 1925.” Although it looks like land and marriage records are available from 1823 and probate records from 1866.

1. Warren County, Kentucky, John W. Ennis, 7 Aug 1853; digital image, The Generations Network, Inc., “Kentucky Death Records, 1852-1953,” Ancestry (http:www.ancestry.com: 24 Jan 2010).
2. Warren County, Kentucky, Henry Ennis, 8 Aug 1853; digital image, The Generations Network, Inc., “Kentucky Death Records, 1852-1953,” Ancestry (http:www.ancestry.com: 24 Jan 2010).

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