Kennedy Family Genealogy

Kennedy Family Genealogy Information
from Bradley – Gibson – Jenkins Allied Families

This is a transcription of Bradley – Gibson – Jenkins Allied Families by Deward C. Williams, 1966. (Starting on Page 121)

For information, contact DeeDee at:

John Kennedy, The father of Mary M. (Kennedy) Jenkins who was the daughter-in-law of Sarah "Sallie" Quick (Shacklett) Jenkins, was a Virginian by birth and came to Kentucky probably as a young man. He married Esther McNeal (McNeil) who was b. in Kentucky. The Kennedys were apparently connected either by blood or marriage to the Vernons, and may have come to Kentucky from Madison County, Virginia, as did the Vernons.

[DeeDee’s note: The following material from this book is now in question. Several Kennedy researchers are helping me and we are now thinking that John Kennedy was the son of Daniel and Sarah (nee Rawlings) Kennedy. I will update this page as I receive more information.]

The transcription continues here: He is believed to be the John Kennedy mentioned in the will of Daniel Kennedy of Hardin County, KY under the date of Mar. 31, 1841. See Will Book "B" page 110. He maybe the John Kennedy who owned 250 acres of land "on the waters of Younger Creek," a branch of Rolling Fork in Nelson Co., KY, which land he and his wife, Elizabeth deeded to Frances Pierpont on Oct. 11, 1791. See Nelson Co. Deed Book 4, page 277. The following year, 1792, Hardin County was formed from Nelson and thereafter the tract was in Hardin County where the Kennedys, McNeals, and Jenkins continued to live.

John Kennedy may have been married more than once. His first wife could have been the Elizabeth of the deed just mentioned. When his daughter, Mary M. Kennedy, was born his wife’s name was Esther McNeal, which can be proved by reference to records in the Indiana State Board of Health: Death Record, Vol. 13, page 82, Reel #2.

[DeeDee’s note: researchers are now starting to believe that John married only once to Hester McNeill based on the following information sent to me: In marriage book A for Hardin County, Kentucky there is a record for a marriage between KENNEDY, John, and Hester MCNEILL. 28 Dec. 1802, Surety Nathaniel Wickliff. John Vertrees and Elizabeth Ventrees (girls mother) gave written constent for the marriage of "our daughter Hester McNeill"; witness Jacob Vertrees, Jr. No return. Unrecorded."]

Transcription of D.C. Williams’s book, continued:

In case some future family historian should desire to trace further the Kennedy family, I include notes from a letter sent to me in Feb. 1966:

D:40 Capt. John Kennedy’s Company Kentucky Militia, under command of Col. George R. Clark, ordered into service by Col. John Bowman from the 6^th day of July to 29th of August, 1780 – number of days 46½. £ 3-1-4. Journal and Documents, House of Delegates, 1833, 40 District, Capt. John Kennedy’s Company, Col. William Linn, July 6

Aug. 20, 1780

Mrs. Fast of Brandenburg, KY who wrote me the one letter also refers to H. J. Eckenrode’s Virginia State Library List of Revolutionary Soldiers of Virginia. There is the possibility that this Revolutionary War Soldier, John Kennedy is identical with the early Hardin County, Kentucky John Kennedy. [DeeDee’s note: Frances (Shacklett) Fast corresponded with my step-grandfather and helped him with the Shacklett line.]

Mrs. Fast also sent me a note on McNeil; Meade Co. KY Census for 1850 has only one McNeil: David, 30, b. PA, Ann, his wife, 27, b. KY, and three children: Augusta, 8, Catherine, 6, and Frances, 4. This David McNeil could presumably be a relative – nephew perhaps ? of Esther McNeil – McNeal, wife of John Kennedy and mother of Mary M (Kennedy) Jenkins.

Children: (KENNEDY)

1. John Jr., of age before 1836 when he witnessed the marriage of his sister Mary M. to Richard Jenkins. But four years earlier he had witnessed the marriage of his sister, Nancy, to George Taylor. No further data.

2. Nancy, b. 1811, mar. Harding Co. KY, April 26, 1832 George Taylor, b. 1805. Mr. Taylor must have been a very close and favored "in-law" of the Jenkins family, for Nancy’s sister, Mary M. (Kennedy) Jenkins named her first born son, George Taylor Jenkins after George Taylor. This closeness is also indicated by the fact that a photograph* of Nancy’s son, John Kennedy Taylor, (Named for his grandfather, John Kennedy, is in the archives of a descendent of Mary and Richard – Mrs. Ruby (Jenkins) Williams, wife of the compiler of this genealogy.

George Taylor left a will in Hardin Co. KY, which was proved in open court April 17, 1866 in which he named his wife and four children. Names of other children are taken from the 1850 census.

Children: (TAYLOR)

A. John Kennedy, b. 1833

B. William, b. 1835

C. Mary L., b.1838

D. Martha W., b. 1844

E. James, b. 1844

F. George W. b. 1845

G. Joseph H(orace?), b. 1849

3. Sarah, b. KY 1814, married in Hardin Co., KY, May 4, 1837 Benjamin Jenkins, b. Hardin Co., KY, b. Jan. 29, 1815 [DeeDee’s note: the Stith Valley website has a Sarah Tyler Kennedy born in 1814.]

Children: (JENKINS) 1860 Census, Hardin Co. KY

A. Lauren B., b. 1838

B. Clinton, b. 1840

C. Marion, b. 1844

D. James A., b. 1847

E. Lee or Lou Ellen, b. 1847, mar. ? a Mr. Carr. During the civil War she waved a Rebel Flag before Union soldiers. As a widow with 3 children she lived with her parents.

F. Ben Fulton, b. 1849

G. Laura J., b. 1852

4. Mary M., b. June 6, 1818, and d. July 1, 1908, married Richard Jenkins, b. Hardin Co., KY Nov. 24, 1808, d. Nov. 13, 1895, son of John Jenkins and Sarah Quick Shacklett. Meade County marriage records show that a license to marry Mary M. Kennedy was issued to Richard Jenkins on Nov. 29, 1836, and the ceremony was performed on December 2, 1836. (See marriage book "B" page 266.)

NOTES on RICHARD JENKINS:

Richard Jenkins’ family was living in that part of Hardin which in 1823 became Meade County.

Although Richard Jenkins was primarily a farmer he found time to do considerable writing, a talent he evidently passed on to his son, George Taylor Jenkins. In the year 1886 when he was 78 years of age, he wrote a long article entitled "Hill Grove Church" a history of the Origin and Progress of the Old Hill Grove church – written by Richard Jenkins". It was first published in the "Old Meade County News" in 1886 and republished in the "Meade County Messenger" under date of Wednesday, November 16, 1898.

During the days of the Civil War the sympathies of the family were divided. It is known by their Pension applications that Richard’s and Mary’s sons George T. and Rolla H. Jenkins were union soldiers, but one of more of the boys are said to have espoused the cause of the Confederacy. The loyalties of the family must have been severely tested during those terrible days.

Very shortly after the close of the War, Richard and Mary moved across the Ohio River and settled in Crawford County. They did live for a while in Perry County, but located finally at Alton, overlooking the beautiful Ohio River. There Richard had the honor of having his parents, John and Sarah Quick (Shacklett) Jenkins spend a winter with him and Mary. The old folks came to see them after a visit to another son in Iowa because decided not to spend the winter in such a cold climate.

Their two youngest sons, Richard, Jr., and Alfred Ditto Jenkins continued to live in the old home until they too passed away.

Richard and Mary are buried in Flower Point Cemetery in Alton, IN. Inscribed upon the headstone, which is a small gray sandstone obelisk, are the names and dates of Richard and a daughter Hester, and the initials M.M., and this Scripture reference: Eccl. XII:7 - "Then shall the dust return unto the earth as it was: and the spirit shall return unto God who gave it."

Children: (JENKINS)

A. George Taylor, b. Meade Co., KY, April 6, 1839. Married Harrison Co., IN Aug. 30, 1866 Sarah Sophia McCarty b. July 4, 1842 in Harrison Co., the daughter of William T. McCarty and Sophia Bentley and granddaughter of Cornelius and Susannah (Hardwick) McCarty and Abel Bentley.

He enlisted at Brandenburg, Meade County, KY, Aug. 5, 1862 as a First Sergeant in Co. "L" 12th Kentucky Cavalry and served a part of his enlistment as an intelligence officer. He was honorably discharged at Washington, D.C. on Nov. 25, 1862. In 1864, even before the War ended, he moved his family from Meade Co., KY to Perry Co., IN. In 1867 he moved to Alton, Crawford County, Indiana, where his parents lived, and made that his home until 1875 when he returned to Oil Township, Perry County, which was his home until 1913.

B. John L., b. Nov. 22, 1840. Died unmarried.

C. Sarah E., b. Nov. 16, 1841. Died unmarried.

D. Rolla Humphrey, b. Hill Grove, Meade Co., KY, Feb. 17, 1844. He mar. Oct. 9, 1889 Lydia Isabella Woolums, b. June 18, 1861, the widow of Thomas Mann whom she had married (1) Dec. 31, 1879. Mr. Mann had died in February 1882 leaving a son, William Mann, who resides in Bellmont, IL. Lydia Isabella Jenkins d. Oct. 19, 1932.

E. Jesse W., b. May 5, 1845, d. unmarried.

F. Hester A., b. Sept. 15, 1847, d. Feb 16, 1890 unmarried. Buried in Flower Point Cemetery at Alton, IN.

G. Philip, b. July 5, 1849, named for his grandfather Jenkins. He died unmarried.

H. Henry G., b. Oct. 31 1851. He died on Sherman’s March to the Sea.

I. Richard, Jr., b. May 24, 1854. (Nicknamed "Dick") He died unmarried, but was still living when his brother Rolla Jenkins died in 1918.

J. Alfred Ditto, b. Oct. 9, 1858. His mother, Mary M. Kennedy daughter of John Kennedy and Esther McNeal had relatives named Ditto in Hardin Co. KY. Among them was an Alfred Ditto, for who this Alfred was named.

*Photographs:

Another person that my step-grandfather, D. C. Williams, mentions in his book is a possible Kennedy relative. He says this: "There was a Louisa Kennedy, b. 1823 Brandenburg, then Hardin, now Meade Co. KY, whose parents died when she was young and she was reared by the Warfield Family. She mar. ca. 1843 Dr. Charles W. H Bullington, a Lieutenant in Cpo. "H" 23rd Indiana, Volunteers. They had a son, Dr. A. A. Bullington, b. White Sulphur Well, Crawford Co. IN, Jan. 26, 1858. This Louisa Kennedy was conceivably a close relative of Mary M. (Kennedy) Jenkins."

For more Jenkins Genealogy see: Jenkins Paternal Lines

For more McCarty Genealogy see: McCarty Family Genealogy