Re: Campbell Married to James Leigh Gish?
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In reply to:
Re: Campbell Married to James Leigh Gish?
Nancy 10/27/06
According to a number of sources Lillian's birth year was more like 1893 ... the later date was to trim a few years off her age for "show biz".
Apparently the same reason the sisters later claimed their real surname was De Guice (to distance themselves from their German heritage).
As for some of the other stuff in the various books there are some pretty major errors.
For example there is the wonderfully romantic story about Christian II's death in the wagon accident during the first trip into W. KY, the 6 sons and Barbara packing his body in salt and burying him in the new home around 1800.
Only problem there was that his will was filed in KY in 1812 and executed in 1814.
And then there's the "Lost Christians", Christian III and IV, his son, his eldest son who frequently is left out.
For some reason while he was Christian II he was commonly referred to as Christian Sr. and Christian III was "junior". He disappears from Muhlenberg records for a few years (he went back to PA to marry a 15 year old and didn't return for several years. He had 2 daughters and apparently Christian IV who died in infancy, then Christopher Christian, my great-great-grandfather who moved the family to the Paducah area around 1850.
I've also seen claims that only one of Christian II's daughters had children but in reality they both did.
Christian II's will is somewhat interesting in that it is quite well-sritten, both technically and in very good language/spelling. It left pretty much equal land shares to each of the 8 children at a time when things were uaually left only to male heirs (with the assumption that when the daughters married their husbands would have land). His youngest son David was still a minor at the time and his share was left in trust with his mother having a "life estate" (meaning she had the legal right to live on the property and be cared for incomewise) and title would only pass to David upon his reaching 18 or until his mother's death afterwards.
At that time the Commonwealth Laws of KY were strongly "fee tail male"-oriented (which was still true when my grandmother died in 1978 though I'm told that has changed now" and male heirs, especially the eldest surviving one. That's from the traditional European "ways".
Of all the descendents of Matthias my great-uncle Jesse's son James was the fee tail male.
Given the family's frequent recycling of first names (both Jesse and my other great-uncle John had children named Roy and Betty. Though there was about 16 years differences in the Roys' age they both managed to die the same year ... 1986 if I recall correctly) there is plenty of room for confusion. I mentioned above the recycling of Christian IV to the next son as Christopher Christian. His oldest son was James Christopher (my greatgrandfather0 whose first son James Jr. died in infancy. The next son, Jessee, named his first son James. I recently received a recent obituary from a James in Henderson (KY) who was the right age bracket and vicinity to have been Jessee's grandson and if so would have made him the ultimate "fee tail male" but it didn't list him as II or Jr. nor list his parents' names so I can't be certain of that. In fact there was very little informationm in the obit, just his wife, children, a couple of surviving brothers and the number of children and grandchildren.
Usually the newspapers charge "by the word" so there can be economic reasons for less-detailed listings.
In addition to women getting "short shrift" in inheritances they were often left out of obituaries. In my great-grandfather's obituary there is lots of information about his career and his being a Confederate Army veteran (though being in a Union state there was a lot of reaction to the atrocities committed by Union generals like Grant, Payne and Fremont in that area where they ruled like minikings causing great embarrassment to Lincoln who frequently had to chastise them or worse. Payne was so bad that he only lasted about 60 days (there are tombstones in Mayfield noting that they had been gunned down on the streets by either Payne or at his orders, their "offense" often being that they had furniture or other possessions which the general wanted to take for his own. Fremont issued his own emancipation proclamation and Grant gave the area's Jewish families 24 hours to leave the area, then had them removed at gunpoint. Payne upped the ante by randomly declaring a number of citizens (most having property he coveted) as "Confederate sympathizers" and having them exiled to Canada at gunpoint by black Union soldiers.
In any event the obituary listed James Christopher's 5 surviving brothers but not his 2 sisters. It, and his tombstone, also list his middle initial as "S" for some reason about which I have no clue just as I don't know why my grandfathers day of birth isn't right (he and my mother shared an April 20 birthday which was often commented on.
Confused yet?
More Replies:
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Re: Campbell Married to James Leigh Gish?
Nancy 10/28/06
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Re: Campbell Married to James Leigh Gish?
Harry Gish 10/28/06
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Re: Campbell Married to James Leigh Gish?
Nancy 11/13/06
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Re: Campbell Married to James Leigh Gish?
Harry Gish 11/13/06
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Re: Campbell Married to James Leigh Gish?
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Re: Campbell Married to James Leigh Gish?
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Re: Campbell Married to James Leigh Gish?