My Cornett Family Tree Flowchart

Trying to explain my genealogy to others is a bit confusing as the Cornett lines seem to intertwine. A family member once told me that my grandmother Lucia R. Cornett married another Cornett (Walter Allen Cornett), so I have two different Cornett lines just based on my grandparents alone! So to start out, my father was Billy Edward Cornett > Walter Allen Cornett and Lucia R. Cornett (my grandparents) > Walter Allen Cornett's parents are Wiley Cornett and Izora Parks Cornett (My Great Grandparents on my Grandfathers side) > On Lucia Cornett's side, her parents are Stuart Marvin Monroe Cornett and Gincy Malinda Caroline Long. (My Great Grandparents from Lucia)

The images below show a flowchart of sorts of my family tree that I have filled in so far based on family research and documents that were given to me so many years ago.  I hope the flowchart makes some sense to those of you who may be curious as to how I may be related to the Cornett families of Grayson County, Virginia and also of Letcher and Perry County, Kentucky. I believe these places are where my ancestors may have settled. Granted, the flowchart doesn't show all siblings and their children, so this is a very basic flowchart just to give you an idea of sorts. The only discrepancy I noticed was in the last flowchart where it shows Mary Hicks and James Cornett as William Cornett's parents- the dates are all wrong and don't mesh with the rest of the tree itself. So please disregard that part of the tree; hopefully the rest is pretty accurate. 

I welcome any comments and look forward to them! 

Family Tree Flowchart from Geni.com (which I no longer use) but created snippets of the image and saved to my computer as a JPG file. 


Vector Image Source:

Title:	Lady at Computer
Creative image #:	97403135
License type:	Royalty-free
Photographer:	Amanda Bodack
Collection:	iStock Vectors
Credit:	Amanda Bodack

According to the family tree on Ancestry.com the information below shows the path from Earl "John" Cornett down to myself. Now all I need to do is verify this with documented evidence!

Earl "John" Cornett (1696 - 1782)

is your 8th great grandfather

James C Cornett Sr (1729 - 1796)

Son of Earl "John"

David Cornett (1750 - 1847)

Son of James C

James Cornett (1783 - )

Son of David

David Blue Cornett (1805 - 1886)

Son of James

James Monroe Cornett (1831 - 1885)

Son of David Blue

George Wesley Cornett (1858 - 1940)

Son of James Monroe

Stuart Monroe Cornett (1881 - 1966)

Son of George Wesley

Lucia Rose Cornett (1914 - 2010)

Daughter of Stuart Monroe

Billy E Cornett (1944 - 2001)

Son of Lucia Rose

Kelly Cornett

You are the daughter of Billy E - (not you?)

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Walter Allen Cornett Sr ~ UPDATED

My grandfather is being very elusive. I am having a hard time finding information on him. So far, I have some paperwork compiled by a family member of our family tree, some old black and white scanned photos, names, dates, and family members both past and present. Some are familiar to me and some are not. But that is the love of Genealogy research! Discovering family and learning, reading, and visualizing the lives they have led in the past.


But I will tell you what I do know of him so far. Walter Allen Cornett Sr. was born on December 29, 1909 and died nearly five years before I was born, he died on June 30, 1967. He married my grandmother, Lucia Rose Cornett on July 15, 1928. From what my mother tells me, they had 9 children together including a Dorothy Mae who was born on April 11,1930 and died May 10, 1930. She was only a month old when she passed away. I'm not sure what the cause of her death was. He was in the military, but I'm not sure which branch, what his rank was, military responsibilities, or even how long he was in the service.


According to the Social Security Death Index (SSDI), he was 57 years old and 5 months! Pretty exact I would say. I am still trying to find information on him, sent out emails, Facebook messages to family, and once I get more information I will be sure to post an update!


On Familysearch.org, I found the 1930 Census information on Walter's household during that time. The information found is below.


Name:Walter A Cornett
Census Event Date:1930
Event Place: Black Lick,Wythe,Virginia
Gender:Male
Age:21
Marital Status:Married
Race:White
Birthplace:Virginia
Estimated Birth Year:1909
Immigration Year: N/A
Relationship to Head of Household: Head (SELF)
Father's Birthplace:Virginia
Mother's Birthplace:Virginia
Enumeration District Number: 0004
Family Number:469
Sheet Number and Letter: 4B
Line Number: 59
Nara Publication:T626
Roll 2465
Film Number:2342199
Digital Folder Number:4547863
Image Number:00576


Walter A Cornett, Married at age 21 to Spouse Lucy R Cornett age 15.


Please Note: In the 1930 Federal Census- my grandmothers name is stated as Lucy R Cornett but in actuality her name is Lucia Rose Cornett. I guess that is the problem with Census takers, a lot of misspellings in the names and such, which makes it harder to discern your research at times.

Source Citation

"United States Census, 1930," index and images, FamilySearch (https://familysearch.org/pal:/MM9.1.1/CJPG-ZW2 : accessed 16 May 2012), Walter A Cornett, Black Lick, Wythe, Virginia.

Below are some of the photos I have of them. Since I am in the process of moving, I will have to wait until I unpack and get settled to see if I have any other photos I can add to this blog about Walter! Please be patient....

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Are Your Children Interested In Genealogy?

Good afternoon! I have been trying to figure out a way to get both of my sons, ages 20 and 14 to have an interest in their family tree. I have had some success with my oldest son John, but Dakota, well that's another story entirely. All he is interested in, is playing basketball! So how can I get him involved and actually start liking "the hunt"? I have a few ideas that I have been thinking about but have come to realize that he may never really be interested in genealogy or where he comes from, for quite awhile. But in the meantime, I like to share what I have found out so far with both John and Dakota. John likes hearing it to a certain extent, he wants to know about all the drama in our family! Personally, I think he watches too much television! I haven't found any mobsters or convicted criminals yet. My family is not based on a mobster movie like the "Godfather", either! 

Image Source

Genealogy For Kids

As much as they would like it to be, I can't say that the research I have come across, resembles anything even close to that. Dakota, on the other hand, thinks I'm weird for focusing my time on research and not doing fun stuff! He told me the other day, "Mom, you live in Hawaii! You need to do fun stuff like going surfing!" Haha, me on a surfboard? Now that would truly be a sight! Don't get me wrong, I love the ocean and watching the surfers do their thing. But I don't want to be one!! I like to go snorkeling. Now that's something I could do without getting cut up by the reef. Besides I kind of fear sharks A LOT! Give me a boat and I'll go out in the middle of the ocean, but you aren't going to find me on a surfboard, catching the next swell anytime soon. 


Are your children interested in Genealogy? Does anyone have any ideas for activities that will help get children involved more? If you do, please share! I imagine if I had started this when they were younger, there would be plenty of things that I could do with them. But they're a little older now, so it may not be such an easy task. Everyone has their own idea of fun, their likes and dislikes and what I may like and think as fun, someone else may not. 

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The Highlands of Scotland

I have always wanted to visit Scotland, and now I have an even better reason to travel there. My Sutherland ancestors. What a great way to experience the life,the beauty, the culture, and all the people of the land than to visit the place where your ancestors grew up. I may still have family there that I never even know about! Which is a good reason to continue writing this blog. Right now, I'm stuck on the Sutherland branch of my family tree. Alexander, well he's giving me fits right now; where is his information hiding? Is his data in an archive building somewhere collecting dust in the corner of a dark room that nobody ever goes to anymore? Well Alexander, I will find you! One day soon before I'm old and gray I hope! In this post, I kind of want to talk about the Highlands of Scotland where some of my Sutherland family come from. 


The Highlands of Scotland lives up to the picturesque postcards with scenes of outstanding natural beauty, and while its' just natural for you to think of this region as mountainous, there are also miles and miles of beautiful coastlines with turquoise waters and wildlife. The Highlands aren't just all landscapes of green valleys and majestic mountains, but also the historic, remote castles, and the distinctive culture and language of the welcoming towns. 

Even though Scotland is so beautiful, there was such hardship for the Highlanders of the region;   the Scottish Clearances were during the time when Alexander Sutherland came to America. He probably thought it was in his best interest to join the British Army and come to the mainland than it would be to stay in Scotland and most likely starve. The Clearances were the terrible clearing of people from Scottish lands so that they could instead, raise sheep.


"These clearances were in the Highlands -- where the Sutherland family comes from. The Highlands of Scotland is from the Northern border of Scotland and south (about the top third of Scotland). Sutherland County is from the East coast to the West coast of Scotland. Caithness is in the upper Northeast area of Scotland. Some Sutherland's were from Caithness -- but most are from the coast to coast band across Scotland. The people were moved from the lands so they could raise sheep and many were starved or driven out."

(text content was taken from an email I received recently, name if author is confidential for privacy reasons).

"For the people who moved to the coast, life was inevitably hard. They had to adjust to a new lifestyle and try to earn some semblance of a living from fishing- something that most people had no experience doing. In many cases they continued to farm on their small plots of land. The early clearances were the most harsh of all because no alternative was offered. Emigration and migration were discouraged by the landlords as being against the interests of the country and most notably themselves. Kelping demanded a large workforce and while it prospered the landlords and to some extent the people prospered. However, once the kelp prices began to fall during the 1820s this situation changed. Those who did choose to migrate or emigrate were seldom the poorest people in society. They had the means to support themselves in Scotland if they had wished for the emigrating Highlander of this period chose to go to America."
The Clearances of Scotland

Geographically Scotland consists of 2 parts: the mainland and the islands. On the mainland, one can discern 3 clear landmasses: the northern Highlands, the central Highlands and the Lowlands. The Highlands are divided by the Great Glen, a narrow gap in the mountain landscape. It's no wonder many people thought America was the land of opportunity. As compared to the life style they had been living, this must have been such a life saver for them. No pun intended. 

I think that is enough for tonight! (Remember I'm on Hawaii time) More to come tomorrow. What would you like to read on this blog? Dunrobin Castle of Highland, Scotland? Let me know! 

Other Image Source: (Top of Page)
Eilean Donan Castle, West Highlands, Scotland
Photo Credit: Photographer, Medioimages/Photodisc

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Lessons Learned

Since I started researching my heritage, I've learned a few lessons. The first and most important being, not to trust or make assumptions about the quality of research done by others. You will see family trees posted on the web, names that may be familiar to you, but check it out on your own. You will need to search for the documents yourself. I was always told by my husband, Michael to check, double check, and triple check! Okay. I get it, finally. People are bound to make mistakes. So how do you find these documents? Check out the links on my page, that should lead you in the right direction, at least for starters. Vital records offices are located around the globe, so I would most likely start with what you already know; i.e., full name, date of birth, place of birth and who the person's parents are. You may even have this information saved somewhere, funeral notices such as the "In Remembrance" cards you receive for a family member who had passed away. This will give you a lot of information as well.

It is possible that while researching a family member, that you may never find information on them, for whatever reason. Say for instance, I was searching for one particular person recently, and I came up with nothing, no matter where I searched. It was like this person ceased to exist!

Sometimes you just hit a brick wall and cannot go any further, at least on that particular branch. But your family tree has many ancestors, some with unique names and others that are so similar that even the parents have the same name as their own child! This makes your search even more difficult.

When you start creating your family tree, the possibility of finding more ancestors to add becomes endless, or so it seems. As you keep going farther back, you have double the ancestors to search. Parents, grandparents, great great grandparents times how ever many! I think I have 13th Great Grandparents and that goes back to probably mid 1600's or so. I will never cease to find more relatives to add, my family is huge and you end up with cousins upon cousins and their marriages, and their parents and so on. I'm sure you get my point already. 

If you are seeking true source documents to back up your research, try Social Security Indexes, archives, military draft cards, census records, obituaries, libraries that offer microfilmed documents, passenger lists, or even immigration lists etc. This should help get you going in the right direction, so don't take one persons family tree website as confirmation that the data is set in stone! 

Has anyone ever tried the DNA testing that the Ancestry web site has been offering? If so, what do you think of it?

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Sir Thomas Berkeley, Sir Knight of Beverstone Castle

Sir Thomas Berkeley, was my 13th G-grandfather on my Cornett side of the family.


Family Tree Path


Born: ABT 1462/77, Beverston, Gloucestershire, England
Died: 1500
Father: Edward BERKELEY
Mother: Christian HOLT
Married: Elizabeth NEVILLE ABT 1497


Children:
1. Alice BERKELEY
2. Lora BERKELEY
3. Anne BERKELEY
4. Elizabeth BERKELEY
5. Thomas (John) BERKELEY






Sources: Sir Thomas Berkeley, Sir Knight of Beverston Castle

Read on if you would like to know more about Beverston Castle also known as Beverstone. In historical documents the castle was also known as Beverstane. It is located in Gloucestershire, England and is considered to be a masonry type of architecture that was originally built as a manor house. Beverston castle was founded by Maurice de Gaunt in circa 1229. Not much of it remains standing to this day. The castle ruins were probably a beautiful piece of architecture back in C.1229; it is assumed to have been quadrangular with large drum towers at its' angles. The castle was besieged twice in 1644 and eventually captured by Parliamentarians. 

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