Researching the research

I've been trying to throw away unnecessary paper documents but when it's related to genealogy then that is hard to do. Can anyone relate to this? I have inherited some paperwork that my dad collected when he participated in the research of Thomas Sutton and Hannah Lawson. This group was led by Charlie Sutton of McPherson, Kansas along with Edgar Sutton of Oakridge, Tennessee, and Lillie Carpenter (nee Savage) of Pharr, Texas who are descendants of Thomas and Hannah. Charlie descended through their youngest son Thomas Jr. who married Matilda Brown. Edgar's line was through the couple's oldest son Nathan Sutton who married Nancy Virginia Dodson (parents of the infamous Henley Sutton). Lillie and my dad shared the same great-grandparents, James and Malissa Sutton (nee Wolfe through her stepfather Peter Wolfe). All but one member of this group has gone on to join their ancestors and learn the real story. 

Now I am not writing anything new in this story as I have mentioned some of this in previous blogs.  My dad must have had 10 draft copies of Charlie's book. I assume he was going to give copies to the relatives, but it was easy for me to put these in the recycle bin rather than share them. If anyone is using this book as a source for their research, then I suggest you find something else, but it is somewhat entertaining to read. His efforts did result in the discovery of a deed of the Sutton farm located in Claiborne County, Tennessee. He was assisted by Jim Lawson who also discovered an old will that was filed in May of 1870 in Claiborne County (Thomas didn't die until 1891). I believe Charlie also listed the children correctly but then he had to go and put the nonsense about the Sutton Native American ancestry. These stories will live on forever as people continue to copy and publish it on Ancestry.com. The next item I chose to look at was a letter dated 18 Nov 1992 from Edgar Sutton. He mentions sending Dad some information from the McClung Collection in Knoxville and that he paid a retainer fee to a woman who does research in Caswell County, North Carolina in hopes she can Thomas Sutton's father who is supposedly named John. Apparently, the letter was sent after a telephone conversation as Edgar replied to Dad's question about Henley Sutton. He said Henley was ambushed and killed by the Barnards in 1889 and even states that the Governor may have obtained money for the pardon of the Barnards. He obviously had not obtained a copy of the court documents. Included in them is a petition to Governor Taylor from about 500 men of the community who wanted the Barnards pardoned before their scheduled execution date of December 23, 1889. A sample of the signatures are listed below along with comments that were written beside a few names. Included are names of some of my distant relatives and those who have possible family connections:

Thomas Sutton (grandfather of Henley)

Isham Sutton (uncle)

James Sutton (first cousin)

John Epperson

McHenry Bray, Sr.

John Mills

Noah Mills

Peter Sutton (cousin)

Asa Purkey

Brownlo Epperson

Charley Epperson

George Epperson

Thom Epperson

Peter Jackson

George Barnard

Charlie Barnard

James Spradling

William Green

R.W. Greene

Excerpt from the Petition to Gov. Taylor in support of the Barnards

The final items I found in my father's genealogy collection was a letter from Lillie Carpenter dated 1 May 1994 and she had enclosed a summary of Sutton research she had received in 1985. Lillie is a second cousin to my father and descends from John Greenlee Sutton who was the older brother of Noah Sutton (my father's grandfather). Lillie grew up in Garland county, Arkansas and wrote about visiting Dad's Aunt Jessie Kelley. Apparently when Lillie began her research journey, she remembered a niece named Lydia Seals that had corresponded with her mother and knew she lived in Sneedville, Tennessee. However, she thought Lydia's brother, Henry, would be easier to find but she reached the wrong Henry Seals' household when she asked the operator to connect her to Henry Seals in Sneedville, Tennessee. The individual was kind enough to give her the name and address of a man who did genealogy research in the Sneedville, Tennessee area. His name was William P. Grohse and if anyone is reading this article who has researched their family in Hancock County, Tenneessee then you are probably familiar with this gentleman.  In fact, his collection was donated to the Tennessee State Library & Archives. In the summary he provided to her, I see many errors. The first error was the statement that Malissa Wolfe was the daughter of George S. Wolfe and Margaret McCoy--groan! The second error states Hannah Lawson is the daughter of Thomas Lawson--what?! The third error is partially true as he quotes information found in "Cherokee by Blood" which I assume is a reference to the many applications made by descendants of Drury Lawson. They claimed he was a half brother to Captain Benge (the son of a Cherokee woman and Scots-Irish trader). Unfortunately, all those applications were recorded as rejects. Yep. However, they contain great information on their families.

What is the moral of my story? Love the stories that are handed to you because there might be a bit of truth to it but put a disclaimer if you publish it. Get serious and verify what you can. After all, aren't you a little bit curious?  You never know what you may discover (wish I knew if Edgar gleaned any information from that retainer he mentioned).  Go one step further and consider buying a DNA kit so you can connect to others who may want to help you research (it's more than trying to figure out your ethnic background folks).  All you Sutton men could you please buy and submit a Y-DNA kit to Family Tree DNA? I would love to see more than one Sutton male in my dad's Sutton group cluster so we can connect to more Sutton ancestral lines. 

It is said that genealogy is the ultimate puzzle so enjoy the journey and gather kin along the way!