Category Archives: Kentucky

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Happy Birthday, Obediah Basham (b. 1760)

Dear Reader: Do you think you are related to the individuals listed in this post? Please drop me a note! I love hearing from cousins and others researching my family!

One of my 4th great grandfathers was Obediah Basham, who was born on April 7 in 1760 (or 1758, according to some records) in Cumberland County, Virginia. He was a Revolutionary War soldier and there is a lengthy pension file about him (I still need to transcribe it). Numerous folks have used him as entree into the DAR. He has a FindaGrave page, but no photo of his gravestone in Kentucky (his wife’s is available and it is crudely engraved). Obediah’s daughter Delilah married into the Corley family.

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Benjamin William Franklin Corley

Dear Reader: Do you think you are related to the individuals listed in this post? Please drop me a note! I love hearing from cousins and others researching my family!

Today, July 12, is the anniversary of the death of my second great-grandfather, Benjamin William Franklin Corley in 1891. So, I thought I would list what I know about him:

– While he was born in Kentucky, he spent most of his life in Shelby County, Illinois
– He had a twin brother, Henry William Washington Corley
– His parents were Jonathan Cheatham Corley and Delilah Basham (Delilah’s father, Obediah, is my ticket into the DAR, eventually)
– He was a farmer and a “local preacher” with the Methodist Episcopal Church, but transferred to the Free Methodist Church after a dispute with the local minister of the former church
– He married Lois Wakefield in 1842
– He passed away at his wife’s funeral — here is the story from A Genealogy of Corleys (page 150):

“While the service was being conducted, Mr. Corley leaned his head over on the shoulder of his son Joseph*, and expired. The further service was adjourned, and a joint service for both of them afterwards was conducted.”

*Joseph was my great-grandfather.

Thanks to A Genealogy of Corleys, I have a picture of Benjamin and Lois.

July 12 also is the anniversary of the death of my grandmother Ida Bole (Hill) Corley in 1943. I’ve written about the Hills extensively.

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Tombstone Tuesday (A Day Early)

Dear Reader: Do you think you are related to the individuals listed in this post? Please drop me a note! I love hearing from cousins and others researching my family!

To make up for my lapse over the weekend in posting Saturday Night Genealogy Fun a day late, I’m posting for Tombstone Tuesday a day early. Besides, I won’t be around tomorrow night to post it then.

I don’t have a picture (yet) of the grave site of Obediah Basham in Breckinridge Co., Kentucky, but in researching this line of my family tree on WorldVitalRecords.com, I came across his entry on the Find a Grave web site: http://www.findagrave.com/cgi-bin/fg.cgi?page=gr&GRid=12624487

Obediah is one of my great-great-great-great grandfathers. His daughter, Delilah (I love their names!), married Jonathan Cheatham Corley.

At least according to this site, Obediah Basham fought in the Revolutionary War (I haven’t had a chance to investigate the veracity of this yet). It’s interesting to see who has left notes on this site in his memory. Who are they and what are their connections to Obediah? Are they my distant relations? At least one of them says they are related to him.

I’ve done some preliminary investigations into the Basham (sometimes Bassam) line. There are a few books mentioning Obediah, Delilah and a few of their possible forebears. There’s a whole mess of confusion as to who Obediah’s parents may be — on familysearch.org, there are no less than three possible sets and the potential fathers are all brothers. Another blogger genealogist had the excellent suggestion of investigating the brothers’ wills, which I hope to pursue soon.