Genealogy Jottings

My great-grandfather, Samuel Harvey Reed (1845-1928) came from the small town of Ashmore, Illinois. I always knew he had a big family there.

Mostly, I knew of all the Reed cousins. One Reed descendant wrote a book called The Reeds of Ashmore back in the 1980’s. He traced our Reed line from Samuel’s grandfather Thomas, an original settler in Ashmore. I have used this book a lot, and consequently I am familiar with the names of Samuel’s cousins on his father Caleb Reed’s side:

1. Daniel Reed
2. Nancy Jane Reed
3. Caleb Robertson Reed
4. William Fred Reed
5. Mary E. Reed
6. James Reed
7. Kate Reed
8. Susan Ann McAlister
9. Thomas Alison Walton
10. Nancy Jane Walton
11. Jerome G. “Aris” Walton
12. Martha Ellen Walton
13. Nevada Dorcas Walton
14. James Thomas Galbreath
15. William Riley Galbreath
16. Anna Eliza Galbreath

All these cousins lived near Ashmore, and Samuel obviously knew them well. In 1872 he even served as a witness for Mary Reed’s will shortly before she died at age nineteen.

These Reed cousins comprise only half of Samuel’s extended family. His mother Jane Carter, also from Ashmore, had many siblings, too. Thus Samuel had Carter cousins as well. This year I am finally working to identify the grandchildren of John Carter (Jane’s father), and so far I have this incomplete list:

1. Edith Austin
2. Susan C. Boyd
3. Caleb Boyd
4. G. R. Boyd
5. Gus Boyd
6. Tabitha J. Boyd
7. Mary Ann Boyd
8. John Boyd
9. John M. Carter
10. John J. Collins
11. William J. Carter
12. Thomas B. Carter
13. David W. Carter
14. Mary J. Carter
15. Alice M. Carter
16. John A. Carter
17. Delilah B. Carter
18. Jacob S. Carter
19. Margaret Ellen Carter

I am confident I will find the names of even more Carter cousins. I am in the process of working through the census records for all of Jane’s siblings to see how many I can locate. Samuel Reed must have been related to nearly everyone in Ashmore!