Update on Thomas Presley's "missing" children
Since it's been a good long time since I last posted, I've thankfully got a lot of new information!
**Jennie Presley
As it turns out, I was exactly wrong about my great-something aunt Jennie Presley marrying Charles Lumley. As it turns out, she did, in fact, marry Thomas R. Jackson. She and Tom had no children, and according to her death certificate, she is buried in Fairview Cemetery in Dyersburg. I found her obituary and it confirms that, even though there's no listing for her on the Dyer County GenWeb page. I'll have to contact the cemetery to find her stone. Tom was buried in Pleasant Hill near his father. As seem to have happened a lot, all the Presleys are listed as Presslers in her obit, but one thing it does add is that brother Bob is listed again, this time as living in Sikeston, MO.
**Robert George Presley
I recently turned up Robert, long lost Uncle Bob, in the 1920 census in Dunklin County, MO. This gave me a list of his children (as well as a middle name...George...I'd had him as Robert P. Presley, though attempting to verify that, I couldn't find him listed that way in any of my sources...typo, I guess). He next turned up in the 1930 census in Granite City, Illinois, working in a steel foundry along with his bother Claude who I'd found previously. His WWI draft card actually lists him as George Robert.
I've now managed to trace a couple of his descendant lines to the present, I just need to see if I can dig up some sort of contact information for the family. It would seem his children pretty much stayed around the boot heel of Missouri in Dunklin, Scott & Cape Girardeau counties. Still no idea when or where he died, but as I previously mentioned, Jennie's obituary has him still living as of May 1955. He'd be 75 then, so I'm getting closer!
**Emma Presley
With the help of a letter from my great aunt Dru to another cousin of mine, I figured out that Emma Presley really was a sister to my great grandfather, James Richard Presley. As the Dyer County Genweb shows, she married John Bartin Wilson in 1899. However, I can't find John & Emma anywhere in the 1900 or 1910 census, and John has remarried and had children with his second wife by 1920. John & Emma had at least two children, Clarice (who would marry Luther Burns) and Johnny Fred (who also seems to end up near the IL/MO Steel industry in East St. Louis. As it is, I only have the evidence of their marriage for Emma. She was apparently was born after 1880, the 1890 is gone, can't find her in 1910...
I'm speculating that Emma died somewhere between 1905-1912. Unfortunately, she's not listed in any death records, funeral home records or cemetery listings I can find. Given when she likely died, she'd probably be buried in Pleasant Hill, but I have nothing pointing that direction aside from family tradition in that time period. On the upside, Clarice had some 9 children with Luther Burns, so maybe I can track one of them down and ask (though at least three have already died).
**Jennie Presley
As it turns out, I was exactly wrong about my great-something aunt Jennie Presley marrying Charles Lumley. As it turns out, she did, in fact, marry Thomas R. Jackson. She and Tom had no children, and according to her death certificate, she is buried in Fairview Cemetery in Dyersburg. I found her obituary and it confirms that, even though there's no listing for her on the Dyer County GenWeb page. I'll have to contact the cemetery to find her stone. Tom was buried in Pleasant Hill near his father. As seem to have happened a lot, all the Presleys are listed as Presslers in her obit, but one thing it does add is that brother Bob is listed again, this time as living in Sikeston, MO.
**Robert George Presley
I recently turned up Robert, long lost Uncle Bob, in the 1920 census in Dunklin County, MO. This gave me a list of his children (as well as a middle name...George...I'd had him as Robert P. Presley, though attempting to verify that, I couldn't find him listed that way in any of my sources...typo, I guess). He next turned up in the 1930 census in Granite City, Illinois, working in a steel foundry along with his bother Claude who I'd found previously. His WWI draft card actually lists him as George Robert.
I've now managed to trace a couple of his descendant lines to the present, I just need to see if I can dig up some sort of contact information for the family. It would seem his children pretty much stayed around the boot heel of Missouri in Dunklin, Scott & Cape Girardeau counties. Still no idea when or where he died, but as I previously mentioned, Jennie's obituary has him still living as of May 1955. He'd be 75 then, so I'm getting closer!
**Emma Presley
With the help of a letter from my great aunt Dru to another cousin of mine, I figured out that Emma Presley really was a sister to my great grandfather, James Richard Presley. As the Dyer County Genweb shows, she married John Bartin Wilson in 1899. However, I can't find John & Emma anywhere in the 1900 or 1910 census, and John has remarried and had children with his second wife by 1920. John & Emma had at least two children, Clarice (who would marry Luther Burns) and Johnny Fred (who also seems to end up near the IL/MO Steel industry in East St. Louis. As it is, I only have the evidence of their marriage for Emma. She was apparently was born after 1880, the 1890 is gone, can't find her in 1910...
I'm speculating that Emma died somewhere between 1905-1912. Unfortunately, she's not listed in any death records, funeral home records or cemetery listings I can find. Given when she likely died, she'd probably be buried in Pleasant Hill, but I have nothing pointing that direction aside from family tradition in that time period. On the upside, Clarice had some 9 children with Luther Burns, so maybe I can track one of them down and ask (though at least three have already died).
Labels: Cape Girardeau County, Dunklin County, Dyersburg, Fairview Cemetery, family, genealogy, Granite City, Presley, Scott County, Sikeston
posted by Jason Presley | 8:53 PM
2 Comments:
I hope this note finds you well. The comment about Jennie's obit and the Presleys given as Presslers reminds me of a quote sent by a cousin in Germany about Elvis:
He said, Germany was gripped by "Elvis fever" as early as the Fifties, when the "King" went to Bad Nauheim (Hessen) to fulfill his military obligations. Little did his German fans know that they had another reason to love him he was, it turns out, a German.
According to Donald W. Presley and Edward C. Dunn, both distant relatives of the King, a direct link can be made from Elvis back to a certain Johann Valentin Pressler, a winegrower who emigrated to America in 1710.
Pressler came from a village in southern Palatinate called Niederhochstadt. Niederhochstadt became Hochstadt sometime during the 250 years after Johann Pressler left it, but there are still many Presslers there, among them a winegrower like Johann Valentin Pressler.
Johann Valentin first settled in New York and later moved his family to the South. The name was Anglicized during the Civil War by a Pressler serving in the Confederate Army, Presley and Dunn report in a forthcoming book on the Presley family. There was no word, however, on whether Hochstadt was planning any Elvis shrines along the lines of Graceland in Memphis, the last residence of the "King of Rock'n Roll."
I thought this might be food for thought, true or not.
Best regards,
Gary in Berkeley
Based on DNA results from several lines (check the Presley-Pressler group at FamilyTreeDNA.com), what you've posted seems to be true.
My main obstacle is the apparent lack of any actual document that definitively ties Jennie's father Thomas to HIS father, Joshua Preslar. All teh circumstantial evidence I've found is compelling, but nothing directly names the two as father and son.
From digging thru the census, it seems that every generation after Johann Valentin, one or more of his descendants switched to Presley. And there is still a line of Pressler descendants that only changed theirs as far as Preslar. It's fascinating how many variations of the name have evolved in the 300 years since the family first came to America.
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