Shep's Place Family Tree

1870: James and Malinda now have Martha and her husband Jacob McLung living with them as well as James, William and Robert Patterson who are James' grandchildren by his first wife Martha. Also living nearby are their sons Henry and John and their families and also James' son James A, a son by his first wife. So the extended family remains very close together.

1880: James died in 1872 and Malinda, now 74, is head of a small household of herself, Frederick Patterson, a grandson of James aged 18, and a servant, Mary Thomas, who had has been with the family for over ten years. Of course, living nearby are other family members including Henry Clay Callison, his wife, Virginia, and their children, Margaret, Richard, Israel, James, Lucy and Henry Jr. who is just one year old.

‎[This little story illustrates the hazards of relying on individual census data for detailed information. There are other James Callisons in the area who could easily be mistaken for this family, and there are quite significant mistakes in spellings and ages which can be quite confusing. For example, from individual records James senior's birth year could be anywhere from 1795 to 1801. In the 1870 census all the Callisons had their name spelt Collison and carried into the Ancestry.com soundex database as Collison. However, collectively a fairly reliable picture can be drawn, especially with access to other records and with the help of other researchers such as the OneWorldTree(SM)‎ database on Ancestry.com.)

Alderson is a town on the Greenbrier River in what is now West Virginia. The community straddles Greenbrier and Monroe counties and is sometimes identified with Greenbrier County rather than Monroe County. It was first settled in 1777 and was named for John Alderson, Baptist Minister. This was probably Malinda's grandfather, Rev. John Alderson, who had a talent for being in the right place at the right time. He was born in Bethlehem ‎(New Jersey)‎, lived in Alderson ‎(Virginia)‎ and died in Palestine ‎(Virginia)‎.
­http­://­www­.­wvculture­.­org­/­history­/­placnama­.­html­
­http­://­www­.­epodunk­.­com­/
­http­://­trees­.­ancestry­.­com­/