I am researching and compiling the family trees for both of my parents, and for my husband's parents.

I am getting as much info as I can from membership at Ancestry.com. As I have a limited amount of funds to devote to this project, I will be exhausting that resource first. I will be archiving on WeRelate all the info I collect, and hopefully, others will not only benefit from what I find, but will be able to fill in the gaps of what I lack.

The following Marriages are my starting points:

Levi McLellan and Sadie Bell Herndon, of Missouri, Oklahoma, and California (my father's adoptive parents). 1919? Harvey Hearl Hudson and Janie G. Unknown, of Oklahoma and Texas (my father's birth family). 1920's Frederick Paul Lockner and Julia Elvin Gilford of Minnesota, Nebraska, Colorado, California, and various parts yet discovered (my mother's parents). 1923 or 24. John Clifford Cason and Verlie Levida Priddy, of Arkansas (my Husband's parents). 1950's.

There are additional stray branches from other adoptions, unwed mothers, children being orphaned, and all kinds of sundry mishaps of life.


It is rumored that my mother's family ties into William F. Cody (Buffalo Bill), thru Native American lines. I have yet to be able to prove or dismiss this rumor, as I have yet to locate Who the native family members were, and for which tribes they were members. (not something I'm experienced at, Yet!)

It is also rumored that it also ties into Myra Maybelle Shirley (Belle Shirley Starr) thru Jacob Paten Shirley (my mother's great-grandfather) who claimed to be her brother. Various family members of that era also claimed that Belle Shirley Starr was NOT killed in Ft. Smith, Arkansas, but that her death was faked, and that she lived to a ripe old age and died in Nebraska or Kansas. I THINK I have disproved this rumor, but as there was much Oral Tradition from people "who were there", I have to leave it open for now, until I can fully document not only our own lines, but the lines of Myra Maybelle Shirley as well.

That's It for Now,

Thanks for dropping by, Kathy Cason, Rosston, AR