Addendum to Family #2 – EKA Reuben Harrell’s Son William

I can’t believe I found this today. Rebecca Herald Damron was my 3x great grandmother. I have a photo of her son George Wesley Damron. I don’t know if I have much I can add to the information you have. On ancestry the sources I have for her are the 1850 and 1860 censuses. With the name William as her father in the 1850 census I created a William Herald profile and have 2 sources for him I hope might be helpful. In the West Virginia, Deaths Index, 1853-1973 FHL Film Number 583481 he is listed as dead in 1860 in Wayne, West Virginia. and in Kentucky, Land Grants, 1782-1924 a William Herald is listed in Pulaski, County with 50 acres on Buck Creek in Book P. Another record that might be connected is in the West Virginia, Compiled Census, Index, 1860-1890 page 026 where a William Herald is listed as living in Cabell C.H. P.O., Cabell County, West Virginia. Another thing is I have no records for her after the 1860 census. She had 9 children with Moses Damron so maybe some of their descendants will know more. I have met some of them though Facebook and will see what I can dig up. Rebecca Herald had 7 sons with Moses Damron who fought in the Civil War 6 for the North 1 for the South. Moses was considerably old than Rebecca when they married he already had 8 children with his first wife Polly Preston. Through hints I do have her mother as Patsy Ratcliff 1764-1810 although I have yet to find sources to verify that. Thank you for your post and I am more motivate than ever to discover more. I will share this will friends on facebook and members of the Dameron/Damron family association. I hope they might know more about Rebecca. I don’t know much about DNA would any descendants of Moses and Rebecca be helpful in your research?

I apologize for not responding sooner but I could not get ready access to a computer until recently. Your posting adds more smoke to this mystery of whether Rebecca Herald Damron is related to EKA Reuben Harrell through Reuben’s son William Harrell. Your mention of “hints” that Rebecca’s mother is Patsy Ratcliff certainly tightens the possible bond to William Harrell since Patsy Ratcliff is thought to be William’s second wife. And we do know that some of Reuben’s relatives did live in Pulaski Co., VA, but to my knowledge they did not include his son William Harrell. Unless more information can be found through your sources, DNA matching would seem to be the best chance of proving a bond. You will need to find a male Herald descendant of William Herald (assumed father of Rebecca) who would agree to take the DNA test. FamilyTreeDNA is the company doing most of the Harrell DNA testing and thus far there is over 150 Harrell DNA donors. Knowing the DNA profile of this William Herald descendant will tell us if William Herald is blood related to Reuben Harrell (unless an adoption or illicit relationships took place). As mentioned in the narrative above, a person claiming to be a descendant of William Herald did take the DNA test and his DNA profile did not match the profile of Reuben Harrell’s descendants. A second DNA profile from another of William Herald’s male descendants would hopefully confirm that William Herald is not blood related to Reuben Harrell. Please email me at tbar@srv.net if you need further info.

Rebecca Harrell, the d/o William Harrell and Theodosia UNK (1st wife), was born about 1806 in Floyd Co., KY and married Henry Nunn in Floyd Co. on Nov…

[ See the full post at: Addendum to Family #2 – EKA Reuben Harrell’s Son William ]

[Author]

Posts