| Notes |
- RESEARCH_NOTES:
1. Various odd entries occur in Online Ordinance Index as of 25 Apr 2002:
a. 1935: William Calvin Adair b. abt. 1850 at Mt. Vernon Co., Maryland. Relative: Sam. Jefferson Adair.
b. 1937: William Chestnut m. 26 Jul 1845 <, Laurel Co., Kentucky>. Relative: George Washington Adair.
c. 1941: William Chestnut m. 4 Mar 1843 at Mifflintown, Juanita, Penn. Relative: William Chestnut.
2. Received letter dated 5 Sep 2003 from Oregon-California Trails Association, P.O. Box 1019, Independence, MO, 64051-0519, email: octa@indepmo.org, www.octa-trails.org with a report of no success in a paid search of their "Census of Overland Emigrant Documents" for references to a family named Chesnut, Chestnut, or Chesnu. This census is a name index of every diary, journal, or document that they have collected from every source. The hope was that someone somewhere made a note about the tragic events afflicted upon this family. I emailed them a copy of my files on this family.
3. Reviewed Rootsweb.com Worldconnect Dec 2002.
BIOGRAPHY:
1. Deseret News, 22 Jul 1931, pg. 14: "Picture three terrified Children, the oldest only eight years of age, brutally bereft of parents and left on a lonely mountain in a perfectly strange locality! Just a few hours before they had been, perhaps wearily, but nevertheless happily, jogging along in a big covered wagon under the care of loving parents. No doubt, somewhere, friends and relatives often wondered why no word ever came from the little family that started for the California gold fields in 1849. All that can be told of the story is what has been gleaned from the older children. They were able to tell that their parents were William Albert and Johannah Chesnut. At any rate, before they entered Salt lake Valley, the parents were murdered by teamsters and a like fate was about to be inflicted upon the children, but the oldest pleaded so hard that their lives were spared. They were tied to a cow and headed toward the setlement of the "Mormon" pioneers with threats of death if they told anyone of what had occurred. All day the forlorn tots trudged behind cows down the rugged mountain. By nightfall they had reached the settlement and were found and cared for by the hospitable pioneers. When their story finally became known, too much time had elapsed for any attempt to be made to trace the murderers and with the meager information obtainable it was impossible to trace relatives of the little orphans. The children were given permanent homes, in good pioneer families and grew to be respected citizens in the community." [Kerry's note: Ann was born in 1844; if she was 8, then the date of the murder would have been 1852 which coincides with the Samuel Jefferson Adair account of an 1852 plains crossing to Salt Lake City.]
2. See notes with Sarah Mary Chestnut for extensive biography of the Samuel Adair family and her husbands and families.
QUESTIONS:
1. Conjecture may have Missouri or Illinois as location. May also be Nebraska because in 1900 census, George W. Adair, Jr., lists his mother Ann Chestnut as being born in Neb.
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Chris & Julie Petersen's Genealogy
Abt 1812 - 1852 (~ 40 years)