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Post by rhea1975 on Jun 10, 2016 13:27:47 GMT -5
Hi There!
My name is Jason Church and my wife is Laura Rhea. Her father's side of the family is originally from Maryville, TN. Her father, John Edward Rhea, was born in 1946 and was adopted by Joe Ellis Rhea and his wife, Elizabeth Oates Rhea. (2 years later, in 1948, Joe and Elizabeth also adopted a daughter, Elizabeth "Betty" Rhea.)
We visited Maryville this past Wednesday and were able to find some fairly basic Genealogical information that led us back to the late 1700's (4 generations back). We visited the family grave site, the Blount County Public Library and the local records office. (We're also in the process of working with the Nashville office of Vital Records to see if we can open her father's adoption records.)
We're really excited to dive into Laura's family's past, as she is the only surviving member of her immediate family (both of her parents and all of her grandparents and great aunts / uncles have passed away and she's an only child, as was her mother. Her adopted aunt Betty might still be alive, but we're not sure). We'd love to see if there might be any distant relatives that are still alive, as all of the family pictures and Genealogy was lost when her grandfather (Joe Ellis) passed away in 1991.
Other than recently opening an account with Ancestry.com, I wanted to see if anyone might have any good sources for local Blount County (or Rhea County!) research options.
Thanks so much for any assistance you can render!
-Jason and Laura
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Post by Donny Anderson on Jun 10, 2016 16:41:37 GMT -5
Welcome Jason and Laura!
I appreciate your willingness to add your query to this new forum. I am responsible for this new tool and I hope to continue to add new members like yourselves.
As it would have it, I am also a direct descendant of Blount County RHEAs. Mary Ann "Polly" RHEA (1825-1913) married Alexander Harvey McConnell. I show Polly being the daughter of Joseph RHEA and Amy ALLEN. Alexander is buried at Big Spring Presbyterian Church near Friendsville in Blount County. I'd assume that Polly is buried near by. I have seen several RHEA markers at Big Spring but am currently unsure of how I am related to them.
Finally, if you are interested, I can put you into contact with Joe Rhea, a genealogist from CO who has just finished Vol. I of his work on the Rhea family. I helped contribute to some of his work by cleaning up some of the information he had on my RHEA/MCCONNELL line.
Regards,
Donny
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Post by rheajc1227 on Jun 11, 2016 21:52:21 GMT -5
Hi Jason and Laura,I have the complete history of Laura's Rhea pedigree to the extent that it is known with nearly all of the research sources and citations available except for a complete review of the Blount County Archives. Your Rhea line is the subject of Volume 2 of Ray Cousins, a series of three volumes on the Descendants of John and Hannah (Hasty) Ray of Ireland. Volume 1 is now available. I am in need of the descendants of Joseph Ellis and Elizabeth Tregea (Oates) Rhea, and would be pleased to share with you the results of my 57 years of research on this family. If you are interested in ordering volume 1 that contains the history of John and Hannah (Hasty) Ray and the descendants of John (their eldest son) and Mary Margaret (Ferguson) Ray, it may be ordered from my website, ray-rhea-wray.net. Copies of the first printing are going fast. None of the genealogy and history information in volume 1 will be repeated in volumes 2 and 3. My research includes matching DNA testing results of two descendants of your branch of the family with mine and a descendant of John, the eldest son of John and Hannah (Hasty) Ray. To share information with me, please use my regular email address: rheajc@msn.com, and contact me again at that address. Yours in our mutual search, Joseph C. Rhea |
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Post by rhea1975 on Aug 8, 2016 14:53:07 GMT -5
Welcome Jason and Laura! I appreciate your willingness to add your query to this new forum. I am responsible for this new tool and I hope to continue to add new members like yourselves. As it would have it, I am also a direct descendant of Blount County RHEAs. Mary Ann "Polly" RHEA (1825-1913) married Alexander Harvey McConnell. I show Polly being the daughter of Joseph RHEA and Amy ALLEN. Alexander is buried at Big Spring Presbyterian Church near Friendsville in Blount County. I'd assume that Polly is buried near by. I have seen several RHEA markers at Big Spring but am currently unsure of how I am related to them. Finally, if you are interested, I can put you into contact with Joe Rhea, a genealogist from CO who has just finished Vol. I of his work on the Rhea family. I helped contribute to some of his work by cleaning up some of the information he had on my RHEA/MCCONNELL line. Regards, Donny Hi There, Donny! Thank you so much for the warm welcome! I apologize that we haven't been back on this forum in a couple of months...a lot going on since our trip to Tennessee. This is very exciting news! I take it that the very next item on this thread, from June 11th is the person to which you refer? (Joe Rhea) We're going to contact him about the book, as I'm certain that it'll be very exciting and very informational to learn more about Laura's ancestors. If it's helpful, I would be happy to include the information that I have so far on Laura's branch. Although I see that there can be money made from folks' hard work on researching genealogical information (Joe's book), I'm rather new to this line of study. Do people share information freely? Would it be proper etiquette for me to ask about the information that you have? Thank you for any help / advice that you can offer! -Jason |
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Post by Donny Anderson on Aug 9, 2016 19:59:17 GMT -5
Yes, the guest message above is from Joe Rhea. He has a wealth of knowledge about the Rhea surname. Be sure to access his website that is linked in his message.
By all means! This forum was made for others to share information in an organized fashion. Feel free to create a new thread with your family-specific information.
Joe has amassed his enormous amount work over a number of years, but he would be the first to tell you that his work has benefited from the work others. Trust me, he is nowhere near making a living off the purchase price of his books.
However, people vary in how they share their information. This might sound selfish, but the intent (sometimes) of these researchers is to protect the accuracy of their research. The Internet (Ancestry, etc.) has watered down and distorted the hard work of others, so many are gun shy with whom and and how they choose to share. Joe was willing to share my pedigree with me because I aided him in extending his research with my local Rhea descendant information. I suggest that you contact Joe with what you know about Laura's Rhea line to see if his research will support yours.
I'd be happy to share with you what I have. Frankly, it isn't a whole lot. However, if I can support your research at the Blount County level, I'd be happy to try and help out!
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Post by rhea1975 on Aug 10, 2016 9:15:07 GMT -5
Well, that's awesome! Thank you for the clarification on that, Donny!
I agree that services like Ancestry.com...albeit somewhat helpful...can also steer one down the wrong path rather quickly. Even though we've done some good research on our own at the Blount County Library when we were down there, it only got us so far. So any clarification on what we have at this point would be very helpful!
While we were down there, we also swung by the records office just outside of town for a couple of hours and the staff there were VERY helpful in assisting us and helping us find marriage certificates, etc.
Well...I guess that the best way to proceed would be to start at Laura and work my way back on what we have so far, in hopes of connecting to a part of the tree that you have. I'll start things out in a new post.
Thanks again! :-)
-Laura and Jason
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Post by rhea1975 on Aug 10, 2016 9:46:17 GMT -5
Laura Elizabeth Rhea was born in 1975 and is still living. She is the daughter and only child of John Edward Rhea (1946 - 1989) and Awanda Juanita Butler-Rhea (1937 - 2004).
John Edward Rhea (1946 - 1989) and Elizabeth "Betty" Rhea (No birth / death info) were the adopted children of Joe Ellis Rhea (1903 - 1990) and Elizabeth Tregea Oates-Rhea (1906 - 1984). NOTE: We are currently in the process of opening the adoption records for Laura's dad, John. We've sent off all of the proper paperwork / payment to the Nashville Vital Records office, so it should hopefully just be a matter of weeks before we receive info on who John Edward Rhea's biological parents are; however, there are rumors that he was adopted from within the Rhea family.
Joe Ellis Rhea (1903 - 1990) is the son and only child (as far as we know) of John Eakin Rhea (1865 - 1953) and Elizabeth LaDoskia Roddy-Rhea (1870 - 1926).
Margaret Josephine Rhea-Barr (1860 - 1906), Joseph Herron Rhea (1863 - 1940), John Eakin Rhea (1865 - 1953), William Ambrose Rhea (1868 - 1875) and Mary Jennie Rhea (1870 - ?) are the children of John Powell Rhea (1832 - 1910) and Mary Marilla Eakin-Rhea (1832 - 1923).
Robert Allen Ray (1818 - 1892), William Hamilton Ray (1820 - 1875), Isaac Allen Rhea (1822 - 1822), Elijah W. (Walden?) Rhea (1824 - 1883), Margaret Ann Rhea-McConnell (1825 - 1913), Joseph James Rhea (1828 - 1828), Amy Jane Rhea (1829 - 1843) and John Powell Rhea (1832 - 1910) are the children of Joseph Rhea (1794 - 1834) and Amy Allen-Rhea (1798 - 1876). NOTE: On the topic of Elijah W. Rhea, this is one of those sticky areas that Ancestry.com could have taken us down 2 totally different paths. There were 2 Elijah Rhea's that were found and we chose Elijah WALDEN Rhea, but we could be incorrect. It seemed as if everything matched up correctly, but I just have a gut feeling that Elijah WALDEN Rhea may not be correct.
We go back further than this in our tree, but a lot of the info starts getting vague here and we have no personal research to back that information up once we get beyond Joseph and Amy Allen Rhea. We also branch out among the spouses and aunts / uncles, etc.
I'm curious to make sure that what we have so far (what I refer to as our "home base" of the Rhea family) is correct. Also, any extra information on the family members that might exist would be fantastic! (Pictures, professional information, etc.)
I (Jason) am really trying to spearhead this project, because Laura is virtually the last of the Rhea line on her branch and family history is very important to her. As I mentioned before, her grandfather (Joe Ellis Rhea) was very into genealogy. He would stop by local libraries and records offices any time the family would visit a new state (and they actually visited all 50, if you can believe it!) Evidently, Joe's family records went WAAAAAY back and his research was one of his most important possessions. Joe Ellis passed away after Laura's dad (John Edward) had, so at the time, the only person that was really available to take care of Joe's house was Betty, the adopted daughter. She got rid of a lot of the family's items and promptly sold the family's house (located in Maryville, TN. The house was up on a high street...the name of the street escapes me right now, but it overlooked all seven peaks of the Smokies. I've driven past with Laura...it's a gorgeous spot !) It's not known what Betty saved and what she didn't. Laura was still at a younger age and wasn't able to keep track / in touch with Betty...so we're not sure if she still possesses the family records, pictures, etc...or if they were gotten rid of. We're not even sure if Betty is still alive at this time...if she ever got married or had any children.
Anyhow...any help that anyone could provide on any of this would be greatly appreciated! It's tough starting from scratch, but it's my hope that we can at least partially reconstruct Laura's family tree and maybe I'll be able to show her some of her ancestors' faces.
-Jason
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Post by rhea1975 on Aug 10, 2016 9:50:58 GMT -5
Side-note: Laura has always felt fairly alone when it comes to traditional family. Being that her family was all mostly older when she was born, most of them passed away when she was at an early age. Her mother was her last surviving family member and she passed away in 2004.
Through the use of Ancestry.com and their associated message boards, we came across some women that were looking for information on Laura's great aunt Marie. As it turns out, they ended up being second-cousins. It's been about 6 weeks now since that discovery and now they text back and forth on a regular basis. It's really nice to see Laura feel like she has some real, blood-related family out there. :-)
-Jason
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Post by Donny Anderson on Aug 16, 2016 20:42:50 GMT -5
Margaret "Polly" Ann Rhea McConnell was 3rd great grandmother and my direct connection to the Rhea line. Please let Laura know she has another cousin!
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Post by jimnkathi on Nov 5, 2017 8:13:21 GMT -5
I descend though James (M.?) RAY/RHEA b. 1789, son of John RAY/RHEA who was born in Greene or Blount County Tenn. in 1765. Anyone know who John is or anything about this family? He had to have lived in Blount County as his children were born there. John died in Edgar co. ILL 30 Sep 1832. According to the HISTORY OF EDGAR COUNTY, John came to Edgar Ill in 1818 and was one of the first settlers there. Some say my John is the son of the John Rhea/RAY Sr. who married Mary BUNTIN. John Sr. died and Mary was pregnant with HER son John RAY Jr. When she came to Kentucky with her 2nd husband Hugh McGARY. There is a lot of info on Marys son General James Ray's descendants, (Mary's son William was killed by the Indians) but all that I have found on HER son John is that he moved to Ill and raised a large family. Can anyone help me sort this out? There's a lot of conflicting info out there.
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Post by alicefosterblevins on Jan 17, 2018 18:34:29 GMT -5
Hello,
In early Blount County census there is a Joseph FARR who married a Leah RHEA. They lived in or near Millers Cove. My ancestor is William FARR who married Rebecca M. Davis and lived in the same area. In trying to connect my William FARR I have always been curious about Joseph FARR. Joseph may have also lived in Sevier County. I apologize for being vague but my computer crashed with all my genealogy work on in and I am pulling from memory. Does any know anything about Leah RHEA?
Thanks!
Alice
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Post by April Wegner on Feb 13, 2018 22:30:40 GMT -5
The BCGHS Family Files has a folder on FARR with 95 pages. Are you close enough to the Blount County library to look at these files if you think it would help?
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Post by JPRhea1955 on Dec 30, 2018 14:14:13 GMT -5
Hi - I have been searching for early Rhea descendants for some time, and have just discovered the BCGHS site. I am looking for the parents of my ancestor John Paul Rhea, who was born in Blount County on 5/15/1824. He married Roseally (Rosially) Letterman on February 8, 1848 in Monroe County, TN. Sometime shortly after that, he moved to Phelps County, MO.
He had three children with Roseally; after she passed away, he married Rutha Jane Heavin Lamar. He remarried twice after that, to Sarah Bryant and Julina Light. He died in Rolla, MO, in 1899. I am a descendent of his son with Rutha Heavin, Joseph Burke Rhea.
Oral history has it that his parents were not married, that his mother's name was Rebecca, and that his father was John Powell or John Pall. This is word of mouth, passed down from his grandson, so may or may not be accurate.
I appreciate any help that anyone can provide!
Thanks!
Erin Raasch
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Marilyn Light Sunde
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Post by Marilyn Light Sunde on May 22, 2022 14:25:59 GMT -5
Replying to Erin Raasch. My gr gr grandpa is John Paul Rhea of Phelps county, MO. His daughter, Cordelia Rhea Light, is my great grandma; she is the daughter of Rutha Heavin Rhea. He is buried at Rhea cemetery just outside Rolla, Missouri. I'll have to look up more information on his parents and get back to you.
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Post by Mary J Meier on Aug 2, 2023 15:24:51 GMT -5
Hello, I live in St. Louis and am one of seven children. Our mother was Dolores Cecilia Lee, the daughter of Walter and Isabelle Lee. Walter was from Friendsville/Maryville, TN. He died about 70 years ago. Isabelle lived about 5 years longer.
My mother, Dolores always stayed close to her cousins in Friendsbille; Carola and Thelma Lee. (They had a brother, I can't think of his name). My mom was one of 7 childfen; only 2 of her brothers lived to adulthood. They were Joe and Francis Martin Lee. Francis was a Catholic priest. She also was close to Joe Ellis and Elizabeth Rhea. I met them when I was little when they came to St. Louis. They had two adopted children. One boy/one girl. I met John and their daughter; could have been Laura. John told me he used to ride motorcycles with Elvis Presley. I thought that was so cool.
Our parents took us to Friendsville to meet these folks when we were little (a few times). Joe Ellis worked for Alcoa and I remember his pride in that job. He lived on a hillside and pointed out Alcoa from the window. Joe Ellis and Elizabeth took us on a ride up through Cade's Cove. It was such a memorable day. I remember spending a lot of time at the water mill. We also went to the farm of Carola and Thelma. (I think they were both teachers and my mother was so proud that they were such good writers. I don't think they were married. They led us to the Quaker cemetary to see the church were my grandfathers relatives prayed and were burried. I also remember meeting Oscar Barr. I remember that name because it was the first Oscar I had ever met.
I would love to know if any of these names are familiar to any of you. Recently, our family was coming back from vacation and took a diferrent route coming through close to Knoxvill and I have been thinking of these folks ever since. Hope to hear from yuo. maryjmeier@hotmail.coom
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