Hi Cathie – I am Bill Thielbahr and helped put together the 14 Harrell family piece including Family #10. As my discussion about Family #10 states, this particular group of Harrells living in Butler Co., OH in the 1805-1815 timeframe has puzzled us for a long time. We know that in this group of Harrells, Chester Harrell is directly related (DNA match) to my Harrell line. I do not know how Phillip, Nancy Jane, Jesse, Gabriel, and William are linked. The name “Phillip” is rarely seen in my Harrell line, Gabriel is also not seen, Jesse is found occasionally, and Nancy and William are common. From the description of the 14 families, you will only see Phillip in Family #10 and Family #12 and we don’t know how they are linked.
My long-time genealogy colleague has put together a list of children of your Phillip Harrell who married Catherine Reading: (1) James H. Harrell b. 1814 Butler Co. d. bef 1870 Decatur Co., IN; (2) William Harrell b. 1815 Dearbon Co., d. bef 1880 Decatur Co.; (3) Nancy Harrell b. 1819 Dearborn Co.; (4) Jesse Ray Harrell b. 1822 probably Decatur Co., d. bef 1860 IN; (5) Sarah A. Harrell b. 1823 IN; (6) Hannah Harrell b. 1825 Dearborn or Decatur Co, m. W.W. McKay or John H. Patton; (7) Mary A. Harrell b. 1830 Decatur Co; (8) Catherine Harrell b. 1833, Decatur Co., m. Henry Patton; (9) Philip Marion Harrell, b. Feb 1836, Decatur Co. If any of this info is incorrect or incomplete, please let me know. I don’t know which branch of this family you descend from but I have been in contact with a descendant of Phillip Marion Harrell and he also does not know of Phillip’s siblings or parents.
You asked if the “M” in the EKA James M. Harrell could be “Marion”. It’s possible but because we have no credible source for this middle initial being “M”, we have since decided to completely remove his middle name and cite “James Harrell” as this EKA. If we obtain more info supporting a middle name, we will add it back in.
You have the same problem we have – we also don’t know Phillip’s parents and don’t know his siblings. Do you have any guesses as to who his siblings might be? Any of them? We have seen that often the Harrells travel together or ultimately live near each other and knowing what property they purchased helps identify relatives who may have lived next/near them. Do you have any info on where Phillip lived (specifically, deed descriptions) and who his neighbors were? Except for his first child, James H. Harrell, all children were born in either Dearborn or Decatur Co.
The naming of Harrell children often gives us clues as to close relatives. If we have his first child identified correctly, James H. Harrell, this usually reflects the father’s father. In this case we could speculate that Phillip’s father is James Harrell. You have speculated that Phillips father could be James Harrell 1747 Nansemond Co. d. 1817 Nelson Co. Over the last 15 years of doing Harrell research, along with others, we have determined that the large group of Harrells with roots in Nansemond Co., VA and neighboring Bertie Co., NC were never in contact with the smaller group of Northern VA Harrells (my Harrell line) – they didn’t live near each other and the DNA of both groups are different. Many Harrell researchers who have not studied these 2 groups of Harrells often mix them up and create a lot of misinformation. So, with this in mind, I don’t believe that Phillip’s father was from Nansemond, but he could be the “James” that died in Nelson Co. in 1817. Or, his father could be from Nansemond but never lived in Nelson – if this were the case, the Harrell DNA would be different than those of the 14 families. If you have the identity of this James who died in Nelson Co. in 1817, I would like to know it. There are many, many James Harrells who lived in Nelson Co. and its vicinity in this timeframe.
In our research of these Butler Co. Harrells, and other Harrells of Indiana, my colleague and I have speculated that there could be an unknown James Harrell, the father of many of these early Harrells in Butler Co., Decatur, Dearborn. Unfortunately, there are so many unknown early James Harrells, that we can’t identify him. It remains pure speculation.
I was thrilled to see you respond to this new Harrell Collaboration website. We have finished our 3 generations of Family #1 and nearly finished with Family #2. We are now working on Family #3. We want to limit our effort to just the first 3 generations of each Family EKA so as to get the info out as quickly as possible. We have more generations of info on each family and in time will add it to the Collaboration. Our focus is to try and find info that links these 14 families and anything you can provide will help.
Best Regards, Bill Thielbahr tbar@srv.net