Introduction

This Blog is for the Motty S. West and Hattie Myrtle Ellis Family to collect and post family genealogy. I started on this quest in early 2010 to determine where the West name came from and where the West Family came from. I had always heard we were from Kentucky through Virginia. One of the facts I knew for sure was Motty's mom and Dad were Pleasant and Mary Francis Stewart West , we know they settled in Springfield Ohio but did not know the history of how they got there or when. As this Blog evolves I will start with assumptions and then move into facts that are known. I will also discuss DNA testing and what I have learned about that subject . I am posting pictures given to me by Cousin Gwen who got them from Aunt Ruth Coffey. I talked to several family members at the West/Ellis Reunion and nothing is known beyond Pleasant and Mary Francis. Hopefully this blog and this journey will tie it all together for us so that we can preserve our heritage. Let me warn you ,If you have never started searching for family history, once you start this is addictive and when you make a connection it just drives the desire to find more info.

I started by being made aware of my Mom's family history that one of my cousins searched out and it was so interesting that I wanted to answer the same questions on the Wes/Ellist side of the Family. When we were growing up the Ellis side of the family was always there. There was Uncle Toot, Aunt Ethel, Eldon, Freda and Paul Miller. This year joining us again from the Ellis side was Pat Sheffield and her family from Nashville. This was the first time I attended the reunion since it has been held at the Fairgrounds and will make every effort to get there again each year.

My next effort in this search began with Ancestry.com, I began searching the US Census for free, if you know a little bit you can learn a lot. http://www.ancestry.com/   of course this was not enough for me, I joined the monthly domestic service and started building a family tree on their site. http://trees.ancestry.com/tree/17596238/family  You should be able to see it at this link. This also is at no charge to you.  Let me give you some background info on the US Census. The latest Census released to the public is 1930. I am not sure how far the archives go back because right now I have not looked past 1820 for anything, reason being , Black families were listed as property and by slave owner by age. There were some free blacks but color was not listed in the Census until 1860 and it is amazing how many duplicate names there are in the United States. Another caveat that makes this difficult is the 1890 Census were all destroyed in a fire in the Archives in Wash DC. Documents were left out of the vault and there was a fire , the Fire Dept put the fire out but most of the documents were damaged by water. COngress had all the records destroyed after they determined they were not readable. Some local census records exist but you primarily have to go to the local genealogical or historical Societies for that county or State. That means the Census of 1880 was the last one listed until the Census of 1900. Another piece of information is vital statistics in most states were not required to be kept unitl 1901. so there are hardly any birth, marriage, or death certificates prior to 1900. Most people kept their own records in the family Bible or records of membership and Baptisims at churches. Of course Social Security did not start until after the depression (1935) so SS death records are also not available prior to 1942 when benefits were slated to begin paying. 

So you see researching family is a History and a Geography lesson. 

What I assume so far is Pleasant was born Pleasanton West in Scott County Ky around 1846. his parents were William and Ruth West and they moved to Springfield Ohio around 1865 just at the end of the civil war. I will post in an assumptions topic how I learned this info and next steps to prove it true. I also plan to travel to Scott County in the Spring of 2012 if I can locate that they have records on our family in that time.