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Archiver > CATAWBA-WEST > 1999-01 > 0917193079


From: Volchek <>
Subject: Mary Elizabeth Cloninger
Date: Sun, 24 Jan 1999 10:51:19 -0500


I am new to the list and have been reading the archived messages to
become familiar with the list and the surnames being discussed. I just
read with some interest the discussion last year on sources and
documentation. There is no substitute for good scholarship. I have
been doing genealogy for quite a few years and I finding it very
frustrating and irritating to go back over the material I researched
early on to find I did not source a piece of information. Now I
question its validity because I cannot double check to see if I copied
it down correctly or maybe transposed some numbers.

Just because something has been published in a book does not mean it is
correct. For instance, "Our Kin" is a book I have never seen, but it is
referenced often in connection with the Cloninger and related families.
In the book, the author has Bettie Cloninger, dau. of Jacob Cloninger,
Jr., married to Leland Stanford, her son. I have seen this repeated in
several databases and websites which contain Cloninger information.

For those Cloningers who wish to have the accurate information, it is as
follows:

Mary Elizabeth "Bettie" Cloninger was born April 15, 1866 in
Chattanooga, Hamilton County, TN to Jacob Cloninger, Jr. and Margaret
Lineberger. She died June 26, 1945 in Athens, McMinn Co., TN. She
married Aaron Tyson Stanford on June 27, 1889 in Columbia Co., FL. (See
Columbia Co., FL Marriage Books A-D). A. T. Stanford and M. E.
Cloninger had two children:

Leland Tyson Stanford born May 5, 1890
Aaron Cleveland Stanford born April 20, 1892

Aaron Cleveland Stanford was my grandfather and Mary Elizabeth lived
with his family the entire time my mother was growing up. M. E. and A.
T. are listed on A. C.'s death certificate. One of my aunts has A. T.
and M. E.'s marriage certificate. I am currently attempting to obtain
the family information from the Bible of Jacob Cloninger, Jr. which my
grandfather, A. C., gave to the Bethlehem Lutheran Church in Columbia
Co., FL for their 100th anniversary. Jacob Cloninger, Jr. was their
first minister and is buried in the graveyard next to the church.

I have personal knowledge that this particular information in "Our Kin"
is in error. What other information in the book is also incorrect but
continues to be perpetuated because it has been published?

Jean K.

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