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From:
Subject: [TNCLAIBO-L] Re: Henry and Jonathan Fortner
Date: Sun, 6 Aug 2000 19:50:42 EDT

In a message dated 08/05/2000 9:03:57 PM Pacific Daylight Time,
writes:

<< Warren and list,

ABOUT MANERVA, Seond daughter of Wesley and
Mahlia Hollensworth: She may have been the wife of
Elijah Fortner b. 1837, son of Jonathan Fortner and
Margaret "Peggy" Falls. Elijah is said to have died
in a Confederate prison in 1864. I have been searching
for more information on ELIJAH Fortner, my Great Grand
Uncle and if the abovecan be confirmed, will solve the question
that has been asked on several Boards, Who was Elijah
Fortner's wife?

I hate to be the bearer of bad news, but Manerva Fortner was married to
Joab
M. Fortner. I have the pension papers from the National Archives. She later
married William H. Alford. Joab M. Fortner was the son of John Fortner and
Sarah
Matlock of Lee County, Virginia. John Fortner was the son of Henry Fortner
and
Elizabeth Grabeal, also of Lee County, Virginia. Her name was actually Nancy
Manerva Hollingsworth. She and Joab had two children, John Wesley and Sarah
Jane
Fortner. She had no children by William H. Alford. John Wesley Fortner's
death
certificate gives his mother's name as Nancy Manerva Hollingsworth. In the
pension papers is a signed note from the minister who married her and Joab,
James
Shoemaker, certifying the marriage date of September 21, 1858. Her maiden
name
is given as Nancy M. Hollingsworth. William Wesley Hollingsworth signed as a
witness on the pension claim as he was present when Joab Fortner died at Flat
Lick, Kentucky in 1862. They were both volunteers in the Second Regiment of
Tennessee Volunteers, Co. H (Federal). William H. Alford was a member of
the 32
Illinois Infantry. He later became legal guardian to John Wesley and Sarah
Jane. He married Nancy Manerva Fortner in Palmyra, Macoupin County,
Illinois,
July 29,1873. Nancy Manerva died in 1905 and is buried in the Ralph
Campbell
Cemetery in Lone Mountain, Claiborne County, Tennessee, next to her son John
Wesley Fortner. Joab Fortner was interred in the National Cemetery in
Knoxville,
Tennessee. William H. Alford is buried in the Yoakum Chapel Cemetery,
Speedwell,
Claiborne County, Tennessee beside William Wesley Hollingsworth and his wife
Mahala. Sorry that this wasn't the clue that solved the mystery of Elijah
Fortner's wife. I would like to know if there was a connection between
Jonathon
Fortner and Joab's grandfather Henry Fortner. So far I haven't found
anything.

Dillis R. Bolton
>>
Dillis,
Thank you for setting me straight.
The name, Fortner, was not as rare as people seemed
to have believed and people bearing the name were not
necessarily related. I have been studying Jonathan
Fortner's family all my life and can find no connection
between, Jonathan and Henry Fortner. The name stems
from Faulkner and was "morphed" into Fortner by "phonics", and people, unable
to read or spell, having
to accept the spelling of their name with no way to
confirm its correctness. Like all generalities, this one
is not quite true as there was a German family , named
Pfoertner, whose name was also "morphed" into Fortner.
Telling whether a Fortner originated from Pfoertner or
Faulkner, seems like an impossible task unless you are
able to trace their lineage back through enough generations to find either a
Pfoertner or Faulkner. A fact that may help: Pfoertner Fortners settled in
Wilkes County,
N.C.
Warren Tyndale Faulkner


Warren Tyndale Faulkner,
Great,Great, Great, Grandson of
Jonathan Fortner

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