Over recent years, researchers and information junkies have tried to identify the parents of Jesse and Rodhom.
Most of the attempts in recent years have been links made based on coincidence or assumption involving circumstantial evidence. Coincidence and circumstantial evidence can aid or steer research in one direction or another but cannot be relied on by itself. This is the difference between research and information collection. Internet information junkies and bucket shop commercial operations are constantly obtaining researched and un-researched family trees, mixing them into a large database and representing the database as a resource. Not verifying what little research they are supported by or comparing them for accuracy they just present them for duplication.
In the case of Rodhom and Jessee:
More often than not they have been linked to parents:
- with their offspring extensively established in written records, but no mention of Rodhom or Jessee?
- often the connection has been based on geographical locations being similar,
- surname and Christian name similarities,
- or a total lack of information on supposed parents that would provide confirmation or rebuttal to the conclusion.
Such is the case with both Rodham and Jessie. When additional evidence is asked for it turns out it is seldom produced or valid.
Geographical and name similarities can be useful, just as the absence from wills and probate records does not mean non-existence, these forms of evidence must be substantiated.
The latest connection of Jesse to a parent is that he is listed as the child of Michael Litral and Anna Shelton Litral. While the dates may line-up and their locations may often shadow each other that is also true with many others in the group that migrated and settled together over the Virginia-Kentucky-Tennessee-Alabama/Illinois/Arkansas 50 year migration. These circumstances and similarities must be supported by collaborating evidence.
In this case, there is a problem with this identification if you look past these circumstances.
Looking only at the Luttrell family lines and there being no probate records or will or birth records to verifier or dispute the connection to Michael & Anna, it would on the surface appear to be a reasonable conclusion, but in truth 'assumption' not 'conclusion' would be a more appropriate word. On the other hand, if you also look at the Shelton side of this arrangement you will find that Jesse Luttrell married Clary Shelton, his first wife that died in Kentucky. Clary was the sister of Anna Shelton which means that Jesse would have been marrying his own aunt.
Who and Why I believe the parents of Rodham and Jesse was….
Robert and Lydia Luttrell.
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Robert Luttrell of Fauquier County Virginia does not have a will on record and because Robert Luttrell migrated from Fauquier County we have not located any death records on him either.
But:
- The example of similar geographical and similar names applies here too, but limited as mentioned above.
- Robert is living with one son, Robert Jr, on several occasions which makes their connection, along with other information conclusive.
- Rodhom and Jesse belong to the same Second Creek Primitive Baptist Church as late as 1834 in Tennessee.
- Early records indicate that Robert SR. paid taxes for Jesse & Rodhom. This is the closest we come to establishing a parenting connection.
- Family lore has an occasion referred to Robert as a good uncle the inference being that he aided younger relatives either through shelter, patronage, or apprenticeships. If this is the case between Robert senior and the Young Jesse and Rodham then this would establish Robert senior to be at least some sort of Guardian for the two.
- Some oral history has survived over generations (in both family branches) that serves to identify traveling family visits between two brothers, the aged Jesse and Rodhom.
It is for these reasons I identify Robert Jr, Jesse, and Rodham as brothers and the children of Robert & Lydia. At the very least they are cousins to each other and while maybe not their biological father Robert SR was their benefactor and guardian.
One of the most common problems in doing family research is the fact that there will always be a point where you reach an ancestor that you just cannot find their parents. This is inevitable because record keeping and preservation of family stories have never been as consistent, routine or as important as 'eat, sleep, and survive'. They have never been priorities of our natural order. In doing family research there will always be an ancestor that there is no written or oral record of., or hopefully the record of that ancestor just hasn't been discovered yet.
Such has been the case for three ancestors in this families ancestral line: James, the original immigrant, and the two brothers mentioned above, Jesse and Rodham.
28 years of my own research, a lifetime of research by genealogist William Q. Hill, as well as Elston Luttrell and Laura Luttrell in the 1800s have yielded no concrete record of birth or death that contains the name of their parents. Irrefutable evidence or statements do not exist, yet.
I try to rely on the rules of evidence. In comparison to others that brag of ' a hundred thousand name database I only have a database of 10,000+ names. But these names are researched, not just 'collected'. My database consist of researched Luttrells and connected families including unidentified persons and orphaned family trees in the hope of eventually connecting them.
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