Esther Elizabeth Green (Kilgore) - Parents of Esther Elizabeth Green (Kilgore)

Hi, Ken:

It'd be great if you could work on 'sorting out' based on the information in Esther/Ester's "About" ... calling on Curator help when there's a relationship you can't fix yourself. (You can do that in this discussion by posting links to the profiles in question.)

SEARCH FOR THE PARENTS OF ESTER KILGORE

By Ken Williams, a moderator of “Descendants of Lewis Green Jr and Esther E Kilgore”

[NOTE: This will be updated whenever I find new information. The initial essay was posted in May 2019.]

I have been researching my family tree for at least 30 years, but in the past year since my retirement I have devoted countless hours each week to my efforts. When I discovered that Ester – I use this name because it is spelled that way on her grave marker – was one of my fifth great-grandmothers, I wanted to learn more about her.
Most of us have been frustrated by the overarching confusion about whether her parents are Robert Kilgore II and Winifred “Winnie” Clayton or Charles Kilgore and Jane Clark. The internet only muddles the answer.

Find A Grave results

Tombstone reads: “Ester Kilgore Green/Wife of Lewis Green”
https://www.findagrave.com/memorial/63084368/ester-green/photo

The Find A Grave memorial information is as follows:

Wife of Lewis J. Green, Revolutionary War soldier. Daughter of Robert Kilgore Jr. Her father fought at the battle of Kings Mountain in North Carolina which was fought on October 7, 1780. Father was killed at Wise Co., Virginia at The Pound at a place called Warrior's Camp by Bob Benge.

Dates of birth and death are alleged and are in common usage. There is no documentation for either.

While I find Find A Grave helpful, the website is not an authority on anything. The poster of this information is a person identified only as Wallen, who has been a Find A Grave member for 9 years. Wallen is a former archeologist, retired educator and current genealogist, and has hundreds of contributions to this website. I emailed Wallen to see if this person can authenticate Ester’s parentage.

Meanwhile, the Find A Grave memorial for Robert Kilgore II concludes that Ester Kilgore Green is his daughter. That was posted in 2013 by someone calling themselves GardenGreenGirl. I have messaged her as well.

https://www.findagrave.com/memorial/117384322/robert-kilgore#source

Virginia Genealogy Network results

Also this past week, I reached out to the 9,151 members of the Facebook page called “Virginia Genealogy Network” (VGN) since Ester appears to have been born in the Colony of Virginia on 1762. Absent a birth certificate or birth notification, I am basing this information on a record of her marriage to Lewis J. Green Jr. in 1783. That document spells her name as Esther Kilgore and says she was born in 1762 in Virginia, and that Lewis J. Green was born in 1751 in Virginia.

You can find VGN’s Facebook page here:
https://www.facebook.com/groups/219540584747499/

My post inquiring for information on Ester Kilgore got some responses from people who are descendants, but no definitive answer. I think a couple of them inquired about joining our Facebook page to discover new cousins. I was also asked to contact Ray Saluda Stapleton, who has researched the Kilgore clan, but he has not answered via Facebook.

DAR and SAR results

A document from Daughters of the American Revolution (DAR) listing patriots under the surname of GREEN reads:

Lewis b 5-5-1751 d 1835 m Esther Kilgore Pvt VA

https://ancstry.me/2YiCuRk

When I did an Ancestor Search at the DAR, there were three documents hidden behind a paywall for Esther Kilgore and Lewis Green Jr.

http://bit.ly/2WCdTqc

Meanwhile, the Find A Grave memorial says that Ester died in 1825 in Bell County, Kentucky, where she is buried in the Kirby Cemetery.

Her birth year is disputed by a 1964 application for membership in the Sons of the American Revolution. That document (lists her name as Esther and says she was born in 1761. That’s only a year’s difference.

https://ancstry.me/2vQMDZn

Her death year is disputed by a 1968 application for membership in the Sons of the American Revolution (SAR). That document lists her name as Ester and says she died in 1835. That’s a decade’s difference, a significant departure.

https://ancstry.me/2WF2sOC

Alma Harings webpage: Our Direct Kilgore Family Line

I found this interesting. Alma Harings compiled an extensive report about how she is the sixth generation descendant of Robert Kilgore of Scotland (1740-1783) and Winnifred Millie Clayton of western North Carolina (1740-1784). This would make her one of our DNA cousins.

She writes:

Children Of Robert and Winnie Kilgore:

1. Charles KILGORE b: 4 JAN 1764 Orange Co NC (Sp. Avarilla Simpson )

2. Robert KILGORE b: 1765 in Orange Co NC ( Sp. Jane Porter Green) ( See Fort House)

3. Stephen Clayton KILGORE b: ABT 1767 Orange NC (Sp. Rebecca Sayler)

4. Esther KILGORE b: 1767 Orange Co NC ( alternative b. 1783) (Sp James Green)

5. William KILGORE b: 1769 Orange Co NC ( Sp. Virginia Jane Osborn )

6. Hiram KILGORE b: 1771 Washington Co VA (Sp. Rebecca Renfro

Again, I don’t know the source of her information, and the only reference to Esther Kilgore is shown above. There is a discussion of “The Savage Murders of Robert Kilgore and James Green,” “What Happened to Winnie Clayton Kilgore?” “The Fort House of Robert Kilgore” and “The Stoney Creek Primitive Baptist Association.” All of this is relevant to our blood lines. You can read it here:

http://freepages.rootsweb.com/~grundyconnections/family/kilgore_his...

I have emailed Alma to see how she authenticated that Esther Kilgore is Robert and Winnie’s daughter.

Grundy County History & Heritage search

I may have hit the jackpot at the following website run by the Grundy County Historical Society, located in Tracy City, Tennessee. This city is northwest of Chattanooga, and not that far from where Tennessee/Alabama/Georgia borders meet.

https://www.grundycountyhistory.org/family-histories-individual

There, I found a very helpful PDF labeled “Descendants of Robert Kilgore, Sr.” It has a motherlode of helpful information, if authentic. The details seem to match up with what I know from my own research.

This PDF also asserts that Robert Kilgore and Winnifred Clayton are the parents of Ester Kilgore, born about 1766. This birth date is about 4 years later than most birth dates I’ve seen. It states that Ester Kilgore married Lewis Green and adds:

Children of ESTHER KILGORE and LEWIS GREEN are:

i. JAMES GREEN, b. 15 Mar 1783

ii. ELIJAH GREEN, b. 03 Oct 1786, Russell Co., VA.; d. 15 Apr 1854, Harlan Co., KY

iii. ELISHA GREEN, b. Abt. 1788, Russell Co., VA.; d. 30 Sep 1865, KY

iv. MARY RUTH GREEN, b. Abt. 1790

v. WILLIAM GREEN, b. Abt. 1791, Russell Co., VA.; m. NANCY AGNAS MCGEORGE

vi. SARAH GREEN, b. Abt. 1794, Patrick Porters Fort

vii. ELIZABETH GREEN, b. Abt. 1795

viii. ESTHER GREEN, b. Abt. 1801, KY

ix. LEWIS GREEN, JR.170, b. Abt. 1804, KY

x. ROBERT GREEN, b. Abt. 1808; m. ELY ANN DRAKE, 27 Jan 1825, Harlan Co., KY

Here is the direct link to the PDF:

http://bit.ly/2LE8dv3

There is another large file, “Kilgore Family,” that is an extensive 468-page research document by Catherine Kilgore Flury that requires a download to Dropbox or directly to your computer hard drive. I haven’t had time to read it yet.

FamilySearch and WikiTree searches

On FamilySearch, someone posted a profile on Esther Kilgore, contending that she was born in Lancaster County in Colonial Pennsylvania on March 23, 1758 and died in Calloway in Kentucky in 1825 and is buried in Kirby Cemetery in Bell County, Kentucky.
This profile lists her parents as Robert Kilgore and Winifred Clayton.

https://www.familysearch.org/tree/person/details/L5BH-4SJ?icid=amp_...

Over at WikiTree, more “evidence” that Robert and Winnie are Ester’s parents:

https://www.wikitree.com/genealogy/Kilgore-Family-Tree-440

The RootsWeb rabbit hole

This is perhaps the most confusing place to authenticate anything! I find numerous examples of Ester’s parents being one or the other – or worse, a combination of both.
Lon and T. Whisler claim that her parents are Charles Robert Kilgore Jr. and Winifred (Winnie) Clayton! Why do I snicker at this one? They list Robert Kilgore Sr. as the father of Charles Robert Kilgore Jr. Seems like Junior would share Senior’s full name, eh?

RootsWeb is all over the place on her heritage, so I’m going to dismiss this as a place of false leads.

The Addington books, truth and falsehoods

There is a lot of information about the Kilgore clan of southwestern Virginia written by Hugh M. Addington, and most of it is apparently accurate. However, some of what he has written has since been proven to be wrong!

At the top of the “Historical Sketches of Southwest Virginia: Publication 9 – 1975” titled “The Kilgore Forthouse” and written by Luther F. Addington is this IMPORTANT notation:

NOTE: Since this article was written it has been established that Winney Clayton Kilgore was NOT married to Charles Kilgore, but was the wife of his brother, Robert Kilgore, killed by the Indians in 1782.

This disproves the Whisler claim made on RootsWeb about Winnie being married to Charles. It does ask the question: What happened to Winnie after her husband was killed by the Indians?

Ester is not mentioned in this publication, but if you would like to read the article, click here:

http://vagenweb.org/lee/HSpubl46.htm

Geni searches

On Geni, I found a master profile on Esther Elizabeth Green that dates back to 2007 that claims her parents are Charles Kilgore and Jane Clark. I started a discussion to see if anyone can prove this true. I have my doubts.

http://bit.ly/2ViwOVD

Also on Geni, this master profile on Esther Elizabeth Green stirred up a massive discussion on Esther’s parentage:

http://bit.ly/2HfKTiU

One of the tips were about three books about the Kilgore family:

1) "Charles Kilgore; A New History of the Kilgore Family Line,"
by Hugh M. Addington

2) "The History of Scott county, VA," by Hugh M. Addington

3) "Charles Kilgore of Kings Mountain," by Hugh M. Addington

Note that the author of all three books are Hugh M. Addington, the “expert” on the Kilgores who has also been proven wrong on occasion.

I found an online copy of the third book listed above, and did a search for any mention of Ester, Esther or Easter. Nada. You would think that if she had anything to do with Charles Kilgore, and especially was his daughter, that she would be found in the book. But no.

This thread has a lot of interesting information about the Kilgore clan, land transactions, relationships, etc. Many of the people in the third book are our ancestors, so it will be interesting reading. Here’s the link to the online book, and don’t be fooled by blank pages at the top of the PDF. Keep scrolling!

http://bit.ly/2vSXTUW

My conclusions

I think the circumstantial evidence is strong that the parents of Ester Elizabeth Kilgore are Robert Kilgore II and Winifred “Winnie” Clayton. However, absent a birth certificate or birth announcement, this will always been subject to speculation.

Meanwhile, if you are on Ancestry.com, make sure to check your DNA Circles and see if Robert Kilgore or Winnie Clayton are listed there. This would likely confirm their DNA connection to us.

On a side note, I checked my mom’s DNA Circles, but hers stop at Lewis J. Green Jr. and Ester Kilgore as well as mine.

I would appreciate any feedback on this, and would especially love to know if anyone has come up with a different conclusion about Ester’s parentage.

Ken Williams

Lewis J. Green, II

Lewis J. Green, II

Lewis J. Green, II

Ken: Thank you for that detailed 'path of seeking'. So, can you identify (with a link) the Robert Kilgore II Geni profile to which Ester should be moved?