IMPORTANT SOURCE: IRA D. QUILLIN & EDNA VINEYARD
Correspondence with Robert Haskell Quillen
During the early 1990s
Written and documented by Nancy
Quillin Long
Nov. 8, 2020
Back in the day, the only way to research was to hit the streets, making visits to courthouses, cemeteries, State record offices, State Archives, etc. Another valuable source was to make contact with older living people in your tree. One of my favored sources for Ira and Edna was a man named Robert Haskell Quillen. (Spelling of Quillin in various ways is accepted/expected among kin).
I can’t remember after all of these years what constituted my desire to contact Robert Quillen, but I feel certain it was to obtain cemetery records once I learned there was a Quillin Cemetery near Bristol, TN. Keep in mind that many branches of the Quillins lived on, near, around Bristol. It is the twin city of Bristol, Virginia, which lies directly across the state line between Tennessee and Virginia. The boundary between the two cities is also the state line, which runs along State Street in their common downtown district. Many Quillins have lived or still live in this area of Virginia since the beginning of our nation.
With that said, I proceeded to call a complete stranger about cemetery records. What I encountered was a family member and friend. He welcomed me and readily took my cause under his wing and went straight to the courthouse and public library to pursue records for me.
Here’s how we match up on the family tree:
Ira D > Patton Presley > William Isaac “Willie” > Robert Haskell Quillen & Audrey Faye Quillen
Ira D > Beverly Johnson > Paul Bryan > Truman Bryan Quillin > Nancy Quillin Long
I wrote Robert a thank you note and he promptly responded with an envelope of xerox copies that he had found at The Scott County Public Library. I’m attaching said copies. It was through Robert that I learned that Ira D. Quillin fought in the Civil War and that a Mr. Shelley claimed that he died of a fever and his body was covered with his coat and left somewhere in Virginia.
Now many years later, I uncovered a census with an unknown Henry born 1868 living with Edna. A line of Quillins claim him as their ancestor (Henry Clay) under Ira D and Edna. If Ira died during the Civil War that would have been in 1862-1863. Edna remarried in 1870 to Wilson Barker. This Henry is still a mystery to me though it does not affect my lineage through B.J. Quillin.
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