Note: You’ll see a variety of spellings for the same names. I used the spelling found for the record used to support the statements. All records can be found at Ancestry.com. All newspaper articles can be found at Newspapers.com. If it can’t be found it’s because I got the information direct from my father-in-law, who knew some of these people and remembers them fondly.
Genealogy is generally the study of one’s ancestral line. But the definition can also be applied to the study of an ancestor’s descendants, though that is usually only practiced by probate lawyers or those they employ to track down living descendants of a descendent (say that five times real fast.) It’s also used by those seeking biological family that has been separated through adoptions or war.
I am one who studies the former, so I have not tried to develop the skills of the latter. However, my father-in-law is more interested in knowing where the living descendants of his ancestors are today. I do have to admit it’s kind of an interesting exercise. But I am a person who lives in a paranoid world (not because I am paranoid, mind you, it’s the nature of my career) and so I will refrain from revealing too much information about persons still living.
He recently asked about his Batey line, so here we are today. I have already posted about Philip Batey, Mary Duggins, and their daughter Sarah, who married Hugh Coomer, son of Edward and Darthulia of the famed brick wall I keep pounding my head on. For the record, I did try to use proper format for a descendancy report, but WordPress basic is not that easy to format – and I’m too cheap and lazy to learn HTML. I mean, who has time with all this research to do and a real job that gets in the way of said research, right?
Philip and Mary (Duggan/sp) Batey (also spelled Beatty) had five known children, the first may have been a daughter of Mary, but not Philip.
- Mary E. Dugins or Beatty was born abt. 1865. She is only named as Beatty in Philip’s 1870 household. She is enumerated twice in 1880. Both entries are in Danville; one in the household of Phillip Beatty, and again in her grandmother’s. She is identified as Mary E. Dugins in both entries.
I lose Mary’s trail after 1880. She is 15 or 16 and would have been 25 or 26 by 1890. If she married, she either did not marry in Boyle County, or she did not name her parents in any record. It’s also possible she didn’t live long enough to get married. - Sarah Catherine Batey was born on 22 August 1867 in Boyle County, Kentucky (most likely Danville). She married Hugh Coomer and together they had eight children:
i. Eugene Coomer was born on 21 November 1887 in Danville. He married 1) Lou Ella Cayse on 19 September 1908 in Jeffersonville, Clark County, Indiana. This marriage is believed to have ended in divorce as she lived until 1951. No known issue; and 2) Anna Geary on 21 February 1925. They had one known child who died in childbirth. Eugene was a newspaper favorite. Probably because his brother, Guy, worked there. He and Guy both served during World War I.
ii. Leila Pearl Coomer was born on 7 November 1889 in Danville and married Abijah B. Lyttle (he was called A.B.). They had one daughter, Maxine. Maxine married twice but had no children.
iii Lucille Coomer was born 16 May 1892 and died 9 September 1892.
iv. Hugh Coomer (Jr.) was born on 23 September 1893 and died 15 January 1900.
v. Guy Wiseman Coomer was born on 22 December 1895 in Danville. He married Armyl Cornish but did not have any children. He died on 26 June 1981. Guy was also a favorite of the newspapers. He and Eugene (Uncle Gene) were apparently friends with some pretty happy news fellows who delighted in reporting every little thing they were involved with.
vi. Bessie May Coomer was born on 19 October 1898. Sadly, she died at the age of 15 on 28 May 1914.
vii. Carl Coomer was born in 1901 and died August 1907.
viii. Charles Francis Coomer married Emma Celeste Reed and had two bouncing baby boys – one of whom my husband descends from. Out of this family survives grandchildren and great-grandchildren of Charles and Emma.
Gene and Charles inherited the family paint and wallpaper business, H. Coomer and Son’s. The paint store was passed along to my father-in-law. - Nathaniel B. Batey was born on 24 September 1869, most likely in Danville, Kentucky. He never married and he did not have any known children. He died 30 December 1894 in Floyd County, Indiana (probably New Albany). He was buried in Bellevue Cemetery, Danville, Kentucky.
- William Frank Batey was born on 30 October 1877 and died 22 November 1878, most likely both events occurred in Danville, Kentucky. William is buried in Bellevue Cemetery, near his mother.
- Robert William or Wesley Batey was born on 22 October 1881 in Danville, Boyle County, Kentucky. He was a career Navy sailor and died 29 or 30 July 1957 in San Diego, California. He is buried in Ft. Rosecrans National Cemetery (sec P, 2472). No known issue.
- Lillian F. Batey was born on 4 or 6 June 1887 in Danville, Boyle County, Kentucky, and died 10 July 1911 at the the County Asylum by the age of 24 of tuberculosis of the lungs. She married twice. First to Founay/Tony Cleo Canner (sp?). This marriage produced one daughter, Mary Canner. She married second to a man named Gardner, as evidenced by the name she was known by in her grandmother’s will and her death certificate. No marriage record has been found to Gardner.
She had been admitted to the poor house portion of the County Asylum to be treated for tuberculosis. Her death was reported by the Asylum’s administrators and she was buried there. Today, the asylum’s cemetery’s are unmarked, but there. are two locations that have been identified as burial grounds by researchers. The surviving building of the Asylum was rebuilt after Lillian’s death (1916).
i. Mary Canner, was four-years-old when her mother died; born about 1907. Lillian was three when her mother died. Lillian’s death certificate listed her as a widow, so Mr. Gardner is presumed to have died earlier. Nothing is know about Mr. Canner, Mary’s biological father. Mary was adopted by her great-Uncle, Squire Batey and his wife, Nannie, after her mother’s death.
Mary Canner disappeared after the death of her Great Uncle Squire and his wife, Nannie. The last known record of her is in a directory that identified her as Mary Batey, a 20-year-old machine operator living in the house that was Squire and Nannie’s
As we can see, of Philips descendants, Sarah supplied the most fruitful progeny. The remaining grandchildren and potential great-grandchildren have been obscured with time and an occasional tragic life.
Don’t worry, I know of some more Batey descendants through Phillips siblings. I’ll post more on them some day.
Hugh (Jr) obituary, Kentucky Advocate, Danville, Kentucky, Wed, Jan 17, 1900 · page 2
Carl Coomer, Kentucky Advocate, Danville, Kentucky, Fri, Aug 09, 1907, page 5
Lucille’s death notice, Interior Journal Stanford, Kentucky, Tue, 13 Sep 1892, page 1
All clipped from Newspapers.com
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