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Genealogy: Finding Your Folks

The Oakley family of the Bethany Community

By JUDY FOWLER KILGORE
jkilgore@thecitizennews.com

I was all set to wrap up the Bethany series with the Boyds this week, when an unexpected surprise appeared in the mail. I received a beautifully handwritten letter from Ruby Oakley Thompson of Union City who gave me the genealogy of the Oakley family of Bethany.

By a strange coincidence, earlier this week I also received a 50th wedding anniversary announcement concerning Ruby’s nephew and his wife. The announcement noted that “Aunt” Ruby was a witness both to the marriage 50 years ago, and to the anniversary which occurred recently. Part of my job at The Citizen, in addition to doing this column and being religion editor, is also doing weddings, engagements and anniversaries. That was an odd coincidence, wasn’t it?

I am pleased to include Ruby’s family in this series. I hope you genealogy folks out there are saving all these wonderful family histories. I’m printing them out and tucking them into my Fayette County Heritage Book.

The following is the Oakley story as written by Ruby.

John Oakley was born about 1800. He was accidentally killed by a falling tree in 1842. He was buried near Lee’s Lake in Fayette County, Georgia. His wife, Elizabeth, was born in 1808 and died in 1892. She is buried at Hopeful Primitive Baptist Church Cemetery. John and Elizabeth had three children: James Madison Oakley, Sally Oakley Bishop and Martha Oakley Bailey. James Madison Oakley was my grandfather, b. 1826, d. 1911. He was married to Amelia Ann Sims, b. 1826, d. 1848. They had one child who died at birth, James Madison later married Martha Ann West, b. 1832, d. 1896. They are both buried at Bethany United Methodist Church Cemetery.

James Madison (Oakley) and Martha Ann had five children: (1) John D. Oakley, b. 1850, d. 1918; (2) Infant Daughter, born and died 1860, probably buried at Bethany Cemetery; (3) James Andrew Oakley, b. 1861, d. 1917; (4) Mary Ann Bethira Oakley Carden, b. 1864, d. 1930; (5) William Brewer Oakley, my father, b. 1867, d. 1932.

William Brewer Oakley married Susan Elizabeth McGarity, b. 1872, d. 1936. She was from Henry County, Georgia. Both are buried at Bethany UMC Cemetery. They had eleven children:

(1) Bertha Mae Oakley, b. 1892, d. 1993. She married Garfield Glass. No children. Stepson, Woodrow Glass, buried at Bethany.

(2) Willie Eugenia Oakley, b. 1894, d. 1978, married Lummy Floyd Stewart. Both are buried at Bethany. They had three children: Hazel Stewart Peppers, James Oakley Stewart, Jean Stewart Ellis. A grandson, Scott Stewart, is buried at Bethany.

(3) Minnie Lois Oakley b. 1896, d. 1974. Never married.

(4) Andrew Jefferson Oakley, b. 1899, d. 1975. Married Margaret Tatum. One child, Katherine Oakley Lind.

(5) Eunice Jewel Oakley, b. 1901, d. 1982. Married Marvin G. Cochran. Both are buried at Bethany. They had two children, Marvin Gerald Cochran Jr. and William Oakley Cochran.

(6) Dewitt James Abner Oakley, b. 1904, d. 1997. Married Addie Butler. They had five children, Ann Oakley Drake, Abner Oakley, Arleen Oakley Palmer, Alan Oakley and Audrey Oakley Warr.

(7) Infant son (not named), b. 1906, d. 1906. Buried at Bethany.

(8) George Troy Oakley, b. 1908, d. 1987. Married Lillian Shumate. They had two daughters, Angelyn Oakley Tripp and Carol Oakley Murray.

(9) Herman Ray Oakley, b. 1910, d. 1991. Married Ann Walker. They had one child, William Ray Oakley.

(10) Ralph Merril Oakley, b. 1913, d. 1915. Buried at Bethany.

(11) Ruby Elizabeth Oakley, b. 1916. Married Julian Franklin Thompson, b. 1909, d. 1989. He is buried at Bethany. They had two children, William Andrew Thompson and David Oakley Thompson.

Angeline McGarity Renfro, a sister of Mrs. W.B. Oakley, is also buried at Bethany.

That concludes Ruby’s genealogy of the Oakley family and really helps me identify more of those graves at Bethany. There also are some Thompson graves near the Oakley family which, I assume are members of Ruby’s husband’s family.

Out of curiosity, I checked my own family file for Oakleys as a connecting family and found one — Jewel Oakley married to Marvin G. Cochran. Marvin’s Cochran family connects to the Cochrans into which my great-grandmother’s sister married.

If I have this family correct, Marvin was the son of John Homer Cochran and Rhoda Astin. John Homer Cochran was the son of Felix Frank Cochran and Susan Cook. Frank was the son of George Cochran and Mary Gaffie Weed, and the brother of Henry Newton Cochran whose diary we did in the column in July and August of 2003. Henry Newton Cochran married my great-grandmother’s sister, Matilda Chatfield Owens in 1869 in Campbell County.

Excerpts from Henry Cochran’s diary are in the archived columns online. Links to the archived columns appear on the opening page of the column. Go to www.thecitizennews.com and scroll down until you see “Genealogy: Finding Your Folks” on the right. Click on that link and you’re off and running to all the columns we’ve done since January of 2001.

You will find more complete birth and death dates on most of these Oakleys in the new, updated Fayette cemeteries book which you may pick up at the Fayette County Historical Society in Fayetteville.

I can’t tell you how thrilled I was to get Ruby’s letter and how grateful I am to be able to include her family in the Bethany series. Thank you, Ruby!

Now, unless I hear from someone else with a Bethany family, I will definitely start on those Boyds next week.

I welcome all letters and e-mails about genealogy and info on south metro Atlanta families. Send them to The Citizen, P.O. Drawer 1719, Fayetteville, GA 30214; e-mail jkilgore@thecitizennews.com or jodiek444@aol.com. Any letters and/or e-mails I receive are subject to being used in the column.

Until next week, happy hunting!