This is my first Saturday Night Genealogy Fun post! This is a prompt put forth by Randy Seaver at Genea-Musings. I thought this one would be particularly fun since a lot of my Mays relatives had a great many children.
- Determine who is one of the most prolific fathers in your genealogy database or in your ancestry. By prolific, I mean the one who fathered the most children.
- Tell us about him in your own blog post.
I didn’t need to go far to find one of the most prolific fathers in my tree. There may be one with more children, but they aren’t confirmed by me yet.
The children count for William’s children may be subject to change. I haven’t finished researching them all yet.
William Mays married Anna Click
born: About 1813, Kentucky
- James Mays; born Oct 1836, married Margaret Slusher; had 8 children.
- Frances Susan Mays; born May 1837, never married (not sure); had 5 illegitimate children.
- Nancy L Mays; born about 1839, married William Flannery; not sure of children yet.
- Rebecca Mays; born about 1841, not married; had 1 illegitimate child.
- John Harmon Mays (my 2nd great grandfather); born Sep 1842, married Celia Slusher; had 4 children (1 was stillborn).
- William D Mays; born about 1843, married Lilly; had 4 children.
- Elizabeth J Mays; born about 1847, married ? Gray; not sure of children yet.
- Thomas Lindsey Mays; born about 1849, married Sarah Elizabeth Whitt; had 6 children.
- Anna Z Mays; born about 1852, not married; had 1 illegitimate child.
- Arminda Mays; born about 1853, one illegitimate child. married James Shelton, had 2 children. married Joseph Slusher, had 3 children.
- Jane Mays, born May 1853, no known spouse or children. (Shoot, she could be Arminda for all I know right now. This family confuses me.)
- Jurena Mays, born Mar 1855, married ? Adkins. No known children.
- Green Mays, born Jun 1857, married Susannah Gillium; had 11 children.
- Sarah Mays, born Jun 1860, no known spouse or children.
- Nancy Ellen Mays, born about 1862, married Hansford Conn; had 5 children.
As I stated by Jane’s information this family confuses me too much on the census. The children’s information is always fluctuating. Rebecca has been known to jump around in age by 10 years. I really don’t like to base anything for the Mays’ on any census information if I don’t have to. As you can see they were VERY prolific. It wasn’t just William. His brother Nathan also had 16 or so children. I can’t be sure of Nathan’s though because he was taking care of grandchildren by time the 1880 census came along, so I got very confused about who were children and who were grandchildren. Eventually I’ll sort it all out. They really could have helped out by varying the names of their children but all the Mays’ rotated the same 20 names or so. With each one having children numbering in the teens, well you can see how it would get confusing!
William and Anna Mays household, 1860.