I am so excited to hear from someone about this.

It looks as if you and I have uncovered a lot of the same material, let me see if there is anything that I can contribute to your benefit. Already, you have given me some information I did not have - namely the notion that Jacob Craiger is a clue that Kregger is not the only name I should be looking for. (Silly me.)

And could you tell me what Hanner's line your family is through? I would be very interested to see how we are related.

Ok, here is what I have:

1829 Marriage - Maria M Luttrell - Knox, TN
1830 Census - Solomon Aly - Claiborne, TN
1839 Land Purchase - Solomon Aley - IN
1839 Divorce (Maria Aley) - Owen, IN
1840 Census - Solomon Aley - Owen, IN
(Only 3 people are listed as being in this family, the ages are right for Solomon, Philpence and Lewis Aley.)
1840 Marriage - Philpence Kreggs - Owen, IN
1850 Census - Solomon Aley - Wayne, MO
(In addtion to Solomon and Philpence there is Lewis, Susan - my g-g-grandmother - Thomas Aley, and Jacob Craiger.

Lewis is the right age to have been the third person in the 1840 census and I guess that this is the son of Solomon and Maria. Susan evetually shows up as Suzanne Blackwell and marries into the Williams family. You have already commented about Jacob and I am excited to look into that more. And then we have Thomas - who I thought might have died.

1860 Census - Solomon Aley - Logan, Wayne, MO
(In addition to Solomon is his third wife Elizabeth Hanners, Susan, Charity, Benton, and Lafayette.)

My problem is that Charity and Benton are listed as both being 10, with Charity above the listing for Benton. THat might not mean anything and perhaps Benton is Thomas - though the names don't really match. It strikes me that Charity and Benton are probably twins, but who do they belong to? Could they belong to Philpence? Maybe she died in child birth. And indeed you are correct about Charity marrying Redmon Rice.

But what is interesting is that Lafayette Hanners is there as well. He is listed at the bottom, below the younger children. It makes me suspect that this is Elizabeth's son from her first marriage. Which would mean that Elizabeth is not originally a Hanner.

Also, on the same census, the next entry down, we have Lotty Hanners, age 24; Artamesa Hanners, age 3; and Hiram A Hanners, age 2. (I have had no luck tracking them before or after this time.)

I do show the following marriage in St. Louis, MO:

Philipp Hanners and Elisabeth Rosenberger, 16 May 1842. That is five years before Lafayette is born. So I think this is probably the same Elizabeth Hanners that marries Solomon Aley.

I hope that is helpful. (Sorry for going over information you already have.) And I do have a pretty good listing of Charity's and Lafayette's families from them downward and will be happy to provide whatever information you need.

And please, share whatever information you might have with me.


Randy