Tanner (Copeland) Kerr (abt. 1812 - aft. 1860)

My name is Isaac Breon, and I am a direct descendant of Tamar Copland Kerr/Carr. I am a 23-year-old from Pennsylvania, and have had a Tree on Ancestry.com for over 10 years. My grandfather Robert Breon and his parents migrated here to Pennsylvania in the Winter of 1945-46, when my grandfather was 12, and he was born in Dallas on September 05, 1933. His mother, Rebecca Alberta Breon (née Dilbeck), who was born in Oklahoma in 1906, was the daughter of a Methodist minister by the name of Rev. Martin Pinckney Dilbeck and his wife Emma Annie Dilbeck (née Carr), who was born in Texas in 1881 and died in 1945. Her parents were John Carr and Julia Ann Douglas, who are mentioned in the 1860 U.S. Census in Hopkins County, Texas, living right across from a Tamar Carr who was John’s mother. Aside from having found the 1860 census record years ago, for many years, I could find nothing that seemed quite definitive enough for me to feel certain that I could trace John’s ancestry back in knowingly certain ways, and ended up putting in my tree different lines that I only knew seemed plausible, but then, just a few months ago, I then remembered that, in the 1800s, people had the tendency to sometimes either spell even their own last names wrong, or change their spellings, and using that insight, with knowing that my grandfather’s family (and he, himself), has a history with being rather mysteriously sketchy, last November (I think that that’s when it was), I came across the very same 1850 census record that is mentioned in this Tamar Copeland Kerr/Carr’s biography, and the similarities between that record and the 1860 record are very, very shockingly similar! I then added that information on to my tree, and later, a whole bunch of AncestryDNA ThruLines started popping up through both Tamar’s and her husband William Kerr/Carr’s families!!

Here’s the data from the 1850 census that is referred to in this biography from Leon County, Texas:

William Keer, 40, farmer, born in Tennessee Tamar, 38, born in Arkansas Dorcas, 16, born in Louisiana John, 14, born in Louisiana Nancy, 12, born in Texas Mary, 7, born in Texas James, 3, born in Texas Rachel, 1, born in Texas.

William died in Leon County before March of 1852, and, from the data gathered in the census of 1860, some of the children mentioned seem to have died by then.

Now, compare that to the 1860 census record from Hopkins County that I’ve known of for years. By 1860, the John that I am descended from is now living with his wife Julia, and with a Mary (maybe Julia’s sister) who is listed as being 21 years old and born in Texas

John Carr, 25, Laborer, born in Louisiana Julia, 22, born in Arkansas Mary, 21, born in Texas

(The next household down is that of Julia’s mother and brother):

Sarah McCallister, 42, seamstress, born in Kentucky Henry B. Douglass, 11, born in Arkansas

(The third household down will strike many!)

Tamar Carr, 43, seamstress, born in Illinois Dorcas Smith, 25, domestic, born in Arkansas Frances Carr, 19, do, born in Louisiana Mary, 17, seamstress, born in Texas James, 14, born in Texas

(Then it goes on to list Dorcas Smith’s children as follows:)

William Smith, 6, born in Texas James Smith, 4, born in Texas Rachel, 3, born in Texas

My ancestor John then served in the Civil War (I don’t remember what exact units he was part of, but he certainly fought in Texas units.) Many years later, at an unknown date, his wife Julia died before he did, and he then married a second time to a Mary Savilla who was born in 1848 and died in 1926. She, then, lived on for many more years after my ancestor John, who died on November 04, 1892, in Delta County, Texas.

That being said, I think that this WikiTree tree should now be able to be expanded quite a bit with regards to Tamar Copeland Kerr/Carr!