Charles Wesner McKenney (1885 - 1967)

Born 15 Jan 1885 in Pilot Grove, Montgomery, Iowa

Ancestors

Son of Leon Sebastian Humbert and [mother unknown]

Died 16 Nov 1967 at age 82 in Cincinnati, Hamilton County, Ohio

Problems/Questions Profile manager: Steven Mix [send private message]

Biography

Charles was born in 1885. He was the biological son of Leon Humbert and Martha Jane Devore McKenney. He passed away in 1967.

Leon Humbert was a young man whose family had long since settled in Corning, Adams Co., Iowa as Icarian colony migrants from Nauvoo, Illinois, originally from France through New Orleans.

Martha Jane Devore was from New Jersey, and married Thomas Fletcher McKenney of Leepertown, Bureau Co., Illinois. Thomas, the oldest child, and his wife Martha then moved several hundred miles west as farmers to Hancock, Wayne Co., Nebraska, where in 1880 they had a son, Harry Austin McKenney.

This location was not far from Omaha, and 190 miles northwest of Corning.

Meanwhile in Corning by 1885, 20-year-old Leon Humbert was working as a school teacher, along with his younger sister Josephine.

Then also in 1885, the McKenney family moved 195 miles to the east of Corning, to farm in Pilot Grove, Montgomery Co., Iowa.

It seems evident that at least by 1884, the McKenney family became known to Leon Humbert, perhaps crossing through Corning, where infant Charles Wesner McKenney was conceived.

Or perhaps Leon, as a school teacher, traveled around to where the McKenney family were residing. After all, this occupation is how Leon later met and married young Ada Lucas, also a school teacher, who was teaching some 27 miles to the west of Corning in Red Oak.

By 1895, the McKenney family had moved much closer to Corning, first in Cass Co., some 33 miles to the north. But before then, in 1893, Thomas Fletcher McKenney's young brother George Franklin McKenney had also migrated west from Leeperstown, Bureau Co., Illinois, along with Leon's young sister Rosalie Humbert, and that couple moved a further 600 miles southwest to be married in Lamar, Prowers Co., Colorado.

So it is evident that the McKenney and Humbert families were quite close through the years, as other McKenney family members also then moved to Lamar in subsequent years.

However, as a young man, Charles Wesner McKenney, most likely biological son of Leon Humbert, left Lamar to head back east, where he married Wilhelmina S Wolf of LaPorte, Indiana, and that couple then migrated south to settle in Kenton, Kentucky. So it is very unlikely that any DNA path traces through Rosalie Humbert and George McKenney of Lamar, to match any path through Leon Humbert and Ada, who soon left Corning for Oakland, California at the turn of the 19th century.

Leon Humbert also had no brothers to account for the paternal DNA match with descendant of Charles McKenney in 1884. And Leon's Heaney half-brothers were far too young to be DNA candidates. So by the process of elimination, it is evident that the DNA has most likely passed through the Roland line of Leon's mother, to Leon Humbert, and then to Charles McKenney.

So in summary, in 1884, Leon Sebastian Humbert was an unmarried school teacher, age 20, while Charles' mother Martha Jane DeVore McKenney was a young married woman of 29, with only a 4-year-old child under her wing. And the McKenney and Humbert families clearly were comfortably known among each other, despite the somewhat far geographical distance between farms. And it is also likely that none of them were ever aware that Leon had become the true father of Charles, as the DNA trail has now been uncovered only through our modern DNA studies.

Pending further DNA study, constructing the tree in this way for now seems to be the most productive path.

Sources

• Find a Grave, database and images (https://www.findagrave.com/memorial/92161458/charles_wesner-mckenney: accessed February 24, 2024), memorial page for Charles Wesner McKenney (15 Jan 1885–16 Nov 1967), Find a Grave Memorial ID 92161458, citing Forest Lawn Memorial Park, Erlanger, Kenton County, Kentucky, USA; Maintained by Debbie J (contributor 46890655).

DNA Confirmation

Paternal relationship between MRCA Leon Sebastian Humbert and Charles Wesner McKenney is confirmed by the following autosomal AncestryDNA test comparisons, for third cousin or closer relationship:

• Helen (Humbert) Mix and Charles Wesner McKenney are confirmed to be half-siblings, as children of Leon Sebastian Humbert, by Predicted relationship: Half 2nd cousin 1x removed, AncestryDNA test of Helen's grandson Steven Mix and Charles' gr-granddaugher Megan Mckenney. Shared DNA: 42 cM across 3 segments, 35% probability, half 2nd cousin 1x removed.