Leave No Stone Unturned

The search for the Stones continues. I've had a lot of luck in the past 24 hours. I've found land records, possible siblings or cousins, and lots of Thomases, Rhodas, Benjamins, etc. Alas, no conclusive evidence of Matthew Robertson Stone's parents. If my working theory is correct, he was the son of Thomas Stone and Rhodicine Kelly. But there are no other family trees that support that. If he wasn't a son, he was closely related... a nephew perhaps. It appears that their daughter, Rhoda, lived with Matthew and his first wife Louisa for a time.

What I can tell you without a doubt about this particular line of Stones... they were quite adventurous. Maybe they didn't think so - they probably thought it was just self-preservation. But any family whose widows would go live in Indian Territory... well, I think that's pretty brave. I cannot imagine living during this time period. Crossing rivers in covered wagons, losing all your belongings, losing your loved ones, setting out  again across the entire state of Texas to get to New Mexico... just really an amazing saga of life on the frontier. Matthew R. Stone was indeed adventurous!

IF he was the son of Thomas and Rhodicine, that still leaves me stuck. They died before the 1850 census, which means if I actually find them in the 1840 in Tennessee... I wouldn't be able to prove that it was the same one (because it was just head counts, not names... and there were several Thomas Stones in Tennessee in the 1840 census). What I'm hoping is that eventually I'll get far enough back to meet up with some other family tree that's been well-researched coming forward. Here's hoping!

I'm adventurous too. Only in a sit-in-front-of-your-computer-and-stalk-people kind of way.