Doctor Grandma

From family stories, we believe it is very likely my husband’s GGGrandmother was Native American, or Indian. (Many Native peoples call themselves Indian). Her name was Julia Kenern. She had a first marriage because she had other children when she married AL’s GGGrandfather, Tom Haniford (Hannaford, Hanaford). He spelled it Hannaford. The confusing thing is, Tom’s first wife was ALSO named Julia but her name was Julia Corkery.

Julia Kenern and Tom Hannaford married on 8 Nov. 1869, in Warren County, Indiana. They then took up residence in Fountain County, Indiana. They both had children from first marriages in the household but had ONE daughter of their own, Johanna. Johanna was born 2 Jan. 1876. BOTH Thomas AND Julia Kenern Hannaford were dead within a year or two of her birth. I have NEVER managed to find death records or burial sites for either of them. Johanna was herself taken in by older half-siblings. We find her in a school picture when she was around age 14. Most of the 1890 census was lost in a fire. Johanna married John Morgan in 1897.

The story of Julia Kenern being Native is that there was a picture of them on their wedding day, or at least of her on her wedding day & she had a beautiful buckskin dress on. Aunt Lucille told us she saw the picture and HAD the picture, but made the unfortunate decision to leave it with JULIA (daughter of Johanna), Lucille’s mother. Julia Black tore the picture up and said, “Nobody needs to see that.” We have never found another COPY! FRUSTRATING.

Judging from where they married and where they lived, if she were Native, she probably was MIAMI. Here is a website that talks about the Miami tribe location: http://www.newsbug.info/wcinews/indian-reservations-in-warren-county/article_39506612-6343-11e7-92cc-b34f30849806.html

AL has a few DNA relatives that now show up on Ancestry which gave us the exact birth & death dates for Thomas Hannaford. I have messages out to them asking them where they found the dates.

Thomas named his first son Timothy. On ancestry, Tom Hannaford’s father’s name in Cork Ireland, was Timothy Honiford. (another spelling of last name)

Cena Brink, my grandmother, was born somewhere within the Wea Plains, Tippecanoe County. She always said she was from “the Shadeland area”. Her family evidently lived on a farm somewhere in this area. There are 2 small towns of West Point and Shadeland. She attended West Point, Indiana schools.

The Wea Plains has a historical marker and is one of the few sites left that show the Indiana plains. The Wea Indian tribe claims this area as their home. My Dutch ancestors would not have cared about their heritage or the value of this land to them. In their time period, they were given rights to settle this area and the Wea continue their struggle to be officially recognized as a tribe, by the U.S. government.

Cena was the 5th girl born to Martin and Trijntje Brink. (They had one boy, Henry, who did not live long.)

Cena loved school but had to quit at age 12 to do domestic work and assist her family’s income. This is what poor whites did in those days. She was very sad to quit school, and continued to recite the state capitals of all 50 states to us for the rest of her life.

— I write this because in doing some family history work today, it took some time to sort out her birthplace.