A comprehensive study of the McCorkle family was published by Rev. Louis W. McCorkle in "From Viking Glory," 1982, Herff-Jones Publishing Company, Marceline, MO. Volume II of Rev. McCorkle's research, "From Vikings," was published in 2003 by Printers and Publishers, Quincy, IL. Because Rev. McCorkle's books are the definitive authority on the McCorkles, his numbering system will be used to identify the pedigrees of Participant # 43663 and Participant # 73251.

Generation 1: Samuel (4000) McCorkle was born in the 1720's, allegedly in Argleshire, Scotland. One branch of the family called themselves Scots-Irish, so the family may have lived for a time in Ireland before coming to America. Samuel immigrated as a young child with his parents to Chester County, PA, where they settled on the banks of Brandywine Creek by 1729. It is thought that his brothers were Alexander (1000) McCorkle of Lexington, Rockbridge County, VA (allegedly born ca. 1720 in Ulster, Ireland), and James (2000) McCorkle and Robert (3000) McCorkle, both of the Waxhaw settlement in South Carolina, and that their father may have been William (300) McCorkle.

Samuel married Sarah Buchanan, and they settled in Augusta County, VA. He made his will on 5 September 1785 and it was probated on 17 December 1788 in Augusta County. His will named his wife Sarah, and seven children: Samuel McCorkle, Robert McCorkle, John McCorkle, Martha (Mrs. Callen), Sarah (Mrs. Benjamin Chapman), Mary (Mrs. John McWhorter), and Elizabeth (Mrs. James Hulet). He also named three grandsons.

Generation 2: Samuel (4002) McCorkle, Jr., son of Samuel and Sarah Buchanan McCorkle was born 25 February 1759 in Augusta County, VA, and died in 1840 in Green County, KY. He left a will there, naming six children, John, Andrew, Nancy, Elizabeth, Polly, and Alexander, and five grandchildren. His wife was not mentioned, and it is assumed that she predeceased him. Samuel was married to Agnes, maiden name unknown.

In 1785 Samuel was bequeathed by his father "the lower end of my Plantation where he now lives," southwest of Staunton, Augusta County, VA. Samuel and his wife, Agnes, sold land to Michael Hite on 19 September 1797, in Augusta County, VA. (This deed is the source for the name of Samuel's wife). Samuel's brother John and wife, Lydia, sold to Jacob Swallow in September 1793 in Augusta County, VA.

Samuel moved to Kentucky about 1800. He is listed on the 1810 Green County, KY, census next to Alex Buckhannon and Mary Buckhannon, and near his brother, John McCorkle.

In 1832, as a resident of Green County, KY, Samuel applied for a military pension and the application process continued with his interrogation on 29 April 1833. He first stated the date and place of his birth and then listed his military service. In October 1777 he joined the Augusta County militia to chase some Indian raiders back to the Ohio River. In October 1780 he joined the Augusta County militia commanded by Captain Patrick Buchanan and marched under General Morgan into North Carolina to fight . . . the Tories near the Catawba River in the campaign of the winter of 1780-81. The original documents may be ordered from the National Archives, File S/30956. A summary of his service may be seen in Rev. McCorkle's book, "From Viking Glory," p. 201.

Samuel made his will on 28 March 1840, and it was probated 20 April 1840 in Green County, KY.

Generation 3: John (4202) McCorkle was born ca. 1780 in Augusta County, VA, and moved with his father Samuel (4002) and his uncle, John (4004) McCorkle, to Green County, KY. He was married three times in Green County, and was the father of at least eleven children. He moved to Missouri by 1826, and died ca. 1852 in Ray County, MO. His last wife, Nancy Wright, whom he married 7 December 1824 in Green County, survived him. A will for John McCorkle has not been found, but he, Nancy, and their five children were enumerated on the 1850 census in Ray County, MO. Their children were Lydia, John, Eliza Ann (4317), William, and Eanita "Nettie" McCorkle.

Generation 4: John McCorkle, son of John and Nancy Wright McCorkle was born ca. 1829 in Missouri. He married Mahala "Ann" Long in Missouri, and they were the parents of ten known children. Mahala Ann died in 1921 and is buried in the Smith Cemetery in Platte County, MO. The date and place of John's death is not known. There have been six transmission events between Samuel (4000) McCorkle and Participant # 43663.

Generation 1: James Marshall (4348) McCorkle was born 6 January 1850 in Ray County, MO. He was the out-of-wedlock son of Eliza Ann ( 4317) McCorkle, b. ca. 1832 in Missouri. Eliza Ann was the sister of the John McCorkle listed immediately above, both being children of John McCorkle and his third (or possibly fourth) wife, Nancy Wright, who married in 1824 in Green County, KY.

When Eliza was about age 15, she became the mother of her first child, Sarah E. McCorkle, b. 1847. She had her third child, "Elizabeth "Bettie" McCorkle in 1853.

A variety of surnames have been studied as potentials for the paternity of James Marshall McCorkle. With the hope of narrowing down the possibilities for the father of James, one of his male descendents has taken the Y-chromosome test.

To date, the only 37-marker matches for James Marshall McCorkle with surnames represented on the census in 1850 in Ray County, MO, are CRAVEN and PHILLIPS. In fact, the Craven family had previously intermarried with the McCorkle family. Martha McCorkle, older half-sister of Eliza Ann, had married James Campbell Craven on 19 March 1840 in Ray County, MO. (Martha had five children and died around 1850. James C. Craven had two additional wives, and more children).

On the assumption that Eliza Ann may have named her baby son after his father, men named James M. Craven were sought. A cursory examination of 1850 census records in Ray County, MO, shows that there were two with this given name: one was unmarried and born ca. 1823, the son of Joseph Craven and his first wife _____ Miller, and another was married with two children, born ca. 1825, and living next to Joshua Craven and his wife Ann Campbell. Probate records, however, show that this second James M. Craven was not the son of Joshua and Ann Campbell Craven. The identity of this second James M. Craven is not known at this time. Incidentally, there is a death certificate for James Milton Craven born 1831 in Indiana who died in 1919 in Jasper County, MO, and he has been incorrectly appropriated into the Ray County family on one of the Ancestry.com Trees.

The Craven or Phillips families have not been studied in depth, and most of the information provided below was quickly found on Ancestry.com and should be verified.

Charts on Ancestry.com list both ancestry and descendency charts for Joseph and Joshua Craven. Their father was Richard C. Craven who allegedly died in 1849 in Ray County. Richard was married to Elizabeth Catherine Raines, who died in Ray County in 1856. Richard and Elizabeth Craven had five sons (and several came to Ray County), and these sons in turn had numerous sons. At least 12 men named Craven who were enumerated on the 1850 census in Ray County were of the age to have fathered Eliza Ann's son.

One Tree states that Richard C. Craven had a brother named Joshua Craven, born 1779 who died in 1868 in Ray County. He has not been located on a census record, but if he came and had sons with him, that would increase the number of Craven men who lived in Ray County in 1849 even further. There is a Craven Y-chromosome study, and it can be seen here: Craven DNA Study.

There is a Phillips DNA study, and the McCorkle match is Participant # 75412: Phillips DNA Study. Participant # 75412 traces his lineage back to John Q. Phillips who was born in 1812 in North Carolina and died in 1888 in Tennessee. Family researchers believe that descendents of John Q. Phillips never lived in Ray County, MO, but that they are cousins of the Phillips men who did live there.

The results for Participant # 73251 in Group 2 confirm that he was not a patrilineal descendent of the McCorkle family first documented in Chester County, PA in the 1730's, moved to Augusta County, VA, by the 1750's, then to Green County, KY by the early 1800's, and to whom he was born in 1850 in Ray County, MO.

It will be helpful to learn the date and place of birth of the earliest known ancestor of the Craven match. At this time both Craven and Phillips are viable options for the paternity of James Marshall McCorkle. Because of the 37-marker match of the Phillips and Craven participants to each other, and given the fact that Jesse Phillips and Joseph Craven lived only four households apart on the 1850 Ray County, MO, census, it seems possible that these Phillips and Craven families may have shared a recent common ancestor.

James Marshall McCorkle's mother, Eliza Ann, married an immigrant from England, Charles Davis, ca. 1856. Eliza and Charles were the parents of four children. After Eliza Ann's death on 16 September 1874 in Ray County, Charles Davis married second on 22 December 1874 to Mrs. Mary Elizabeth (nee Saunders) Goodwin, and moved to Cass County, MO. Charles Davis served in the Federal Army in the Civil War.

James Marshall McCorkle refused to discuss his family background with his grandchildren, except to say that his parents had "separated" when he was young, and that he had been reared by his grandparents. He left home as soon as he could and went to Cherokee County, KS, with some of his McCorkle cousins. However, he remained in contact with his McCorkle half-siblings in Missouri throughout his life, and on at least one occasion went to Missouri and had a family portrait made with them. Some of his children corresponded with and visited their McCorkle cousins in Missouri.

James married Sarah Catherine "Cassie" Williams on 28 March 1872 in Cherokee County, KS. James and Cassie farmed in Kansas and Oklahoma, and were the parents of nine children.

In addition to Rev. Louis McCorkle, I am deeply grateful to the following cousins for their assistance: the late Fannie McCorkle Wagner, Roberta Baird Hesterberg, Margaret Baird Finck, Ricky Burgett, the late Joyce T. Colwell, John Hale Stutesman, Jr., the late Marie Lewis, the late Josephine Tell, Mary McMillan, Dana Waldron, Sue Ellen Grippando, the late Howard McCorkle, Sally McCorkle, Robert McCorkle, Sherry McCorkle, Charles McCorkle, Murthie Guy Washburn Jones, Jack McCorkell, Inez Line Wharf, Nancy L. Smith, Jane Lederman, Virginia Mills, Ben Albertus, Sybil Barnes Coke, Katherine Cummins, JoAnn McCorkle Johnson, Ruth McCorkle Banzet, Katherine Edwards, the late Clarence McCorkle, the late Cynthia Lucy Beach, Darrell McCorkell, Billie Ann McCorkle Taylor, Charles D. Musser, the late Gleava Wheat, the late Robert and Grace Larson, and Dave Woody.

Last Updated on 1/24/08
By Wallace W. Souder