National Photography Month Brings to Mind.

Of my Langley ancestors, I have to thank my great Uncle Charlie Langley who managed to pull the Benedict Langley family and his in laws John Self family, who were my grandmother's father's sister and her mother's brother, for a family portrait. None of us would have known what Benedict and Sarah Hankins looked like without those pictures.

Benedict Langley Family.
Thanks to DNA tests we have now gathered descendants from all the children. 

John and Mary Etta Gildon Self.
Charlie and Minnie Self Langley are on the right of the picture looking at it.

I also on a personal note am recognizing my Aunt Lynn Langley Sneed and my mother Mary Whitson Langley for their many pictures over the years. So many moments would have been lost. I am thankful when I open the picture box and find the pictures we tended to protest being made to pose for over the years.  Looking for Langley contributors. If you have a story or picture to contribute give me a hollar and we'll join forces.

Lenore Gildon Langley and myself taken by Mary

My dad and I taken by Lynn

My cousins on my aunt's milk cow. taken by Lynn. 

Joining in with Elizabeth O'Neal's "Genealogy Blog Party"   Join with us, it is fun.

The Beginning ... .

What we know of our progenitor William Henry Langley has been found through US Federal Census records, marriage records, Deeds, and information given by descendants on son's death record.  
On the Census records, William H is consistently given as being born in North Carolina. The autosomal DNA tests done by multiple descendant lines tell us that we are related to James Langley and Betsy Humphlett/Umphlet through his mother Milly Langley. 
We participate in the Langley Y-DNA project. Y-DNA has yet to reveal a paternal line. The closest match we have is Genetic distance of 4. There has only been on descendant of our line who has done the Y-DNA test. Hopefully as this moves along, someone else related to us will also do the the test. 

1840, Milly Langley is in Laurel County, Kentucky and one of the hash marks is consistent with William's age. 

1843, William H marries Nancy Carrier in Laurel County.

1850 William is shown as Wm. and Nancy on the Laurel County, KY census with 3 children.

1858 Cloudsberry Collier of Maryland assigns a War of 1812 Land Warrant to our William H Langley ... [Research showed that Cloudsberry never left Maryland and William never went to Maryland. Research in Land Bounty Warrants at the National Archives revealed The majority of those who received warrants under the acts of 1847 to 1855 did not use them to make land entries themselves but sold them to others who did. A Lawyer representing Collier acted on his behalf to make the assignee.] 

1858 William H and Nancy are selling land in Mercer County, MO. .   
Benedict was born in Missouri, so we can assume this was the county he was born in. One portion was sold to Benjamin Cox who's son married a daughter of William later, and one portion to a Elia Smith.

From 1860 to 1880 William and Nancy are in Daviess County, Missouri, United States.

1900 William and Nancy are with their Daughter Mary who married a John Nelson.