Shirley Whatley Family Tree
How will our children know who they are if they don't know where they came from.
Introduction
El Duane Whatley from Oregon and Paw Paw, Oklahoma, was the most successful WHATLEY family genealogist that I have known over the years. He and I corresponded in the late 1990s and early 2000s on where my WHATLEY ancestors fit into the descendants of Shirley WHATLEY. Duane thought my family of Whatleys descended from Phineas and his son William who left Georgia and went to Louisiana, arriving in Catahoula and Franklin parishes. Duane shared his outlines for Shirley I and Phineas in 1999 when I started pursuing Willis WHATLEY in the St. Landry Parish area where my ancestors lived. I couldn't thank Duane enough for his generous help when I started collecting WHATLEY information to find my family of Whatleys for my records. I am just now putting it all together on these pages for researchers in the family. Most of the information that I have on my Whatleys in the St. Landry parish area came from my cousin Gordon Whatley and other WHATLEY information from Duane and other researchers in the U.S..
Over the last several years, I have concluded without proof that our Willis WHATLEY was Elijah Whatley and he moved to Louisiana from Georgia following his cousins Phineas and William. Some researchers believe that Elijah had changed his name from Elijah WHATLEY to Willis WHATLEY for nefarious reasons on arriving in Louisiana. Elijah was the son of Willis Richard Whatley II, who's line of WHATLEYS were Wills Richard I, Shirley B., Willis and Shirley I. I believe that Elijah's name was actually Willis Elijah or Elijah Willis but he went by the name of Elijah instead of Willis. Elijah would have been the name of record for anything recorded. I did not obtain any additional information from El Duane on Elijah when we corresponded because I began to chase Phineas instead. He may have had additional records on Elijah that now are not available to me. Willis was a common name among the descendants of Shirley I in Duane's records. Elijah's ancestors were named Willis, but records of proof for William Richard II's descendants do not show a child with the name Willis in his records. That would be extremely unusual because of the nameing conventions of the time period.
Unfortunately, El Duane Whatley passed away in 2010 and his vast amount of WHATLEY records are gone or reside only with his family. We lost a true historian and genealogist and he is dearly missed for his contributions to WHATLEY researchers. What I have are only the outlines and lists that he shared with me. Duane did tell me that he gathered a lot of records and loose information from other researchers and that he did not have proof of all the descendant claims associated with the outilines. I can't claim that the outlines are totally acccurate either, so when you read these outlines of Whatleys, you will need to keep an open mind because there may be errors in the collected information. I also continue to add additional information to the outlines as I peruse my long neglected notes and I hope some of you who view these pages may receive something of value in your research.
Bryant Walker [descends from Ethel Mae Whatley Walker, William Wallace Whatley, Willis William Whatley, Jr., Willis (Elijah) Whatley, Sr., Willis Richard Whatley II, Rev. Willis Richard Whatley, Rev. Shirley B. Whatley, Willis Whatley, Shirley Whatley]
Shirley Whatley Descendants
Click on a family name to follow the pages of Shirley Whatley's family.
Additional WHATLEY Information
Whatley Louisiana Land Patents 1837-1913
Last Will and Testament of Shirley Whatley I
Last Will and Testament of Fereby Whatley [Wife of Shirley B. Whatley]
Last Will and Testament of Rev. Willis Richard Whatley I [Son of Shirley B. Whatley]
Copyright
All of the information on my web site, including the family history, family trees, outlines and documentation are copyrighted by myself, but are freely open and provided to family members and researchers of the surnames included. Please do not upload any of my web site to Ancestry.com or any other organization without explicit permission from me or Michael Van Walker. As a family member or researcher, you may download or copy any information from this web site for exclusive use for yourself or someone in your family. Thank you for your cooperation.