The family atlas
A line you can question, not just admire.
Every connection has an evidence type and an assessment. Select a person to see what supports the line—and where certainty changes.
The direct line
Select a person to follow the evidence.
The dashed connection is an accepted high-confidence conclusion from indirect evidence—not a direct parentage statement.
Swipe or use the arrow keys to see every generation →
Selected person
Benjamin Meason
Born about 1776 · died 1853 · Kentucky → Missouri
Benjamin’s life is documented in Kentucky and Missouri. His place in the direct line is an accepted working conclusion built from converging records—not from a single record naming George as his son.[1][2][11][13][28][33][59][60][61][62][63][64][65][66]
- Relationship to narrator
- Fourth great-grandfather · working conclusion
- Assessment
- high confidence · indirect evidence
Original record · 1802
Benjamin signed this Nelson County guardian bond “Benjn Meason.” It documents his presence and handwriting—not his parents.[5]
Nelson County court record; public-site research copy
The geographic thread
Kentucky → Missouri → Texas
The records document the family at these stops. They do not preserve every departure, route, reason, or traveling party between them.
- 011800–1820
Kentucky
Tax returns, a marriage bond, and a census place Benjamin and his household first in Nelson County and later in Shelby County.[2][4][10]
- 021829–1880
Missouri
Patents, households, land transactions, and working lives carry the documented family network through Ralls and Monroe Counties.[11][13][28][64]
- 031880 onward
Texas
George appears in Missouri in 1870 and in Dallas County in 1880. Later Dallas records carry the direct line forward, while the route, date, and reason for the move remain unrecorded.[33][56][57][58]
Evidence neighborhoods
See what clusters around the documented line.
These are typed research connections—not extra branches on the family tree. A household, deed, occupation, or repeated neighbor can add context without becoming proof of kinship.
1829–1880
A Missouri network between the lines
Households, a shared land transaction, named family, and working lives repeatedly place the same people around Benjamin’s family.
Select a node to trace only its documented and contextual connections.
Boundary: The cluster is evidence of a durable social and family network. Proximity, occupation, and shared land do not independently prove parentage.