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Where the Record Ends

Family chronicle · Chapter 01

A family line from Kentucky to Texas

1800–present

Seven generations emerge from tax lists, marriages, households, death records, family evidence, and personal knowledge. The geographic trail reaches Texas; after that, the story names no place the public evidence cannot carry.

  1. Nelson County, Kentucky
  2. Shelby County, Kentucky
  3. Ralls and Monroe Counties, Missouri
  4. Dallas County, Texas
  5. Later generations · place not asserted
Detail of an 1818 map of Kentucky, with parts of Indiana and IllinoisPlace context

Place context · 1818 map

Kentucky near the beginning of the trail

This 1818 Kentucky map falls between the family’s documented Nelson and Shelby County periods.

Boundary: The map provides period geography. It does not mark a Meason residence or prove a migration route.

Library of Congress, Geography and Map Division ↗

Page from an 1878 illustrated atlas of Ralls County, MissouriPlace context

Place context · 1878 atlas

Ralls County on paper

This public-domain atlas page shows part of Ralls County almost fifty years after Benjamin was identified there in a federal patent.

Boundary: It is later geographic context, not a map of Benjamin’s patent tract or the family’s precise route.

The State Historical Society of Missouri ↗

Broken grave marker for George M. Meason at Mount Calvary Cemetery in DallasEvidence image

Marker photograph · Dallas

A date that does not settle the question

George’s marker gives 10 May 1818–11 November 1887. Census and family evidence instead point to birth about 1810.[26]

Boundary: The marker contributes chronology, not a direct statement connecting George to Benjamin.

Mount Calvary Cemetery marker photograph

Full seated portrait attributed to Franklin Meason outside a family homeFamily photograph

Family photograph · Richardson

Franklin at home

The family-tree title identifies Franklin seated at his home in Richardson, Texas.[42]

Boundary: The exact location, date, photographer, and original custodian remain undocumented.

Family photograph

Formal school portrait of Cynthia June “Cindee” MeasonFamily photograph

Family photograph · school portrait

Cynthia June “Cindee” Meason

The family collection carries a working identification of Cynthia; the school, studio, and exact date are still being documented.[38]

Family photograph

Andy CohenFamily photograph

Present day

Andy Cohen

Born Shannon Jeremiah Meason and raised in the Cohen family, Andy is the present-day narrator of this research.

Personal photograph

Time checkpoints

Move through the documented moments. Each checkpoint separates what the record states from what the evidence can reasonably suggest.

1800–1804

Nelson County, Kentucky

Route stage

1 of 5

The record states

Tax returns place Benjamin in Nelson County every year from 1800 through 1804 and record two enslaved people in his taxable household in 1803 and 1804.[4]

The evidence suggests

The repeated entries establish a sustained Kentucky presence. Nearby households cannot be treated as relatives from proximity alone.