Nora Wayson Moore

Nora Wayson Moore was the eighth child of William and Ada (Dean) Wayson.  She was born November 25, 1905 in West Virginia.  In 1920, at the age of fourteen, she lived with her parents in Pierce Township, Clermont County, Ohio.


In 1921, Nora could be found in Indiana which is where her sisters, Vannie and Haley were living.  While they were living in Fayette County, Nora did find herself in Grant County which is where she married Bradley Moore, brother to both Vannie and Haley's husbands.  It is not known whether she was actually living in Grant County, or only got married there.  


In 1922, while still in Indiana, Nora and Bradley became the parents of a son, Elmer.  The family left Indiana sometime after Elmer's birth and was living in Newport, Kentucky, not too far from Nora's parents, by 1930.  It was in Newport that Nora gave birth to her second child, Betty Moore in 1932.  


Like her sister Haley, the family moved to Elkhart, Indiana by 1947.  In 1950, Bradley died making Nora a widow.  She continued to live in Elkhart until her death in 1970.   She is buried in Prairie Street Cemetery, Elkhart.

This obituary was published in The Elkhart Truth June 25, 1970.

Haley Wayson Moore

Haley Wayson was born September 1, 1902 in Cabell County, West Virginia.  She was the seventh child of William and Ada (Dean) Wayson.  By age seventeen, Haley had joined her sister, Vannie, in Connersville, Indiana where she worked in a factory.  In the same year, Haley married Ethel Moore who was the brother of Vannie's husband, Martin.  


Ethel and Haley became the parents of two boys, Olin, born in 1921, and Michael.  By 1930, Haley and Ethel moved to Cincinnati, Ohio near her parents who lived in across the Ohio River in Campbell county, Kentucky.  In the 1940's, the family moved back to Indiana, settling in Elkhart, and in 1955, they located to a warmer climate, Bradenton, Florida. 


Haley became a widow in 1964 upon Ethel's death.  She continued to live in Bradenton until her death in 1991.

William M. Wayson

William M. Wayson is one of those ancestors that helps build brick walls in the pursuit of genealogy! Sure, I have been able to find plenty of information that helped me discover his contributions to my family tree such as being listed as the father in his children's birth records, and there is even a record of his marriage to Ada Catherine Dean in 1889. It's not that I'm not appreciative of all that I have found, but I want more!

William's part in building the previously mentioned brick wall comes from the fact that he is absolutely unable to be located in the 1870 census which would help me establish another generation of Wayson's. From later census information and his death certificate, I can almost say with some degree of certainty that he was born around the year 1863. If I rely completely on the death certificate, I can even go as far to say his birthday was on April 29 of that year, but then I would have to forget all the discrepancies in the census data and the fact that I have no other source for his birth. Not good genealogical practice!

Where William was born is an even bigger question. Some census years lead me to believe Ohio. Other years, Kentucky is the place! His daughter, Haley, for her father's death certificate, seemed to think that it was Campbell County, West Virginia which can be ruled out since there is no such county in West Virginia!

Without any solid clues for a location, I have searched the 1870 census for any mention of a William Wayson born about 1863 using all imaginable variations of the name. No luck! I have found a few remote possibilities, but none that seem plausible, but that's okay. I'll just keep hunting and trying all sorts of things until one day, out of the blue, some little piece of information or clue will appear that will be, without a doubt, what I have been looking for. It always happens that way. Until then, there are plenty of other leaves on the tree to shake!

Ada Catherine Dean Wayson

Ada Catherine Dean was born in Barboursville, West Virginia on March 29, 1871. She was the first child of Stephen and Eveline (Ferguson) Dean. The family would eventually grow to have six additional children.

By the time of the 1880 census, the family had settled in McComas, West Virginia. After her marriage in 1889 to William M. Wayson somewhere in Cabell County, Ada and her husband made their home back in Barboursville. It was in this location that her eleven children were born.

With some of her children grown and living their own lives, William, Ada, and the remaining children made a move to live in Pierce Township which is located in Clermont County, Ohio where they can be found listed in the 1920 census. Ten years later, she, her husband, and one child, William Jennings, were living in Newport, Kentucky.

Around1937, Ada began suffering from arthritis and heart problems. Possibly due to her illness, she moved to Elkhart, Indiana and lived either with or near her daughter, Haley Wayson Moore. It was in Haley's home that Ada died at 12:30 on April 5, 1947. She was buried in Prairie Street Cemetery in Elkhart.

Ernest Wayson

The past couple of days I have been looking for Wayson's. They are very hard to come by unless you are related to the Wayson family in Maryland which as of right now, I can find no connection. My bad luck. My Wayson's are from West Virginia, Ohio, and Kentucky and, to be fair, over the years I have found bits and pieces of their lives lurking in the census records and old newspapers. The pieces are like a puzzle that must be put together, taken apart, then reassembled until it makes some sort of sense. One piece of the puzzle is Ernest.

Ernest was born in Cabell County, West Virginia in 1892 to William M. and Ada Catherine (Dean) Wayson. In 1912, at the age of 19, he married Edna Blanche Miller. Four short years later, Edna died of pneumonia leaving Ernest with two young sons to raise.

Pearl F. King became Ernest's second wife in August 1919. He was 26 years old while she was 30. The marriage was registered in Huntington, Cabell County, although the couple listed their residence as Campbell County, Kentucky. To this marriage, four children were born - Carl Leslie, Lillian Catherine, Alice Louise, and Thomas Ernest. The family made their home in Cabell County, West Virginia.

According to his mother's 1947 obituary, Ernest lived in Cleveland, and I am assuming Pearl lived there also. She wasn't mentioned in Ada's obituary. Pearl died in 1963 and at that time, she and Ernest were living in Bethel, Clermont County, Ohio. At the time of Ernest's death in 1970, Ernest was in Cleveland, Ohio. Thomas Wayson was the informant for the death certificate, and I am assuming that he was the son of Ernest.

Ernest is buried in Seaman Cemetery, Seaman, Adams County, Ohio. There is no headstone that I could find.