Bob - Just read your interesting letter about your Karnes - Kerns line.
My ancestor was Abraham Carns (Cairnes, Kearnes, he dropped all
unneccessary letters, so the story goes) who came from N. Ireland and
settled in Augusta Co. Va., among the Scotch-Irish, in 1789.
In doing my research, I ran across a Bessie Kern Regal who claimed that
my Abraham was part of her family. In corresponding with her, she sent
me a copy of her application for DAR membership. She did indeed, have an
Abraham in her line. However, my Carns was very definitely from N.
Ireland as testified by publications of his children, including my Gr
Grandfather.
In doing further research I ran across a man by the name of Kerns who
lived in Northern West Virginia and had done all kinds of work on his
Family line. In corresponding with him, I found that he was descended
from the same Family as Bessie Kern Regal. Both descended from the same
immigrant from Germany.
The sad part now is, I am spending the winter in South Texas and my
correspondence on the Kerns Family is in Wisconsin, where my permanent
residence is located. I would be happy to get you this address for you
as soon as I return to Wisconsin in April.
If I remember correctly the Kerns in W. Virginia published some of his
books and very possibly you could find them in The Family History Center
in SLCity. If you live near to an LDS Branch Library, and they are
located throughout the Country, you could check with them and could
easily tell from their computer if these books are in their library and
also if they are on microfilm. If they are on microfilm, you could
order through their branch library a copy and then use their facilities
to study this information. Sorry, I can't be of more help.
Keep up the research. James L. Carns