My goodness, how nice to see a post from you in my mailbox! I'm delighted that you are
well and still involved in Cate research. Over the years I've had a number of
questions that I thought our research left unanswered when the list kind of fell apart
after you were unable to monitor it. I think I wrote to Allen a few years ago to see if
there had been any breakthroughs on my immediate line but I may have just thought about
it.
Anyway, I don't think you'll probably remember me but my focus was on trying to
find the father of my ggrandfather, Charles Lawrence Cate (s/o Rebecca Cate d/o of John,
Esq.) Although C. L. said his father was John Cate, I was never able to find any one that
fit the bill to have been this John Cate and the evidence was pretty conclusive that
Rebecca had C. L., b. 18 Jun 1818, and his two sisters, Amanda and Nancy, out of wedlock.
(The only John who came close was married to Mary Mount as I remember.) if you recall,
Rebecca married Thomas A. Higdon in 1823 and they moved away from Jefferson County taking
the girls and leaving C. L. with John Cate, Jr who reared him. I keep hoping new records
have been, or will be, found to identify the father of Charles Lawrence.
The only thing I can add to this line might be a correction on my grandmother's name.
I was always told it was Ella Nora Rebecca Dorenda Cate Wyman but censuses show that her
first name was one word, Ellanora (unsure spelling), not two. However, as I remember,
your lineage is through William, a half brother of John, Jr. but that may be totally off
base as that has always been unclear to me. I would actually appreciate just a simple
lineage for you back to where our lines cross as I don't really know if you're
from the Robert Cate line or the John Cate.
One more thing, I have Ann Poe's records because when she died her husband contacted
me and sent them to me. I can't imagine that they would reveal anything but just
thought you might like to know where they are.
Again, it was great to hear from you. If you by any chance have any new information about
my line, I'd really appreciate your filling me in. I think there was still some
controversy on the list as to whether John Sr. came to Jefferson Co from NC or VA when the
list became inactive. I doubt if anyone in my line is involved in the DNA studies as
there are so few of us. Larry Wayne Cate is the only male I can think of who may have
been on the CateL.
You'll probably be inundated with mail when people get your message but I would
appreciate hearing from you if you have time.
Evelyn Spencer
Louisville KY
I'm not a member of Rootsweb or Ancestry so unfortunately haven't seen what they
have. There were a lot of hits for Charles Lawrence Cate, however. I saw one that said he
built the Cate house! I was always under the impression that John, Jr built it but I also
heard that it was Joseph's. One thing I'm sure of, though, is that Charles L.
didn't build it!