Issue B
April 2005
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Introduction
Aaron Gentry was among the earlier of the Gentrys to move from Virginia and settle in Tennessee, arriving there in about 1807. Mentioned briefly in an earlier Gentry Journal article, he deserves a more detailed description along with other early Tennessee Gentrys. References to Aaron in printed documents and on the internet show an interesting tendency to report either his family and circumstances in Virginia or those in Tennessee, but not both. We will attempt to provide a comprehensive overall summary of this family here.

Aaron Gentry's Parentage
Before delving further into Aaron's immediate family, we will mention briefly his parents and ancestry. His father was George Gentry of Hanover, Louisa and Albemarle Counties, Virginia, (a son of James Gentry of Hanover County). His mother was named Elizabeth, her maiden name is not known. Aaron was the ninth of ten children of George, all of whom were named in his father's will. One of the best authorities on George in the country is John Reed of Pine Island, Minnesota. He published an article on the George Gentry family in this journal<1> and has also contributed further information to the Shiflet Family Genealogy Website<2>. The very comprehensive information which he has provided will not be repeated here.

Aaron Gentry's Family
Aaron's children illustrate a curious combination of variations in names found in different sources. Aaron is listed in Richard Gentry's "The Gentry Family in America, 1676 to 1909" (GFA)<3> as family #188, along with eight children. The presumed children of Aaron Gentry of Knox County, Tennessee as deduced from census, marriage, land and other documents in that county, appear differently. Names of his children from the two sources are listed below along with the location where the individual was first listed in census records or listed in marriage records.

While there are duplications in the two lists, at first glance they seem like different families. A more detailed look, however, resolves most of the discrepancies, and we can propose the following family composition.

As we compare this table to the two tables of children above, it is readily seen that GFA in several instances used the individual's middle name, which may have been the name commonly used by the family. Richard Gentry obtained much of the information for GFA from a son of Hardin Gentry, namely, W. A. Gentry of Black's Ferry, Kentucky. The Joseph Gentry whom he names as a son of Aaron has no counterpart in any Knox County records and probably was an erroneous reporting of Joab Gentry.

More information on Aaron's family was published by Lucy Gentry Bates, of Nashville, Tennessee in 1993 in the "Gentry Family Gazette & Genealogy Exchange"<4a>. She is a granddaughter of the same W.A. Gentry who wrote to GFA's compiler. Lucy Bates relates:

Mrs. Bates' account very succinctly summarizes Aaron Gentry's life. She writes that in the process of tracing down clues to her family heritage, "We have made trips to Knoxville, Tennessee, Washington DC, Free Union, Rural Point, Charlottesville and Richmond in Virginia. We have climbed cliffs and crossed pastures to view old family cemeteries. We have endured the perils of curious bulls and sharp barbed wire fences as well as electric-charged fences. We have found that genealogy is a never ending quest. There are always additional places to go, more information needed, more time to dig yet deeper into the source of information."

Aaron's Children - George A. Gentry
The George A. Gentry whom Richard Gentry reports as being a son of Aaron, living in Greene County, Virginia, is an interesting study in his own right. A number of family historians credit Aaron with a son, George A. Gentry, but there is some uncertainty as to whether this George was a child of Polly Ogg (the only one), or was the oldest child of Aaron's second wife, Peggy. There is no record of a son of Aaron's by the name of George in Tennessee records, although that by itself is no indication of whether or not he was there with the family since the first surviving census records for Knox County were not until 1830. Richard Gentry's source, W. A. Gentry, wrote that his grandfather, Aaron Gentry, "moved to Tennessee leaving his two oldest children married in Virginia". They may have been left behind, but it was as infants and any marriages took place many years later.

There is good evidence that George Gentry was Aaron's oldest son and that he indeed was left behind in Virginia, probably in the care of grandparents, when Aaron moved to Tennessee. It is probable that George was the son of Aaron's first wife, Polly, and George's grandmother may have cared for him from birth if Polly died in childbirth. Regardless of who was his mother, when Aaron and Peggy moved to Tennessee in 1807, his care must have been too much for Peggy who may have been pregnant with another child at the time of the move. (This kind of arrangement is known to have occurred in other cases. This writer's grand-aunt was raised from early childhood by her grandparents separately from the rest of her very large family by agreement of the family.) There is no evidence, other than the comment of W. A. Gentry in GFA, that a second child was left in Virginia. (But see below for the marriage of George's sister, Susan Jane, in Virginia.) George lived in Greene County (originally Orange County), Virginia, throughout his life. He had very close associations with Susan Ogg (possibly a younger sister of Polly and Peggy Ogg). In 1850, his children by his first wife (recently deceased) were living with Susan while George, a new wife, and their infant child were living not far away.

George Gentry was first listed in the 1830 Orange County census, then in the 1840 Greene County census (this was a change in county name, not a change in location), and again in the 1850 Greene County census (age 47). In 1830 and 1840 in particular, he was a close neighbor of John Gentry, a first cousin who was a generation older in age. One might argue that George was a son of John rather than Aaron, but the family of John can be completely accounted for in the 1820 to 1850 census records and did not include George.

John Gentry
The report of a second child being left in Virginia by Aaron and Peggy Gentry when they moved to Tennessee, may or may not have been true. If so, John appears to have rejoined the family before reaching maturity. He is thought to be the John Gentry who married Jane McNeil in Knox County in 1824, although the marriage bond record shows him as John "W" rather than John "T" Gentry. (Two court references give his name as John "T", so that appears to be correct<6>.) His last appearance in Knox County records was in 1826, and he does not appear in any Knox County census records, but may be the John Gentry who was listed in the Robertson County, Tennessee, census in 1830, and then in Davidson County in 1840. If this is the same individual, he must have set a precedent for his younger brother, Hardin, who left Knox County some time after 1840 and resettled northwestwards in Monroe County, Kentucky.

James Overton Gentry
Besides the record of his marriages and his census records, James is named a number of times in proceedings of the Knox County Court<6>. These records, beginning in 1829, are mostly in connection with the fact that he and his mother-in-law, Elizabeth Reynolds were named as administrators of the estate of his father-in-law George Reynolds. [George's widow, Elizabeth, in time married James' father, Aaron Gentry.]

There is also in the court records, a curious order of apprenticeship in 1846 in which a John L. Gentry [born 1830] was bound until age 21 to a Lewis Ragsdale. This seems to be the John Gentry who was living with James Gentry in the 1850 Knox County census and presumably the same son, born 1825-1830, who was in James household in the 1830 and 1840 census. The difficulty arises in the court records which state that John's "mother" was present in court and gave her consent. James had remarried in 1841, we assume after the death of his first wife, Charlotte, but had they in fact divorced?. Was this a son born out of wedlock, or was it John's step-mother, Sarah, that was actually in court? It is also interesting that in 1840, the age given for James' wife was appropriate for Sarah whom he married the following year in 1841, but was too young for his first wife, Charlotte. This makes one wonder whether Sarah moved in with James before their marriage.

Susan Jane Gentry
A bride by this name was recorded in Albemarle County, Virginia, marriage bonds in a marriage with William E. Jackson in 1833. This writer is not aware of documentary or family evidence concerning this marriage, but this Susan is thought to be the Susan Jane who was a daughter of Aaron Gentry. The 1830 Knox County, Tennessee, census records suggest that she was living with her father at that time. The exact circumstances of her presence in Virginia three years later are not known. One can speculate that she went to visit her older brother, George Gentry who lived in neighboring Greene County. Since George was married to an Elizabeth Jackson, we can speculate further that Elizabeth and William were brother and sister and that Susan met her future husband at some family get-together. GFA's informant on the Aaron Gentry family, William A. Gentry, stated that two of Aaron's children were left in Virginia and married there. George and Susan's marriages must be the ones of which he was speaking.

Hardin S. Gentry
In the genealogy literature and website family trees, one can find two Hardin Gentrys with a son William A. Gentry, who are purported to be the son of Aaron Gentry. One of these Hardins lived in Arkansas, and had a son, William Arthur Gentry who died in Tillman County, Texas. Lucy Bates provides the following information on the authentic Hardin<4b>.

This Hardin had a son William Aaron Gentry who was born 1843 in Kentucky and spent his entire life on his father's farm, dying in Monroe County in 1919. He was Richard Gentry's informant for the Aaron Gentry family as listed in GFA, and was Lucy Bates' grandfather.

Other Children
There is little about which to comment concerning Aaron's other children. The middle name of his son Peter is a point of some small difference. It is given here as "Fountain" and derives apparently from family or friends of Aaron in Virginia, for the name is found there with other Gentrys. Some sources give a spelling of "Fontaine" for Peter's middle name.

There is a lack of information concerning a son, William E. Gentry. Both GFA and Lucy Bates include such a son (presumably through their common source, Hardin's son, William A. Gentry). There are no marriage or census records for this William E. Gentry, but his name is found in Will Book 10, p.118 (1849) in Knox County.

Three unidentified children are found in the 1830 Knox County census, living with Aaron. The oldest, a girl born 1815-1820 could have been a daughter of Aaron and Peggy who did not survive to 1840. The other two, a boy and a girl, both born 1825-1830 do not fit other census records as being children of Aaron. It is possible they were grandchildren living with him temporarily. In 1840, neither of these girls were present, but the boy born 1825-1830 and another boy born 1830-1835 were living with Aaron. Peggy Gentry died in 1832, so all of these children were born before she died, but it is unlikely she was the mother of the younger ones.

Conclusion
We hope that this article has helped to pull together loose strings connecting Aaron Gentry to his family. As always, there are still gaps in our knowledge and more to be done to clarify uncertain points, but in the meantime this will serve as a comprehensive survey of Aaron, his wives and his children.

References

Knox County Marriage Bonds

Note. The early records of Knox County, including marriage bonds, reflect the presence of Jesse Gentry and his family. Jesse was one of the earliest Gentrys to leave Virginia, joining his father Robert Gentry and his brother Charles Gentry in settling Washington County of what was then North Carolina by 1778. He moved to Jefferson County, Tennessee, then to Knox County in 1797. He died there between 1830 and 1840. A summary of his life and family has been reported in Journal of Gentry Genealogy, vol 1, #6 (Jun 2001), posted at URL: <http://www.gentryjournal.org/archives/jgg0106.htm>.

6. WPA Transcripts of Knox County, Tennessee County Court Minutes (through 1850).

7. Federal Census Records Relating to Aaron Gentry and Family
Birthyear ranges are given for the years 1830 and 1840. With the exception of James O. Gentry, the separate listing of family members not in Aaron's household has been restricted to the individual and spouse and are included in parentheses. All counties are Tennessee unless otherwise noted.

April 29, 2005, Minor revisions, August 2014