Permelia Christian Ashby Hall - Changes - 52 Ancestors #46

For this week's 52 Ancestors in 52 Weeks writing challenge from blogger Amy Crow Johnson of No Story Too Small, the theme is Changes: Highlight an ancestor that went through many changes or that you had to change your research strategies to find.

Pamela (Christian) (Ashby) Hall is an ancestor who went through many changes AND I have to change my research strategies to find more information about her.

I have written about this third great-grandmother previously. I first mentioned her in my Surname Saturday ~ Ashby post, then shared the U.S. Census records I found her in at Kentucky ~ Looking for a Crack in the Brick Wall.

I find her listed as Pamela, Permelia and even Amelia in various records. She was born about 1802 or 1803 in Kentucky. I have not confirmed her parents in primary sources, though there are online trees that name parents for her. I need to change my research strategies to find out more about her parents and siblings, by exploring different kinds of records, probably probate records or land records, as well as exploring her "FAN Club," a research strategy that involves researching her friends, associates, and neighbors. There appear to be a lot of Christians in Hopkins County, Kentucky, which would be a place to start. (There is also a Christian County, Kentucky. Could she be related to the man for whom this county is named?)

I also need to learn more about history and geography of western Kentucky.  Here is a map (courtesy of Wikipedia) with the counties I need to learn more about in color.

Kentucky Counties, color added by me.

At 17 or 18 years old, Pamela married Stephen Ashby, on July 20, 1820, in Hopkins County. She had four children with him: Malinda (1821-????), Benjamin (1824-1848), Napoleon (1826-1901), and Daniel Morgan (1828-1907). She was left a widow in 1829. She remarried, on January 7, 1834, to an older man, James Hall, and became step-mother to more children, as well as giving birth to three more: Gilbert Christian Hall (1835-1850), Jane Hall (1837-????), and Henry C. Hall (1841-????).

Two of her children predeceased her and are buried together. See their shared gravestone at Tombstone Tuesday ~ Ashby and Hall Half Brothers.

Before she married James Hall, she also was dealing with the settlement of her first husband's estate, as he died without a will. Read about what I found at Stephen Ashby (d. 1829) ~ 52 Ancestors #26 regarding the settlement of his estate.

As I noted previously, I find Pamela in census records until 1880 (in Logan County with one of her sons), but I don't know when she died.

I descend from Pamela / Permelia as follows:

Pamela Christian
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Daniel Morgan Ashby
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Mary Bowman Ashby
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Elizabeth Adsit
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Charles McAlpin Pyle, Jr.
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Me