Harriet D. Culley

AUDITED 18 Sep 2026 - CREATED this date as the documented WIFE of Lewis T. Culley. Registers K728, K729, K730, K731. ⛔ SHE IS NOT RECORDED AS [121]'s MOTHER, AND THAT IS THE POINT OF THIS NOTE. [121]'s ChildTable row carries ProofMother 0 by Owen's decision of 18 Sep 2026. The will names her only as 'my deceased wife'; it never says Helen is her daughter. The 1850 census has them in one household and has no relationship column, which is co-residence and not a statement. She is here because she is documented as his wife, not because the maternity is settled - and anyone reading this page should not infer that it is. WHY SHE IS FILED UNDER CULLEY AND NOT HILL. Her documented surname is Culley: her gravestone reads HARRIET D. CULLEY and her husband's will calls her Harriet D. Culley. The maiden name Hill comes only from Feild's 1961 compilation and nothing has corroborated it. Putting an uncorroborated maiden name into the surname field would record an informant's claim in the one place readers read as fact. DATES, AND ONE OF THEM IS A RESOLVED CONFLICT. Her gravestone reads BORN Dec. 1[?] 1811 - the day is illegible, and the two compiled sources disagree with each other on it, Feild giving 11 Dec and the Find a Grave field 1 Dec, so only the month and year are recorded. Born Kentucky per the 1850 census. Died 6 Aug 1872 by the stone; Feild says 7 Aug. ⛔ THE 1850 CENSUS GIVES HER AGE AS 30, WHICH IS WRONG AND WOULD MATTER: at 30 she is born about 1820 and would have been 13 when Helen was born. Two independent instruments overrule it - the 1860 census gives her age as 48, and the stone reads 1811. The 1850 figure is an enumerator's slip, and it was checked on the manuscript, not on an index. WHAT WOULD MAKE HER THE MOTHER OF RECORD: the Montgomery County, Ohio marriage said to be 17 Aug 1830. If it is real and is Lewis's first marriage, it forecloses an earlier wife for an April 1833 birth, which is the shape the mother half is missing.