Audrey Marie (Clayton) Gwinn

There comes a time in every genealogist research - - at least I'd like to think that others have the same problem - - that you run into something that just doesn't fit your ordered image of how things are. It's the opposite of finding the puzzle piece that makes it all fit, it's finding a puzzle piece that just doesn't look like it belongs to this puzzle.

It started with the graduation list for Johnston, a suburb of Des Moines that is not far from where I work. There was a Gwinn on the list, but I couldn't tie him into my current family tree. Oh well, there are a lot of Gwinns in Iowa and if you loose one link, you can't tie in the current generation.

Well, second came an obit for Laura Gwinn. That caught my eye because I have a niece Laura and the ages weren't are off. But, of course, this wasn't my niece, it was the sister to the Johnston graduate. Being an obit, there were a lot of names, but none were coming up in my FTM.

Third came the attached obit for Audrey Marie (Clayton) Gwinn from the Corydon (Iowa) Times. The names were matching the two young people from before, but not anybody on my tree.

I have always assumed that the Gwinns in Iowa were decendents of Samuel Gwinn Sr and Elizabeth Graham Lockridge Gwinn, through there sons Ephriam and "Squire" John Gwinn. I was wrong.

Litterally at the same time my ancester, Samuel Keller Gwinn, was emigrating from what is now West Virginia to Wayne Co Iowa, Samuel McElhoney Gwinn was emigrating from the same area of Virginia to Warren Co Iowa. The two Samuels were 2nd cousins, once removed. McElhoney's Great Grandfather, James Gwinn was a brother to Keller's Grandfather, Samuel Gwinn Sr.

With all of these Samuels, it is difficult to keep everybody straight.

I have always wondered about the 1949-1950 migration of Gwinns from what is now West Virginia. I originally thought they had come west to the coal mines that were thriving in southern Iowa at the time, but I've found no record of them working the Iowa mines.

Could it be that they forsaw the trouble to come with the civil war and West Virginia's pivital role?