Obediah Childress, Sr.

CHILDRESS Ancestors
 Home Levi (1805-1879) Minerva (1830-1904) Obediah (1846-1936) Ezekiel (1847-1901) William T. (1874-1959) John Thomas (1856-1935) Rufus Green (b.1838)

Childress Ancestor Photographs
Obediah Childress, Sr. (1792-1852)

(Click here for a chart demonstrating the Childress Migration Patterns)

Find anybody, any place or anything mentioned on this website
by using the Website Search Engine at the top of the Home Page.

Click here to go to an exhaustive database on the Childress/Childers Surname...(URL changed as of 4/2010)

How common is the surname "Childress?"  According to the 1990 U.S. census figures, "Childress" is the 1,065th most popular name with approximately 27,500 U.S. citizens representing about .011% of the population.

CHILDRESS DNA PROJECT - We have an ongoing DNA project in which we are endeavoring to sort out the various family lines with the surname of Childress/Childers/et. al.  We are using the latest DNA technology and are under the auspices of FamilyTreeDNA, a Houston-based company specializing in DNA testing for genealogical purposes.  Click here to go to another page on this website for further details on the testing.

The oldest "proven" Childress ancestor is William Childress, Sr., who died abt. 1834 in the Birmingham, Alabama area.  No known photographs of William exist, so for the purpose of this album, Obediah Childress, Sr. (1792-1852) is used as the "benchmark" individual.  The rest of the Childress descendants are identified by their relationship to this Obediah.  Individuals featured in this photo album include the surnames of Ayres, Baskin, Childress, Grayson, Hill and Hunt.  Typically, the subjects were born prior to the 20th century, although there is one photo featuring four generations of the direct descendants of Grady Childress (1894-1978).

Ancestral Lineage:  William Childress (b. abt. 1750) > Obediah Childress, Sr. (b. 1792) > Obediah Childress, Jr. (b. 1825) > Caleb Childress (b. 1856) > William Thomas Childress (b. 1874) > John F. Childress, Sr. (b. 1918) > JPC (b. 1945)

The Enon Cemetery in Ackerman, Choctaw County, Mississippi is the final resting place for many of our Childress ancestors.  My daughter, Helen Anne Childress (b. 1969), is pictured above in a pensive pose (abt. 1980) adjacent to the tombs of two of her 4th great grandparents, Obediah Childress, Sr. and Selah Ayres Childress, whose inscriptions are shown below.  You may also visit the website "Find a Grave" and view many of the tombstones of those interred in the Enon Cemetery.

(Click on the thumbnail sketches below to see enlarged views.)

Childress Obediah 1792 - 1852 tombstone.jpg (34761 bytes)    Aryes Selah 1794 tombstone.jpg (38860 bytes)    Ayres Rachel 1774 Tombstone.jpg (39737 bytes)    Childress Edmond 1827 to 1904 tombstone.jpg (24947 bytes)

The tomb covering (left) of Obediah Childress, Sr. (1792-1852) is one of the oldest gravesites in the cemetery.  The covering of his wife Selah Ayres (1794-1867) is then shown, while the gravestone of his mother-in-law, Rachel McFadden Ayres (1774-1846) is featured second from the right.  The tombstone of Obediah's son Edmond Childress (1827-1904) is on the right.  Edmond was an attorney in the Ackerman area and donated the land occupied by the Enon Cemetery.

Click here to go to the Childress/Mathis Family Tree data on Roots Web for notes on the above individuals.

More Childress Ancestor Photos:

For additions, corrections or comments, please send an e-mail to Patrick Childress