Our Family History

Chronicling our family has been a devoted task that has provided a considerable amount of recorded information, surprises and stories passed from generation to generation. The legacy of the Kimble family history is as dynamic and varied as the branches of the family tree. With a significant number of the family’s lineage no longer with us to share and confirm important facts, its history is restricted among the files and records located in county record offices, genealogy websites, historical societies and DNA laboratories. This is a summerization of documents obtained from various sources; it does not provide a narrative of the family’s history.

The origin of the Kimble legacy can be traced back roughly 50,000 years through DNA analysis. At conception, a person receives DNA from both the father and mother. The Y-chromosome is transmitted from father to son. Testing the Y-chromosome provides information about the direct male line, meaning the father to his father and so on. We also inherit our mitochondrial DNA, mtDNA, from our mother, and none from our father. The mitochondrial DNA is passed from mother to child. Since only females pass on their mtDNA, testing the mtDNA tells about the mother, to her mother, and so on along the direct maternal line.

A DNA analysis was conducted in 2007 to determine the historical origins and the ancestral line of the Kimble descendants. The Y-DNA analysis determined that the Kimble family male paternal lineage traces to a European ancestor. This means that following Solomon's father’s, father’s, father’s line would lead to a European man at the source of the Kimble lineage. Later historical records would designate our family’s race as mulatto and it would probably be accurate to conclude that the patriarch (Solomon Kimble) of our African-American family was the offspring of a Caucasian. 

It doesn’t appear that the Kimble history has ever been written. In chronicling the family origins through the U S Census records, the Kimble name had several spelling variations. In the 1900 Census the name appeared as “Kimbal” and was recorded as “Kimbel” in 1910, “Kimball” in 1920 and changed to its current spelling of “Kimble” in the 1930 Census. The reasons for the changes are unknown, but it can be assumed that the census takers phonetically transcribed the names. The Kimbro variation of the name appeared in an old family bible and the 1850 and 1860 Slave Schedule for Caswell County, North Carolina which identified the “Kimbro/Kimbrough” family as major slave owners. However, the schedule only listed the slaves under their owner’s name. It has not been confirmed whether Solomon was a slave of the Kimbro/Kimbrough plantation.

 

In this volume, our family story begins with Solomon, rather than his father, George. As of this moment, sufficient data regarding George has not been located. It is suspected that George Kimbro/Kimbrough, born in about 1797 and lived in Alamance County, North Carolina, was Solomon’s father. He owned a family of slaves and had three mulatto children living in his household in 1850. Also, he may have been related to William Kimbrough who owned a large plantation in Caswell County. This is where George may have had access to Solomon's mother when he visited his Kimbrough relatives.

According to census documents; Solomon was born in Caswell County, North Carolina in 1855. His parents were George Kimbro and Salina (Lina) Adkins. The information regarding his mother and father was obtained from his death certificate, which was recorded January 20, 1917 and on file at the Orange County, North Carolina Records of Deeds. At the time of his death, he resided in Orange County, North Carolina and was buried in Hickory Grove Baptist Church Cemetery in Chapel Hill, NC. This cemetery was originally established for African-American descent burials. 

In 1882 while still a resident of Caswell County, Solomon at the age of 27 married Margaret Enoch; the daughter of Bedford and Christena Encoh of the Anderson Township of Caswell County. At the time of their marriage, Margaret had two sons, Lucian Enoch, 2 years old (1878 - 1902) and John Enoch, 4 years old (1880 -1921). It is speculated that Margaret passed a few years after their marriage and in 1900, her parents and sons migrated to Springfield, Ohio.

Having migrated from Caswell County to Orange County, Solomon married Mary Jane Moton of Alamance County February 26, 1893 and worked as a farmer. At the time of their marriage, Solomon was 38 years of age and Mary Jane was 18 years old. During that union, they had 10 children. Following the birth of their first four children (Ollie, James, Henry and William), they moved to the Burlington Township located in Alamance County, North Carolina. During their time in Burlington, six additional children were born (Katie, Matrina, Robert, Alice, Murvin and Lucille). It appears that William and Katie may have passed away as infants or toddlers.

 

 

What about Mary Jane...

 

Mary Jane (Moton) Kimble

(1877 – 1936)

 

Mary Jane Moton is considered the matriarch of the Kimble family we know today.  Yet more is known about her immediate family than her.  Born in 1877 to a free woman of color and a father likely enslaved, Mary Jane lived in Alamance, North Carolina until 1880 when she and her brother, John Jr., were left in the care of the Pennix family in that county by their mother, who was returning to Guilford County, North Carolina.

 

Mary Jane’s mother, Martha, was born in 1849 and listed in the 1850 Guildford County, North Carolina census as the one-year old mulatto child of Richard Morton.  She was born free, but census records are unclear of her father’s citizenship, whose birth was listed as 1804.  He was not listed as a slave holder in the 1850 North Carolina slave holder census.  Nor was he listed in the 1860 slave census.  Given he married an enslaved woman would suggest that he was born a slave to the large slave holding Motons of Cumberland County, North Carolina.    

 

Grandfather Richard Moton was an artisan.  When the 1860 census was recorded, he had taken a job as a live-in blacksmith to a white Davison County, North Carolina family; daughter Martha was living with extended family members or friends.  Twenty years later, the 1880 census reported 76 year old Richard, a mulatto, as living with his daughter Lizze Wallace in Concord, North Carolina.

 

The 1870 census listed Mary Jane’s parents as being married. Though unrelated, both shared the same surname, signifying they too were connected to the large slave holding Motons of Cumberland County, North Carolina.  Unlike free-born Martha Moton, John Moton, Sr. appeared to have been enslaved because he was not listed in any census records prior to 1870.  (The custom was not to list slaves [chattel property] in the census.)

 

In the 1880 census, Mary Jane was recorded as stepdaughter to Martha’s next husband, John Wade. However, the 1900 census did not record Mary Jane in the Wade household; she had married seven years earlier and was living with her husband, Solomon.   Martha and John Wade were living in the High Towers Township of Caswell County, North Carolina with their children, Frank, Albert and Iroh Wade.   Subsequently, the 1920 census reported Martha as living with son John Moton, Jr.  At the time of her passing at age 82 on April 12, 1931 she was residing with him at 1418 Ashe Street in Greensboro, North Carolina.

 

The 1900 census suggested that Mary Jane had at least one half-sister, a child of her father’s.  At time of that census, John, Sr. was staying in the Moton Township of Alamance County with a live-in servant named Margaret Pinnix. Margaret may have been a slight more than just a housekeeper as the 1897 death record of Bessie Pennix Waddell of Burlington, North Carolina identified John Moton as the young woman’s father.   

 

Eighteen year old Mary Jane wed 38 year old Solomon Kimble February 26, 1893 in Caswell County, North Carolina. Their marriage license indicated that she was 18 having been born in 1877 However, previous records indicate that Mary Jane was born in 1875 - she possibly change her birth date as a pretext for the purpose of getting married. Their union lasted until Solomon’s death in 1917. Afterwards she moved to Greensboro with her children Robert, Alice, Murvin and Lucile; and was later joined by her oldest son, James (Tom). Mary Jane passed in 1936 at age 59, five years after the death of her mother.

 

Note: John, Jr. was born in 1874 and married Ora Wagstaff (born 1880) October 27, 1895 in Caswell County, North Carolina. The 1920 census stated that they had five sons named Walter, Ernest, Daniel, George and Luther.

It was at this point that the core of the Kimble legacy was put into place and our family's foundation was established.  The larger story is in the families that have evolved from the nucleus. The Kimble family history is far from complete and there is much more to be discovered. The family is constantly being expanded through the Moton, Rogers, Petty, Moore, Smith, Nunn, Clapp, Alston, Nickens, Hargraves, Barden, Gaskins, Cooper, and Jewel family lines.

 

What a wonderful gift to future generations if we all continue to research and record our past history and the history as we make it. Our family history occurs every day but it is rarely recorded.

 
 

The Kimble Siblings - Family Reunion - September 1946

The Motons (Ernest Moton on right)

Martha (1857-1933) & Iverson Kimber (abt 1843-1911) (Solomon's Sister)