Rebecca Kerr was born about 1842 in Whitley County, Kentucky to Samuel and Esther Kerr. A child Rebecca is not listed with the Saml Kerr family in the 1850 US census, but there is a name of an 11-year-old female that looks like Peggy. There is only one female under five on the 1840 census and that would be Mary J, so it is possible that both the name and age for this entry in 1850 are a bit distorted and this is Rebecca (7 and 11 do sound alike). In 1860 US census, Rebecca is listed as a 17-year-old in household of father Saml Kerr in Whitstone Precinct, Whitley County, Kentucky.

According to a record in the Family Data Collection at ancestry.com, Rebecca Carr/Kerr married Stephen Bolin in 1867. Rebecca and her daughter Nancy M are living with her parents in 1870 US census. Names of Rebecca and Nancy M are preceded by a dash indicating a repeat of the surname Kerr, but in the 1880 US census the names are Rebecca and Nancy M Bolin. A Stephen Bolin, born about 1842, appears on the 1870 census as a farmhand without a family. Undocumented family trees have Stephen Bowlin, born about 1844 in Kentucky, settling in Jellico, Tennessee with his wife Mary Bunch. On the 1910 census he states that this is his first marriage (married 25 years). It is possible that although Stephen was the father of Nancy M, Rebecca and Stephen were not legally married and she took the Bolin name after he left the immediate community. A widower, Woods or Woodson Bowlin is also living in Whitley County in 1860 with two daughters about Rebecca’s age. I don’t find a record of Woodson in 1870 so he could possibly have married the younger Rebecca and have died before 1870.

Rebecca sells her share of her father’s 75 acres on Bunches Creek to Richard Woods 29 May 1861, Deed Book 19 page 426. Then in 1875, Rebecca sells her share of 4 tracts of Samuel’s estate to Harvey; deed written and signed 28 August 1875, recorded and certified 13 August 1878. from J Lee Sharp Family Home Page

The last record I have found for Rebecca is a census record for 1880 listing Rebecca Bolin (38), niece, in home of M Irvine Karr in Whitley County, Kentucky; with daughter Nancy M (11), grand-neice.

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