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Person · David Chenault
The record
- HHomethe fan · what changed · open questions
- MMigrationbirths and deaths on a map, by decade
- TTimeline609 entries · 5 eras
- PPeople290 cards, by generationDavid Chenault
- LLines13 surname pages
The evidence
- DDocuments896 thumbnails, filterable
- SSourcesS1–S1207, with where each is cited
The findings
- How the wall came downProeger line
- The glass patentsProeger line
- How the Caffey half was closedCaffey line
- What the DNA saysits own page
- Four routesMigration
- The asymmetryLines
- Open questions20 questions
- Add to this recorda form, read by Earl
How to read this record
Every claim is tagged
Most family trees flatten everything into the same confident typeface. This one does not.
The three research tags below are the whole point of the exercise: they say what a document
proves, what the weight of evidence suggests, and what nobody has found yet. A fourth marks
what the family stated directly, where no document has been retrieved at all — it is kept
separate on purpose and is never quietly promoted to confirmed. A fifth, added on
13 September 2026, marks biological evidence: a DNA result is not a document, and it is not
testimony either. Two further labels mark where this page withholds information
rather than lacking it.
ConfirmedAttested by a document that was actually retrieved and read — a census sheet, a
government index, a grave marker, a family-written obituary.
ProbableStrongly supported but not nailed down: a user-contributed tree, a masked index field,
or a chain of consistent circumstances. Believable, not proven.
Not foundSearched for and not located. This is a statement about the search, not about the
person — the record may well exist somewhere unsearched.
Family testimonySupplied by the family and recorded on their word — no document has been retrieved for
it. Note the diamond rather than the dot: this is provenance, not proof, and it stands
apart from the three record tags above S24.
DNA evidenceBiological evidence consistent with a claim. It corroborates origins; it does
not by itself establish a person or a link. Note the bar rather than a dot or a diamond:
no DNA result on this page is ever counted as confirmed, because no document
was read for it S46.
Living — withheldThe person is living. By the privacy rule for this page, name and relationship are
shown, and at most a year the family has already published. Full dates of birth, ages,
places of residence and record identifiers are held back.
Research in progressA branch that is actively being worked on. The node exists in the structure so the
shape of the family is honest; the detail is simply not in yet.
- Married
- Louisa Quishinberry
- Children
- Nannie Chenault, Maria Louise Barry
- Sources
- 7
- Images
- 3
Research status
Research status: PROBABLE — her death certificate names only "D. Chenault" of Kentucky. What would confirm it: a record spelling out David as her father (marriage bond, probate, or an 1850 census naming relationships).
Evidence: Nannie's 1915 death certificate, which names her father only as “D. Chenault” of Kentucky. Weak or missing: No first name on it; nothing yet spells out David as her father. Not yet confirmed. Know more? Confirm or correct this →
Life in the order the records give it
Birth1850
Head of a Sumner County, Tennessee household in 1850: David, 50, born Kentucky; Louisa, 39; Nancy, 6
S97Census1860
In 1860, P.O. Gallatin, a farmer aged 60 with real estate of $52,600; Louisa 48, Nancy 15, and Harvy, Milton, Mariah and William
S206Burial1800
His headstone, an obelisk in an iron-fenced plot, reads “DAVID CHENAULT, BORN Feb. 15, 1800, DIED Dec. … 188[3?]”
the day and last digit of the death year are hidden by grass in the only photograph we have. Photograph shared on Ancestry by SMitchell7866; Probable until a burial record is read.
Family parents, marriages, children, siblings
Marriage1811
🆕 A compiled genealogy,
Colonial Families of the United States, says Louisa Quisenberry, born 29 September 1811 in Madison County, Kentucky, married David Chenault “of the same county” on 25 October 1827, and that they settled in Sumner County, Tennessee, and had
14 children S426. Two of his sons' death certificates name him: Milton's (1917) as D. Chenault of Kentucky
S427, and Charles's (1936) in full as
David Chenault, born Kentucky, with Louise Quisenberry as the mother
S425. added 25 September 2026.
Children1851
🆕 His daughter
Maria Louise Barry, born 15 July 1851, died in Sumner County on 13 July 1933; her death certificate (no. 15453) names her father David Chenault, born Kentucky
Confirmed S961. His 1827 marriage is now read from the register image
S96. added 29 September 2026
Photos & documents 2 photos · 1 document
Photos (2)
Documents (1)
Documents · 1 page image all documents
Retrieved from the UNT Libraries' Portal to Texas History,
or — for the University of Texas Cactus yearbooks — from Texas ScholarWorks.
Each thumbnail opens the full page scan, which can also be downloaded. The quoted text
is the OCR that ships with the scan, copied verbatim; the page image is the authority.
In the record
Generation 5 — the immigrants and the frontier
- S96KY County Marriage Records — David Chinault [Chenault] + Louisa Quishinberry, 25 Oct 1827, Madison County, Kentucky. Ancestry record 902385342. Image examined in the Stage 2 reading, 24 September 2026: Madison County marriage register, p. 166, the return of the minister David Chinault Senr., “October the 25th day 1827 was David Chinault and Louisa Quishinberry married.” CONFIRMS Nannie Chenault's parents' marriage. The return gives no ages, parents or bond. "Senr." hints that the groom was the minister's son, but the return does not say so. Film no. 000183302.
- S971850 US Federal Census — David Chenault household, District 3, Sumner County, Tennessee. David Chenault, 50, b. KY; Louisa, 39, b. KY; Nancy, 6, b. TN (Nannie G. Chenault); plus 9 other children. NARA M432, Roll 897, Page 150b. Ancestry collection 8054, record 6857140. Shows the full Chenault household with Nancy age 6 — Nannie G. Chenault. Also records David Chenault household in Sumner Co., TN.
- S2061860 U.S. Federal Census — David Chenault household, District 3, Sumner County, Tennessee (P.O. Gallatin). Ancestry record 22605797; page 48, dwelling 323. Read from the image at full resolution, 22 September 2026. David Chenault, 60, farmer, born Kentucky, RE $52,600, PE $31,120; Louisa, 48, born Kentucky; Nancy, 15; with Harvy 23, [Lucy?] 12, Milton 11, Mariah 8 and William 6. 🔑 Nannie at fifteen in her father's house, ten years after [S97]. ⚠ The household may continue on page 49 (not fetched); one sister's name is not certain.
- S425Tennessee death certificate no. 8387 — Charlie C. Chenault, 19 March 1936, Castalian Springs, Sumner County. Ancestry record 654969. Image examined, read 24 September 2026. Confirmed Charlie Cornelius Chenault (written “Cornenlis”), white, widowed, farmer for 50 years, born 28 December 1858 in Tennessee, died 19 March 1936 at Castalian Springs, Civil District 1, Sumner County, aged 77, of a cerebral haemorrhage; father David Chenault, born Kentucky; mother Louise Quisenberry, born Kentucky; buried Gallatin Cemetery, 21 March 1936. The middle name Cornelius comes from an informant in Murfreesboro; the tree has Coker. Neither is settled, and both are recorded. Gallatin is his burial place, not where he died.
- S426Colonial Families of the United States of America, p. 429 — the Quisenberry family: Louisa, wife of David Chenault. Ancestry record 450007999. Image examined, read 24 September 2026. Probable “I. Louisa, b. in Madison County, Ky., 29th September, 1811; m. 25th October, 1827, David Chenault of the same county; they settled in Sumner County, Tenn.; 14 children.” A compiled genealogy, not an original record. Its marriage date agrees with S96. The count of 14 children is the book's and has not been checked against the censuses. Louisa's father is on p. 428, which has not been read.
- S427Tennessee death certificate, file no. 26 — Milton W. Chenault, 27 January 1917, Castalian Springs, Sumner County. Ancestry record 15187030. Image examined, read 24 September 2026. Confirmed Milton W. Chenault, white, married, farmer, born 1 June 1849 in Tennessee, died 27 January 1917 at Castalian Springs, Civil District 18, Sumner County, aged 67 years 7 months 26 days, of Bright's disease; father D. Chenault, born Kentucky; mother “Quinsberry”, born Kentucky; buried in the Chenault Graveyard, 28 January 1917. Ancestry attached this record to his father and indexed the mother as “Winesberry”; the image reads Quinsberry. The day of birth is overwritten, but the stated age counts back exactly to 1 June 1849.
- S961Tennessee certificate of death, state no. 15453 — Mrs Maria Louise Barry, 2nd Civil District, Sumner County, 13 July 1933. Ancestry record 30376385. Image examined in the Stage 2 reading, 24 September 2026. Confirmed Mrs Maria Louise Barry, white, widow, housekeeper, born 15 July 1851 in Tennessee, died 13 July 1933 at 1.15 p.m. in the 2nd Civil District of Sumner County, aged 81 years 11 months 28 days, of angina pectoris. Father David Chenault, born Kentucky; mother's maiden name Quinesberry, born Kentucky. Informant Mr. Henry Dun[…] of Gallatin; buried in the Barry graveyard 14 July 1933; undertaker John R. Harris, Gallatin. Her birth date and her parents come from the informant, 82 years after her birth; the death date and place are primary. "Quinesberry" is a spelling of Quisenberry, as "Lizzie Eastberry" on her sister Nannie's certificate (S208) seems to be. Collection: Tennessee, U.S., Death Records, 1908–1965.