The Lakey lineage, with the seams left visible.

Ronald Earl Lakey in Tulsa County

A direct query of Oklahoma State Vital Records’ OK2Explore index returned one exact record: Ronald Earl Lakey, male, died 8 May 2011 in Tulsa County. Together with the 8 April 1951 birth date preserved in the family archive, this independently anchors Jeremy’s father in place and time.

Relationship limit: the public index does not name Ronald’s parents or children. It confirms Ronald’s identity and death, not Ronald → Ted or Jeremy → Ronald.

Ted Earl Lakey at the Conjecture Mine

Idaho’s mine inspector identified Ted Earl Lakey as a 54-year-old motorman killed in a fall of ground at the Conjecture Mine in Bonner County. His death certificate independently records the same death date, names Lewis Lakey and Dora Brauer as parents, and describes mechanical suffocation after mine timber slipped and caused the cave-in.

A supplied contemporary clipping reports that Ted E. Lakey of Spirit Lake died in the mine cave-in, that his funeral was held at the Presbyterian Church, and that burial was at Greenwood Cemetery. It identifies the Conjecture Mine on Pend Oreille Lake. The 17 January 1963 Sandpoint News-Bulletin independently says “Theodore Lakey of Spirit Lake” was killed early Thursday morning in a cave-in at the 2,000-foot level. The forms “Ted E.,” “Theodore,” and “Ted Earl” are retained as documented name variants.

Lewis → Lewis Keithly → Ted is now documented

The original 1870 schedule records Lewis and Phobe Lakey in Walla Walla Precinct, Umatilla County, Oregon: age 30, farmer, born Missouri, with Phobe, age 30, born Missouri. The original 1880 schedule then records Lewis C. Lakey and Phoebe in Hay Stack, Grant County, Oregon, with seven children born in Oregon. The 1880 middle initial supports, but does not alone prove, the expanded Crawford form. Phoebe’s birthplace conflicts between the two censuses: Missouri in 1870 and Iowa in 1880.

The original 1900 federal schedule records Lewis and Phoebe Lakey in Council Precinct, Washington County: ED 108, sheet 7B, dwelling 158, family 162, lines 93–99. A younger Lewis, born June 1873, appears on line 98 with the relationship explicitly written as “son.” The schedule was enumerated 14 June 1900 and is NARA microfilm T623, roll 234.

The Idaho State Death Index independently records Lewis Keithly Lakey as born 5 June 1873 and dying 30 July 1948 at Council. The matching name, month and year of birth, and place identify the enumerated son as Lewis Keithly and convert this relationship from oral-history-only to documented.

The original 1910 schedule closes the next link. In Council Precinct, Washington County, sheet 9B, dwelling 181, family 182, Keithly Lakey is the household head and Dora his wife. Their children are recorded as Mildred, Ruth, and one-year-old “Teddy,” explicitly identified as a son. The schedule was enumerated 2 May 1910; Teddy’s recorded age independently agrees with the family date of 17 August 1908.

The supplied family narrative adds that brothers John, Andy, and Lewis migrated from Missouri to Walla Walla in 1861, moved through John Day in 1878, and settled on Hornet Creek near Council on 14 September 1881. It lists nine of Lewis and Phoebe's children who reached maturity, including Keithley, and records Lewis's 1911 burial at Hornet Creek Cemetery. The supplied grave markers provide physical memorial evidence: Lewis is dated 25 January 1840 to 19 June 1911; Pheby, identified as his wife, is dated 26 December 1839 to 28 November 1904. The marker dates are retained as memorial evidence. The cited Phoebe death-certificate route produced no inspectable original or usable parentage statement and is closed.

Evidence limit: the migration account is supplied oral and family-history material attributed to a 1974 interview, an Andy Lakey manuscript, photographs, and cemetery records. It fits the contemporary census record, but the underlying materials have not been located or independently inspected. The wagon-train anecdotes remain family tradition, not established fact.

Proof result: Keithly → Ted is now a directly documented parent-child relationship. Ted’s public 1963 Idaho death certificate remains valuable as an independent second parent statement, but it is no longer the sole path to proving this link.

Jacob’s probate identifies Lewis as a child

Greene County probate file 6598 states that Jacob Lakey died intestate in Greene County. In media image 12934, packet image 23, administrator Simon Lakey swears from personal knowledge to the heir list. Lewis appears inside the named group immediately described as Jacob’s “children.” This directly documents Jacob → Lewis independently of copied family trees.

All 27 images were inspected. The file also contains estate inventories, the April 1848 sale bill, the widow’s statutory allowance, and later distributive receipts: Anna Lakey acknowledges “her part of the estate,” while Levi Davis acknowledges a portion coming to him.

Proof result: the earlier “strong heirship” classification is superseded. The original affidavit supplies an explicit parent-child statement; additional records would be corroboration, not a prerequisite.

Thomas → Simon → Jacob

A LiveAsFreePeople transcription of an alleged older handwritten family record gives Thomas Leakey’s birth as 16 June 1751; names his wife Ann Hadley; records their son Simon’s birth on 8 June 1778; and records Simon and Ruth Dobbins’s son Jacob on 30 January 1802. The page identifies the source as LeRoy and Jeanette White Ford’s Our Niche in History, but provides no image, repository identifier, custodian, or chain of custody. WikiTree’s Ruth Dobbins profile repeats the same structure and explicitly says a source is needed. Neither is independent proof.

The original 1800 Surry census now supplies two careful context checks. Stamped page 673 records “Lakey Joel” with one male and one female aged 16–25 and one child of each sex under 10, a profile compatible with Joel’s derived 1780 birth. Supplemental page 706 records “Simon Laky,” but its only male tally is under 10; it also has one female under 10 and one female aged 26–44. The missing adult male confirms the reported anomaly and limits identity confidence. Neither row names a parent, spouse, or child, so the census does not prove either open relationship.

The official 1908 Census Bureau roster adds a 1790 identity control. Its complete Surry section has only one target-surname head, Francis Lakey, and no Thomas variant. The three statewide “Lackey, Thomas” entries are in Bertie, Iredell, and Mecklenburg. Orange County’s federal return is missing and the volume substitutes names from county tax lists, so the negative Orange search is weaker. This prevents an unsupported 1790 Surry placement without proving the target Thomas’s residence or death.

Two newly supplied original Surry deed-index leaves sharpen a separate associate cluster: Simon Hadley conveyed to Joel Lakey in Book N, page 118, and Joel Lakey conveyed to Thomas Thornton in Book I, page 214. The complete Thornton deed on pages 214–215 is now inspected. Dated 21 March 1801, it conveys two hundred McAfee Creek acres for £87, follows a James Jones title path, and names witnesses Simon Hadly, Mary Dobbin, and Simon Hadly junior; Simon junior proved it. This directly confirms the associate cluster and corrects the later abstract’s £80 figure, but it states no kinship and does not identify Mary further.

Hinshaw’s abstract of the Cane Creek Monthly Meeting register independently identifies Ruth Dobbins as the daughter of Jacob Dobbins and Ann Marshall and gives her birth as 21 January 1776 in Chatham County. Jacob Dobbins’s inspected original 1798 will goes further, giving a legacy to “my daughter Ruth Lakey.” The supplied Deep Creek abstract adds a contemporary entry dated 7 July 1798: “Ruth (Laky) (form Dobbins) dis mou.” Together these records document Ruth’s Dobbins identity and Lakey married surname, but none names her husband or son Jacob.

Simon Hadley’s inspected original 1803 Surry County will calls Thomas Lakey “my son-in-law” and pairs him with “his wife Ann Lakey”; three parallel provisions pair other sons-in-law with their wives. This directly documents Thomas and Ann’s marriage. The 1818 Illinois census transcription lists “Leakey, Simon” on page 198 with one free white male aged 21 or older and seven other white household members. Illinois’s statewide marriage-index project also records Hirom Long marrying Ann Lakey in White County on 11 February 1818. Together these records independently anchor the family and surname cluster, but none identifies Jacob as Simon’s son or Simon as Thomas’s son.

A newly inspected federal patent adds contemporary land context. On 24 May 1824, the United States patented the northeast quarter of section 23, township 5 south, range 6 east—the exact tract in the later creek narrative—to “Michael Jones assignee of Joel Leaky.” The image establishes Joel as the original entryman and Jones as his assignee; it does not name Simon, Jacob, or a family relationship, and it does not itself prove the narrative’s claimed 1817 assignment dates.

The earliest inspected publication behind that narrative is narrower. The 1887 Hamilton County history, page 249, lists an unnamed “Mr. Lakey” who lived on the “Jones tract,” gave his name to Lakey’s Creek, and was killed by his son-in-law. It gives no first name, date, source, or court citation. The statement documents an early local tradition, but it cannot identify the man as Simon or Joel or corroborate the later article’s specific claim of an 1819 Michael Jones lawsuit.

The complete L section of White County’s original probate box index was then inspected across four full-resolution frames. The sequence begins at box 30, overlaps continuously through later boxes and dates, and ends with a blank facing page. No Simon or Lakey/Lackey/Leakey/Leaky/Laky entry appears. This makes a conventionally indexed probate file unlikely; it does not prove that Simon did not die there, because no estate may have opened or a proceeding may be unindexed or recorded in another court series. The separate 1818–1820 circuit-court index is now the principal White County target.

A targeted Surry probate control search also produced no relationship upgrade. Jo White Linn’s derivative index to recorded wills and loose intestate papers points Thomas and Ann Hadley to page 115 but exposes no separate Thomas estate under the tested Lakey/Lackey variants. FamilySearch’s corresponding 1784–1809 account, inventory, and sale group contains 336 images, but its original L-surname leaves are restricted in the present session and remain uninspected. This limited negative result does not prove Thomas’s often-repeated circa-1805 death or identify Simon as his son.

Surry Book M’s inspected original deeds show Richard Bray conveying Ann “Leakey” two separate fifty-acre Deep Creek tracts on 23 July 1808 for $50 each. Both were witnessed by Simon Hadly and John Huff and proved by Simon Hadly’s affirmation in May 1810. Simon Hadley senior’s 1803 will separately names daughter Ann Lakey and son Simon junior, making this strong collateral support for the grantee’s likely identity, although the deeds use no suffix or kinship label and never call Ann a widow. Three indexed Book T sales to John Castevens remain unresolved. The supplied pages 86–93 are a controlled negative for the submitted image set, not the indexed transaction; an 1826 index notation also conflicts with the later narrative’s 1816 date. The reported 1827 Deep Creek disownment of Ann Lakey remains uninspected.

The complete next image window resolved Bridget Hadley’s will and corrected its derivative citation. The original is on Will Book 3 pages 85–86, images 111–112, not pages 80–81. Bridget identifies herself as the widow of deceased Simon Hadley, calls Ann Lakey one of her four daughters, and calls Simon Hadley her son. The supplied Deep Creek abstract also records Ann’s receipt from Cane Creek dated 1 February 1806 and her 7 July 1827 disownment. These records strengthen Ann’s identity and meeting chronology, but do not name Simon Lakey or prove him to be Thomas and Ann’s son.

Two earlier supplied frames, visible pages 70–71, are also not Bridget’s will, but they preserve a useful collateral identity control. Jane Allen’s original will, dated 24 November 1805, gives one dollar to “my eldest daughter Mary Lakey.” It names no husband for Mary and no member of the direct working line, so Mary is kept separate rather than merged with Ann or another Lakey woman.

The inspected original 1820 Lawrence County schedules record two separate households: “William Laky” on stamped page 97B and “Ruth Laky” on page 108B. Ruth’s row contains two males aged 10–15, one female 10–15, one female 26–44, and one female 45+. The 26–44 cell is compatible with Ruth Dobbins’s 1776 birth, but both the male 16–18 and male 16–25 cells are blank. The original therefore does not place 18-year-old Jacob with Ruth; it supports her Indiana migration, not Jacob’s parentage.

Evidence note: this is meaningful family evidence, but the original page, its ownership history, and a full-resolution image are still needed before treating it like a contemporary Bible entry. Biola’s scholarly profile and a peer-reviewed article cite the Ford work as dated 30 January 1984, while the genealogy page describes a private 1994 publication. The discrepancy may reflect a manuscript and later edition, but that is not yet proved. Biola places LeRoy Ford’s papers at Southwestern Baptist Theological Seminary, now the best identified archive lead.

Conflict rejected: a contributed tree gives Simon an 1853 death in Douglas County, Missouri. The 1860 Douglas County census instead shows a different Simon Lakey, age 31 and born in Indiana. The older Simon’s 1819 Illinois death remains the better-supported working conclusion.

Jacob Beals appoints Jacob “Leakey”

The Monroe County, Indiana, grantor index records Jacob Beals as grantor and Jacob Leakey as grantee in an “appointment of attorney or power of attorney,” dated 27 October 1837, Land Record Book F, page 427. The supplied consecutive originals resolve the pagination: the instrument begins in the second full paragraph of manuscript page 427, continues through page 428, and page 429 begins unrelated material. It reads “Know all men by these presents that I Jacob Beals ... appoint Jacob Leakey” and records Beals’s signature and acknowledgment.

Family material identifies Jacob Lakey’s wife as Phebe Bales/Beals. That makes this a promising family-associate-and-neighbor lead, but the inspected instrument states no kinship, does not name Phebe, and does not identify this Jacob Leakey as the man who later died in Greene County.

Next record: obtain the reciprocal grantee-index entry and search the instrument’s witnesses and associates in Monroe, Lawrence, and Greene County. Indiana State Library identifies volumes F–H as GSU film 1302170. The record is an identity lead, not proof of the Beals–Lakey relationship.

Alexander’s will names Thomas

Alexander’s inspected original Orange County will names wife Mary and repeatedly calls Thomas and William his sons. Thomas received the north half of Alexander’s home tract, one third of the residue, and appointment as executor. This directly documents Alexander → Thomas.

Orange County Deed Book 5, page 476, independently describes the Granville tract as land granted to Alexander Lackey and descending to Thomas “per will of his father Alexander.” The deed history therefore corroborates both the relationship and the property transfer.

A later will index files the same Book A, page 117 entry under “Alexander Larkin.” Full-resolution images of pages 117–118 instead show “Alexander Lacky” in the opening and “Alex:r Lackie” at the subscribed signature. The original therefore resolves “Larkin” as a later indexing error.

What it does not establish: Alexander’s exact birth date, his Maryland county of birth, or the identity of his parents.

Thomas Lackey, pension W21557

This pensioner’s widow was Jane, whom he married in Mecklenburg County in 1792; their son William testified in the file. The family line’s Thomas married Ann Hadley in 1777 and appears in Simon Hadley’s Surry County will. They should not be merged.

Alexander of Somerset is not yet the bridge

Maryland court records document an Alexander Lackey/Leckie in Somerset County in the 1720s, including a 1724 bond and a 1726 guardianship. Ann Gilliss’s 1748 testament calls herself “late Ann Lackie” and refers to land devised by her former husband Alexander Lackey.

A lineage printed in the American Clan Gregor Society’s 2023 year book follows this Somerset couple through William Leakey and Levi Lakey—a different descent from the family tradition’s Alexander → Alexander → Thomas sequence. It therefore cannot be used as proof of this line.

Do not merge yet: these Eastern Shore records do not name the later Alexander of Orange County, Thomas, Monocacy, or Prince George’s County. A matching forename and surname are insufficient to make them one family.

Ancestral Line of Clark Chamberlain Gregg

Bartlett’s book follows a Gregg/MacGregor family through Scotland, Ulster, and New England. It does not supply a Lakey or Leckie parent–child bridge to Alexander of Orange County. A later scholarly reassessment also notes that Bartlett gives a general list of titles and record groups rather than full citations.

Use it for: MacGregor/Gregg historical context and research leads. Do not use it for: extending this paternal Lakey line.