Posted on: HOLMES Queries Reply Here: http://genconnect.rootsweb.com/gc/surnames/h/o/HOLMES/queries/10148 Surname: HOLMES ------------------------- On 18 April 1983 Emily Holmes Raney (Mrs. Gordon Raney) Address 131 5 E. Main Street, New Albany, Indiana 47150 sent a letter in answer to a query about a unrelated Holmes family of Indiana. She said, "I don't not know whether you and I could have any common ancestors or not, but I will tell you what I know of my earliest one, of which I have any knowledge." She went on to explain that Luke Hamilton Holmes "was her great-great grandfather." She explained that Luke had a brother "Rollo, or Rolly" and that the two brothers were mentioned in an obituary she had "from a Jeffersonville, Indiana newspaper at the time of Rolly's death, as having come from Culpepper, VA." She said, "It says in the article [obit] that they lost their parents early, and eventually arrived in Jeffersonville, Ind. as very young men, coming by way of Wheeling. They must have stayed in Wheeling awhile, and maybe my G.G. grandfather even married there, as the page of births in his own bible, list several children born before the other two marriages that took place in Clark Co. (Jeffersonville), of which I have his marriage certificates." She also explained that Luke Hamilton Holmes had children by both wives, "the children's births are also recorded in the bible." "He left my great-great grandmother and his four children by her and left Jeffersonville for Missouri, where it has always been said he left to live with a child or children by a former marriage. My own grand-father, the son by this marriage, was only four years old. From then on the trail is lost, as I do not think they ever heard of him again." "I am not so concerned as to what happened to him, as I am as to who his parents were in Culpepper. I know he was born in 1824. Since his middle name was Hamilton (and he was called Hamilton in the family) I keep wondering if his mother's name could have been Hamilton before she was married to a Holmes." "In the children of my G.G. grandfather's children listed in the bible there is a William Wesley Holmes whose birth is listed as May 11, 1845." "I do not know where Luke Hamilton Holmes is buried, but it is assumed he is buried in Missouri, since that is where he went after leaving his family." She mentions her father had also searched for Luke Hamilton Holmes and thought because President Truman's Holmes line was from Utica that perhaps Luke Hamilton and Rollo were somehow related to that line also. She mentioned Luke Hamilton was a cooper, or barrel maker in Utica, Indiana. She also thought she should maybe look in Wheeling, WVA for the brothers. She said she was going to enclose a copy of the Holmes Bible page of births that she had, however at the bottom of the page she added, "P.S. - Can't lay my hands on the Bible page at this moment, and would have to go to the Library to get a copy made - so will send this in to-day's mail, and send you a copy of the bible page later, if you think you want it - It maybe of no importance to your line. -" I am NOT RELATED to these brothers or their lines and have no further information on them, but I noticed the query on the HOLMES List and thought this information might help others in making a connection.