THE WHITTAKERS: A West Virginia Inbred Family Tree Explained- Mortal Faces

in 2020 Mark posted a video on his channel soft white underbelly that brought instant attention to this family deep inside rural West Virginia the Whitakers and their poverty-stricken conditions won the hearts of so many Across the Nation for he showed the humanity of this family from the outside they could seem strange and mysterious with their non-verbal members like Rey Lorraine and Timmy but when we get to view them up close we came to realize yeah they're poor yeah they're messy but they care for each other and each of them have their own personalities and contributions to the family take Betty for example she's the matriarch of the group keeping them all fed and clothed and taken care of then there's Rey and Timmy they may not speak but they're big bowls of sunshine and put a smile on your face whenever you see them and you begin to realize that they can communicate quite effectively in their own ways most of the information I got from Mark and his videos so all credit goes to him including some of these Stills I'll be using in this presentation but in this video along with my additional genealogical research I managed to piece together the family history of the Whitakers and create this family tree so we can see where they came from and reveal where each of these family members sit within their Clan if you're new to my channel welcome here on Mortal faces I take family trees and untangle them so that we can see the bigger picture of famous individuals we read about where they came from and what their deal was I also have some news for you all for those of you who have seen my most popular video King Tut's in brand tree you can now buy the PDF on my Etsy channel so you can print it and have your very own hard copy poster of this tree printed as a stocking stuffer this Christmas or a birthday present or just show how crazy family trees can really be this is one of hopefully more to come so if you'd like to support this channel you can purchase my new posters here's the Whitaker's family at the bottom we can see Lorraine Timmy Betty Ray Larry and Kenneth but I'm going to start at the top and then work our way down the earliest Whitaker ancestor I could find was Joseph Musgrave Whitaker the first who came to America in 1755 as a newborn both his parents we don't know their last names but their first names were Charles and Rosie Anne Charles and Roseanne were from London England Charles was born in 1705 and Kristen at Holy Trinity the less in London while rosianne was born in 1725 when Charles was 50 and Roseanne was 30 they departed for America Joseph was born on the ship but during their Voyage the parents died baby Joseph was now an orphan we don't know if he was traveling with other family who adopted him or if they had friends or if a random stranger from the boat adopted him but somebody did because he survived and settled in with Virginia and died in 1838 aged 83 with 11 children and a wife named zobedia obedience since we don't know his parents last names the surname Whitaker could have been given to him by by his adoptive parents or maybe Whitaker was his true family name we don't know one of Joseph Whitaker the first sons was James Harvey Whitaker senior born in 1778 and he died in 1864 aged 86. he got married and had about 11 or 12 children and one of his sons was James Jr in 1816. he married Pamela and they had Thomas Willis Whitaker who died in 1892 from Thomas this is where the interesting entanglement happens Thomas married Elizabeth Perkins the daughter of James and Lucy Perkins Elizabeth had a sister Mary who married Samuel Riggs they had six other siblings but we're going to focus on these two Mary and Samuel had children of their own and two of them were Macy and Ada both sisters married into the Whitaker family to two of the children of Thomas and Elizabeth so their mother-in-law Elizabeth was also their aunt with the seven children from Thomas and Elizabeth the two twin boys Henry and John are the ones we want to focus on both were born in 1882 John married Ada Riggs and Henry married another girl Sarah Burton then each of the twin boys and their wives had a family of Their Own and it's these two families that come together again with Betty and her siblings Henry and Sarah's fifth child was John M Roy Whitaker in 1913 and John and Ada's sixth child was Gracie Irene Whitaker in 1920. both were paternal first cousins sharing the same grandparents Thomas and Elizabeth but also second cousins sharing the same great-grandparents James and Lucy according to Larry their dad John was a coal miner and could be mean sometimes and give a spanking when they got in trouble he would walk to work every day and people would give him rides coming home he got hurt in the mines one time and it messed up his back according to Betty their mom was rough on the girls she wouldn't even let them go on dates when their mom graced he was 44 she got sick she had heart trouble in cancer so she had difficulty standing and this is when Betty began to take on more responsibilities at home after school and take care of the others she promised her mom she would never get married and always look after her siblings John and Gracie brought their family jeans back together with their 15 children the ones that I dropped down got married Eileen Violet died when she was 60. she was a homemaker and died from a heart attack but she did have a son Frankie and two grandchildren when she passed in 1997 then there's Emery Whitaker he died three months old from pneumonia Barbara died when she was 68. she was Homemaker and member of the Baptist Church in odd West Virginia she enjoyed going to church picnics and spending time with her family based on her photo it is possible that she inherited a disorder like her siblings but she was married and widowed the fourth child was Nanny Lou born in 1942 but we don't know when she died all we know is that she was buried in Hana Lilly cemetery West Virginia and she was married Connie's next we don't know much about Connie or her birth date nor if she passed all I know is that she was probably an older sister born after Nanny but I don't know if she was born before or after Freddy she was married with her husband James this sixth child was Freddy he was the one that Mark and the family mentioned in his video he passed in 2013 and is this man in the popular Whitaker photo alongside Rey and Timmy taken in 2004 the 7 child was Lorraine the quietest one of the bunch she was born in 1946 and is 76 years old as of 2022. she unfortunately was assaulted in her 30s resulting in her son Timmy which makes Timmy the nephew of Betty and the rest of the gang he was born in 1979. Mary Magdalene is next she died at 10 months old and then there's John Wade born in 1950 and died this year in 2022 age 71 following a long Battle of lung cancer he was a helpful man ready to help his neighbors and he also enjoyed planting and gardening he was married to Rosemary and together they had five boys Carl Wayne Jeremy John and Jason his son Jason could be the same Jason that Mark and Betty mentioned went to prison and left his little dog in the care of Betty John also had several grandchildren and one great-grandson Betty is their 10th child and she was born in 1952 which makes her 70 in 2022 and then her younger brother was Rey one of our favorites he was born in 1953 he is 69. Larry he along with Kenneth were the two new Whitakers introduced in Mark's 2022 videos Larry who is 66 as of this year lives in the trailer across the street where the family's childhood home used to be before it fell down he was married but not anymore and he has a daughter also named Betty after Larry comes Kenneth born in 1957 and a 65 he was married to a woman named Amber but then got divorced he has a stepdaughter as well Kenneth moved into the newly built house beside his brothers and sisters but ran out of money to finish the drywall both him and Larry helped take care of Rey Timmy and oraine alongside Betty but he does work one of his previous jobs was cutting Timber and working in the Country Club he usually does the cooking in the evening while Betty does breakfast the youngest daughter was Judy she was born in 1959 and died in 2021 age 62. she was married to Arnold a cord who passed away in 2014 and she lived down the street from Betty and the Gang she had seven children four boys three girls and many grandchildren finally we have Michael Stephen or Stevie Whitaker he was born in 1950 or 1960 and then died in 2001. to end this family tree there is one woman Janice Whitaker who died in 2004 if you watched Mark's videos on the Whitaker's Mark mentions that he met the Whitakers in 2004 when he was doing his book and they were having a funeral for someone he said possibly an aunt well it turns out Janus was the sister-in-law to the family born in 1953. this would make her in the age range to be a sister-in-law to one of the siblings maybe Larry or Kenneth's previous wife or even Michael and that's the mysterious Whitaker family tree brought to life I hope you enjoyed this video you can check out my other family trees on my channel and my new posters in my shop links in the description it's a great way to support me subscribe for more trees each of your subscriptions does help this channel grow and allows me to continue making more content for you let me know in the comments who you want to see next and I will see you in the next one [Music]

Channel: Mortal Faces

Views: 3,412,416

Keywords: Mortal Faces, MortalFaces, Mortal Face, Inbred, Inbreeding, Incest, Relationship, Incestuous Relationship, Family Tree, Fugates, Fugate Family, Blue Fugate, Blue Fugates, Fugates of Kentucky, Kentucky, Inbred Family Tree, Chart, Blue People of Kentucky, Blue People, Mountain People, Hillbilly, methemoglobinemia, Blue Skin, Family Tree Explained, Habsburg, Habsburg Jaw, Deep South, The Deep South, Mountain Hillbilly, Ancestry, The Whittakers, Appalachian, Betty Whittaker, Whittaker, People

Id: cwCJ0kuoyxo

Length: 10min 25sec (625 seconds)

Published: Sat Dec 03 2022