The Allen Family — Lost Creek, West Virginia

I.Lost Creek, Harrison County

Rector & Chloe

For a long time this branch was fifteen names copied from a single 1978 hand-drawn chart, and nothing else. It opens with the couple the records caught up to.

1 Nov 1882 – 20 Aug 1956

Rector William Allen

Rector William Allen lived his whole life inside one West Virginia county. Born at West Milford in 1882, he worked as the janitor at the Harrison County Bank and belonged to the Seventh Day Baptist congregation at Lost Creek — a small denomination whose Saturday sabbath set its members quietly apart in a Sunday-keeping county, and whose churchyard would eventually receive him.

Two birthdates competed for Rector — the family chart said November 1st, a FamilySearch merge said October 1st. The West Virginia Deaths Index and a photograph of his own headstone settled it in the chart's favor, on the same day the index gave up his occupation and his burial at "Brick Church Cemetery" — an old local name for the Lost Creek Seventh Day Baptist ground, not a different place. A good reminder that the 1978 chart, for all its garbled rows elsewhere, keeps earning trust.

WV Deaths IndexHeadstone photo, harvested 2026

Rector William Allen — Rector's headstone — the photograph that ended a months-old birthdate conflict.

18 Sep 1890 – 13 May 1972

Chloe Blanch Belle Webb

Chloe Webb married Rector on Christmas Eve, 1907 — she was seventeen, he was twenty-five. She outlived him by sixteen years; the family chart held only the year of her death, but the same Deaths Index pass that fixed Rector's birthdate gave her exact date too, and re-confirmed her parents along the way. She and Rector rest at Lost Creek, most likely beneath the plain family marker that says only ALLEN.

WV Deaths IndexPlot attribution: likely, unproven

II.The 1940 Census

Four Children, Three of Them Nearly Lost

One census page, three recovered names

Porter, Ruth, Faye — and Roberta

The family chart said Rector and Chloe had one child: Roberta. Then the 1940 census page for their Harrison County household came up, and three more children were sitting on it — Porter R. (about 1910), Ruth L. (about 1921), and Faye (about 1926). Three aunts and an uncle of Ian's grandmother's generation, recovered from a single page an enumerator filled out in pencil eighty-six years ago.

The page raises as many questions as it answers, and they're flagged rather than smoothed over: the birth years are census estimates, not vital records; and the eleven-year gap between Porter and Ruth is unusual for the era — more children may yet be hiding in the 1910, 1920, and 1930 censuses, which haven't been swept for this family.

1940 U.S. CensusBirth years are estimatesThe 11-year gap: unexplained

III.1927–2018

Roberta, Who Connects Everything

5 Mar 1927, Mount Clare, WV – 1 Jun 2018

Roberta Allen Harris

The youngest of the four, and the reason this page exists: Roberta is Ian's grandmother — her marriage to Gus George Harris in March 1947 joins the Allen branch to the Harris family, and through their daughter Lee Anna, to Ian and to Townes.

The wedding itself is this branch's best open mystery. All three records agree on the date — 20 March 1947 — and disagree on the town: Frederick County, Virginia, says one; Winchester (Frederick's county seat, so effectively the same answer) says the family chart; Suffolk, Virginia — two hundred miles away — says her memorial. Frederick County in 1947 was a no-waiting-period marriage town, the kind young couples drove to. The date, at least, is settled; the town keeps its flag.

Roberta lived to ninety-one — well into Ian's own adult life, the only person on this page whose lifetime overlaps his.

FindAGrave #199460494Marriage date: 3 sources agreeMarriage place: 3 sources disagree

Roberta Allen Harris — Roberta's marker at Lost Creek — March 5, 1927 · June 1, 2018.

IV.Before 1900

The Chart Generations

Everything on this page above this line has been independently verified. Everything below it still rests on the 1978 hand-drawn chart alone — real leads, honestly labeled, waiting for records.

Rector's parents · m. 22 Dec 1870

William R. Allen & Mary Virginia Norman

William R. Allen and Mary Virginia Norman married in Harrison County in December 1870. Beyond that, even their lifespans are contested — the chart and a FamilySearch merge disagree by decades on both deaths — so no dates are printed here as fact. William's parents were John B. Allen and Sarah Richardson; Mary Virginia's were Clement Norman and Nancy Hickman. Four names, zero documents.

Chart-sourced onlyDeath dates: chart vs. FS, decades apart

Chloe's parents · m. 15 Oct 1885

Benjamin Franklin Webb & Edith M. White

Chloe's side of the chart is slightly fuller: Benjamin Franklin Webb (1849–1909) and Edith M. White (1858–1932), both of Clarksburg — and the Deaths Index pass that verified Chloe also re-confirmed these two as her parents, the one independent corroboration this generation has. Benjamin's parents were Jonas Webb and Delitha Caster; Edith's were Joseph White and Cathern Queen.

Parents re-confirmed via Deaths IndexAll else chart-sourced

Still open on this branch: obituaries for Roberta (d. 2018 — recent enough that one almost certainly exists), Rector, and Chloe; the 1910/1920/1930 censuses for the household; the marriage-place conflict; Porter, Ruth, and Faye's lives after 1940; and every fact in the chart generations above.

Photographs

The Allen Family in Photographs

Three stones at Lost Creek — the only images recovered for this branch so far. No portrait of Rector, Chloe, or Roberta has yet surfaced; if one exists, it's in a relative's album.

Rector William Allen — NOV 1 1882 · AUG 20 1956.

Roberta Allen Harris — the bridge to the Harris line.

The plain ALLEN family marker, likely Rector and Chloe's plot.