McCauley, Hankins, Hopkins & Taylor Families

John William "Will" McCauley arrived in Hopkins County, Kentucky sometime before
September, 1904 when he married Verda Waller Hankins. He told his children virtually
nothing about his family or his life before he arrived in Kentucky. It is unclear how he
ended up in Hopkins County.

Information he gave was as follows:

Several members of the family have searched for our McCauley ancestors over the past
40 years but have not found a trace of this McCauley family in the Heard County,
Georgia or Randolph County, Alabama area. There were McCallay's in Troup County,
Georgia (which is adjacent to Heard County) but nothing matches up and they don't
seem to have a missing son that could be our Will.

It has often been speculated that he changed his name. With that in mind, there was
a Joseph Smith Lanier and Nancy Jane Bennett living in Randolph County, Alabama in
1880 and Monroe County, Mississippi in 1900. Based on those two census records in
combination with 3 posted genealogies at Ancestry.com, the following information has
been put together about this Lanier family.

Joseph Smith Lanier was born June 2, 1847 in Randolph County, Alabama and was a
farmer. Nancy Jane Bennett was born Jul 17, 1852 in Georgia; died 12 Oct 1926 in
Atlanta, Georgia. Joseph & Nancy Lanier had children named: John W. (some list him
as William), Thomas Jefferson, George Washington, Emma, Lilly Vashti, Pearl, Hattie (or
Hettie) E., Joseph F., Louisana “Lula”, James Dolphin, and Sallie Belle Lanier.

There is a census record in Heard County in 1860 for John & Martha Bennett with a
child, Nancy (age 8). We have always assumed this was Will's mother but there is no
doubt in my mind at this point that John & Martha (Gamble) Bennett were the parents
of the Nancy Bennett who married Joseph Lanier.

This Lanier family has many similarities to the family that my grandfather described.
There are also discrepancies (Lilly Vashti Lanier didn’t die as a child but was married
and lived until 1987. John W. Lanier was about 10 years older than Will claimed to be
but it’s possible he was older than he said. Some of the names don‘t match up.)
However, the parents names and birth dates and the daughter named Lilly Vashti are
most interesting. Will & Verda McCauley named their 3rd daughter Lily Vashti, which
doesn’t seem to be a very common name.

So what does all of this mean? It could mean that Will’s real name was Lanier or it
could mean that he knew this family and, in an effort to hide his identity, used them as
his family or it could mean absolutely nothing. I'm not sure how we will ever know for
sure. Possibly DNA testing could answer some questions if there were members of this
Lanier family who could be tested for a match to our family.

If anyone knows anything (and I do mean anything) about this Lanier family or a
McCauley (any spelling) family that had a son who left home around 1900 and lost
contact, please e-mail me. No lead is too far fetched to be checked out at this point.