The Proeger Family · Generation 5 — Earl's great-great-grandparents and their siblings
William Chenault
Probable son of David Chenault · born about 1854
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Person · William Chenault
The record
- HHomethe fan · what changed · open questions
- MMigrationbirths and deaths on a map, by decade
- TTimeline833 entries · 5 eras
- PPeople377 people, by generationWilliam Chenault
- LLines13 surname pages
The evidence
The findings
How to read this record
Every claim is tagged
Most family trees flatten everything into the same confident typeface. This one does not. The three research tags below are the whole point of the exercise: they say what a document proves, what the weight of evidence suggests, and what nobody has found yet. A fourth marks what the family stated directly, where no document has been retrieved at all — it is kept separate on purpose and is never quietly promoted to confirmed. A fifth, added on 13 September 2026, marks biological evidence: a DNA result is not a document, and it is not testimony either. Two further labels mark where this page withholds information rather than lacking it.
Attested by a document that was actually retrieved and read — a census sheet, a government index, a grave marker, a family-written obituary.
Strongly supported but not nailed down: a user-contributed tree, a masked index field, or a chain of consistent circumstances. Believable, not proven.
Searched for and not located. This is a statement about the search, not about the person — the record may well exist somewhere unsearched.
Supplied by the family and recorded on their word — no document has been retrieved for it. Note the diamond rather than the dot: this is provenance, not proof, and it stands apart from the three record tags above S24.
Biological evidence consistent with a claim. It corroborates origins; it does not by itself establish a person or a link. Note the bar rather than a dot or a diamond: no DNA result on this page is ever counted as confirmed, because no document was read for it S46.
The person is living. By the privacy rule for this page, name and relationship are shown, and at most a year the family has already published. Full dates of birth, ages, places of residence and record identifiers are held back.
A branch that is actively being worked on. The node exists in the structure so the shape of the family is honest; the detail is simply not in yet.
William Chenault
ProbableProbable son of David Chenault · born about 1854
- Parents
- David Chenault & Louisa Quisenberry
- Sources
- 4
Research status
Evidence: The 1870 census lists “Wm., 16” in David and Louisa Chenault’s household (S397) and the 1860 census lists a William (S206); the 1936 obituary of Charles Coker Chenault names “one brother, William Chenault, Sweeney, Texas” (S1641), and the 1933 notices of Maria Louise name “Billy Chenault of Sweeny, Tex.” (S1640). Weak or missing: The censuses state no relationships; the obituaries are read from newspaper text, not the page images; no record yet shows that the Sweeny man is the William of 1870; his birth year rests on the 1870 age alone and his death has not been found. Not yet confirmed. Know more? Confirm or correct this →
Open questions what is probable, weak or missing — confirm or correct it
William Chenault · Sources
Citations
Sources cited on this card
4 of the record's sources are cited here. The numbering is the record's own; the full list, with where else each is cited, is at Sources.
- S2061860 U.S. Federal Census — David Chenault household, District 3, Sumner County, Tennessee (P.O. Gallatin). Ancestry record 22605797; page 48, dwelling 323. Read from the image at full resolution, 22 September 2026. David Chenault, 60, farmer, born Kentucky, RE $52,600, PE $31,120; Louisa, 48, born Kentucky; Nancy, 15; with Harvy 23, [Lucy?] 12, Milton 11, Mariah 8 and William 6. 🔑 Nannie at fifteen in her father's house, ten years after [S97]. ⚠ The household may continue on page 49 (not fetched); one sister's name is not certain.
- S3971870 U.S. Federal Census — David Chenault household, 3rd Civil District, Sumner Co., Tennessee, P.O. Castalian Springs, page 5, lines 35–40. Ancestry record 10638827. Image examined, read 24 September 2026. Confirmed David Chenault, 70, farmer, real estate $50,200, personal estate $14,000, born Kentucky; Louisa, 58, keeping house, with her own real estate of $8,200, born Kentucky; Milton W., 21, farmer, born Tennessee; Mima L., 18; Wm, 16, at school; Fillmore, 14; enumerated 19 July 1870. The household runs on to the next sheet (see S385).
- S1640Death notices of Mrs. Maria Louise Barry — The Tennessean, 14 July 1933, pp. 2–3; Nashville Banner, 14 July 1933, pp. 7 and 13. Read from the newspaper text (OCR); the page images are not yet read by eye. Four notices. Each calls her the “daughter of David and Louise Chenault”, born 15 July 1851 at “Greenfield” in the 1st Civil District, the widow of Ben C. Barry and the mother of five children. She died at her home on the Hartsville pike near Gallatin on Thursday 13 July 1933 at 1 p.m.; the funeral was at the home on 14 July; she belonged to the old Union congregation of the Church of Christ. Survivors: two brothers, Billy Chenault of Sweeny, Texas, and Charles C. Chenault of Castalian Springs, and a daughter, Jessie. The Tennessean prints her husband as “Bert C.”, a misprint for Ben C.
- S1641Obituary of Charles C. Chenault — Daily News-Journal, Murfreesboro, Tennessee, 20 March 1936, p. 1; notice of his death, 19 March 1936, p. 1. Read from the newspaper text (OCR); the page images are not yet read by eye. “The son of David and Louisa Quisenberry Chenault”; aged 77; his wife was “Mordaunt Bradley, who died June 24, 1935”; his home was “Glenvale”; he died at 3:20 p.m. after a stroke. “One brother, William Chenault, Sweeney, Texas.” The daughters are not named by their given names.
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