Intro to Forrest Calico's letter of Jan 9, 1960

The Forrest Calico Letter of January 9, 1960

        On January 9, 1960 Forrest Calico of Lancaster, Kentucky wrote a letter to Virgil Storms of Kerrville, Texas outlining the genealogy of the family of Coonrod (probably originally would have been spelled Könrad*) and Nancy (Hall) Storms.  Although not entirely accurate (what genealogy ever is?) and a little light on references to primary sources, this letter has become the framework for many genealogists researching the ancestors and descendants of this family.  Forrest wrote that he would be 75 on Jan. 22, 1960 and that his health was not good, so he didn't know if he could finish the book on the Storms ancestry that he was planning to write.  His intent in writing the letter was to pass on his research findings so that others could continue the work with the benefit of his research.  In fact, Forrest lived another 13 years and passed away on Aug. 13, 1973 at the age of 88...

        This letter was sent to me by a cousin and fellow researcher of the Coonrod Storms family tree - Pam Nash of Galveston, Texas.  Pam, like me, is descended from Coonrod's (presumably) youngest son, Randolph Huston (or Houston) Storms.  Forrest Calico was also descended from Randolph.  Randolph died relatively young and exact dates of birth and death are not known.  It is believed he was born about 1807 or 1808.  It is believed he died sometime in 1847 - his youngest son, Jonathan Wilson Storms (Pam Nash's ancestor), was born in 1846 and Coonrod's will of Feb. 19, 1848 reference's Randolph's widow Catherine.  Randolph's cause of death, according to Judge Calico's letter, was "kicked by a sorrell filly" - tragic, yet somehow ironically in character for a man who grew up in the Bluegrass region of Kentucky - notable, of course,  for it's horses...  Also somewhat ironic, Randolph was the only Storms man in my direct line back to and including Coonrod who did not live to at least 83 years of age - my great-grandfather William R. Storms lived to over 88, his father James R. Storms lived to over 89, and Coonrod lived to nearly 84 years - and this a man born before the Revolution!)  My grandmother, William R. Storms' daughter, lived to over 93, as did her daughter, my aunt.  I call the Storms' my "Methusaleh line" (for the famous character in the Bible who lived for hundreds of years.)

        I have provided some links, below, in Adobe Acrobat Reader format (.pdf) to scanned images of the original Forrest Calico letter.  If you don't already have Acrobat Reader installed on your computer, you will need to install it (link also provided below) to view and/or print these files.  These files are all quite large, but worth the time to download and view.  I also have the first section of this letter transcribed and online here with more to come...

        Please note that Forrest Calico's data on my ancestor is not correct - James Randolph Storms, son of Randolph and Catherine (Hardin) Storms, married Margaret Maddox (not Mary) in 1854, and they had two sons - William R. Storms in 1855 (not James R.) and Robert H. Storms in 1857 - before migrating to Ray Co., Missouri, where we then find them in the 1860 census, which narrows down their departure from Garrard Co., KY to somewhere between 1857 and Summer of 1860.  By the way, William and Josephine (Malotte) Storms did have son named James R. Storms, who never married and died without issue (as far as we know).  None of the siblings of the elder James R. Storms - William's father - migrated to Missouri (most migrated to Texas or stayed in Kentucky), so I believe his motivation to move to Missouri came either from Margaret A. (Maddox) Storms' family or from an aunt, uncle or cousin of James...


*if this does not show up properly on your screen, the letter after the "K" is an o with an umlaut
(double dots over it), pronounced similar to "oo"...


Forrest Calico Letter Images
Download Acrobat Reader if you don't already have it...
Calico Letter - Intro and Hall Ancestry 
(5 pgs; 437K)
Calico Letter - Storms Ancestry
(6 pgs; 625K)
Calico Letter - Hardin Ancestry
(1 pg; 126K)
Calico Letter - Oder Ancestry
(2 pgs; 183K)
Calico Letter - all those with the name Randolph (1pg; 74K)