# Foskey family research — expanded edition

Research date: 6 October 2026. Prepared for Benjamin Parke Foskey and Family’s Friend.

The interactive tree contains 27 people and 43 relationships across seven generations, with a register of 21 sources. It is a documented working tree, not a claim that every relationship has been proved. Recent father–son links and remembered occupations follow Benjamin’s family account; most nineteenth-century collateral relationships come from contributed genealogy. Source notes distinguish those claims from original manuscripts, institutional records, transcriptions and obituary evidence.

## What the additional research established

**Addie Taylor Foskey has a named educational endowment.** Middle Georgia State University lists the Addie Taylor Foskey Endowed Scholarship, providing an institutional record of her educational legacy. The same register describes F. Dewayne Foskey’s establishment of the Billy Lee Kimbrel Memorial Scholarship. These entries support the family’s education story; they do not prove parentage. [University scholarship register](https://www.mga.edu/foundation/give/scholarships.php).

**A published obituary strengthens the evidence for Benjamin Franklin and Addie’s household.** Betty Jean Foskey Woods’s obituary names Benjamin Franklin Foskey and Addie Taylor Foskey as her parents, and James Allen Woods as her husband. It gives her dates as 30 June 1940–11 April 2025; the funeral-home memorial displays the same dates. The obituary supplies a separate published statement, but its informant is unidentified and the two notices should not be counted as independent original vital records. The obituary’s “Wayne” has not been automatically identified as Frankie Dewayne. [Douglas Now obituary](https://douglasnow.com/betty-jean-foskey-woods-84/) · [Sims memorial](https://www.simsfuneralhome.org/obituaries/Betty-Jean-Foskey-Woods?obId=41987419).

**A contemporary company announcement supplies a dated business snapshot.** A Children’s Friend release published on 13 June 2011 describes Tony Foskey’s Georgia advisory-council appointment and reports 39 centers serving more than 5,000 children in Georgia and North Carolina. This is the organization’s own statement about 2011. It does not verify a later peak of more than 50 centers or a later sale price. [2011 announcement](https://www.newswire.com/news/childrens-friend-inc-vp-to-serve-on-georgia-governors-advisory-board-115482).

**The older profiles support a wider, provisional family network.** The Benjamin Franklin Sr. profile was recovered through indexed text when direct retrieval was blocked. It reports the alias Barry, his marriage to Mary Ann Bryan on 8 January 1912, and six children. Richard Jacob’s profile provides eight children. These additions are visibly marked as contributed genealogy. Repetition across related profiles is not independent corroboration; several entries rely on family correspondence. [Benjamin Sr.](https://www.werelate.org/wiki/Person:Benjamin_Foskey_(1)) · [Richard Jacob](https://www.werelate.org/wiki/Person:Richard_Foskey_(1)).

## Conflicts that must remain visible

1. **Emory’s birth, death, office and parents are unresolved.** A contributed profile interprets an 1840 household headed by E. Foskey as this family. Its adult male age band suggests birth around 1800–1810. The assignment of Jacob to a male aged 5–10 conflicts with a reported 1836 birth. A pre-1850 census does not name each child, so those assignments are interpretations. A reported death before 1850 is also an inference; absence alone does not prove death. The original census image was not inspected in this pass. [Emery profile](https://www.werelate.org/wiki/Person:Emery_Foskey_(1)).
2. **Ellender’s identity and age need original records.** Published Pulaski transcriptions list James Armstrong–Elender Clement on 16 September 1824 and Emery Foskee–Elender Armstrong on 12 November 1835. The sequence is suggestive but does not alone prove that both brides are the same woman. The reported 1840 female age band of 20–30 conflicts with the reported 1850 age of 47. The first marriage is shown as tentative. [1824 transcription](https://accessgenealogy.com/georgia/pulaski-county-georgia-marriages.htm) · [1835 transcription](https://accessgenealogy.com/georgia/pulaski-county-georgia-marriages.htm/6).
3. **Mary Jane Smith’s reported birth year is internally inconsistent.** Her profile header gives 1837, while reported census ages in 1860, 1870 and 1880 imply approximately 1841–1842. The tree preserves the conflict. [Mary Jane profile](https://www.werelate.org/wiki/Person:Mary_Smith_(942)).
4. **Richard Jacob’s death date is inconsistent.** The profile header gives 20 August 1884; its discussion of widow-pension material includes 1883 and 31 August 1884. The tree uses approximately 1883/1884. Richard Jacob is distinct from his son Jacob Richard, reportedly born in 1874. [Richard Jacob](https://www.werelate.org/wiki/Person:Richard_Foskey_(1)) · [Jacob Richard](https://www.werelate.org/wiki/Person:Jacob_Foskey_(1)).
5. **Military identity needs the complete file.** The National Park Service lists Jacob Foskey in Company K, 49th Georgia Infantry among the Appomattox parolees. That supports the existence of a soldier with the reported name and unit; it does not alone identify him as Richard Jacob or explain a period of absence. [Official parole list](https://www.nps.gov/apco/learn/historyculture/paroled-soldiers-f-l.htm).

## Original-manuscript examination and its limits

This pass extended the earlier UNC investigation into the Foscue Family Papers, collection 04643. Folder 4 is labeled 1814, but the visible upper endorsement of scan 61 concerns Jones County court in November 1803. It names Simon Foscue Sr., Simon Foscue Jr. and witness Amos Simmons. The opening of adjacent scan 60 names Simon Foscue Jr. and Dorcas Foscue as bound to Simon Foscue Sr. The viewed text supports those names and the existence of these documents. It establishes no connection to Emory Foskey. Only portions of these manuscript pages were read; the record set was not exhaustively searched or fully transcribed. The folder label must not be treated as the date of every item. [Scan 60](https://dc.lib.unc.edu/cdm/singleitem/collection/04ddd/id/88450/rec/60) · [Scan 61](https://dc.lib.unc.edu/cdm/singleitem/collection/04ddd/id/89468/rec/61).

The prior pass examined folder 3 scans 1–20, including the Savannah letter dated 23 June 1807 involving Rachel Davis, her household, and Simon and Elizabeth Foscue. That is earlier work carried forward here, not a fresh reading of all those images. No Emory connection was established. [1807 letter](https://dc.lib.unc.edu/cdm/singleitem/collection/04ddd/id/88051/rec/13).

The finding aid identifies a family notebook of births, marriages and deaths in Document Case 4, folder 40. No usable digital image was located in the earlier examination. The next decisive step is a scan or archival examination of that notebook. Its catalog description alone cannot establish a parent. The collection identifier is 04643; the digital item's citation field also displays a differing number, so requests should include the collection title and exact folder as well. [UNC finding aid](https://finding-aids.lib.unc.edu/catalog/04643).

## Highest-value next records

| Record | Question it can resolve | Present status |
|---|---|---|
| Pulaski original marriage registers, 1824 and 1835 | Bride identity, spelling, witnesses and officiants | Published transcriptions reviewed; original pages still needed |
| Original 1840 E. Foskey and 1850 Ellender households | Conflicting age bands and later household membership | Profile citations reviewed; images not inspected in this pass |
| Georgia original tax digests, 1809–1829 | Earliest local appearances, district and associate patterns | Catalog targets located earlier; taxpayer entries not examined |
| UNC Case 4, folder 40 family notebook | Foscue births and marriages relevant to candidate households | Finding-aid lead; manuscript needed |
| Richard Jacob’s complete service and widow-pension files | Identity, service chronology and death-date conflict | Roster/profile evidence only |
| Benjamin Sr.’s 1925 Baltimore death and burial records | Parents, informant, residence and cause/location of death | Contributed date is a retrieval lead, not original-record verification |

Previously confirmed Georgia Archives retrieval targets are: 1809–1811, drawer 39/box 51, item 6954; 1816–1818, drawer 39/box 51, item 6239; a separate 1818 holding, drawer 61/box 37, item 6855; 1822, drawer 38/box 52, item 6841; 1823–1824, drawer 39/box 51, item 6920; 1827, drawer 39/box 51, item 6347; and 1829, drawer 38/box 52, item 6561. These are catalog locations, not findings that any Foskey appears in a digest. [1816–1818 catalog record](https://vault.georgiaarchives.org/digital/collection/p17154coll11/id/6239).

The earlier assertion of a Bryan–William Foskey cluster in an 1818 transcription was not substantiated by the pages examined in the prior pass and is not used as evidence here. The proposed North Carolina parentage, an alleged illegitimacy explanation and the conflicting Frederick Foscue death chronologies remain unproved; none has been converted into a tree connection. An attempted original pension retrieval was blocked by a browser verification screen, so it yielded no new original-record evidence.

## How to read and maintain the tree

Solid gold lines show reported parent–child connections, mint lines show spouses, and dashed lines identify family-account or tentative relationships. Line style is not a certificate of proof: every selected person shows the evidence category, and the directory and source register explain the limits. Dates marked “reported” come from secondary genealogy unless otherwise stated.

The tree does not infer Addie’s motherhood of Frankie Dewayne solely from her marriage, or equate every similar name with an ancestor. No private birth dates or contact information have been added for the recent generations. A complete text directory remains available without JavaScript or WebGL. Any future correction should update the person, relationship and source note together.