I had originally put Hannah as a daughter of Eli McConnell, but I felt uneasy about doing so because I had no notes at all saying that she was Eli's daughter. I only did so because some other people on Ancestry had her shown as Eli's daughter, so I figured they might know something. But Eli's children are pretty well known, so it would be scarcely possible that a daughter such as Hannah, who went on to have such a large family, could have been completely overlooked.

But I've theorized that the other Ancestry trees only had Hannah as Eli's daughter because they couldn't find where she belonged & they figured she might be the same as Eli's daughter Anna, who's born about the same time.

That might have been an honest mistake to make until recently, because Anna's life was largely a mystery. But I've spent years tracking down Anna's life, because her 1st marriage to Thomas Cook is how I got sucked into researching the McConnells in the first place, and I have spent infinite time piecing Anna's life together and I can categorically state that she is not and never was Hannah.

Having said that, I've been emailing with another researcher descended from Hannah, who has provided me with what I consider the final evidence to satisfy me that Hannah is a daughter of James McConnell, brother of Eli.

In "Stephens Family Geneaologies" by Dan V. Stephens, it says that in 1848 Uriah Stephens married Hannah Ann McConnell, daughter of Judge James McConnell, who had a plantation on the Etowah River near Canton, and James was the brother of General Eli McConnell.

Aside from that, Uriah & Hannah gave their first son and daughter the same names as Hannah's parents, James & Sarah.

And at the time Uriah & Hannah married in Floyd Co., GA, that's precisely where her parents were living, according to the 1850 census.

Finally, I have a copy of a short history of the McConnell family written in 1972, put together by Maybelle & Maybeth Prichard, who were McConnell descendants, born in the mid 1890's. They state that Hannah Ann was a daughter of James McConnell & Sarah Putnam, and that Hannah married a Stephens, just as I have it.

Michael McKinney

Kennesaw, GA