Other Mississippi Dulaneys

It is probably no secret that Cousin Don and I are compiling information for a book on the Dulaneys of Itawamba County and their associated families. We've talked about it for a couple of years now, and have started full-force writing and researching since January. The Itawamba Dulaneys can trace their ancestry back to Daniel Dulaney of Pendleton District, South Carolina with fair certainty, but after Daniel the family line pretty much disappears.

Many earlier researchers such as Mildred Dulaney, Melba Lambert Staigis, Arlander D. DuLaney, Vecil Dulany and others, have tried without success to get beyond Daniel of Pendleton. We owe these devoted Dulaney family researchers a huge debt of gratitude. Individually and collaboratively, they accumulated a treasure trove of genealogical information. Don and I will use that information as a foundation and build upon it, hopefully providing a finished product that will give an in depth look at the Dulaneys, and associated families, that helped settle Itawamba County.

Currently, our story begins with Daniel Dulaney of Pendleton, but it is our hope that we will be able to positively identify Daniel's ancestors before publication of the book. Today's internet technology and increased availability and digitalization of information has given us an advantage that the earlier Dulaney family researchers didn't have. Keep your figures crossed for us that we can put the pieces of the puzzle together.

To that end, I've been immersed in the Dulaneys of old Virginia and Maryland since that is where all fingers seem to point. You can blame this weekend's lack of posts on the intense focus on these families. In his 1936 family history, Arlander Denson DuLaney, grandson of Alfred Dulaney and wife Rachel McNiece, he compiled a list of possible Dulaney ancestors. His research included information about another set of Mississippi Dulaneys who lived in the Delta. Intrigued, I set out to learn more about this family.

A. D. DuLaney (as he spelled his surname) compiled information about a Dr. John William Dulaney of Rosedale, in Bolivar County, as well as Greenwood, in Leflore County, and his father Dr. William Johnson Dulaney of Madison County, Mississippi. Dr. William J. Dulaney was born in 1813 in Virginia and his biographical sketch published in Volume II of Biographical and Historical Memoirs of Mississippi indicates that he was the son of William Dulaney of Orange County, Virginia. Some researchers show William Dulaney as the great-great grandson of Thomas Dulaney, the Immigrant, from Ireland. From Thomas the Immigrant comes the many Dulaneys found in Virginia and Maryland, and it is very likely that Daniel Dulaney of Pendleton can lay claim to one of them.

Although William Johnson Dulaney and John William Dulaney were both physicians (William graduated from University of Virginia in 1833, and John from Louisiana State University in 1875), the third generation, and subsequent generations, chose law as their profession. This is probably the reason that A. D. DuLaney was particularly interested in this set of Mississippi Dulaneys - A. D. was a lawyer himself, graduating from the University of Arkansas Law School before 1900. His brother, John Jefferson Dulaney, also was a lawyer. A. D. DuLaney also served as Arkansas's Insurance Commissioner for several years in the 1930s.

Maybe one day we can figure out just how A. D. Dulaney is related to John William Dulaney, Jr. I think they both would be pleased.