This site is dedicated to exploring and documenting the descendants of William Neal Raven. Unfortunately, William Neal is a brick wall for us, research-wise, as we know very little about his birth or his parents.
For a list of William Neal Raven's descendants and links to their individual pages, click here or on the Family Index link in the main menu. Currently, I'm just showing Generations 1 through 4 and building the individual pages as time allows. My goal is to present you with their historical facts, as seen through records and the newspapers, and to weave those items together to tell part of their stories.
For a list of where Raven descendants are buried and links to their FindAGrave pages, click here or on the Grave Index link in the main menu.
A note on images: I've tried to be consistent with how I handle images. They should all open up into a (usually) larger image when clicked. It should always open in a new tab to allow for zooming and closing without affecting the rest of the article, which I've found to work well in Google Chrome on my phone. Creating all of those images/links is a very manual process, so if you find images that don't behave correctly, please let me know.
Historical records are often contradictory and up for interpretation/speculation, so if you have anything to add or correct (even typos), please email Jason Raven at
Speaking of Facebook, we also have a private group set up for descendants of William Neal Raven. It's called "Descendants of John and Annie Raven", but we have so little documentation proving those were his parents that I wish I'd just called it "Descendants of William Neal Raven" when I initially set it up. If you're a descendant, go here: https://www.facebook.com/groups/ravendescendants and ask to join our group of over 300 living descendants. If I don't know you, you'll be asked to explain your connection before you're admitted.
Thanks! Jason Raven