2 Days Out--The Sordid Family Tree Revealed

FAMILY TREE REVEALED

My aunt visited this weekend and revealed the exact Jesse James connection. Apparently the marriage to William Henry James a.k.a. Billy (who was a first cousin to Jesse and Frank) didn't bode well and my great great grandmother and subsequently my great grandmother forbade any mention of the James brothers or their exploits. The family lineage is confusing and somewhat sordid. I will do my best to recap succinctly.

Sarah Louella Prevette McCracken with 3rd Husband James Melvin McCracken
my great great grandmother

When Sarah Louella was a young child, her parents brought her to Texas in a covered wagon. She was an angelic beauty with blond hair and blue eyes. When the wagon came to town, a shop owner named Wes McCracken saw the sleeping Sarah Louella in the back of the covered wagon. He was so overcome by her beauty that he asked her father if he could come calling. Within a couple of weeks, he was a regular visitor to the household, having dinner and bringing Sarah Louella presents of dolls and toys. He asked her father for her hand in marriage. When the father exclaimed that she was just a child, Wes McCracken said he would wait. She married him as soon as she biologically became a woman. Accounts vary on her exact age (12, 13, 14??)  Are you creeped out yet?

Have you noticed that husband 3 and husband 1 have the same last name? That is because they are brothers! I don't have a photo of the pedophile husband #1, but his brother looks much closer in age to Sarah Louella. Despite the age difference between Sarah Louella and Wes, she professed to loving him more than any of her other husbands.

Husband #2 is where the James family connection is first made. Hubby 2--William Henry James (Billy), whose father was named Cyrus was the first cousin to Jesse & Frank. My great great grandmother didn't like the business dealings and comings/goings of the James' clan and divorced Mr. James in 1887 after 9 years of marriage due to lack of support for her and her son Thomas Leslie James (my maternal grandmother's father).

Mary Beulah McCracken (James)
James Melvin McCracken's daughter
Married Thomas Leslie James

Thomas Leslie James,
son of Sarah Louella Privette McCracken
& Hubby 2 Mr. James 

Mary Beulah McCracken (my great grandmother) married Thomas Leslie James (her stepbrother), thus continuing the James lineage. This sounds like a Shakespeare comedy or tragedy, depending on your perspective. But at least she didn't marry her first cousin, which was quite common for the time. 

I am not sure what the correct term for my bloodline to Jesse James. 4th cousins thrice removed?