[2][4][3] She was a great-granddaughter of Isaac Draper, an Englishman who settled in Ireland in the first half of the 18th century, engaging in manufacturing industries.

[2] His son, James Draper Sr. (1781–1866), married Eliza Homan (d. 1872), whose paternal ancestry dated from the time of William the Conqueror.

James Draper Sr., after losing all his property owing to the rapid change in industrial conditions, emigrated to New Brunswick.

The house in which he died, at Brooke Station, Stafford County, Virginia October 28, 1877, is said to have been the one in which E. D. E. N. Southworth wrote The Hidden Hand.

[2] His wife, Catherine Schriver[3] (d. 1866), was partly of Dutch ancestry, her paternal grandparents coming to America from Amsterdam, Holland.

In alluding to her subsequent experiences, Kinney stated:—[2] "After the death of my first husband, my first start in life began at the time I picked a two-gallon pail of wild strawberries, which I carried 7 miles (11 km) to the railroad station and sold for US$1.

As I was childless and so very young, I was advised by my employers to resume my maiden name, which advice I followed and found decidedly to my advantage in after years.

I then began to realize by comparison with others how very ignorant I was, and, being resolved not to continue so, I devoted all my spare moments to study, until, much to my surprise, I found myself regarded as a woman of education.

[2] Kinney was a scientific observer of atmospheric phenomena preceding seismic disturbances and correctly predicted 21 earthquakes from one to three days in advance.

[6] In September 1919, while making a temporary home in Zaferia, Long Beach, California, Kinney was injured on The Pike by falling over a rope, wrenching her shoulder and wrists, and bruising her face.