In examining my dad’s DNA matches, I find listed multiple cousins who descend from Isaac Smith, Sr. and Nancy Hendricks (later Bridgewater) of Salt Creek Township, Jackson County, Indiana. This post will attempt to document my findings pertaining to the significance of the major segments that are common to many of them.

Chromosome 3

The first segments we see are on Chromsome 3.

It is this region that can link our Smiths to the families of Andrew Jackson Shelton and William Spurlock, a neighbor of Henry Smith and Elizabeth Ledford, via descendants of John Madison Spurlock and his siblings.

It was this finding that leads me to hypothesize that KY Militia General William M. Smith (also a Sheriff of Rockcastle Co, KY (abbrv. SRC) and KY State Senator) was a son of Henry Smith and Elizabeth Ledford. Henry hired William’s son, a KY Militia Col. Elisha Smith (also a SRC and KY State Senator in the 1830’s) to handle his pension record (but never filed it for some reason?). Gen. Smith was a neighbor to Isaac Smith, Sr. and Nancy in Rockcastle Co, KY in 1810. I have determined that the chronology for this hypothesized relationship between William and Henry can not work.

Chromosome 7

Moving on to the next interesting segment, we find Chromosome 7 to be abundant among these matches.

This segement has been more difficult to research as I did not initially find many individuals outside of the Salt Creek Smiths who possessed it. That has recently changed, however.

To preface this next part, I need to mention that yDNA matching and autosomal analysis has demonstrated that the line of William Smith who married Susan Silcox on April 10th, 1896 in Scott County, Tennessee is related to my Smith line.

I believe this William Smith was a son of Leonidas Smith who married Sarah Elizabeth West. This is based upon a paper-trail research effort to trace William through the censuses. I can provide my research if you send me a request. Additionally, a Ewell Smith was a neighbor to Susan Silcox’s grandmother, another older Susan Silcox, mother of Stephen S. Silcox.

Leonidas had a brother Ewell Smith (m. Louvina Marcum), and they were both among the sons of Rev. Isaac M. Smith and Matilda Rose Elliott (marrried on Jan 8th, 1818 in Washington County, Virginia).

Now, a word of caution! There is much to validate in the online trees about Isaac M. Smith and I will urge you all to double-check anything you find that states who his parents were without source information. Isaac’s WikiTree entry has been influenced by the research of members of FTDNA Smith Group R-M269-32. It links Isaac M. Smith to another unrelated Smith line (provable by yDNA comparison) by way of unverifiable and unsourced research. Also, this Isaac M. Smith is completely different from my Isaac Smith, Sr. who married Nancy Hendricks Bridgewater.

Latest information as of 27 May 2023 is that Isaac M. Smith m. Matilda Rose Elliott is NOT a yDNA match to my line. Thank you to Paul Smith of Alaska for helping me correct my research. He is a direct male descendant of John L. Smith, a son of Isaac M. Smith, and his yDNA results show this Smith line is in fact Haplogroup I, not R, as is my group’s.

John Reynolds and Mary Polly Smith

Among my dad’s DNA matches are also descendants of the following families of Scott Co, TN:

While we find John Reynolds and Mary Polly Smith in the 1870 Campbell Co, TN census next to the family of an (A)ndrew (J)ackson Smith, son of a James C. Smith and Nancy W. Meadors, yDNA matching can demonstrate that my yDNA group (FTDNA Group R-M-269-9) is not related to this Andrew Smith (R-M269-42). This A J Smith may have also been a “Anderson J Olin Smith” who married a Harriet Barrett. More research is necessary.

Looking in the 1880 Lower Elk, Campbell Co, TN census, we can find John and Mary.

A side note, John G. Reynolds was a son of (C.)laiborne Reynolds. Claiborne was a neighbor to a Joseph Hatfield.

This Joseph Hatfield married a Rachel Smith, but currently is it suggested that this Rachel Smith was a descendant of a Hans J. Smidt who originated out of Falun, Sweden and was a member of yDNA Haplogroup I. This is based upon some court records that show her brother Andrew Smith (ironcially, as my Isaac’s father’s name was Andrew) was an assignee (placed under the guardianship of) Ericus Smith. That said, Hans’ descendants appear in multiple places of interest at the same time as my Smiths. I’m trying to figure out the cause of this common migration pattern involving Orange Co, NC, Russell Co, VA and Scott Co, TN. I suspect it may have something to do with the Battle of King’s Mountain (see Col. Richard Singleton), but I am not certain at this point.

An alternate bit of information I have that has yet to be understood is that Joseph Hatfield was a brother-in-law to a “Thomas Smith of Horsepen Mountain”. It’s not quite clear who Thomas was.
Wikitree For Thomas Smith
Hatfield Family History

William Smith m. Phereba Jeffers

Moving on, I have identified that a descendant of William Smith m. Phereba Jeffers (below, blue) matches my dad.

Two segments on Cr7 are shared with my dad that are also ICW the other descendants of Isaac and Nancy.
2.48cM with my dad’s 3rd cousin (MRCAs Samuel Rice Smith m. Hulda Wheeler)
14.43cM with a 4th cousin (MRCAs Isaac Smith, Sr. m. Nancy Hendricks).

Because we can demonstrate that the two larger segments overlap (see earlier notes), suggesting that they were ancestrally part of the same larger segment that my dad inherited, we can infer that the non-matching portion of the blue segment is what was replaced as recombination happened in the past. This suggests that William Smith could be related to my Smiths. [Edit: as of 1 Feb 2022, 67 level yDNA matching (67/67), supplemented by paper trail and autosomal matching analysis, has confirmed that William Smith is of my larger Smith population.]

I’m not very certain about who these other Smith families are (in blue).

What is more interesting is that William lived very near John Marcum, father of Louvina Marcum who married Ewell Smith.

Louvina can be found in the 1860 census.

Stephen Silcox m. Mourning Loudermilk

This next couple was identified via two matches of my dad’s who descend from this couple.

The top kit we will recognize as the descenant of William Smith and Phereba Jeffers. The match on line 5 is also a cousin to my 67/67 yDNA match who is believed to descend from Leonidas Smith (but match via different DNA). The match on line 6 is a cousin to the match on line 5 via Stephen Silcox and Mourning Loudermilk. Stephen Silcox was the father of Susan Silcox who married William Smith.

Since the Loudermilks mainly came from Germany, this could suggest that the Silcox family (a surname also found in England) has a common ancestry with my Smiths (FTDNA Group R-M269-9). I am unable to prove who Stephen Silcox’s parents were. The Richard Silcox in many trees does not make sense as his given age exempts him from being a potential father of Stephen. This match could also be via a wife of a Loudermilk man.

John Smith m. Mary Bonney

This next couple was a very unexpected finding. The first descendant of John and Mary was identified via a FTDNA chromosome browser search.

Upon initial inspection of their tree, I was excited to find that they did not have any ancestral connections to North America. I e-mailed the match with an initial inquiry as to whether they may have Smiths in their tree, and more specifically if they were from Essex in England. Their initial response was that they were not aware of any Smiths in their ancestry. Not dissuaded, I began researching the tree they provided and, indeed, they did have Smiths of Essex in their tree. After some memory jogging, this finding was confirmed with them. Unfortunately, since I only had one kit to which I could refer, I could not conclusively prove that this match was via a Smith line.

Jumping forward a few years, a few months ago a 2nd cousin of this first match contacted me on Ancestry.com. They were interested in the tree I had created (cough, cough yes I copied it from one of their other cousins [thank you!]) in my account. We began chatting and they disclosed to me that they had taken an AncestryDNA test and that they were curious if we matched. I told them I too was curious about this, so thus began the shared months long wait to find our answer.

And time did not disappoint. We matched.

What is very useful about this match to these two cousins is that they are related by half-siblings. Their MRCA (most recent common ancestor) does indeed descend from the Smith side of their tree.

This Smith family descends from the Ongar, West Ham, Netteswell and Epping areas of Essex ,with earlier connections to Magalen Laver and Rye Hills.

I have found that the Essex area is rich with a variety of Smith families, many having histories that go back into the 15th century (or earlier). Couple this with the uncertainty of the whole of the Smith/Bonney tree with which we are working, the best I can leave this finding at is a hypothesis. That is, I find it possible that my Smiths could have emmigrated out of Essex before they came to North America.

Some disclaimers. The DNA on Cr7 that I have examined could have been inherited by any of the families from which Isaac and Nancy descend. If any of those families had common ancestries with any of the families of the above mentioned couples, that could also explain how/why this segment of DNA is present in these populations we have examined.

Hello again!

This blog posting will be short and simple, but very useful.

In doing Smith DNA based research, we frequently find that we may autosomally match a Smith male, but we find that they do not have Y-DNA values to compare against. The gracious folks over at MorleyDNA.com have created a great site that will allow us to do a coarse comparison of the Y-DNA markers of our autosomal DNA matches. This will allow us to more easily identify Y-DNA lines that are good candidates for traditional Y-DNA testing (a 37 or 67 marker test at FamilyTreeDNA.com).

Please feel free to comment and ask questions and, as always, happy hunting!

Chris

A-121 Will of ROBERT SMITH, of St. Mathew’s Parish.

Dated 20 June 1772, no probate date.

Wife: Mary       sons: John, Andrew, Robert

daus: Elizabeth, Mary, Isabel

Executors: Jospeh McCaffrity, and son William.

Witnesses: John Walker, Robert Chassen
______

I am also working from the analysis of Gerald W. Meade
https://www.wikitree.com/wiki/Smith-101473

I still feel there are multiple Andrew Smiths getting bundled together in this research. I feel yDNA may be able to sort them all out.

Looking through the Caswell Co, NC marriages, we find a Thomas Smith who married a Mildred Atkins 27 May 1804 in Caswell Co, NC.

A witness to this union was a one Alexander Murphey, the likely husband of Jane Smith, sister of James Webb Smith. I have since discarded any weight of the presence of Alexander Murphey on this record. He was a county employee.

The bondsman was a Francis Smith of Country Line Creek.

Thomas and Mildred had a daughter Lucy Smith who married Stephen Gallant Hankins.

Referencing back to the 1840 Blount Co, AL census, we can find Richard Hankins living “next door” to Stephen Smith.

Richard and Stephen Hankins were brothers, both sons of John Alvin Hankins.

For the first time, we are close to connecting two Smith lines that have only been previously associated via yDNA testing. Yes!

Here are the details:

In 1876, on the estate records of Bennett Smith of McNairy Co, TN, we can find the names “J. F. Jopling” and “David M. King” (Jr.). David M. McKinzie

“J. F. Jopling” was a one James Francis (Frank) Jopling. David M. King David M. McKinzie’s wife was likely related to a Samuel Whitesides, but we will discuss this group in a different posting when more details are available.

James Jopling was a son of a John Sutton Jopling. John was a son of Daniel Jopling. Daniel Jopling had a brother, William Jopling. William had a daughter Catherine Jopling who married a… Thomas Smith. Thomas and Catherine were wed in 1814 in Caswell County, North Carolina.

With me so far? Good.

William Jopling was descended from Ralph Jopling. The tester for Bennett’s yDNA line has multiple AncestryDNA matches who descend from Ralph Jopling. Additionally, William Jopling engaged in a land transaction with a Nathanial King. (This is still a true and relevant fact as of late, but needs to be viewed from a different perspective than the one in this post.)

On the marriage record of Thomas Smith and Catherine Jopling were bondsman John Fitch and witness Alexander Murphey. John Fitch is the key to making this all make sense.

John Fitch was a son of Thomas Rosewell Fitch who married a “Sarah Elizabeth Bird”. I put her name in quotes because she appears to be referred to as both Sarah and Elizabeth depending on which family group you examine.

https://www.genealogy.com/forum/surnames/topics/bird/4888/

Sarah Bird was a daughter of James Bird who had a son Empson Bird. It is my belief that James Bird was a descendant of an older Thomas Bird who married a Sarah Empson, a daughter of a Charles Empson.

Here are the Bird records I have found:

https://orangedeedbooks.blogspot.com/2018/02/orange-county-deed-book-17.html

Ok, so I’ve lain out the Bennett Smith details: John Fitch on the marriage record of a Thomas Smith who married Catherine Jopling who was a first cousin of John Sutton Jopling who had a son James Francis Jopling who was on the estate record of Bennett Smith in 1876 McNairy Co, TN.

On to the Andrew Smith details.

To refresh, Andrew Smith was present for the 1809 marriage of his sons Isaac and Samuel Smith in Woodford Co, KY. Isaac later went on to live in an area known as Roundstone just outside of Mt. Vernon, Rockcastle Co, KY around 1810.

One of Isaac’s neighbors was a KY Militia General William Smith. He was a sheriff of Rockcastle Co, KY for quite some time and a member for some time in the early 1800’s of the KY state legislature, as was his son, Col. Elisha Smith.

Gen. Smith married Elizabeth Singleton in 1789 Lincoln Co, KY. Per Elisha, Elizabeth’s father was a Col. Richard Singleton who married Ann Whiteside.

Ann was a daughter of a William Whiteside whose brother James Whiteside was an immediate neighbor to… Andrew Smith and a Richard Bird. This is the same Whiteside family as Samuel Whitesides who was  previously mentioned.

I’m working on connecting all of the Bird individuals together in a tree. Many names repeat and it gets a bit confusing.

Additionally, Andrew Smith is strongly likely to be the son of a Robert Smith of St. Matthew’s Parish whose will was witnessed by a Joseph McCaffrity,  John Walker, and a Robert Chassen. John Walker is likely related to Aaron Walker who lived next to Andrew Smith. The Walkers and Birds intermarried. I’ll try to write down those details as well.

So there we have it, a paper trail connection between Bennett Smith of McNairy County, Tennessee and Isaac Smith of Salt Creek Township, Jackson County, Indiana.

Thanks for reading. This should lead to a whole new wave of research!

Chris Smith

One of our lesser explored Smith lines is that of James Andrew Stephen Smith. He can be found in the census records as “J A S Smith”, “Stephen Smith”, and “S Smith”. Fun.

Using some of the work done by Jennifer Gaulding Lowe, a descendant of our larger Smith group by way of her Andersons, we can establish some baselines about J A S Smith.

http://www.smithsworldwide.org/tng/gbb/gbookd.asp?id=783

We see that J A S Smith was likely born in 1802 in South Carolina. He married Mary Gwin or Gwinn. The conclusion is, at this time, that his father was an Andrew J. Smith who married a Nancy Ann Ingram.

We know that in 1850 the Andrew Smith in question was 48 years old, his birthyear being 1802. This would make him 18 years old in 1820.

I was looking at the names in the 1840 Carroll Co, GA census and have come up with a few things.

First, it looks like Andrew Smith who married Nancy Ingram was in GA at least as early as 1832. This is based upon the birthplace and year of birth of his eldest daughter.

Next, I find Andrew in the Carroll County, Georgia tax records from 1842-1847.

1842

1844

1847

For the purposes of the next part of this, we’ll only be looking at Andrew Smith, William H. Smith, Alexander Sewell, and Green B. Sewell.

[Side Notes, not immediately pertinent:

One other thing to note, I can find a reference, but only a vague one, to both Carroll Co, GA and Jeptha V. Smith’s folks in this story:

http://files.usgwarchives.net/al/randolph/history/randhist.txt

It appears that there was a William H. Smith who was descended from Jeptha V. Smith (y67 match), but unfortunately, these guys don’t appear to be the same. Wm Hugh Smith’s wife’s name was Lucy William Wortham.

For reference, here’s Jep’s descendant’s bio: (note Fayette Co, GA.)

http://www.encyclopediaofalabama.org/article/h-2007]

From what I can find in the 1850 Carroll Co, GA census:

Wm H Smith (b. 1820)
– had wife Sarah
– Daughters:
– Harriet
– Selina Chandler (likely a neice)

There were two Selina Chandlers in the 1850 District 11, Carroll Co, GA census.

Now, here’s something interesting.

One of the Selina Chandlers was the daughter of an Oliver C. Chandler and a Mary Sewell.

Notice how, in the land records, that an Alexander Sewel and Green B. Sewel are next to Andrew Smith in each? (Green Berry Sewell and Alexander were father and son – https://www.wikitree.com/wiki/Sewell-185)

Here’s another clue. Oliver C. Chandler was married twice.

1st marriage: Nancy Smith, 23 Dec 1840 in Carroll Co, GA
2nd marraige: Mary Sewell, 30 Nov 1842 in Carroll Co, GA

Since subscribing to Newspapers.com recently, I have found an absolutely unexpected amount of information about my Smith ancestors that surely would have been lost to time had it not been recorded in those pages so long ago.

One of the major events in my Smith history was the migration from Salt Creek Township in Jackson County, Indiana to the area known as “Little Egypt” in southern Illinois. This is where my grandpa was born. I’ll try to trace the people and places back from Carmi, IL to Salt Creek on this page.

My grandpa’s father was Vernon S. Smith. He was married three times, twice torn from wives by their premature passing. Vernon was a school teacher during The Great Depression and taught in a one room schoolhouse. He had an Associates Degree. He later went on to champion the causes of better pay for teachers and to fight waste within the school system.

Here is Vernon’s obituary. A lot had happened before this time one can be certain of.

Here is an article I found that details Vernon’s birthday gathering at his home. My dad and uncle are mentioned.

One of the defining celebrations that Vernon regularly participated in was the Isaac Smith and Alvin Wheeler Family Reunions. I will try to find articles that chronicle these gatherings. I have seen two but I am unable to find them on my computer at the moment.

Vernon was the father of 5 sons, one who died very young and two whom went on to have productive and loving lives but no children. The other two, my grandpa and his brother, would find themselves dedicated to fighting in the USMC and US Army during their formative years.

Here is a story about Vernon B. Smith, my great-grand uncle.

Vernon S. Smith’s dad died when he was very young. Daniel Robert Smith was his name and he was killed by a train in Carmi, IL around 1889. Vernon would have only been about 3 years old.

I believe that this is a photo of Daniel R. Smith. It was found among the belongings of Isaac “Ike” S. Smith of Freetown, IN and has “Smith Carmi, IL” written on the back. Dan was born in 1859 the second youngest of his 7 brothers (8 of them total). There was James, Alvin, Isaac, William, Louis, Orral, Daniel, and Hiram.

This next newspaper article shows the marriage announcement of Daniel R. Smith and Nancy J. Acton. They were affectionately referred to as “Dan and Nancy”. The “Uncle Dick” the author refers to is Richard Acton, Nancy’s father. This article was likely authored by Robert M. Smith as he refers to Richard Acton in his book The Salt Creek Colony of Little Egypt the same way.

The “Ike” the following article refers to was Isaac S. Smith, one of Daniel’s older brothers.

This clipping records (towards the bottom) Dan’s attempt to travel to southern Illinois. Looks like the waters were high that time of year. The rivers in that area were known to flood and produce very fertile farmland.

This next article records Dan and Nancy’s return from their first trip to Danville.

This is a partial re-print of the above article in a newspaper that was published 50 years after Dan’s trip.

Dan’s father was the Rev. Samuel Rice Smith, Esq., if we are to believe the credentialing afforded Sam by the newspapers. Here is his obituary.

Another shorter notice:

As I wind this page up, I’ll be sure to point you to Samuel R. Smith’s father, Isaac Smith, Sr.

This page is only about some of The Salt Creekers.

Thanks for reading and I hope you enjoyed!

-Chris

Looking back at the 1810 Rockcastle County, Kentucky censuses, we find my Isaac Smith, Sr. living among the Middletons and Singletons in the area that is presumably near Skaggs Creek or the Roundstone Fork of the Rockcastle River. Most interestingly, a “Colo Wm Smith” is a neighbor of my Isaac Smith. Let’s take a look at his life.

I’ve recently been able to subscribe to Newspapers.com, an amazing site brought to you by the same folks at Ancestry.com. Let’s dig into their archives and see what we can find.

The bulk of the newspaper articles I have found regarding William are from The Mount Vernon Signal. As far as I know, they still exist today.

I’ll start with what I know about General Smith and build upon that. My research trip to Kentucky yielded that he was from Glade Hollow Fort in Russell Co, VA. He was also a Sheriff of Rockcastle County, and one of his sons, a Thomas J. Smith, was a deputy sheriff. From the census records, I know that he had another son, a George W. Smith.

By most accounts, Gen. Smith is also related to the Fish family by way of a second wife, an Ann Burney Fish. I believe that many of these families were involved in the militias.

The earliest record I can find of Gen. Smith is his marriage record in Lincoln County, Kentucky to Elizabeth Singleton dated 20 Aug 1798. Later, land deeds link him to the area known as “the Roundstone Fork of the Rockcastle River” circa 1805.

The earliest newspaper article I can find on Newspapers.com is from 20 Dec 1901.

So in this article we can find that Gen. William Smith was a father-in-law to a James Terrill and also had a daughter named Annie.

The next article of material relevance is one from 25 Apr 1913.

Many solid statistics aside, we are presented with a rather intriguing fact: William Smith was a Rockcastle County Representative and Kentucky State Senator, as was one of his sons, Elisha Smith! Fantastic! My hopes are that we will be able to find more information about them because of their involvement in the legislature. We are also presented with some additional descendants of William’s. He was the great-grandfather of Alvah Maret and W. J. Newcomb and the 3rd great-grandfather of William H. Fish of the clothing house “Sign of the Fish”. Good stuff.

I was beginning to find the results for a query of “William Smith” in the Mt. Vernon Signal grow sparse and decided to look for the Thomas J. Smith whose name I have observed on the old land deeds. I found a great article written by a W. H. Williams, a late President of Citizens Bank. He too was interested in General Smith.

From 15 Apr 1921:

We are fortunate to have such an account from Mr. Williams. We see that Gen. Smith had a son William M. Smith who went off to Texas during The Civil War. Migration information like this can be a clue to someone’s brick wall. Nice.

There are additional articles on Newspapers.com pertaining to the family of Gen. Smith, but I will not record them here as they can quickly become numerous and time consuming to parse and digest. I believe I will create an additional page as I find new articles and source info for the General’s life and family.

Finally, I will include the contents of the archives of Rockcastle County Library. These words have been salvaged from what appears to be a malfunctioning URL linking to a blank PDF. I have used Google’s cache of the page.

From http://www.rockcastlelibrary.org/libraryarchives/mvsignal/1976/MVS19761230A07.pdf

Rockcastle Recollections
By John Lair
GENERAL WILLIAM SMITH

William Smilh was born March 21, 1778, in Russell County, Virginia. He was too young to take part in The Revolutionary War but after it’s close, when the Indians were still troublesome, he served as a spy along both the Clinch and the Kentucky rivers, settling in 1795 in what was later to be Rockcastle County. His grandson, Col. James Maret, Rockcastle County’s most active early historian, believed that in that year he built the substantial two-story log house in which he lived until his death in 1849. Since he would have been only 22 years of age in 1795 it hardly seems likely that he would have put up a house which would have been a mansion at that time.

Soon after coming to this location he married a daughter of Col. Richard Singleton who served as a major with American forces at the battle of King’s Mountain. They had two children, a son Col. Elisha Smith, and a daughter who married Col. James Terrill, one of the very early settlers in the area. Upon the death of his first wife. General Smith married Ann Fish, daughter of Thomas and Winaford Burney Fish, she having been born in Guilford County, North Carolina, in 1784, later being brought to Kentucky by her parents, in 1791.

There were born to William Smith and his second wife, 5 sons and 3 daughters; George W., Alfred, Elisha, James, Pendleton, Eliza, Glatha and Mary. George W. went to Columbus, Texas, became a lawyer and was a member of the Superior Court under Confederate occupancy. He died of-yellow fever in 1873. At the time of his death he owned 20,000 acres of range land, 10,000 cattle and property in several Texas cities. Alfred became a major during the Civil War and is buried beside his parents in Mt. Vernon’s Elmwood Cemetery. Elisha became a large landowner in the county and was a man of affairs. Nothing is now known concerning James. Pendleton, youngest son of William and Ann Fish Smith, is buried beside his parents. Eliza married George Maret and became the mother of James Maret, frequently mentioned throughout this book. Glatha married Mitchell Maret, brother of George Maret. Information on Mary, the third daughter, is not now available. Some confusion also exists concerning Elisha Smith. Some sources indicate that William Smith had two sons named Elisha, one by each of his two wives, while others show that there was only one Elisha and he was the son of William’s first wife, the Singleton. William Smith was commissioned captain of the first company raised in Rockcastle County for service in the War of 1812 and was the first to leave for the scene of action. This company was part of the Kentucky Battalion of Mounted Volunteers and took up their march on September 18, 1812. Serving under him were two of his brothers-in-law, Thomas and William Fish. Thomas Fish served as a sergeant of the company, while Wllliam Fish enlisted as a private bu tlater became a colonel. Smith, himself,was promoted to General, the first Rockcastle County native to attain that rank.

As a supplement to this most thorough biographical summaries, here is another article taken from the 25 Mar 1921 edition of The Mount Vernon Signal.

I hope you enjoyed this trip through time back to the early 20th century Rockcastle County. Maybe one day I’ll find a descendant of Gen. Smith for yDNA testing. Fingers crossed!

Thanks for reading!

Chris

Back on August 7th, 2017, FamilyTreeDNA notified my Smith matches and me of a new 67/67 yDNA match! I never expected to find another unknown (to me) Smith line that matched this closely. We are all very excited about this discovery and I will attempt to provide the details and their significance here.

The match descends from a Thaddeous Smith. This “Thad” Smith is a descendant of Jeptha Vinen Smith [online genealogy info] who married Nancy Dickson. They were wed in 1824 in Fayette Co, GA. Nancy Dickson was a daughter of militia General David Dickson or Dixon (Captain in The Revolutionary War).

[ An interesting bit to note about Nancy Dickson: in her marriage records, her name is written multiple times as “Discon”.  ]

After doing some preliminary digging on Ancestry.com, I was amazed to find a two page hand written letter that was written by a granddaughter of Jeptha’s in Lineville, AL in the 1960’s. To quote the Ancestry.com user’s page: “Written by Eugie Dobson, daughter of Joseph and Nancy Adalee Smith Dobson. Relayed to her by her uncle Andrew [Jackson] Smith, the son of Jeptha and Nancy Smith.”

I will present here my best attempt at transcribing the contents of these two pages. They’re a wealth of info about the early origins of our Smiths in North Carolina.

Page 1

[Page 1]
Genealogy of Jeptha V. Smith.-
Jeptha Vinen Smith, born in Hancock County
Ga., Dec 1795, died in Glendale Miss, Sept
25 1863, and is buried there. was a son of Wm Smith and
wife Mary Smith, his Bros and Sisters: Jno Browder,
born 1783, died 1868, married Caroline Kilgore,
James McDonald married Martha Bankston, settled
in Maury Co, Tenn., Elizabeth married Jos Wheeler.
Jemina married William Belcher.
Nancy [married] James Dickson.
Mary [married] Judge Jospeh Benton
Louise [married] Ransome Kitchens. Wm
Smith, a Revolutionary Soldier. [father of
Jeptha V Smith) was born about 1755, and died
at Smith Mills on red oak creek, in Merri-
weather Co, Ga. in 1830. Had one bro., Peter, and one
sister who married a Mr. Lambert, also a half
bros who went to Kentucky*, he (Wm Smith) was
a son of Nicholas Smith and his wife Polly
Smith. Nicholas Smith (father of Wm) was
born in Caswell Co, N.C. and was of English
descent. Polly Smith, mother of Wm was born in
Dublin Ireland, and her maiden name was Burke.
Mary Smith (Wife Wm and Mother of Jeptha V.) was
the daughter of Jno Powell and his wife Peggy Powell.
Mary Powell Smith’s bros., and sisters were James, Charles,
Judeth, Peggy, Nancy, and Martha. One sister married
Joseph McLane another Wm Seals. Jno Powell
(father of Mary Smith) was born in Caswell

Page 2

[Page 2]
Co. N.C. and he was a son of John Powell (of VA who
was a cousin of Geo Washington, Peggy Powell
(mother of Mary Smith) was born in Doublin
Ireland, her maiden name was Peggy Mc-
Donald. Uncle Andrews story of Peggy
Powell. Peggy Powell, the wife of Jno Powell of
Caswell Co, N.C. and the mother of Mary Smith (who
was the mother of Jeptha V Smith) was born in
Dublin Ireland. her maiden name was Peggy
McDonald. she, with other school children girls
of Dublin were [invited ?] by a Captain of a large
ship. “to a ball to or g were of the ship.” [?] When
the party was underway the ship quietly sailed
away, pirates they proved to be, and the girls
were brought to America (Virginia seaport)
and sold as slaves. Peggy was bought by one
John Powell, who beft and reared her care-
fully. His son fell in love with her and
married her, and much to their surprise their
there were no parental objections.
John Powell, the father of Mary “Smith” and her bros.,
& sisters: James, Charles, John, Judith, Nancy, Peggy.
& Martha was the son of Jno Powell of Virginia
who was first coz of Geo Washington first
Pres. of U.S.

So here we have a narrative of migration from Caswell Co, NC to Hancock Co, GA and then later to (Randolph Co, AL) and Glendale Co, MS. I wish to point out that Caswell Co, NC is very close to Orange Co, NC (if not formed from a part of it).

Orange County was formed from Granville, Johnston, and Bladen Counties in 1752. Guilford, Chatham, and Wake were all formed from a large portion of Orange County in 1770. Caswell County was formed from the north half of what remained of Orange County in 1777.

Upon further investigation, we can find David Dickson/Dixon in the 1803, 1805, and 1806 Franklin County, GA tax lists (Thanks to Blake Smith for this find. Invaluable!)

[Additional find regarding Smiths of Jackson County, Georiga and militia General David Dickson/Dixon. I do not know if all of the Smiths listed here are related to Jeptha, but I believe the population deserves a study.]

1803 Franklin Co, GA Tax List

1805 Franklin Co, GA Tax List

1806 Franklin Co, GA Tax List

I will be posting more about Jeptha V. Smith’s line as I hammer out the details. (Jeptha was related to a late Governor of Alabama and I want to thoroughly go through this info before I post anything.)

For the time being, I will retract my conclusions about Nicholas Smith (m. Polly Burke) regarding the Nathan Smith Settlement. I have looked into the paper trail and because Owen Carpenter is present in the migrations, I believe that Nathan Smith of the settlement’s namesake is not related to my group’s Nicholas Smith.

Again, please verify all of this on your own. Thanks.

Thanks for reading!

Chris Smith

A link I have found that is worthy of starting this page can be found here:

http://www.genealogy.com/forum/regional/states/topics/va/24944/

I believe this was posted by a Pauline Smith Wing. I have confirmed that her Smith line is NOT of my line via yDNA comparison, but she does appear to have researched General William Smith and his kinsmen to some extent. I know that the Andrew Smith in Madison Co, KY is actually not one of my guys. He is the Andrew Smith who married Sarah Scrivner/Scribner. yDNA comparison shows this is not my line.

I feel more comfortable saying that my Andrew Smith was living in Lexington, Fayette Co, Kentucky in 1810. I believe this is the only Andrew Smith who is of the correct age in 1810 to be the father of my Isaac Smith, Sr. It’d be nice if someone could verify this for me. Julia Mortenson has provided information that shows this is not my Andrew Smith. Thank you Julia!

Her findings that he and Elijah Smith were related is reassuring to me that I am not incorrect in making that assumption. I also find it interesting that she was able to connect William and Elijah to Knox Co, KY. (See the line of Amber Granville Smith [William Smith of NC m. Sarah Wells in Knox Co, KY in 1851]).

In my previous pages, I have been able to show how a General William Smith was likely related to my Isaac Smith, Sr. This William Smith can be found in the early (1790’s) Lincoln County, KY marriage records. His first wife was an Elizabeth Singleton. His second wife was Anne Burney Fish.

Further, we can find in the 1801 land records of General William Smith that he was affiliated with an Elijah Smith. I believe this to be the same Elijah Smith as the father of Aquilla Smith who was a neighbor to Samuel Rice Smith in Salt Creek Township, Jackson County, Indiana.

Names: John Hall, Hitty Hall, Samuel Wilson, William Smith, BOTH Elijah Smith and Elisha Smith Dates: August 22nd, 1818 …main Creek fifty poles above 200 poles to the south of the spring branch at a sugartree at the figure 1 thence N31E12? poles to a sugartree beech and linn at the figure 2 thence N59E21 19 po(le?) to three black gums at the figure 3 thence S32…

Additional details of land granted to General William Smith around Feb 24th, 1802.

I have been able to find some very interesting pages that discuss this area near what is sometimes referred to as “Skegg’s Creek”. I believe “Skagg’s Creek” is also another name it was known by. Today there is a small church, Skagg’s Creek Baptist Church, that overlooks the rolling hills of Rockcastle Co, KY very near by Roundstone.

The following pages are of interest to my Smith research. I need to go through them more thoroughly for exact relevance.

http://bransoncook.systemaxonline.com/gedcoms/wm_smallwood/pafg03.htm

This page pertains to the family of an “E.(lijah?) Smallwood” of Roundstone. The page author connects him to the Roundstone Creek area. (Gen. William Smith’s land was called “Roundstone Fork”)

http://bransoncook.systemaxonline.com/gedcoms/wm_smallwood/pafg06.htm

One other item to note: this William Smallwood family appears to have a (possible?) connection to Hillsborough, Orange County, North Carolina. This is where I speculate that Andrew Smith was married in 1781.

This page may largely be duplicate information from above. I find this family group interesting because they are also connected to Knox Co, KY and we had a William Smith who was married there. He was the ancestor of Amber Granville Smith. William was from North Carolina.

While writing this page, I found a simple land grant search for the KY.gov website:

http://apps.sos.ky.gov/land/nonmilitary/patentseries/cocourtorders/ccoadvsearch2.asp

I can find references to a William Smith c. 1848 who was granted land on Roundstone Creek. I suspect this was a son or grandson of Gen. William Smith. I can not find any records for before 1850-ish.

The above “Branson Cook” pages are listed here only as a reference for myself. I find it interesting that there are Hendrickses and Smiths, Smallwoods marrying Smiths, references to Washington Co, VA, explicit references to Lebanon, Russell Co, VA (where General William Smith was said to have been from), and an Andrew Smith who married a Smallwood who was likely too young to be my Andrew Smith, father of Isaac Smith, Sr.

If I find anything else interesting, I’ll add it to this page.

Addition: Holbert McClure’s purchase of Buckner grant, 29 May 1833
Addition: Robert E. Bray Family :Information about Holbert MCCLURE

I find these two pages to be interesting because they show there was a Thomas J. Smith who was a Deputy Sheriff of Rockcastle County, KY. Further, I find it incredibly interesting that there is a Buckner family involved. I have been taxing my brain exploring the line of John Buckner Smith in South Carolina. I have also read that, according to George Poffinbarger, Aquilla Smith had a step-mother (?) who was a Buckner. I have yet to make any conclusive findings. There is more in these pages I have yet to understand. They could simply be a strict business transaction, or they could be family members selling land to each other. I’m not sure.

Thanks for reading!

Chris