Along Those Lines...
Against the Historical Background
George G. Morgan
One of my students in a recent genealogy class raised a question that brought back to me the fact that it is essential to study the history and geography of the area in which your ancestors supposedly lived. Her question in particular was about one of her ancestors who lived in Tennessee. She wanted to know why she couldn't find any records for Tennessee for her ancestors who she believed to have lived there in 1790.
This is a more than complicated question than it would seem, as you will see in Along Those Lines... this week.
Tennessee was not a Colony
Most American researchers know that Tennessee was not one of the original thirteen colonies. Tennessee is physically located west of North Carolina, and, in 1784, there was a movement in North Carolina to give the twenty-nine million acres of its western lands lying between the Alleghany mountains and the Mississippi River to the heavily indebted Congress. There was an outcry from the settlers already in that area, and, a few months later, the legislature of North Carolina withdrew its gift and again took charge of its western lands. Another fear of the North Carolina legislature, too, was that the land would not be used to pay Congress's debts.
Later in 1784, a convention met at Jonesboro and formed a new state. The constitution of North Carolina was adopted with some changes and the new state was named Franklin. The first governor elected by the citizens was John Sevier, and David Campbell was elected judge of the superior court. The capital chosen was Greenville.
Over the next six years, there were constant political conflicts with North Carolina over sovereignty and with the physical span of the new state. North Carolina contended that the furthermost extent of Franklin was to the Allegheny Mountains, and that North Carolina retained sovereignty over the lands west of there to the Mississippi River.
Tension and warfare with the Native Americans escalated in the area, and Governor Sevier was an active participant in many of the forays against these Indians. A warrant was sworn out against him for high treason, and in late October 1788 he was apprehended.
By the end of 1788, the Indians were in an uproar and were attacking and burning settlements and killing the residents. Franklinites were joined by North Carolina state militia in these Indian wars. The history of Franklin is certainly more complicated following this event and there are only fragments of surviving records of the final months of Franklin's existence. Franklin was ultimately dissolved, its lands were ceded to the federal government in the late 1780s, and it became known as the Southwest Territory. The State of Franklin did lay the groundwork for the subsequent State of Tennessee, but it was not until 1 June 1796 that Tennessee was admitted to statehood.
Historical and Geographical Research is Essential
As you can see, the study of the history and geography of the area of western North Carolina, the formation and dissolution of the State of Franklin, and the ultimate formation and admission to statehood for Tennessee is essential for my student. She can understand that the records of North Carolina and/or any existing records of Franklin may be the places to look for many ancestral records, assuming her ancestors were there prior to 1790. However, records that exist between 1790 and 1 June 1796 are important to document the family's potential residence in the area before Tennessee statehood.
Focusing on the Right Place
It is important to place our ancestors in a geographical location at a specific time period. Then it is your responsibility to do some historical research to determine what governmental entity had responsibility at that time for administering the laws and creating records. As a result, you are more likely to then be able to determine where those records may reside.
As an example, Tampa is now situated in Hillsborough County, Florida, and both Clearwater and St. Petersburg are located in Pinellas County, Florida. All of this area was originally part of Alachua County, Florida (the Gainesville area) from its formation in 1820 until Hillsborough became its own county in 1834. Therefore, early records of Ft. Brooks/Tampa and that area will originally have been created by and are still held by Alachua County.
Hillsborough County also contained the Clearwater and St. Petersburg areas until Pinellas County was formed and split off from Hillsborough County in 1911. In this case, it is critical to know the counties' formation dates and to understand which county would have been administratively responsible for creating records. Then, in your research, you know the cutoff dates and then contact or visit the correct county courthouse to access and obtain copies of original documents from the correct period.
Your study of the county histories can also provide deeper insights into these times of transition and help you understand the conditions at the time and subsequently. By doing this work, you are vastly increasing your chances of research success.
Summary
There are enormous benefits of studying geography, history, and even sociology. These can improve your research success and help put your ancestors into better historical perspective. That, too, can bring them and history to life for you. You can then relate historical events as influences on your ancestors, and you can hypothesize on your ancestors' potential participation in those events too. It becomes an exciting quest for more true-life stories to help you fill in the blanks in your ancestors' lives.
Happy Hunting!
George
George is president and a proud member of the International Society of Family History Writers and Editors. Visit the ISFHWE website at www.rootsweb.com/~cgc/.
Visit George's website at http://ahaseminars.com/atl for information about speaking engagements.
Copyright 2005, MyFamily.com. All rights reserved.
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Ancestry Quick Tip
Spreadsheets Help Track Surnames
When I'm researching a surname that has probably been in one locality for more than one generation, I often make a spreadsheet. The spreadsheet has headings for first and last name, maiden name, birth, marriage, and death dates and places, father's and mother's names, census addresses, and a column for sources. I then plug in every individual with my surname or a variant that I find for that town into the spreadsheet, regardless of whether I think they are directly linked to my current research family or not.
By doing this, I can do such useful things as sorting by parents names, sorting by birthplaces, etc. It's amazing the details you notice when all the facts are in a table, side by side. This is especially true when an individual's name has been altered, mistranscribed, or misspelled on various documents. In addition, while you may not believe that "John Smith" was related to your "Smith" ancestors, there is always the possibility that a new clue will emerge five years down the road. The spreadsheet gives you a quick reference to go back to when assessing new information.
Finally, I am a firm believer in helping other genealogists on their journeys of discovery. If someone searching a similar name in the same location contacts you, you may be able to save them some work or offer a breakthrough on an elusive ancestor.
Thanks to Carli Francies of Southfield, Michigan, for today's Quick Tip! If you have a tip you would like to share with researchers, you can send it to ADNeditor@ancestry.com.
Quick Tips may be reprinted, with credit to the submitter, in other Ancestry publications, so if you do not want your tip included in a publication other than the Ancestry Daily News and Ancestry Weekly Digest, please state so clearly in your message.
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