Arlene Eakle’s Tennessee Blog

In the 1970’s, my colleague Afton E. Reintjes, spent every summer in Tennessee.  She worked for a group of clients whose ancestors lived for generations in Tennessee.  And she visited almost every courthouse–for the original records– and every public library–with a genealogy collection–in that state.  And in the surrounding states.  One client flew her from place to place in his own private plane.  She talked to and research the collections of local genealogists  in each area.  She interviewed living relatives to determine where their families came from.  She examined their personal genealogy documents.  And she became the authority on Tennessee.

In person, at genealogy seminars, and through the mail, she and I sold many copies of her book on Tennessee Research.   But, the addresses have changed.  And the record locations are different.  And there are new indexes.  And websites where record images and maps appear.

So we are re-writing the book for 2010.  And adding some key things that Afton did not include in the original edition:

1. Like checklists of manuscript collections and where you will find them.
2. Like actual migration patterns of families–following  in the footsteps of others or blazing their own trails that your families might have taken.
3. Like family kinship networks that have already been tracked or identified.

With luck, a preliminary version of this new edition will be available at the Family History Expo, Dixie Center, St George UT, at the end of February 2010.  [WOW! next week]  If not, then at the North Orange County Annual Seminar, 13 March 2010, at the Brea United Methodist Church, Brea CA.  Whether or not you attend these events, you can order the book directly from me. Check my Home Page for contact stuff.

I, personally,  am excited and happy at getting this new edition completed while Afton is still available to participate in it.  And you will be too–because Afton Reintjes knows where “all the bodies are buried.”    Your favorite Tennessee genealogist, Arlene Eakle   http://arleneeakle.com

PS  This preliminary version will cost $25.00 per copy +  $4.00 postage.  Order your copy while you can get this price.

The Bicentennial of the War of 1812 occurs 2012-2015 across the Eastern United States.  Your ancestors living in Tennessee participated in the War of 1812 in considerable numbers.

Actually, Tennessee is called the “Volunteer  State” because when war was declared against England in June of 1812, Governor Blount notified President James Madison, that he would immediately muster 2500 Tennessee Volunteers for service.  Enlistments were 3 months to begin with, then later became 6-month enlistments.  And the soldiers are so designated–3-month men and 6-month men.

The sometimes severe record losses in Tennessee counties renders this war and its muster lists, pay rolls, militia rosters especially important–they are close enough in date to fill critical gaps where there is no 1810 census for any of Tennessee.  And no 1820 census for East Tennessee and substantial parts of West Tennessee.

The Tennessee Society of the War of 1812, has been actively engaged in the preservation of all data pertaining to Tennessee participation in this war.  And publishing information about those Tennesseans who mustered and fought.

An example of their efforts is Soldiers of the War of 1812 Buried in Tennessee compiled by Mary Hardin McCown and Inez E. Burns, 1959.  This volume includes:

1. “Names Abstracted from Colonel David Henley’s ‘Wastebook’ Regular and Militia Personnel for Period 1793-1798 in Southwest Territory.”  The wastebook includes accounts from the Blockhouse at Tellico.
2. “Petition from Overton County, 1813.”
3. “Henderson and McGhee, Storekeepers, Maryville TN, Accounts October 1814 to  December 1815.”

The preface to this work describes the discovery of Prisoner of War Records in the British Archives, War of 1812, Ottawa Canada.  Mrs. Clarence W. Jenne, then president of the National Society Daughters of the American Revolution, working with the Secretary of War and Senator Henry Cabot Lodge, arranged for copies of  some 2000-3000 folios from the General Entry Book of the Prisoners of War at Quebec and Correspondence of their Keeping and Exchange. A copy went to the War Department and a copy to the NSDAR library.

Twenty-Four Hundred Tennessee Pensioners:  Revolution-War of 1812 by Zella Armstrong, 1937.  Includes 23 Tennessee men held as prisoners at Quebec.

Tennessee Soldiers in the War of 1812:  Regiments of Colonel Allcorn and Colonel Allison, compiled by Penelope Johnson Allen, 1947.  Published by the United States Daughters of 1812.

These compilers, searching archives and libraries for War of 1812 documents since 1925, all  stress the need to locate lists of 1812 men in county and local histories, local genealogy society publications, files of old newspapers, Bible and tombstone records, church and court minutes.  Muster and pay rolls may also  still be preserved among the personal papers of both state and local government officials–originals as well as copies.

Tennesseans who served 1812-1815, can also be found in other printed war records segments:

1. The original roster books kept by the British Admiralty, now indexed:  Harrison Scott Baker, II, American Prisoners of War Held at Halifax During the War of 1812 (June 1812-April 1815). Published in 2005 by the Society of War of 1812 in the State of Ohio and printed by Willow Bend Books (now merged with Heritage Books).  Public Record Office, London, ADM 103/167 and ADM 103/168.  It was customary for the British government to hold prisoners of war aboard naval vessels off the coast, instead of incurring the costs of building land prisons.  And many of the entries in this new index indicate the ships the men served on or were transported on. Baker noted that the dates of capture and the date of reception into the prison at Halifax, Nova Scotia could be separated from a few days to several months–suggesting that these prisoners were held somewhere else before being brought to Halifax. These 1,350 soldiers are all designated as members of the United States Army.
2. Records Relating to American Prisoners of War, 1812-1815. Public Record Office, London records.  Family History Library microfilm, 11 reels, #1454583-93.  We need more of this collection indexed.  It covers the whole country, and Tennessee is included.
3. 1814 Court Martial Of Tennessee Militiamen, compiled by James L. Douthat, 1993.  Published by the Institute of Historic Research, Signal Mountain TN.   Reprint of Congressional Report, 20th Congress, 1st Session, House of Representatives, 11 Feb 1828.   The index has over 7,000 entries including geographic and personal names.
4. Roster of War of 1812, Southside Virginia–the Twenty-Six Counties in this area:  Albemarle, Amelia, Amherst, Bedford, Brunswick, Buckingham, Campbell, Charlotte, Chesterfield, Cumberland, Dinwiddie, Fluvanna, Goochland, Greene, Greensville, Halifax, Hanover, Henrico, Louisa, Lunenburg, Mecklenburg, Nelson, Nottoway, Pittsylvania, Powhatan, Prince Edward, compiled by James L. Douthat, 2007. Published by Mountain Press, Signal Mountain Press.  This area was a funnel for settlers into Tennessee–especially the eastern counties.  Be sure to check here for Tennessee men who returned to serve with their kinfolk.
5. “The Pension Office to Congressman Andrew Johnson: A List, 1843-53,”  The East Tennessee Historical Society’s Publications (#38–1966):  98-108.  Compiled by Leroy P. Graf, etal.  During the preparation of Andrew Johnson’s papers for publication, the authors discovered names of pensioners of the Revolutionary War and the War of 1812 among the letters from  the Congressional Pension Office to Johnson.  These are summarized here by claim.  For example, Volume 84, #368, 18 May 1844, Amount allowed children of Henry Kilda [Kildey] (ZA); (M-B) [Kilday].
   
6. “Do You Know This Family?” The Pellissippian (Jan-Mar 1999): 14-20. Begins with a photograph and includes combined muster and pay rolls of Capt. John English’s East Tennessee Drafted Militia, from 10 Jan 1814-14 July 1814, Washington, Rhea County TN.  With discharge information.

These are all great examples of the the bits and pieces of documentation available for this war effort–especially significant for Tennessee ancestors, the first to volunteer to serve.  And they represent a drop in the bucket of what remains to be collected.  Your favorite Tennessee genealogist, Arlene Eakle.

PS  Holly Hansen and her Family History Expos is planning a gigantic genealogy conference in Atlanta GA in November 2010.  I am going to speak, and if she will approve it–I will do two NEW sessions on Tennessee Genealogy.  Plan now to attend–for a lot of you, that is major travel.  I am convinced that it will be worth the effort.  She projects over 5,000 in attendance!

PPS  And watch for many more new indexes and published  record transcripts as the Bicentennial comes closer.

There is a power in having a unique genealogy place where you can learn new techniques, discover new sources, share your excitement when you find something no one else has unearthed; and, THIS IS THAT PLACE!

I have dug in and studied early Tennessee–that seems to be more troublesome for genealogists  because census records are missing and incomplete.  Vital records take real diligence to find.  And courthouse fires have snapped many property records out from under us.  So just identifying  candidates for father and mother are tricky.  And positive links to North Carolina, Maryland,  and Virginia are a genealogy challenge.

J.G.M. Ramsey of Mecklenburg, near Knoxville Tennessee, finished his Annals of Tennessee 16 Nov 1852.  It was published originally in Charleston SC, 1853.  It was a remarkable achievement for that time.  He found and published documents with an integrity that renders confidence in them even today–even when they no longer exist.

There are errors in his work–caused by lack of information, imperfect research tools, incomplete data supplied from memory as you might expect to find in an early work of its kind.

Still Ramsey is the beginning place for the history of East Tennessee.

In 1999, Overmountain Press reprinted the original edition for East Tennessee Historical Society.  With some key additions:  A new “Introduction” by Dr. William H. Masterson, President of the University of Chattanooga.  “Annotations Relating Ramseys’ Annals of Tennessee to Present-Day Knowledge” by Stanley J. Folmsbee.  A new, “Every-name Index” compiled by Miss Pollyanna Creekmore and Miss Marie Crain.

I invite you to add this reprint edition to your winter reading list and spend some time with these new parts.  You will find some interesting insights into this early history.

For example, Mr. Folmsbee identifies the movements of several Indian tribes through Tennessee, not just the Cherokees.  How many times have genealogists sought their East Tennessee ancestors among the Cherokees without luck?   Creeks and Seminoles also appear here early on.  And in one instance a large body of them arrived and stayed for months at a time.

A sense of place has erroneously tied one tribe to the “place called there” (coined by Michael Murdoch, the Southern Evangelist), when the Shawnee also appear early in Tennessee.  And the Iroquois, including the Seneca.  These tribes and their roving bands were only somewhat territorial.  And this knowledge could drastically change your genealogy venues.

Sources not available or known to Ramsey are described in the Annotations that will enable you to find ancestors in resources not previously available for genealogy before.  Break your losing streak!  Re-visit Ramseys’ Annals of Tennessee. Your favorite Tennessee genealogist, Arlene Eakle

PS  Jurisdiction and place are not synonymous.  Although they are often treated as the same thing by unwary genealogists.  I will have much more to say about these two genealogy research dimensions in future Tennessee blogs.

The military district in Tennessee which shows on most historical maps is actually District #2–along the Cumberland River where it first crosses the present TN-KY boundary all the way west to the spot where the Cumberland turns north back into KY.

At the time District #2 was created, the Tennessee-Kentucky boundary line did not exist as it does today.  Tennessee extended well north and included the areas that would eventually become Allen, Simpson, and Warren counties (among others) in Kentucky.  Actually, the TN-KY line was not finalized until many years later, when TN citizens discovered that they now lived in KY and were given a choice which state they wanted to conduct their legal business in.

This district includes the Red River with branches beginning across the current KY boundary line in old Simpson county, as well as in Sumner county TN.  These branches join to form the Red River.  And it eventually empties into the Cumberland in present-day Montgomery county TN (originally Davidson county).

Military District #1 was created in 1780 as a military reserve by North Carolina to award lands in lieu of pay to soldiers who served from NC in the Revolutionary War.  It lay between the Powell and Holston Rivers along the Clinch in East Tennessee and may have originally crossed the current Virginia boundary line.  These rivers joined to form the great Tennessee River.

District #2 was created in 1783 by North Carolina for two reasons:

1. Military District #1 was inadequate to supply enough land to fill all the claims that were submitted.
2. A substantial area in District #1 became involved in what is known as the Glasgow Land Frauds and grants ceased for a time, to allow for investigation into the charges and claims arising from those charges.

See my Genealogy News Sheet Blog on Genealogy Evidence, Monday August 21, 2006: Exact Proof:  Little-Known and Never-Used Military Records for more details and a short bibliography of source materials to document your ancestors in these military districts.  There is also a checklist of Bounty-Land Records, revised in my blog of 28 Feb 2008.

Your favorite Tennessee genealogist, Arlene Eakle  http://arleneeakle.com

PS  Watch for my cute and clever tee shirts, mugs, and tote bags–you will surely want something with my picture on it!  HA!

Between 1-13 November 1835, some 31 Texas colonists, calling themselves Texians (many of them from Tennessee), met to discuss and decide what to do about grievances with Mexico.  Frontier defense was a major problem–Indian raids and general lawlessness both plagued these democratic settlers.  And provision for the Texas Rangers was included in the Organic Law of the Republic of Texas signed on 13 November 1835.

The Texas Rangers were founded by a hand-written call-to-arms from Stephen F. Austin.  The Governor of Tejas, Jose Trespalacios, had approved the formation of a small force of militia to protect settlers from marauding Indians.

The first group of Rangers, referred to as a ranging company, included American frontiersmen, Mexican vaqueros, and a few friendly Indian scouts. But this militia was inadequate to the need as settlers from the American states flooded into Texas over the next few years.

As the discussion proceeded, the number of Rangers was to be 25, then 35, and finally set at a battalion of 150, divided into three detachments under the command of a Major.  The Rangers were a military force for the express purpose of frontier protection.

Over the next 100 years, with changes in the law in 1844, 1874, 1901, 1911, and 1935 (amended in 1937), the Texas Rangers moved from the jurisdiction of the Adjutant General to the Department of Public Safety under a Public Safety Commission.  From a largely volunteer frontier militia force to a highly trained, paid law enforcement organization recognized world-wide for its special nature.

Most of us owe our knowledge of these Rangers to John Wayne and Chuck Norris.

Afton Reintjes, who worked with me for many years and still accepts phone calls for me when I am out of town, has researched George Washington Smith.  This worthy ancestor served not only in the Texas Rangers.  He was a veteran of the War of 1812,  First Seminole War, 1816-18, the War for Texas Independence, the Mexican War,  and served in the Greys during the War Between the States (Civil War).  And he may have served in Johnston’s Army to Utah.  General Johnston was in Collin County TX when he received orders to take that mission–and if George Washington Smith was available, Afton is certain he would have served.   She hasn’t found a roster yet to confirm it!

A few years back, she was instrumental to getting a Texas Star/DAR headstone for his grave.

If you suspect that an ancestor or other relative may have served in the Texas Rangers, contact the Texas Ranger Hall of Fame and Museum, I-35 and University Park Drive, PO Box 2570, Waco TX 76702-2570.  254-750-8631 http://www.texasranger. org

This website is beautifully organized with the right links and access to lists of men, history, books to buy, and bibliography.  Your favorite Tennessee genealogist, Arlene Eakle   http://arleneeakle.com

PS  If your Tennessee ancestor had kin who joined the Texas Rangers, their files and data may unlock your pedigree.  So please don’t conclude that this archive has nothing for you until you check it!  In a library survey at the Fort Worth Public Library conducted by Donald Martin, then Genealogy Librarian,  over 75% of Texas respondents were seeking Tennessee ancestors.  Break your losing Streak!

PPS  Even if you don’t have a true Texian in your family, check the Texas Rangers for your Tennessee roots.

Live from the Redding CA Family History Expo!  Talking to attendees here, People from South Carolina migrated directly into TN.  Without stops along the way in North Carolina or Virginia.  Coming directly from South Carolina.

Watch surnames in directories and databases for exact locations to research.  This is where  a less common surname is a bonus.  And the strategy works  for moat surnames.

You can even map where the surnames are located and then study the flow of rivers and the directions the roads run.  Check  the easiest and shortest route first.  Then stop and search the indexes for the counties along the river, well into South Carolina.  Your favorite Tennessee genealogist, Arlene Eakle      http://arleneeakle.com

PS Still working on a borrowed computer.

Webmaster Kathryn here to let you know that’s why she’s missing in action.

The older histories of Tennessee and its environs drew heavily upon diaries and journals and letters of contemporaries.  For example, in Gilmore’s Rear Guard of the Revolution, he quotes from the “Tour of  Montpensier, the Duke of Orleans:”

May 7th [1796]At the Clinch Ferry they had heard much of the remarkable migration into that region which had followed the treaty of peace with the indians; twenty-four thousand whites and four thousand blacks, they learned, had crossed the ferry for the Cumberland Valley the year before.

And a favorite of mine, Walter T. Durham’s Before Tennessee:  The Southwest Territory, 1790-1796:  A Narrative History of the Territory of the United States South of the River Ohio. 1990. (Rocky Mount Historical Association, Rt 11E, Piney Flats TN 37686).  This book is available on microfiche at the FHLibrary #6101361. Consider this paragraph:

The increased use of militia for defense in 1793 cast paymaster David Allison in a prominent public role.  Although the militia was under the governor’s command and was both called to duty and dismissed by him, the soldiers received their pay from the federal government.  Payroll records were kept for each company, and the company captain’s responsibility was to see that they were promptly and properly submitted to the government for approval.  When Allison received monies for payrolls from Philadelphia, he advertised the dates and places for payday and the names of the captains who should appear for their companies [in the Knoxville Gazette].

Federal payrolls for each company and announcements in the newspaper of the captains who were to collect the pay for their companies.

And read on for this description of how the census was set up to ensure that all the population was counted:

On November 28, 1795 based on census reports from all eleven counties, Governor Blount certified to the Secretary of State Timothy Pickering that there were 77,262 inhabitants in the Southwest Territory, a total that comfortably exceeded the minimum requirement of 60,000 for statehood.  A generous count had been virtually assured by tying the sheriffs’ pay for conducting the census directly to the totals reported.   The larger the numbers reported, the more the sheriffs were paid.

Quoting from correspondence 17 Nov 1795 in the David Henley Papers 1748-1823 to document the clever trick.

[The Mero District census for 1790 is reported missing.  Only small portions of it appear in print.  See 1790 Census for Ohio, Volume 2 published by Ronald Jackson, AIS Printing.  It seems to me that a thorough search among the papers for the Territory Southwest of the River Ohio will probably turn up other portions of the lists.]

No comment is made, however, of the danger in tying the payroll to the numbers.  Padding the totes has always been a risk when the stakes are high–be careful with lists of names.  Be sure to verify their presence in the Territory from other sources, including the militia payrolls mentioned above.

Your research success in Tennessee will be in direct proportion to your diligence in running the lists against other lists.  And in your diligence in finding the lists in the first instance:  there is much to be discovered in the diaries and the journals and the letters written by the eye-witnesses to Tennessee history.  Your favorite Tennessee genealogist , Arlene Eakle http://www.arleneeakle.com

PS  Tune in to my Research Tips posted on Facebook. Click the link on my Home Page.

Many of the original land entries in Tennessee were Military Bounty Land Claims.  And while they were supposed to apply to the military land district only–along the Cumberland River in Middle Tennessee–claims on the land extended across eastern, middle, and into western Tennessee.

Availability of these extensive bounty lands led your ancestors to claim military service–even if they did not serve; or, even if they served on the wrong side; or, even if they served in the wrong state!   Even if, your ancestor was originally from Virginia, if he claims military service in North Carolina, for Tennessee lands, you can find him. By using the claim number with related document numbers, you can track your ancestor from Tennessee back to his home county in North Carolina.

What a great time it is to be searching for those difficult-to-find ancestors in Tennessee!

Military Bounty Lands: Located in Tennessee, under North Carolina laws

1780 Enlistment Act, 3,000 needed

- bounty land of 200 acres and a prime slave

- land awarded in Powell River Valley (East Tennessee)

1782 Military Claims Act, issue indents and certificates

- warrants issued for “duration of war” service to soldier or heirs

- Military District established along the Cumberland River in Davidson County

Privates, 640 acres

Non-coms, 1000 acres

Subalterns, 2560 acres

Captains, 3840 acres

Majors, 4800 acres

Surgeons, 4800 acres

Lt. Colonels, 5720 acres

Commandants, 7200 acres

Colonels, 7200 acres

Brigadier Generals, 12,000 acres

Chaplains, 7200 acres

Surgeon Mates, 2560 acres

- any soldier settled on military lands before 1780-, received 640 acres–called Pre-emption Grants.  Also included original settlers and other non-military persons living on Tennessee lands

1783 Military Warrants Act, register service with the Davidson County Entry Taker

1784 Extension Act, persons who served in the militia or died during settlement of Davidson County granted 640 acres.  152 persons are named in the law itself.

See Shirley Rice, The Hidden Revolutionary War Land Grants in the Tennessee Military Reservations. Lawrenceburg TN:  Family Tree Press, 1992.  See also the record abstracts of Dr. A. Bruce Pruit already referenced in previous Tennessee blogs.  Your favorite Tennessee genealogist, Arlene Eakle  http://arleneeakle.com

For the past few days, I have immersed myself in Tennessee records, Tennessee history, Tennessee ancestors–in short, in Tennessee Stuff.  You know the Southern word, “stuff”–pronounced with a slow drawl as if the word were spelled with ten u’s instead of just one, don’t you?

My apologies for such a break in this blog.  But a wise reader said I was better off saying nothing than using filler that wastes readers’ time…or words to that effect.  So I needed some time to fully organize my six linear shelves of Tennessee collectings (not including my books).

You get the payoff, hopefully, in new sources to search, new references to check, new libraries to visit, new ancestors to find.  Please stay tuned, I have some great stuff to share.  Your favorite Tennessee genealogist, Arlene Eakle http://arleneeakle.com

PS  A current ad for Home Depot tells us to “…turn our doing dials up a notch.”  Sounds like good advice for genealogists too.  Genealogy activity is down everywhere–even online.  BIG MISTAKE.