A Treasury of Kith and Kin was researched and compiled by genealogy researcher Wilma Vaughan Chunn from 1971 to 1979. In it she covers part of my Jordan line of Virginia and Tennessee. This book appears to be out of print but a copy exists at the Rutherford County Library in Tennessee. A kind relative…
Gibson County in West Tennessee, one of the state’s three “grand divisions,” was created in 1832 from the Chickasaw Indian Cession, and is named in honor of John H. Gibson. My third great-grandfather, William Jordan, lived there from around 1820 until his death in 1863. Located approximately halfway between Nashville and Memphis, Gibson’s county seat…
Many of the ancestors on my father’s side (Smith, Hurt, Lannom, Jordan) were from Tennessee so it’s helpful to be able to consult vintage maps to determine which counties and towns were in existence at a particular time. Here are some of the ones I’ve found for Tennessee.
Chadds Ford Peak was Chadds Ford’s very own ski resort. Located on the hill behind Chadds Ford Knoll, it opened in the early 1970’s or so and was started by two athletic coaches from P.S. duPont High School in Wilmington. It closed between 1988 and 1989. The last owners also owned the miniature golf course…
Joseph Turner built his 30 foot by 40 foot limestone grist mill with 18 inch thick walls on property once owned by colonist Benjamin Ring along “Ye Great Road to Nottingham” in Chadds Ford, Pennsylvania. Using stone from earlier mills along Harvey’s Run, a nearby creek that runs parallel to today’s U.S. Route 1 and…
On September 11, 1777, the hamlet of Chadds Ford played host to one of the largest and deadliest battles of the American Revolutionary War, today called the Battle of Brandywine. An estimated 29,000 British and American troops gathered at the fledgling town populated mostly by peaceful Quakers. Britain’s campaign for 1777 was to split off…
I visited the Chester Bethel Church and Cemetery this week to shoot some photos of gravestones for FindAGrave.com. I gave myself an hour to photograph three grave sites. Of course, it didn’t work out as planned! The cemetery was larger than I thought and I couldn’t find the headstones in question. I quickly gave up…
Today I’m posting a set of beautiful photographs of Chester County, Pennsylvania, mostly in the southeastern part of the county, especially around Kennett Square, Longwood Gardens, and the Brandywine River. These were taken by my talented aunt who is always willing to share with me. Enjoy!
Slatington is a borough in Lehigh County, Pennsylvania, located 20 miles north of Bethlehem, 62 miles south of Scranton, and 70 miles north of Philadelphia. Situated across from Walnutport on the west side of the Lehigh River, Slatington is at the northeast corner of Washington Township. Before the first white settlers established homesteads in the…
Many of my Smith ancestors lived in Carroll County, Mississippi, including my grandfather, great-grandfather, and so on. One Smith, not in my direct line, was Harry Smith, who owned the Pine Bluff Plantation. If you type in the place name of Pine Bluff, MS, into Google maps, you will be shown a spot at the…
