Do you have family history or an interest in Tennessee? Join us in the Tennessee project!

Question

The Tennessee Project covers the people, places, and events in Tennessee.  If you have family/ancestors from Tennessee, or just an interest in Tennessee history, come join us!  You can add and improve profiles of Tennesseans; maintain a county space page; find connections to the one tree; and more.  See the Tennessee Project Page for more information.

To join:

1. Answer this post. Tell us about your interests in Tennessee and what you'd like to work on, and we'll award you the United States badge if you don't already have it.

2. Add Tennessee and United States to your followed tags.

Please post your request to join as an answer, not a comment.

Thanks!

Answer 1

I’m trying to connect the dots to my ancestors who resided in Tennessee. I’ve hit several brick wallls trying to find more information about my maternal side. I want to teach my children so th why can teach their children and so on about our family history.

Comments

Hi, thanks for joining!  I'll be sending you some more info about the project.

Answer 2

I am trying to add all of my family from both of my parents and grandparents who were born in Tennessee.

Grandparents were Vena Mae Huffman from Lynchburg, husband John Henry Solomon.

Famous Grandparents Earl Altaman Weaver( AKA Pless), and wife Wilma Davilla Snell from Winchester.They both were inducted into The Gospel Music Hall of Fame.

Thanks,

Terri Solomon / McGhee

Comments

Hi, Terri, thanks for joining!  I'll be sending you some more info about the project.

Answer 3

Hello! My Cabbage family ancestors fetched up in Tennessee around 1790-1800, from PA via VA. Some of my distant cousins still live there.

Comments

Hi, Jen!  Thanks for joining.  I'll be sending you some more information about the project.

Answer 4

I would like to join the Tennessee Project I have family out of Tennessee and I would try to help improve Profiles of Tennessee Residents.

Comments

Hi, Ursula! Thanks for joining. I'll be sending you some more information about the project.

Answer 5

I am a Knoxville native who relocated after marriage to McMinn County in 1960, then to Bradley County in 1968.  In 2006, we moved to a small farm in South Meigs County.  I would like to find more information about my Guinn relatives.  I, also, enjoy helping those searching for their Tennessee ancestors, especially in my area.  I have already helped a couple of people who live in other states find ancestors especially in Bradley, McMinn, Meigs, and Hamilton County.  The road I live on was previously named Shiflet Road.  There is a family history by that name in South Meigs County, Tennessee as well in another part of Meigs.  At one point the road was Shiflet Gamble Road. There were several families that moved together around the 1850s - 1860s to this area from Greene County, Tennessee.  I have two books on "Union County, Tennessee Heritage Volumes 1 and II", a "Union County, Tennessee, Marriages 1864-1900 Book, "The Underwoods from Roaring Gap (NC) to Dumplin Valley (TN) and Forward" plus a copy of the revised edition "Meigs County Cemetery Book (1996)".  Some of the listings are from the WPA records as there are a lot of unmarked graves and worn markers.  I, also, have some family records on the Caldwell family of Union County, Tennessee.  These were published in the mid 1900s. I have a few photos of the Meigs County Guinns as well as photos of the Union County Caldwells and Underwoods.

Comments

Hi, Mary Lou!  Thank you for joining!  I'll be sending you some more information about the project. Welcome!

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Are the families from Greene County you mention Shiflets? My late husband's family is from Greene County, Virginia! Firmly 2 f's, 2 t's by his father's time; the 1900 census has 2 f's, 2 t's also (I used to say my name, then "2 f's, 2 t's, no "c").

See Henry Jackson Shifflett (1883-1931)

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I don't know if the Shifletts were in the group that moved from Greene County, Tennessee, to Bradley County.  The Gass family is the only one I remember that had a few relocate to Meigs County.  The last name of the Shiflett family members in the Meigs County Cemetery Book are spelled with one "f" and one "l".  One is spelled "Sheflett".  It is possible that the spelling has changed because some were uneducated and spelled their names phonetically.  

My great grandfather changed the spelling of his last name Gwinn to Guinn because he did like it spelled with the "w".  There are19 Shifletts in the Meigs County Cemetery Book 1996   I would be glad to send you their names if you want.  I still have a few Greene County links bookmarked from working on the McAmis family ancestors for a man in Texas.  I will check those when I get time.

There are two Shiflett women born in the early 1800s.  One is Mary Ann Shiflett born in1827 who married a Joseph Cofer. She passed in 1899.  The other is Nancy J. Shiflett born in 1829 and married a John Cofer and passed in 1905.

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Thanks for the offer, but they're probably not related to "my" Shiffletts. If you're ever in the area of Greene County, Virginia, look in the phonebook - Donnie and I spent the night unexpectedly in Tazewell County (car trouble) and amused ourselves seeing how many pages of 1 f/1 t, 1 f/2 t's, 2 f's/1 t, & 2 f's/2 t's there were (in other words - page after page after page of Shiflets -> Shiffletts!)

I think my all time favorite vanity license plate was 2FS 2TS spotted in the Charlottesville area!

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P.S. The furthest back I've gone with his Shifflett line WikiTree is to https://www.wikitree.com/wiki/Shiflett-149

The best resource for Shiflets/Shiffletts is Bob Klein's website: http://www.shiflett-klein.com/shifletfamily/index.html - looking for Meigs County, TN there came up empty though.

Answer 6

I have a ton of family in Tennessee. Northwest of Nashvillie, South and Southwest of Nashville area, then Western Tennessee. This was on both sides of my maternal grandparents. I would love to help with this project.

Kelly Popp Kley

Comments

Hi, Kelly, thanks for joining! I'll be sending you some more information about the project.

Answer 7

My 3x great grandfather (John Crum) lived in Greene County, Tennessee, and his son, my 2x great grandfather (Robert Sevier Crum), was born in Greene County. I would like to find out more about them, especially about John.

Comments

Welcome, Karen! I'll be sending you some more information about the project.

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Thank you, Nan!

Karen

Answer 8

I went recently to visit the burial of my 5th gt grand uncle [[Meigs-36|Return Jonathan Meigs (1740-1823)]] for whom the county is embarrassingly named. Sent snapshots to the people responsible for his web page 6th Connecticut Regiment I haven't identified any TN cousins other than his descendants.  

Those who were prominent were forced out in the purges of 1839 and 1861, including the same named TN Atty genl, His  spouse descends from [[McSpadden-63|Samuel McSpadden (1756-1844)]]   whose descendants have a contracting company on the way into town.  Photo: Samuel McSpadden Marker (hmdb.org)  So there were cousins already evicted from TN who fought in battles in present OK as well as nearer by.

My late wife has ancestors who lived somewhere around the present Lowes.  The way there passes the Crockett marker David Crockett and Polly Finley Historical Marker (hmdb.org)

My mother had a photo of my 2nd ggf on horseback following the battle at Lookout Mtn, too far off in the distance to recognize.

Our church led off the 200th anniversary celebration with a presentation on the pulpit bible given by the fellow who survived walking around a year with a bullet fired into him by one of Longstreet's troops.  There were separate Northern and Southern Methodist churches in town until the Southern property was condemned for what turned out to be the bomb project, so then they had to unite.  

The long abandoned school still stands behind the post office.  It was part of the New Deal project which condemned AME church property and segregated the place.

Comments

Welcome, Tim! I'll be sending you some more information on the Tennessee Project.

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Hi, Tim.

By "bomb project," do you mean Oak Ridge, TN, part of the WWII Manhattan Project?

mjd

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That's right, hydro project to power atomic fuel production, which initially wasted all the power the project could generate.

Answer 9

Yes. I would like to join the Tennessee project. Deep roots in Tennessee.

Comments

Welcome, William! I'll be sending you some more information on the project.

Answer 10

I'm very interested in Tennessee.  I seem to have quite a few ancestors from Tennessee.  Especially, the Giles, Lincoln, Maury, McMinn, Sullivan, and Warren Counties.  I'm actually stuck on one of my branches and he died in Lincoln Co., TN, so I would love to work this branch.  The family I am researching in TN is Smith, McNeely, McClure, Haymaker, Skinner, and Merrell.

Comments

Welcome, Brittney!  I'll be sending you some more information about the project.

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Hi Brittney,

I run across Merrell in my DNA (from Lincoln County), but haven't been able to connect:

Merrell, Benjamin Wiseman d. 13 Jan 1838 - Lincoln County, Tennessee, USA

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Hi Margaret,

It looks like we are cousins.  My 5th great-grandfather is Benjamin Merrell.  Check out Merrell-893.  Benjamin was b. 17 Mar 1773 in Rowan, NC.  There is a wonderful book written about our ancestor, Benjamin.  All the info is in the profile Merrell-893.  Let me know what you think.  Also, let me know if I can help in any way.

Brittney

Answer 11

My paternal 3x and 4x great grandfathers Walling are buried near Doyle, White County. The Walling, Roberts, Denton and Dykes families are very intertwined. I may be of some help to folks researching those families.

My brickwall is my 3x great grandfather John Luna Bishop b. 1835 in Tennessee. I have not been able to go any further back. I have his life documented but not his ancestors.

Elaine Walling-681

Texas

Comments

Welcome, Elaine! I'll be sending you some more information about the project.

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There was a book printed some years ago on the Descendants of Peter Luna and all his descendants. There should be a copy in the State Libruary, Marshall County had a copy but some one stole it.

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Thank you for the information.  That was kind of you!

Answer 12

Hello!  We're at least a 7th generation Tennessee family and we all still live here, albeit all over the state.  Really, everyone I'm related to are Tennesseans thru and thru. I've traced my GGG grandfather, John Bolton, to Carters Creek in Maury/Williamson County from around 1850, and some land/estate purchases in that area and Hickman County to around 1815....but beyond that I'm stuck.  Would love to help and be helped, as I've really been bitten by the geneology bug for at least the last 4 years!  Love history and love trying to solve and help others solve their puzzles.  Lots of Civil War connections and first hand stories as well!  Thank you!

Comments

Welcome, Chris! I'll be sending you some more information about the project.

Answer 13

I was born and raised in Tennessee. All four of my grandparents were, as well. At least one line goes back to a land grant from the governor to my fifth great grandfather. I am still working on other lines, but most seem to have moved west from North Carolina with the frontier.

Comments

Welcome, Rick!  I'll be sending you some more information about the project.

Answer 14

My ancestors settled for some time in East Tennessee, Abednego and Shadrach Inman.  They were also members of the Overmountain militia that fought at Kings Mountain.  I recently signed up for the East Tennessee Genealogical Society and I intend to become a Tennessee First Family member through my direct descendent of Abednego Inman.

Comments

Welcome, Joe! I'll be sending you some more information about the project.

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Hi Joe,

I worked on the Inman bunch a little during the last connect-a-thon.

My first interest in the Inman family is sisters, Mary and Sarah Inman who married NEFF in East Tennessee and moved to Jackson, Madison County, Tennessee- daughters of Ezekiel Inman.Inman-312

The 2nd Inman I am interested in is a DNA connection I can't figure out to the Chilton/Shelton line from East Tennessee to Wayne County, Missouri, Susannah Inman, Inman-3067,  who I believe is a sister to the above Ezekiel Inman.

I am not a direct descendant of Mary and Sarah Inman Neff and I haven't figured out my Chilton/Shelton connections in Wayne County, Missouri, but my mom has way too many connections to this family for there not to be some fire with the smoke.

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Margaret, I sent you a private message...because I wasn't exactly certain how this works.  I should have replied here so as to create a string that others might see and comment on to help us sort out the Inman tree.  

Joe

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Margaret....I found more info.  It turns out that Ezekiel Inman (Inman-312) is the son of Jeremiah and Prudence Inman and the grandson of Shadrach Inman and Mary Jane McPheeters.  Ezekiel and his wife Hannah Woodward had at least 4 children including Sarah (Inman) Neff and Mary Ann (Inman) Neff.  And Ezekiel also has a sister Susan....but I do not see a Susannah?  I will need to add this to my family tree!

Joe Inman

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Meredith,  It also seems there is a Susannah (Inman) Chilton, married to Thomas Chilton.  Susannah was born in 1785 and died in 1827.  She is a sister of Jeremiah Inman and her parents are Shadrach and Mary Jane McPheeters.

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I knew a girl in my high school, South Side High School in Jackson, Tennessee named Donna Inman. She was in the band with me and a few years older. She may have been related to those you mentioned in your comment

Answer 15

I'm currently working on four one place studies in DeKalb,  As part of this I'm writing a monthly story for the Smithville review, and have started a DNA project for people related to DeKalb on FTDNA.

In addition to the specific one place studies,  I'm working on creating profiles for the many tombstone photos I took on my first trip of what will be many.

In connection with some of the local researchers, I've been given permission to post their transcriptions of Diaries from 1903-1920.

I also took many courthouse images from the Supreme court records, and have been indexing those.

Also having many roots around Tennessee, work on my ancestors, and others from the Fan of myself, and those I'm researching in DeKalb.

I'd be happy to take on that county. It would help if I could be given permission to create the remaining census categories for 1920 and earlier.

There is an incredible amount of endogamy and same names with similar ages.  Unfortunately just putting them at the county level will make it more difficult to track who lived where, and if people haven't been added yet to the space page for the enumeration district.

Comments

Welcome, Kristina!  I'll be sending you some more information on the project.

Answer 16

I am interested in learning more about my Barton, Chandler, and unknown ancestors who resided in TN. The Barton family lived in Rutherford County.

Comments

Welcome, Edie! I'll be sending you some more information about the project.

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Most of the paternal side of my family comes from West Tennessee. Mostly the Fayette, Haywood and Tipton counties. I am working on adding them to wikitree anyway, so hopefully it helps

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Welcome, Vicki! I'll be sending you some more information on the project.

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Thank you! I have a question. Are we focusing on people BORN in Tennessee or just lived there at any point? For the purpose of the project.

Answer 17

Hi, friends.

I am a 6th generation Tennessean.

I descend from:

A.  One of the First Families of Tennessee: Mary Polly Monroe (b. 1785 in Grainger Co. TN - 11 years before statehood.)

B. Valentine Sevier I:I (Member of the original Watauga Settlement, father of John Sevier - first governor of TN)

15 of my direct ancestors came to Tennessee in the early 1800s..

Comments

Welcome, Mary Jo!  I'll be sending you some more information on the project.

Answer 18

I am interested in finding out more about the Warren family in Humphreys County and the Knott family of Bedford County.

Comments

Thanks for responding, C.! I'll be sending you some more information about the project.

Answer 19

My ancestors are from the Mountains in East Tennessee to the Mississippi River in West Tennessee. I have found ancestors, kith, and kin in all 96 counties of the great state of Tennessee.

The counties I work in the most are McNairy, Chester, and Hardeman in West Tennessee as my paternal ancestors migrated as soon as the Chickasaw seceded the land in 1818. As West Tennessee celebrates its Bicentennial in 2023, this is a great time to work on a Tennessee project.

Comments

Welcome, Margaret! I just sent you some more information about the project.

Answer 20

I have several ancestor lines in Tennessee that I am stuck on. Hopper, Robertson, Smith, Allen and Burkett. Oh and Compton also

Comments

Welcome, Vickie!  I just sent you some more information about the project.