Turrentine Name Study

Date: 1 Aug 2023 [unknown]
Location: [unknown]
Surnames/tags: Turrentine Turntine

About the Project

The Turrentine Name Study project serves as a collaborative platform to collect information on the Turrentine name. The hope is that other researchers like you will join the study to help make it a valuable reference point for other genealogists who are researching or have an interest in the Turrentine name.

George Ruford “G. R.” Turrentine started the study of the Turrentine surname in America, and established “The Turrentine Families of America Association”. He organized the first national reunion in 1941 in Hillsboro, Orange County, North Carolina. He was the original historian and archivist. G. R. published the 1st and 2nd editions of The Turrentine Family. In 1972, Edgar M. Turrentine made revisions and published the 3rd edition, nicknamed “The Orange Book”, due to the color of the cover. The 3rd edition is available on-line at Family Search.org [1].

Cynthia Keyton took over the role of historian and archivist and designed a family crest for the Association. She published the 4th edition The Turrentine Family.

Joyce Moore Hodges took on the role of historian and archivist after Cynthia Keyton. In 2021, she issued a 5th edition which is only available in digital format on USB drive because of its large size.

G. R. started a newsletter which has been continued to the present, being issued at irregular intervals. All but one issue of the paper newsletter through #199 is in the Turrentine Archives, with plans to scan and make available in the future. The missing issue is # 159, issued between April and September 1985. If anyone has a copy of the missing newsletter, please contact Joyce Moore Hodges so it can be added to the archives. Electronic copies of the newsletter exist beginning with issue #200.

As a One Name Study, this project is not limited to persons who are related biologically. Individual studies can be used to branch out the research into specific methods and areas of interest, such as geographically (England Turrentine's), by time period (18th Century Turrentine's), or by topic (Turrentine DNA, Turrentine Occupations, Turrentine Statistics). These studies may also include a number of family branches which have no immediate link with each other. Some researchers may even be motivated to go beyond the profile identification and research stage to compile fully sourced, single-family histories of some of the families they discover through this name study project. Several people have been identified and entered into Wikitree as starting points for research. Also see the related surnames and surname variants.

How to Join

To join the Turrentine Name Study, first start out by browsing our current research pages to see if there is a specific study ongoing that fits your interests. If so, feel free to add your name to the Membership list below, post an introduction comment on the specific team page, and then dive right in!

If a research page does not yet exist for your particular area of interest, please contact the Name Study Coordinator: Joyce Hodges for assistance.

Once you are ready to go, you can also show your project affiliation with the ONS Member Sticker:

Research Pages

Here are some of the current research pages included in the study. I'll be working on them, and could use your help!

• G. R. believed that all Turrentines in America descended from two brothers, Samuel and Alexander. The brothers arrived in Philadelphia, Commonwealth of Pennsylvania, aboard the ship Kouli Kan, a brigantine. The Kouli Kan was “entered into the customs house in Philadelphia 14 November 1745.” The first record in America is when James Templeton took the brothers before James Hamilton, mayor of Philadelphia, and assigned their indentures for a period of 4 years. Alexander was assigned on 26 November 1745 to Neal McClaskey, and Samuel on 29 November to John Dicky, both of Chester County, Pennsylvania.

Indenture of Alexander and Samuel

In that document, the surname is spelt Torrentine. Most of the research that has been done on the Turrentine Family centers on the descendants of these two brothers.

• Two earlier records have since been found in America for persons who may be related. Legislative Journals of the Council of Colonial Virginia, 1710 (Vol. III, p.1553) [2] records a complaint was registered on 27 October 1710, by Thomas Parker against, among others, Jno Turrentine who had voted against him.

• Tabitha Turrentine born about 1688, died 9 March 1753, Albemarle County, Virginia, married Thomas Goolsby about 1797 in Virginia. A small number of her descendants share atDNA with a descendant of Samuel or Alexander, but because of other surnames that exist in the trees of these matching individuals, we cannot say that a relationship is proven.

AFRICAN-AMERICAN TURRENTINES In 1860 census, 19 of 55 Turrentine households owned slaves. An attempt was made to locate each of these persons in the 1870 and 1880 census records to build their family trees. Only about 30 percent were found to have taken the Turrentine surname after emancipation. The family trees of these individuals are being built at this time. Please help us with this project. Two of the lines have a Y-DNA tester, neither of which matches Y-DNA testers who descend from Samuel and Alexander.

• James Turrentine born 1830, Rover, Bedford, Tennessee, died Sept 1879, married Elizabeth Neil.

• Gilbert Turrentine born about 1800, North Carolina; lived in Bedford County, Tennessee until 1837; died 1870-1880, Sevier County, Arkansas.

(Although both these lines lived in Bedford County, Tennessee in 1830, the two lines do not match each other on Y-DNA.)

The major lines not yet Y-DNA tested. (There is a scholarship to pay for a direct male line Y-DNA test for each separate line of African-Americans. Message Joyce Moore Hodges, historian.

• Calvin Turrentine born May 1850 Mangum, Durham, North Carolina; died 10 December 1926, married to Emmaline Harris.

• Walker Turrentine born October 1846, Granville County, North Carolina.

• Willie Turrentine born March 1854, Tennessee, married Martha Neal. (Ancestors of Stanley and Tommy Turrentine renowned jazz musicians.)

National Turrentine Reunion

These are photos from Reunions. Please help identify people in the photos. If those people have not been entered into Wikitree, please add and link to the family. You may also add your own photos under the appropriate year.

Membership

Related Surnames and Surname Variants

Other spellings are Turentine (single r), Turntine (dropped syllable), Terrentine may also be another variation as spelling was not standardized for much of American history.

• POSSIBLE EUROPEAN ROOTS
• There has been speculation over the years: Do Samuel and Alexander connect to Presbyterians in Ireland: Torrentine, Turrentine, Turrettin, even Turkington, and to the
• Turrettini family, early Protestants who fled Lucca, Italy, for Geneva, (now in Switzerland)

The 3rd edition is available on-line at Family Search.org [3]. contains much of the early work on this research.