Our ancestors are, of course, already established by our descent from them — we just have a hard time uncovering them.
Just three weeks ago, I learned of my descent from one John Spurlin of Lincoln County, N.C. Born by 1735, his will was probated there in 1822, naming 23 children, including, fairly clearly, my ancestress Nancy Pickard.
Why hadn’t I found the connection before? For one, she was in Georgia; he never came to Georgia. Her son’s Bible, only discovered three years ago, didn’t include her maiden name, just her 1763 birth.
But the Spurlin name was on the short list of possible maiden names, because when she and her husband, John Henry Pickard, left Warren County circa 1807, they sold their land to neighbor Jeremiah Spurlin. They had witnessed Spurlin deeds, and vice versa.
Her children’s names, as it turned out, didn’t immediately reflect Spurlin names, but a search via Google for Spurlins with the names of her two oldest, Phebe and Silas, turned up several, just not ancestors.
Then, the 1822 will was referenced. Lincoln County, N.C., is 160 miles from Chatham County, N.C., where her husband was from. When I finally saw a good transcript of it, there she was as John Spurlin’s third oldest child, but her surname was garbled. It was written as Rickhardt, as Pickard often is. But I knew it was her; Jeremiah Spurlin, the next door neighbor, was her older brother.
Then, when I went to my mother’s DNA results, I was amazed to find a lady who was a DNA match to my mother, a sixth cousin, descended from Nancy’s older sister, Sarah Altom.
So, there you have it — the ancestors are there, just waiting for us to discover them.
African-American migration northward
The January-February issue of Family Tree Magazine has a good article, "Moving On," about researching African-American families who were part of the great migration to Northern cities. It is on newsstands now or at familytreemagazine.com.
Unusual surnames
If you or your ancestors had an unusual last name, you might wonder how many people today have it. American last names, taken from the 2000 census, can be seen at americanlastnames.us. Search in the upper left corner under "Alphabetical Order."
It does not tell you where these people were living, but the site has many interesting lists of names, such as Pilgrim names, names by nationality, and help with picking a baby’s name. There is enough there to keep one busy for some time.
