Chapter 1: Background

Family history is extremely important to me. Makes sense, though, as I love history and love my family. So there you have it. I remember my mother and my maternal grandmother (she lived with us during my early teenage years) would often discuss their family history, all from Western Kentucky. They were often telling stories of long ago, describing old relatives to such and extent that I almost felt as if I knew the people they were describing. They would also tell stories of family members no living person knew, but they certainly had enough information that would give credence to a valid family tradition. One story in particular instilled a very strong desire to find out more of my heritage. It was a conversation circled around our supposed ancestor, the seventeenth president of the united states, Pres. Andrew Johnson. I remember them stating that he was a blood relative, not just a relative by marriage. We are also related to Pres. James Knox Polk, but that relationship was only through marriage. Andrew Johnson, however, was through blood. That made it very special to me. Interestingly enough, thirty-five some odd years later, and I still cannot substantiate either claim, although both would most definitely fit, both being of Scotch-Irish decent and both having North Carolina roots.

 

I started my genealogy research back around 1999, although I had started collecting family stories at a much earlier age, somewhere in my teen, but 1999, with the internet coming on strong, was the beginning of my serious research. I had a cousin, Mark Thompson, who had converted to Mormonism. Due to his conversion, he had researched some family tree info, most likely for their “Baptism of the Dead”, but not sure. Anyway, one of his trees made its way to my father’s position and them to me. This reiterated all those old stories I had heard from my mother and maternal grandmother, and created a perfect storm of obsession in me that would last through at least the writing of this work and most likely till the end of my days.

That being said, I will get started with the general overview of my family lines.