Moore Family Genealogy

The Moore Family
Jim Hall

Where did the fpc/mulatto Moores live before moving to Rockingham County, North Carolina, about 1778? That question has plagued me for decades and caused years of research. Unfortunately, I have not found a definitive answer because there is no reliable trail of deeds, wills, tax lists or other documents to point us in the right direction. I will attempt to answer that question by giving you my best guess based on the information I have collected to date. I freely admit that I cannot prove my theory with documents but it is my hope that the theory is someday proven or disproven, through research, newly found documents and DNA. In analyzing my “best guess” we will look at some of the available information and the surrounding circumstances and see if we can draw some reasonable inferences from that information.

The most well-known location where the people who came to be known as “Melungeons” lived is Hawkins and Hancock Counties in Tennessee. These two counties had a large population of mulatto/fpc people and many descendants of the original settlers still live in the area.

It is important at the outset to consider a couple of questions. Was it an historical and geographical accident that these people migrated to and lived in the same area of Tennessee? Was it just a coincidence? I think not. Several of the families moved into the area together, as a group. Some of the families or the ancestors of those families had been acquainted at some time and location prior to moving to Tennessee. Sometimes the group would split and go in different directions only to meet again at a new location. Sometimes, a family would drift off from the group and in a short time become “white” on documents and lose their connection to the group. Members of the group, and their ancestors, tended to intermarry within the group as the group slowly migrated westward. Continuous intermarriage within the group was the primary force that retained and preserved those characteristics in the individual which led to them being called “Melungeon” or listed as mulatto or fpc on documents.

Let’s begin our discussion of the Moore family in Rockingham County, North Carolina, with John Moore and try and establish some relationships. We know for a fact that John had five sons and I will suggest that he had a father, Charles, and probably three brothers, James, Andrew and Ephraim.

The most valuable document in researching these Moores, and the most well-known, is John Moore’s Revolutionary War pension application. The pension application was made by John in 1834 in Floyd County, Kentucky, and, after his death, by his wife, Sally. From that application we learn that John was born in May of 1758 in Orange County, North Carolina, that he married Sally Goodman in March of 1784, in Rockingham County, and, they had five sons, Joel, Andrew, Obadiah, Edmund and John Jr.

John would have been about 26 years of age at the time of his marriage and Sally, who was born about 1765, was about 19 years of age. We know John lived for most of his adult life in, first, Surry County, and then across the county line in the north-west corner of Rockingham County in an area which came to be known as Goinstown. The Moores lived along Hickory ander Buffalo Creeks of the Mayo River just south of the Virginia line.

Con't here

Blue Ridge Parkway: Come along on America's favorite road trip

BY RANDY JOHNSON
Special to The Miami Herald

Like countless other Blue Ridge Parkway motorists, I've peeked over Wildcat Rocks in North Carolina's Doughton Park to where a tiny cabin sits 1,500 feet below in a postage stamp meadow. It's the quintessential image of Appalachian isolation.

One glance down at Caudill Cabin is all you need to realize why many 1930s residents of Appalachia simply didn't believe that a modern road like the Parkway, about to begin construction, would ever penetrate their mountain empire. Mountain families like the ones that populated the cove around the cabin were still reaching their homes by steep, primitive rocky roads and trails when transportation was far easier throughout the rural South.

The Blue Ridge Parkway, arguably America's most scenic road, did find its way through eastern America's highest mountains, and in September, the Parkway celebrates the 75th anniversary of the start of construction at Cumberland Knob, half a mile south of the Virginia-North Carolina state line.

The road advanced in fits and starts with frequent stalls, the most enduring at Grandfather Mountain where the private landowner rebelled against a route high up on the mountain's fragile wilderness flank. A lower route was negotiated, and in 1987, two years after the 50th anniversary, the final ``missing link'' debuted. The Linn Cove viaduct span had spared that fragile mountainside.

There is still a vast rippled realm of summits in the Southern Appalachians, but the Parkway, believe it or not, may just now be ready for its close-up. Only last year, the Parkway's official main visitor center opened near Asheville. One of the road's interpretive landmarks, the Blue Ridge Music Center, with stirring live concerts, is another recent addition.

Read more: http://www.miamiherald.com/2010/06/13/1671541/road-to-the-past-75-years-ago.html#ixzz0s5Ck7vZa

Eastern Band of Cherokee Tribe implements DNA testing for new applicants

by Janet Crain
This is a rather disturbing move on the part of the Cherokee Tribe. Note this does not say new enrollees must prove their genetic inheritance is Indian by DNA, rather it says they must prove their descent from someone on the Baker Roll.

That is most likely because many could not pass the DNA test as proven Native Americans. If neither father or mother go back to a Native American Indian then it is extremely hard to prove Native American by DNA. Circumstances where the original progenitor was a European Trader or the maternal line leads back to a captured European woman are among those which would result in a European finding even though the person was predominately Indian. It will be interesting to follow this new ruling.

Ancestry Testing/

Author: Hannah McLaverty-Williamson

A new enrollment ordinance passed by the Tribal Council of the Eastern Band of Cherokee Indians, now requires new applicants to undergo DNA testing to verify their parental lineage.

The Cherokee One Feather website cited the Ordinance as saying: "The results of a DNA test, from a lab acceptable to the Enrollment Committee, establishing the probability of paternity and/or maternity by the parents through whom lineage is claimed for an applicant," is required for an application to be processed.

Cont. here:

http://www.dna-worldwide.com/dna-news/news/2010/06/24/tribe-implements-dna-testing-for-new-applicants/

U. of Tennessee Wins Grant to Digitize Newspapers

by Sophia Li

In two years, students, historians, and anyone else curious about nearly a century of history should have 100,000 pages of Tennessee newspapers at their fingertips. The University of Tennessee at Knoxville has received a grant from the National Endowment for the Humanities to digitize local newspapers from 1836 to 1922.

"This is telling what the people of the time experienced at the time they experienced it," says JoAnne Deeken, head of technical services and digital access at the university system's libraries. "We can relive it through their eyes."

The state's history during the period covered by the project includes the forced relocation of American Indians, known as the Trail of Tears, which began in Tennessee; the Battle of Shiloh, during the Civil War; and the state's ratification of the 19th Amendment, which gave women's suffrage the two-thirds majority it needed to pass. Tennessee is "a very important state during this time period," Ms. Deeken says.

The $325,165 grant is part of the National Digital Newspaper Program, a project to digitize historical newspapers from across the country. The pages from Tennessee's newspapers will be available on the Library of Congress's Chronicling America Web site and later on the university library's Web site.

Full Article Here:

http://chronicle.com/blogPost/U-of-Tennessee-Wins-Grant-to/24906/

More Pictures from Sneedville

For more pictures from the Second Annual MHS Conference: Click Here.

Pictures courtesy of MHS board member Elizabeth Bunch Smiddy. Shown at right: Presenter Dr. Richard Carlson and MHS board member Cleland Thorpe.

Pictures from the Second MHS Conference

The Second Annual MHS Conference was held this weekend and a good and informative time was had by all with many speakers presenting over the course of the two days. Pictured on the right are just two of the speakers: Dr. Richard Carlson and MHS President Jack Goins. To see these and many, many other pictures from the conference: Click Here.

The Melungeon Historical Society thanks all those who presented and all those who attended and all those who worked so hard to make this conference a success.

Map: Where Americans Are Moving

In 2008, more than 10 million people moved from one county to another in the U.S.

So, how many people moved in and out of any given county that year? A new tool will give you an idea of the number of people who moved, as well as where they came from, and where they went to.

The tool is an interactive map that uses information from the IRS. Just click on any county of interest and a whole bunch of lines will pop up leading to other counties where people moved to and from.

Black lines show people moving in, red lines show people moving out. The thicker the line, the bigger the migration.

To go to the map: Click Here.