Introduction
This set of books is meant to document
the history of my ancestors. The purpose
is to present interesting and fact based information on the lives of my
ancestors, while keeping the format relatively easy to follow and
understand. Only information about the
families of my direct ancestors is given.
This means I have not dealt with cousins. Maybe I will in the future, but for now it is
everything I can do to keep up with this.
I first started writing down
information about my great-grandparents in 1992. Before that, I would look at old pictures and
wonder who those people were and how they lived. In my first two years of researching I used
index cards to record everything I knew about each person I discovered. But when I got a computer in 1994, it became
a lot easier to keep up with the information I was finding. This set of books is a compilation of
everything I have found so far. Each of
the first four volumes deals with the ancestors of a different
grandparent. Eventually, I plan on using
this information to write histories of individual families. Before I start on that, I want to find
everything I can while making sure that what I present is as accurate as
possible.
I have used a numbering system to
identify each family. As an example:
B-1-2
Benjamin Floyd Duncan (4).
The
number “B-1-2” is only given to this one family. The “B” means that the family is on my
father’s father’s side. The letters A,
C, and D have been given to my other grandparents. The “1” means that the family is on this
Duncan line (i.e. each last name has a different number). If there are two different lineages which
have the same name by coincidence, they still have different numbers. The “2” means that this is the second most
recent family in “B-1”. The underlined
name (here, Benjamin Floyd Duncan) is usually the father in the family. The number in parentheses, 4, denotes the
number of generations above me. In this
case, Benjamin Floyd Duncan is four generations above me, or my
great-great-grandfather. In some cases,
I am descended from one ancestor by more than one of his children. In other words, he may be a (6) when
following the lineage in one way, but a (7) when following a different
lineage. When this happened, I
arbitrarily picked one or the other for that ancestor. Also, a family number (such as (B‑3‑1))
following a person’s name indicates the number of the family where his/her line
is continued.
The children are first listed in order
of birth (if known) for easy reference.
An asterisk (*) before a name identifies my direct ancestor. The first date is the date of birth, and the
second is the date of death. When part
of a date is underlined, it indicates that there is a discrepancy. I have given either the most probable date,
or an average of dates from more than one source. Each list is followed by information on the
family as a whole including any census information I have found. This is followed by more information on the
children. The source of the birth and death date is supplied in brackets after
information on that individual (for example, [b62,113, d8]). The superscripted numbers indicate the number
of the sources for either the birth or death date. Here, the date of birth came from Refs 62 and
113, while the death date came from Ref 8.
Before September 1752, March 25 was the
first day of the year in many countries.
Therefore, days between December 31 and March 25 were included in the
previous year. For example, March 24 was
the last day of the year in 1634, but today, we would consider it early
1635. In this book, I have listed that
day as 3/24/1635*, just as we would write it today. The asterisk (*) is a reminder that at that
time, people actually considered it to be the previous year, or, in this
example, 1634.
Please remember that some names are
interchangeable with other names (i.e. Sarah and Sally, Mary and Polly,
etc.). Also, because some of this
information was obtained by word of mouth, there is the possibility of error. Some of the public records even have mistakes
because of misinformation. I may have
made typographical errors, also. So if
anyone notices mistakes or can supply additional information about our
ancestors, please let me know. Changes
are not a problem and corrections are appreciated.
Much of my information came from county
records including birth, death, marriage, land, and census records. I generally consider these sources to be more
reliable only because this is first hand information. I have visited several cemeteries, most of
which are in either NC or VA. A list of
all of the cemeteries mentioned in this book can be found in Volume 5. Several of my relatives have helped in
supplying facts which would not be found elsewhere. Some of my other sources include books,
papers, email acquaintances, and the internet.
Throughout this book, the source for nearly all of my information is
noted with superscripts and is listed in the “Sources” section in Volume 5. I have referenced my sources to give credit
to those who have done their own research, but also to help me remember where I
got the information. This makes it
easier to update the information when I find something new. Please keep in mind that information gathered
from webpages on the internet is probably the least reliable. Anyone can easily post anything on the internet. However, if someone goes to the trouble to
write a book, that person has probably done more error checking and
validation. While I'm on the subject, my
information is available both as a book and on the internet.
Jason
Duncan http://www.webjmd.com
222 Sundance
Cir jmduncan@statesville.net
Statesville,
NC 28625
During
the years following this printing, if you do not get a response from me at that
mailing address, use this one:
104
East St.
Jonesville,
NC 28642
(use
only if other address is outdated)
History
of Printings
Edition Printing
Date Page Count Copies Created
1st
Edition (1 volume) 12/16/1996 196 pages 1 complete copy printed
2nd
Edition (1 volume) 1/15/1998 260 pages 9 complete copies, several excerpts
3rd
Edition (1 volume) 4/10/2000 374 pages 1-complete, 4-A, 10-B, 2-C, 1-D
4th
Edition (4 volumes) 7/1/2003 518 pages V1 (13), V2 (13), V3 (5), V4 (4)
5th
Edition (5 volumes) 4/10/2007 641 pages to be determined…
With
this Fifth Edition, each of the first four volumes follows the heritage of a
different grandparent. Volume 5 is
essential to those four volumes because it includes the full name index, the
list of sources, the list of cemeteries, and many pages of pictures of the
families I am researching. Each volume
is available for sale individually at my cost for printing and mailing. I have no desire to make money from this
book, but I would like to share the research with as many distant cousins as
possible in an attempt to learn more about our ancestors.
I
began including pictures in the Third Edition.
The Fourth Edition included over 230 pictures. I have now collected over 700 old pictures
and it is no longer practical to include them all in the book. There are over 260 of the best pictures
included together in Volume 5. The rest
of the pictures are available on my website.
Anyone who has pictures that could be included in the next edition is
encouraged to get in touch with me.
Here
are my and my parents’ families.
1 John Albert Duncan (1). I, Jason
Michael Duncan, am the son of John
Albert Duncan (AB) and Teresa Gail
Brooks (CD). They had three
children.
1.
Jason Michael Duncan
2/ 1/1976
2.
Trent William Duncan 12/27/1977
3.
Jarel Ross Duncan 11/11/1990
AB Roy Clifford Duncan (2). My father, John Albert Duncan, is the son of Roy Clifford Duncan (B-1-1) and Doris Faye Bauguess (A-1-1).
They had two children.
1.
Leroy Duncan
4/25/1952
2. John
Albert Duncan
4/17/1954
CD Billy Edwin Brooks (2). My mother Teresa Gail Brooks is the daughter of Billy Edwin Brooks (C-1-1) and Opal
Delores Billings (D-1-1). They had
one child.
1.
Teresa Gail Brooks
4/ 8/1957