Family branches - 52 weeks of Ancestors

This week's prompt is "Invite to dinner", and it's pretty easy to guess I would choose one of my brick walls.  This guy has been pretty hard to find records on before 1803, when he moved from North Carolina to eastern Kentucky.  He died in about 1816, leaving no will or probate record, no headstone, no land records, no church records.  The only records we have are a few marriage records of his daughters and a couple tax lists.  I don't even know the first name of his wife, though I see an older female on the one census record in Kentucky. His name is Francis McIntire. According to a grandson, he fought all through the Revolutionary War, receiving 5 wounds, though no record of him in the war has been found.  One of his daughters reports in the 1850 census that she was born in Pennsylvania.  Younger children of the family report being born in North Carolina, including my ancestor Hugh.  So I think he probably fought from Pennsylvania, married and lived ...

John McCormick, born about 1746, married Rosanna McNees about 1770.  They lived in Westmoreland county Pennsylvania.  They had three sons: James b.abt 1771 William b. abt 1773 Adam   b. abt 1775 John served in the Frontier Rangers in Pennsylvania with his wife's brother in George Baird's Company. George Baird was in 3rd Battalion, 2nd company, under Col. James Smith. I found this about the Colonel. Colonel James Smith has often been referred to as early even as in Braddock's march. He was, indeed, a very important factor in the early annals of our county. He remained in Washington's division of the army, and in 1778 was made a colonel, and sent to Western Pennsylvania, where he performed valuable services in the continuous warfare against the Indians. James Smith was the subject of the 1937 book  The First Rebel  by Neil F. Swanson.  He was portrayed by  John Wayne  in the 1939 movie  Allegheny Uprising ,  which was ba...

This week's subject is favorite photo.  I don't have very many photos, so each is dear to me.  I ended up choosing this one of my ancestors Benjamin Chapman and Samantha Bratton Chapman and their sons.  Benjamin and Samantha took a family photo every few years, which is unusual in my family lines! Benjamin Chapman immigrated from England with his mother and brother when he was 4 years old.  He arrived in New York in 1853, coming to meet with his father, Henry Chapman, who had come over a few years earlier and worked making shoes until he had saved enough for them to come.  The family lived in New York a few years, then moved to Iowa by 1856 where they stayed.  Benjamin married Samantha Bratton in 1869 in a family members home.  A cousin liked to tell that Benjamin was so excited he had to be reminded to put on his suit coat!  They ended up having seven sons and were married 53 years when Samantha died in 1922.  Benjamin passed in 1934....

The Malone story begins with John Sr. Malone, who is said to have been born in Maryland in 1723.  A land record in Maryland in 1764 says John Malone was a blacksmith.  John and his son John served in Dunmore's War.  The article below was shared on Ancestry: "Although we do not know from what country the Malones migrated, we suspect England. They settled first around the Baltimore MD area, migrated to VA, then NC, and finally to Sullivan Co. TN. JOHN and his son, John, served in the militia during the campaign known as "Lord Dunmore's War." The Earl of Dunmore, British governorof VA organized the VA militia in order to safeguard the VA frontier against the Indians and to push the VA state line northward to the Ohio River. In 1774, Fincastle VA was the western frontier, and many families had moved into the fertile valleys to establish homesteads. The Shawnee Indians, seeing the westward expansion, sought revenge on the settlements, and the summer and fall of 1...

 Our ancestor, Robert Bratton, born about 1723, probably married his wife Elizabeth (Betsy) Farrand in Palmer, MA.  They had at least three children here that we know of between 1746-1751.  Robert sold his land in Palmer to his brother David Bratten in 1768, and they moved to Coleraine, MA (which is named for a town in Ireland) and lived on a farm there. Robert and his wife "Betsy" and family moved from Coleraine, MA in about 1770, after spending several summers building a cabin or house and clearing land.  Robert's name is on the first deed of Whitingham Vt. The early records spell his name "Bratten", and later generations spell it "Bratton".  Robert and Betsy were instrumental in setting up schools and getting a preacher to come and hold meetings in the homes.  After a few years, a church was built, and Robert Bratten was elected to the job of 'tithingman'.  He had a long stick with a rabbit's foot on one end of it and a brass knob on the...