Vintage

Maybe I need to explain why I'm so excited. 

During my genealogical research, I began to notice a trend of the same surnames occurring frequently in family lines.  I then realized that due to lack of transportation and the distance between farms our early Alabama pioneers frequently married their closest neighbors. Often sisters and brothers of one family married the sisters, brothers and cousins of a family close to them.  Maybe that is where the term "kissin cousin" originates....Hmmm.
 

Further research revealed that quite a few Bibb County pioneers served with Andrew Jackson when he fought the Native Americans in Alabama and the soldiers later returned to settle in Bibb County and its surrounding counties after most of the Indians left.

Since the soldiers were young men when they fought, they married in Bibb County, settled down and had around 10 children. Women frequently had a baby every other year and often died in childbirth.  The men remarried, often young ladies, and the new wife raised the former wife's children as well as giving birth to additional children of her own.  Sometimes the husbands even married a third time.  This created a quite a population boom in the Bibb County area around 1860.

Around 1860, an exodus of families occurred in Bibb County, probably due in large part from the impending War between the States.  Many families, particularly the children of the pioneers, moved west to Mississippi, Louisiana, Arkansas and Texas.  However, quite a few families remained in Bibb County and their descendants are still there today. 

Texas seemed to be a favorite place to settle for Bibb County.  I guess they needed a lot of wide open spaces with all those children.

Now I'll tell you why I'm so excited........

Armed with these facts and other genealogy research, it dawned on me that I could follow family lines of Bibb County pioneers via the children born in Alabama. However, this meant I would need to go through the 1850 and 1860 census line by line and find the connections since the 1850 census is the first census providing the names of wives and children.  I love completing genealogical puzzles but this tuned out to be quite an undertaking.

This year, I finally completed the 1850 census and now have over 40,000 people related to each other. I've also been able to follow their lines to other states, sometimes through the 1930's.  Hence, my excitement comes from completing this task.

From the beginning of my genealogy journey, I have emphasized documenting and preserving life stories, not just names.   If you have any pictures, or biographies to share of our early pioneers, please contact me via email.

Though I am confident of the data I have derived through the 1850 census and other research, as with any genealogical research, there may be errors.  For example, there is a chance a daughter-in-law may be listed as a daughter or a grandchild listed as child. I know in my own Pratt and Cottingham lines sometimes other relatives lived with the family.

I would like to refine my data and I need your help.  If you see any corrections in the pioneer lines, please contact me via email.  Also, check out the MISSING DESCENDANTS page.  You may be a descendant of one of the early PIONEERS of Alabama.  It is my hope that my research will help others find their lost Alabama roots.  Well, now it's on to the 1860 census...ugh!