GRAHAM Family in North Carolina, Indiana, Illinois

Replies to This Discussion

Permalink Reply by Ginger R Smith on July 16, 2009 at 1:50pm

Janice,

The best way to find out who the parents of your oldest ancestor is to look at will abstracts. The first thing I check when I don't know what county a person was from in NC is to look at Mitchell's Will Index. You can search the database online from the NC State Archives website. Just click on the MARS Catalog link on the left side of the home page.

Click on link above or copy and paste into your browswer: http://www.archives.ncdcr.gov/

To use the database, type in "Graham" in the search box, then select the "Mitchell's Will Index" down below - put a check mark next to it. Then click the "search" button. It should bring up two sets of "hits." Click where is says "41 Hits" and that will bring up your results alphabetically. You can then click on the little blue exclamation point next to each name to see details. Start at the first one, then click "next" until you've gone through them all.

The point of this is to see what county has the most Grahams in it. I counted up most of them in Rowan County. But you have hundreds to choose from. So this might not be the best option for you.

There are a couple of Will Abstract books of Rowan County, North Carolina that you can order through your local Interlibrary Loan system. Here is a list of Rowan County Will Abstract Books. I have had good luck ordering books through our ILL.

Or you can order some of the older Will Abstract books, but usually only cover the coastal counties and they are usually only of prominant families. Other counties abundant with Grahams in Mitchell's Will Index are Cumberland, Robeson, Lincoln, Richmond and Iredale. You can order will abstract books from most of these counties as well.

I hope this helps! Please let us know when you find out what county your ancestor is from!
Ginger

Permalink Reply by Janice L Bollish on July 17, 2009 at 4:21pm

Thanks for your suggestions. I may be getting close. My local library had some books on several counties but not Rowan Co. for a will abstract.

However a marriage book had a John & Sarah Bunten m. 27 Jan 1785 and a John & Jeane Donaldson m. 21 Dec 1786 both in Rowan Co. These marriage dates would fit in pretty well with Jonathan's b. 1788.

I am a member of the DAR so decided to pursue that possiblity. A John Graham m. 1786 to a Jane Donaldson b. 1770 served as a private from NC. He was born and died in Rowan Co. They had a son Jonathan b. 1787 m. Ann Hornes b. 1788 and m. 1810. Maybe the 1788 is really 1787 and the wife is Ann Hornes not Annie Hill???

Permalink Reply by Ginger R Smith on July 23, 2009 at 9:47am

Janice,

It sounds like a good possibility that these two Jonathans (one b. 1787 m. Ann Hornes and one b. 1788 m. Ann Hill) are one in the same.

Good luck figuring it out. Order the Rowan Co abstract books through your ILL - they are invaluable and easy to use! If you can't get them, let me know and I will take a look at them the next time I go to the library.

Ginger