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I am a member of the Chandler Family Association and of the Chandler Y-chromosome DNA Project. You can view my results on the website. My # is 109219. My earliest documented ancestor is my gg-grandfather, James Silas Jernigan.
I live in Rutherford Co, TN -- not too far from Robert and Partheny's old stomping grounds in Wilson Co.
I've been corresponding with Paul Hampson about his Chandler ancestors in Wilson Co, TN and what route they might have taken to get there.
The genealogy detective in me wants to look at the clues available and it seems to me that most families did not travel alone. They travelled in groups. So logically the trip was most likely made by other families -- most likely relatives of the Chandlers.
I've been looking through some of the books in the genealogy section of my local Smyrna, TN library to get some clues to start me off. So far the earliest mention I can find of the Chandlers in Wilson County is an abstract of Robert Chandler's will apparently written 5 August 1805. It was recorded 7 October 1805.
I don't find any Chandlers mentioned in either Deed Book A or B. The earliest mention of Chandlers is in Deed Book C in the following:
James Hopkins to Francis Anderson 130 acres on Barton's Creek. Witnesses: Joshua Anderson and Ryland Chandler. 14 July 1808 (Page 260)
Eventually I'll get up to the archives in Lebanon and maybe the libraries, possibly cemeteries and see what else I can find.
I don't know if Robert and Partheny are very closely related to me. But the information from the CFA is that Robert is also Group 7A (the same as me). So they are distant cousins. I've not found my documented connection to my Chandler ancestry yet. I have to take a trip to AL and dig up what is available to find that out.
But I thought I could get some good hands on experience trying to figure out a Chandler family puzzle closer to home. The local library has a small genealogy collection but it's not too shabby for TN research and there are a few books for other Southern states as well.
I'm starting with the earliest information and working my way up. Trying to weed out families that were already in Wilson Co when the Chandlers arrived so they wouldn't have been fellow travellers.
I'm also looking at information about the earliest settlers in the area to get a probable time frame for the Chandlers' arrival from wherever. In his "A Historical Sketch of Wilson County, Tennessee", J. V. Drake says that the earliest recorded date of settlement in the area was 1794. So it's not likely the Chandlers arrived prior to that date. The next date for settlement is 1796 with the "Donnell Settlement". Drake doesn't mention any Chandlers with this settlement either. However he makes the statement that 'much about the same time, if not BEFORE, settlements were made on Barton's Creek, on Smith's Fork, on Cedar Lick, on Stoner's Creek, and perhaps in other localities. He then gives a long list of heads of families associated with the various creeks on which they settled. He only gives one Chandler that I can find in all of the lists -- Henry Chandler among the names of those who settled on Spring Creek.
If we can determine what other families most likely travelled with the Chandlers -- there may be documentation on those families which might narrow down a time and maybe even the route that was taken.
So I'll be looking at the information available and see who was who and when and where, etc. I might even find some lost connections to my own Chandlers in the process.
Barry Jernigan
College Grove, TN
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