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This is where we all should have paid close attention in our History class.
When tracing ancestors before the Civil War, and Before the war of 1812, REMEMBER THIS, Counties were formed from other counties and the original County can be a hundred miles away or even 200!
Take Knox County Tennessee for example, it became Johnson County, Washington Co, Carter, Avery N.C., and covered most of Tennessee, but was not really Tennessee yet. It became a state in the 1800's. I was amazed to find out "where my great-grandparents claimed to be from is not where they lived, it is 50 miles East and across a state line. They claimed to be from Wilkes Co., N.C. / However, they lived their entire lives in Johnson Co. Tennessee, and this is where I find information on them. Back then it was called Taylorsville, then Mountain City, Tenn. It was along the Daniel Boone Trail, and as people went to Ohio, many of them traveled these trails between Mountains and rivers. It's a crash course in History/Geography I guess. I didn't intend to learn anything other than relatives names and the country of origin, but I have, over the past 25+ years, learned a great deal more. My History teacher would be proud.
Look up the state in an encyclopaedia or online (search) and find out what year it became a state, and what were the names of the counties then. You may be looking in the wrong state, like I did. It seemed feesible to me that North Carolina would still be North Carolina, Boy was I ever wrong.
Thanks, this concludes our lesson for my lifetime (Ha)
Jude
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