"Oral Traditions"
I live in LaRue County (about 50 miles north of BarrenCO KY) and the folks here say that when all this area was first parceled out, that the William Family (notice theres no "s" on the end) were one of the bigger settlement family groups. The whole area was then the "Frontier", then "the Ohio Valley", then "Kin-Tuck", and still later HardinCO KY) My neighbor was a "William" and he says that the movement was from "River City" (now known as Louisville, KY) up the Nolyn, Rough, Green, and Barren (now known as Barren Run)Rivers. The "William" Family came from the area of Southeastern Ohio/Northeastern Kentucky (known then as the Valley of the OHIO), the Southwestern corner of present day Pennsylvania (then Pennsylvania Colony), and Upper West Virgina (at that time the Colony of Virginia) near the present day city of Wheeler, WV.
I am not sure if the information is correct, because,
1. Its not my line,
2. It was one of his family's "Oral Traditions" and,
3. My neighbor said he had already found out how wrong inaccurate that method of recording could be. He said it was a nice story, but he had no "paper trail" to follow. The earliest settlers here were "squatters" moving ahead of "the King's Law" as he put it.
Hope this was interesting to you even if it doesn't help you much.
Ralph