Genealogical & Historical Research

This page provides links to several ongoing projects exploring families of European and African descent in southeastern North America between the Colonial Period and World War I. While my initial focus was on family history, the research naturally expanded into the local histories of the regions these families inhabited. The scope traces their movement from 17th-century Colonial Virginia through the Carolinas and Georgia in the 18th century, eventually pushing westward into the "Old Southwest"–the vast expanse that became Tennessee, Alabama, Mississippi, Arkansas, and Louisiana. Despite this broad geographic sweep, these families began converging upon the Ouachita Valley in the 1820s, specifically in the region that became Union Parish, Louisiana in March 1839.