A series of articles about genealogy and family tartans.
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I've been working on my family tree since my early twenties when my grandmother on my mother's side handed me a sheaf of papers that one of her cousins had given her. At some point another cousin had paid a genealogist to work on my grandmother's father's line - and so I had the Kemper family genealogy from the (then) present 1970s back through the 1500s in Germany.
It was strange to me, because I'd never really considered my European roots at that time, but since childhood I had felt a natural affinity for, and deep curiosity about, Great Britain. Being born a Wallace I felt fairly certain that I had deep roots in the UK – a feeling so strong that I eventually made a life-long dream of visiting Scotland and England a reality.
Fast forward almost forty years from the beginnings of my work on my family history, aided by my father's research, and supplemented by the growing number of resources on the internet, and it turns out that those German Kempers were the black sheep on my family tree. All other branches lead back to the United Kingdom. The Kempers don't even get a mention in Ancestry's summary of my heritage. According to my DNA results there, my Ethnicity Estimate is 42% England, 24% Scotland, 18% Ireland, 9% Norse, and 7% Wales. Somewhere, Johannes Kemper and Alice Katherine Utterback are rolling in their graves.
On this page are the clan tartans of surnames that appear in my family tree. Now that my days are filled with tartan and tartan product design, I'm considering designing tartans for the American counterparts - much as I did for a customer last year, combining the colors from the coat of arms for her family's surname with the tartan for the area they originated. Somewhere in my future I see a Kentucky Wallace tartan, and Virginia Turnbull and Graham tartans.
Mary Ann Anderson, my 5th great-grandmother, was born around 1755 and died in 1842. She married William James Claxon in 1772 and they had at least four children. This is an especially tough branch to nail down due to availability of early records, and as the Claxon surname is also spelled Claxton and Clarkson in some of those records.
My 5th great-grandmother, Margaret Berkeley, was born in 1753 and died in 1796. She and her husband, Eli R. Thomas (1774-1856) had at least three children, including my ancestor Susannah Thomas (1793-1864).
My 2nd great-grandmother, Elizabeth "Eliza" Jane Baxter, daughter of James Baxter, was born in 1847 in Kentucky. She married Alonzo Kemper in Owen County, Kentucky in 1869 and had four children. She died in 1900 and was buried in the Georgetown Cemetery, in Scott County, Kentucky.
Mary "Polly" Bell, my 4th great-grandmother, was born in 1790. In 1809 she married Robert Wesley Barr in Bourbon County, Kentucky; they had nine children. She died in Nicholas County in 1872, as did her father, Robert Bell, in 1803.
My 5th great-grandfather, Ambrose Barnett, son of Henry James Barnett, was born in Orange County, Virginia in 1760. In 1781 he married Sarah "Sally" Thornton, and fathered eight children. He served in the Revolutionary War and died in 1832 in Nicholas County, Kentucky.
My 4th great-grandfather, Samuel Joseph Cameron, son of James Cameron (1743-1799) was born in Washington County, Virginia in 1778, and died in 1846 in Blount County, Tennessee. He and his wife, Mary Ann Hughes, were the parents of my ancestor George Washington Cameron (1804-1880.)
Lydia Ann Cooper, my 3rd great-grandmother, born in 1807, was the daughter of Samuel Cooper. In 1824 she married Caleb Tarlton, Jr., and together they had seven children. Lydia died in 1840 and is buried in The Lexington Cemetery, in Fayette County, Kentucky.
My 5th great-grandmother, Jane Craig, married James Cameron in 1775; they were the parents of my ancestor Samuel Joseph Cameron (1778-1846). Jane, who was also known as Jean, died in Blount County, Tennessee around 1829.
Margaret Cunningham, my 6th great-grandmother, was the grandmother of Isaac Trimble of Rockbridge County, Virginia, mentioned below as the husband of Mary Graham. She was married to John Houston; their daughter Mary Houston, who was born in Ireland, married David Trimble. She died in 1799.
My 4th great-grandmother, Mary "Polly" Duncan (1774-1888), married William Foutch in Stokes County, North Carolina in 1794. They were the parents of my ancestor Martin B. Foutch (1808-1888).
My 4th great-grandfather, Anthony Foster, was born in Spotsylvania County, Virginia in 1727. He married Sarah P. Golding in Orange County Virginia, and they had at least three children prior to her death in 1812. Anthony was the grandson of Richard James Forster/Foster of Newcastle-Upon-Tyne in northeast England.
My 4th great-grandmother, Mary Graham (1765-1821), daughter of Arthur Graham, married Isaac Trimble in Rockbridge County, Virginia in 1787. They had at least three children, including my ancestor Tabitha Elizabeth Trimble (1792-1862), who died in Nicholas County, Kentucky.
My 2nd great-grandmother, Clarissa Jane Johnson, daughter of John Johnson and Rose Ann Lawrence, was born in August 1850 in Grant County, Kentucky. She married Callisthenes Henry Towles in 1871 in Owen County, Kentucky; they had seven children. Clarissa died in Scott County, Kentucky in 1937. Her father John Johnson (1805-1868) lived most of his life in Grant County, Kentucky on land that had previously been occupied by Jacob Johnson, possibly of Isle of Wight County, Virginia.
My 6th great-grandmother, Clarissa Line, daughter of William Line (1716-1779) and Deborah Allen (1725-1779), was born in 1755 in Essex County, New Jersey. Her father was born and died at Scotch Plains, New Jersey. Clarissa married Jasper Shotwell (1757-1816) and had at least two children. Y-DNA has recently connected this branch of the Line family to the Laing surname.
Elizabeth Martin, my 6th great-grandmother, was born in Poplar Neck, Virginia, the daughter of Thomas Martin and Catherine Newton. She married Stokeley Towles in 1736 in Lancaster County, Virginia, and they had at least six children, including my ancestor Stokeley Towles (1733-1800.) Elizabeth died on 4 Sept 1798, at Towles Point, Virginia.
My 4th great-grandmother, Jane McClure, was born in 1764, and married Samuel Cooper on 4th May 1780 in Maryland. Together they had at least three children, including my ancestor Lydia Ann Cooper (1807-1840.)
Jane Miller, my 5th great-grandmother, daughter of John Miller, married Robert Bell on 30 Nov 1782 in Rowan County, North Carolina. Together they had at least four children, including my ancestor Mary "Polly" Bell (1790-1872) who was born, married, and died in Kentucky.
My 6th great-grandmother, Hannah Moffet, was born in Scotland, where she married Robert Trimble. They had at least five sons, including my ancestor David Trimble (1720-1799).
Susan Murphy, my second great-grandmother, was born in Kentucky in 1825, the daughter of George W. Murphy and Sarah "Sally" Dean. She was a widowed mother of four when she married my 2nd great-grandfather, Joseph Boone Wallace, in 1862 in Nicholas County, Kentucky. They had two children of their own, and eventually moved to Mount Olivet in Robertson County, Kentucky. She died on 20 December 1897 in Scott County, Kentucky.
My 3rd great-grandfather, John William Robertson, son of William Robertson and Mariah Nevins, was born around 1830 in Ripley County, Indiana. He married Margaret J. Francis in Nicholas County, Kentucky in 1855, and they had at least five children. In 1880 they were living in Mitchell's Mills in Robertson County, Kentucky.
John Spence, my 10th great-grandfather, was born around 1612 in Dysart, Fife, Scotland. He married Helen Morris, and together they had at least two sons, including my ancestor Patrick Spence (1634-1685), who married Dorcas Yowell in 1655 in Westmoreland County, Virginia.
Clan Sullivan/O'Sullivan Tartan
My 3rd great-grandmother, Rebecca Sullivan, was born in 1825 in Kentucky. She married James M. Baxter (1816-1880), and together they had eight children, including my ancestor Elizabeth "Eliza Jane" Baxter.
Anna Thompson (1703-1765), my 6th great-grandmother, was the daughter of Thomas Thompson and Penelope Yowell. She married Henry Tucker in 1724, and together they had at least six children, including my ancestor Moses Tucker (1746-1814) of Culpeper County, Virginia.
My 6th great-grandfather, Robert Trimble, was born in 1695 in Tranent, East Lothian, Scotland. He married Hannah Moffet and together they had at least five sons, including my ancestor David Trimble (1720-1799), who was born in Scotland, married in Augusta County, Virginia, and died in Bourbon County, Kentucky.
William Wallace, my 3rd great grandfather, was born around 1764, in Ireland. He married Sarah "Sallie" Boone (cousin of pioneer Daniel Boone) on 21 March 1792 in Berks County, Pennsylvania. They had one daughter and four sons. For over 20 years William Wallace was my proverbial "brick wall." I've recently made good progress on this branch, discovering that besides being a miller and farmer - as I'd always known - he was also a Magistrate of the Nicholas County Court from 1805 until his death in 1811.
My 7th great-grandmother, Penelope Yowell, daughter of Thomas Yowell, married Thomas Thompson around 1696 in Virginia. Together they had at least two daughters, including my ancestor Anna Thompson (1703-1765).
