Gilliam Family Genealogy

After four generations in Virginia, John Gilliam (1745-1825) begins the family migration south and west to Tennessee . Like the three generations of Gilliams before him, John was born in the James River Basin of Colonial Virginia. The specific location of his  1745  birth was Albemarle Parish, a part of Surry County. In 1754, Surry County was subdivided, and Albemarle Parish became part of adjacent Sussex County. This explains why some genealogists list John’s birthplace as Surry County, some as Sussex County. John’s first eight children (in order, John Jr., Avery, Nancy, Temperance, Frances, Hinchea, Mary (“Polly”) and Thomas) all appear to have been born in Albemarle Parish, Sussex County. The youngest of the children born in Sussex County, Thomas, was born in 1780, our best proof that John remained in Sussex County through 1780.  John obtained a 250-acre land grant from the state of North Carolina in Hawkins County in 1791. It is possible he left Virginia and settled t