Why are there so many Hinchea Gilliams?
After arriving in the New World, six generations of Gilliams would settle in the Virginia Colony before migrating south and west to Tennessee. Two generations later, the Gilliams in our direct line would migrate farther south and west to Arkansas. Before we explore the family’s move to Arkansas, we should pause to reflect on the interesting given name of three of the patriarchs of the original six generations of Gilliams in our direct line: “Hinchea" Gilliam. If you look at an extended family tree, there are more than a dozen Hinchea Gilliams over those six generations. The sheer number of Hincheas certainly makes research confusing. (One shorthand way of remembering the first six generations in our direct line is that the line alternated between the names “John” and “Hinchea”: John-Hinchea-John-Hinchea-John-Hinchea). To say the least, the given name “Hinchea” is unusual. Hinchea seems to be the most accepted spelling of the name, but a review of census records and other