Gilliam Family Genealogy

  Gilliam In-Laws: The Hildreths, Part 3 In two preceding blog posts, we reviewed the first five generations of Hildreth ancestors (and the families they married into) in North America. Three generations of Hildreth ancestors helped settle the English colonies in Massachusetts, Connecticut and New York. The fourth generation, Joseph Hildreth, moved his family from Orange County, New York to the Virginia frontier after the American Revolution commenced. His son, Jeffrey Hildreth, left his mark in Virginia before moving to Bourbon County, Kentucky a few years prior to his death in 1820. In this post, we will pick up with the sixth American Hildreth in our direct line, Rees Bowen Hildreth (1790-1849), as the Hildreths help pioneer the American Midwest. My generation’s 3rd great-grandfather, Rees Bowen Hildreth (I will refer to him as RBH in the remainder of this post) was born in about 1790 in Wythe County, Virginia. He was the fourth or fifth child of Jeffrey and Lily Bowen Hildret...

  The Hildreth In-Laws: The Bowens of Virginia In this post, we briefly depart from our discussion of the Hildreths and their migration across America to discuss the families that were joined with the Hildreths by the marriage of Jeffrey Hildreth and Lily Bowen in 1785. The Bowens and their related families were fierce defenders of the settlements in the New World, fighting and dying to protect their new lives. According to the chapter entitled “The Bowens of Tazewell” contained in History of Tazewell County and Southwest Virginia, 1748-1920 , by William Cecil Pendleton, (link) the Bowens were Celtic Welsh. Moses and Rebecca Rees Bowen (7th great-grandparents to my generation) migrated from Wales to Lancaster County, Pennsylvania “a good many years before the Revolution.” Their son John was a Quaker and married Lily McIlhany. John and Lily McIlhany Bowen (6th great-grandparents to my generation), moved to Augusta County, Virginia (now Rockbridge County) shortly after the first set...

Gilliam In-Laws: The Hildreths, Part 2 In the immediately preceding blog post, we reviewed the first three generations of Hildreth ancestors (and the families they married into) in North America. After short stays in Massachusetts and Connecticut, three generations of Hildreth ancestors helped settle the eastern tip of Long Island, New York, in and surrounding the town of Southampton. We pick up the Hildreths’ story in this post with the next Hildreth in our direct line, Joseph. My generation’s 5th great-grandfather, Joseph Hildreth (1720-1792), was the eldest son of John Hildreth and Phebe Squire. He was born in Orange County, New York in about 1720, shortly after his parents moved there from Southampton. Located on the west bank of the Hudson River, Orange County was on the edge of the frontier. In his adulthood in the years leading up to the Revolution, Joseph became a prominent citizen in Orange County. He was named to some local colonial commissions and was a signee to a ple...

  Gilliam In-Laws: The Hildreths, Part 1 The American history of the Hildreth family is as deep and broad as that of the Gilliam family. In the next series of posts, I will trace the Hildreths from their emigration from Britain to the American colonies through their migration across the continent. Hildreths tamed the frontiers, pioneered new territories, fought in our nation’s wars and suffered more than their fair share of tragedies along the way.   The surname Hildreth is thought to be a variant of Eldridge, a name of Anglo-Saxon origin. It is one of the names of the original ethnic groups of Britain predating the Norman conquest led by William the Conqueror (attentive readers will recall that the surname Gilliam is derived from William and was adopted by many early English in honor of William the Conqueror). In its earliest incarnation, prior to the Norman conquest, the spelling of the name Hildreth/Eldridge was either “Aelfric”, “Aethelric” or “Aethelred”. Most...

Picking up from the last two posts, we are going back to discuss the women married to the Gilliams in our direct line and their families.  We started with the women who married John Gilliam (1613-1673), his son Hinchea Gilliam (1663-1734), his grandson John Gilliam (1696-1738) and his great-grandson Hinchea Gilliam (1718-1794). This post will discuss the family tree of Mary Clanton ( my generation's fifth great-grandmother ), who married John Gilliam (1745-1828). This John Gilliam was  my generation's fifth great-grandfather and the great-great grandson of the original John Gilliam who immigrated to North America. Like the Gilliams in between, this John Gilliam was born in the Virginia Colony, but he would be the first to begin the migration south and west. The family lines in the Virginia Colony by this time had five or six generations to interconnect and make their mark. Let's see what we know about this "great" grandmother and her family's tree. Mar...

We are circling back to discuss the women married to the Gilliams in our direct line and their families.  We started with the women who married John Gilliam (1613-1673), and his son Hinchea Gilliam (1663-1734). In this post, we pick up with his grandson John Gilliam (1696-1738) ( my generation's seventh great-grandfather ), and his great-grandson Hinchea Gilliam (1718-1794) ( my generation's sixth great-grandfather ), both of whom stayed in the James River Basin of Virginia. The families in the Virginia Colony by this time had four or five generations to get interconnected. In some cases, to paraphrase Jeff Foxworthy, "the family tree did not fork". Buckle up and let's see what we know about these "great" grandmothers and their families. Hinchea and Fortune Gilliam's son John (1696-1738) is the next Gilliam in our line. Unfortunately, we do not have much to go on regarding his wife, Sarah. One of the best sources regarding the early Gilliam line ...

So far in this blog, we have covered the Gilliam line from their first steps in the New World in 1635 and followed them as they migrated across the country. Those posts have taken us from the Virginia Colony to Tennessee, then to Arkansas and Texas and Oklahoma. Before we follow the next generation of Gilliams from Oklahoma to California, I want to go back and discuss the women married to the Gilliams in our direct line and their families. Some of those families are not as well documented as the Gilliam line, but I will try to provide whatever evidence we have of our "great" grandmothers. In this post we will start with the women who married John Gilliam (1613-1673) ( my generation's ninth great-grandfather ), and his son Hinchea Gilliam (1663-1734) ( my generation's eighth great-grandfather ), both of whom stayed in the James River Basin of Virginia. In a prior post "Why are there so many Hinchea Gilliams?"  we discussed Margery ( my generation...