| Marriage is not the
joining of two people, it is the joining of two families. In the
marriage of Dara and Jason, these two families have been in North Carolina
since colonial times.
Quakers and Scots Presbyterians,
Baptists and Methodists, Moravians and Menonites, Lutherans and Anglicans
and Catholics are all among their ancestors. These people frequently
started churches or gave land for churches--probably so that they wouldn't
have to go too far to get to church.
Most of these ancestors
were farmers and came to North Carolina for the rich farming opportunities.
Many of them have land grants going back to early colonial times.
Two families live on Century Farms and others would qualify if they filled
out the paper work.
Among their ancestors
is a man who served as a delegate to the North Carolina Ratification Convention
in 1789, a woman who was permitted to preach to the Revolutionary War troops--as
long as she didn't get off her horse, a man who served with Francis Marion
and a housewife who wrote of listening to the guns from the Battle of Guilford
Courthouse as she was hanging clothes out to dry. (She was concerned
because her husband and sons were in the battle.)
Genealogists will tell
you that, as a rule, if you go back seven generations, you will find that
everyone is related. This is an interesting theory, but I have not
been able to find a connection between Steve's family and my family in
all the years I've been searching. I suspect it is because his mother's
family was predominately Quaker and they rarely married outside of meeting.
His father's family was Mennonite. They rarely married outside of
their congregation. I thought I would find a connection between the
Smith family and the Eberly family since so many of the lines had been
in central North Carolina for over two hundred and fifty years.
However, so far I have
found only one slight connection.
In 1732 a ship named the Dragon
arrived in Philadelphia with Palatinates on board.
The passenger list includes Kigers, Risingers,
and Crumps.
I'm fairly sure they aren't my direct line Risingers
although the likelihood of a connection of some sort is fairly high; the
Kiger information I have found indicates that this is most likely the immigrant
ancestor who later moved to NC; and I haven't traced the Crumps back that
far. There is no evidence of any marriage connections--yet.
The one thing which
practically every branch of the family seems to have in common is that
they prefered to live in the country.
Anyone who knows Dara and Jason will not
be surprised to find that they
have inherited this tendency.
In order that they may
get to know each other's background, I have put together (with lots of
help from Mary Louise Campbell Smith, Jason's mother) a quick genealogy
with as many pictures as we can find. To begin, click on
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