The spelling of their name in Virginia was BIRD and was changed to BYRD on moving to Tennessee.

Abraham and Jesse came to the Clinch River and Roane County settlement by 1792.  They probably belong on the first list of early settlers in what is now Roane County.  All records to them and members of their families spell the name BYRD,  though on the Virginia records it appears as BIRD.

Abraham BYRD was on an expedition with Lieut. McClellan, on August 13, 1792, and was among the wounded when the force was attacked by Indians near Crab Orchard, west of Kingston.

Jesse BYRD located on the site of the present Kingston in 1792-5, and was the ferryman at what was called BYRD'S Ferry, later known as Sevier's Ferry in Roane County. The name 0f his wife is not known but by her he had the following children

2. Eliza BYRD

3. Nancy BYRD

4. Katie BYRD

5. Mary Ann BYRD

Joseph BYRD was b.  in l795, and his wife Ann Pride in 1797.  Joseph was for eight years Sheriff of Roane County.  He also engaged himself as a trader and ran a boat between Kingston and Huntsville Alabama.  He served with Andrew Jackson and took part in the removal of the Cherokees to the west and was a colonel.  He had 9 sons and 3 daughters:

1.  Jesse BYRD, b. 1820

2.  Robert King BYRD

5.  Samuel Jackson BYRD

6.  William Hardin BYRD

7.  John Hamilton BYRD

8.  George Gillespie BYRD

9.  Joseph BYRD

Nancy BYRD, m. in Roane Co., 5 May l821, Robert Allison and they had a daughter,  Lavinia Lampkin Allison.

Ransom BYRD, settled in Dyer Co. ca. 1825.