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Graphic collage © by Kristen Mohn '02
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Welcome to this site dedicated to the pioneer families that settled the highlands of Eastern Kentucky and Southwest Virginia. The families listed herein are descendants of settlers who traveled through the Pound Gap from Virginia into what is now Letcher County, Kentucky -- the headwaters for the Kentucky, Big Sandy, and Cumberland rivers. This area was originally part of Floyd County, KY -- from it, other counties including Pike, Perry, Letcher and Knott were later formed. Settlement of this area began in earnest between 1800 and 1810. The original settlers came out of Virginia, western North Carolina, and South Carolina. Many, like Daniel Boone and his family earlier, had moved south from Pennsylvania through the Great Valley of Virginia before the Revolutionary War. A core group of the listings contained here were included in the two-volume "Family Histories of Letcher County"©, published by the Letcher County Historical and Genealogical Society, P.O. Box 312, Whitesburg, KY 41858. This item is now out of print. The database linked to this website currently contains information on 40,609 individuals. It is very much a "work in progress." More than 40,000 of the individuals are members by birth or marriage of my extended family and collateral lines. The most common surnames include Hall, Franklin, Combs, Caudill, Mullins, Hamilton. I welcome additions and corrections, but because of the massive size of this database, I am now focusing on and limiting data to include persons born before 1910. That will keep the emphasis on the pioneer era. Also, for those persons born after 1910, and not confirmed as dead, dates and other information from my database will be marked "Private" to protect the rights of the living. Corrections and additions have been submitted to my on-line database by hundreds of people, but I take no responsibility for errors or unproven information contained herein.
Click here To go directly to my searchable database of individuals, click below!
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