Our Smith line….

I am stuck on our Smith family in Ohio on our GGG-Grandfather, James Smith born around 1809 and I really have been for years. Occasionally, there is a new bit of information but I am having trouble going any further back . I have so many questions and no answers right now!

Who is James’s Father?

Where did this family come from?

Are they Smith’s who came from the Maryland / Virginia area?

Or did they come from the New England?

Last winter I decided to take a real close look at all the Smith Families in Darke County in an effort to determine where we come from!  I have confirmed the location of my GGG-Grandfather, there were two brothers who both have a son named James. These two brothers probably had other brothers in the area, namely Thomas, Stephen and John. These brothers with son’s named James are James and William Smith. The fact that both brothers have son’s named James came from “last will and testament” transcripts which I have received from other area researchers. It is my belief that we are connected to these Smith brothers and I am attempting to make this connection.

One of the brother’s, James and his family, I am able to follow to Benton County Indiana in 1836. It is James’s brother, William, who I think is our James’ father. (I know that was confusing huh?) I had been told previously that William was a Revolutionary War Vet and that he was buried in Auglaize County, Ohio. I have not found his burial in Ohio or any evidence to support this claim. While investigating the brother James, I found the burial for James in the Smith Cemetery which I referred to in my previous post. Interestingly enough, the Cemetery sign refers to his brother William and Thomas! It is stated that they too settled in this area. So that leads me to ask, "did my GGG-Grandfather James’ father William, leave Darke County prior to son’s departure in 1844?"  Maybe he did!

Upon searching this cemetery, I was able to locate the burial of the James and his wife but did not find the burial of the brother Thomas and William. We will be returning to the Cemetery some time this summer to continue our search. James’s stone was located in tall weeds along a fence line and there seems to be stones missing and broken which we will continue to look for. These stone are very old and difficult to read. We have some special paper that we can use to lift the images off the face of the stone which should allow us to have correct dates from these stone.

We plan to bring our garden tools so we can remove weeds and see if we are able to locate other early burial in this cemetery. A trip to the county seat may be necessary to check for burial records and death records.
 
Til Next Time!

Jan