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LinksThese sites may have the information you're looking for.Whitley County Historical and Genealogical Society Access Genealogy - Tribal records Whitley County Geneaology Forum The Political Graveyard - Find your favorite elected official EPodunk -- several useful links and some data Cyndi's List- set a timer you'll need to come out for food! The Lincoln Institute Alumni Page Cornelius Cemetery Books--I don't know if these records are current (the WCGHS has amended the originals significantly) but the originals are great resources. Current info from the University of Kentucky Current US Census Data-Quickfacts page Cemteries Currently indicated in USGS maps-- Someone needs to update these folks! African American Cemeteries -- this site needs our updates. American History and Geneaolgy Project Cemeteries project: another opportunity... Info on obtaining KY Birth Certificates Saving Graves -- information on cemeteries in WC History of mining and more --photos, scholarly articles, good links Melungeon.org--history, research
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The Families of Whitley County Area History is a work in progress. So, too, is this site. Please let me know if you can add to the information here by providing new materials or corrections to what is here.
While much of what is here is my family, my interest actually lies in the greater communities and the relationship between the diversity of people who came and went from this area. Not just the well-known Scotch-Irish families of the American Revolution. The area was home to all sorts of immigrants. The old church cookbooks have recipes for sauerkraut and spaghetti next to stack cakes and cream biscuits. Families names read like a directory of all of Europe: Levine, Moblitini, Haun, Stewart, Hill, Bennett.... people came from all over the world to support the mining industry at the turn of the last century. Many stayed, some moved on. The first mines in the southern part of the county were opened by Charles Gatliff's slaves and the Tye's owned many slaves who stayed in the area after the emancipation. For the most part, these families living outside the cities worked at the same jobs after slavery as the white families: mining, farming, and timber. They were service workers in and for the towns and cared for children and managed households of the wealthy families. As such their traditions, and knowledge was folded into the culture of the region. Many Native American's continued to live in the area after the forced relocations. Denying their ethnicity, their names and their religions they blended into the population of European and African Americans sharing their food, healthcare and stories that have become part of the heritage of the area. Long years after the Indians were removed, the romanticized Lumbee, Shawnee and Cherokee are claimed by nearly every family as ancestors. Living in a region often geographically and culturally isolated meant that all of these cultures adopted and adapted liberally from neighbors what was needed to survive. The option of completely isolating oneself from a neighbor who was different made sense only to those wealthy enough that they never needed to borrow a cup of flour. The first Europeans moved into this region to live in the mid 1700s. Many of our families can trace their heritage to those first settlers and a growing interest in that connection has developed. Each year for 20+ years those who remember the community of life in the mining communities of Gatliff , Packard and Nevisdale gather at Briar Creek Park on the first weekend in August. No matter what their ancestry the memories are of common survival tips. From the spiritual qualities of soupbeans and cornbread to cardboard in a shoe to get through the winter there is a shared history with poverty that was made bearable by family that were immediate and extended. Fifty, 60, 70 years after leaving (the mines no longer exist, nor do the houses) the elders reconvene and gather this history around them.
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Photo Pages Currently Available Feel free to steal these, although as any good historian you should cite your source. Elm Street Baptist ChurchMonhollen-ReynoldsJessie LaMance Powers
The Ancestors |
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Site posted July 9, 2006
Updated February 23, 2007
All art, photographs and page design © copyright 2006 Therese A. Schoch
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