Everything but the kitchen sink.

Sephardic Jews have lived in the state for more than 300 years,(*) (*) (*) especially in and around Charleston (*). Until about 1830, South Carolina had the largest population of Jews in North America. Many of South Carolina’s Jews have assimilated into Christian society, shrinking Judaism down to less than 1% of the total religious makeup. In addition, Roman Catholicism is growing in South Carolina due to immigration from the North.

[...much MORE]

via South Carolina: Facts, Discussion Forum, and Encyclopedia Article.

CHAPTER 2

WILLIAM SPEER, SR. FAMILY

William Speer, Sr. was an Irish immigrant, American frontiersman, Revolutionary War militiaman, Indian fighter, merchant, homesteader, farmer, Presbyterian, and family man. He lived the American Dream and fulfilled the promise of the newly-formed United States. When he arrived in America, he brought with him youth, health, education, and those highly-desirable European Christian values of independence, self sufficiency, honesty and hard work. He also possessed a firm conviction of right and wrong and an unshakable belief and trust in God. By the time he died, William had passed these qualities to his children and thousands of his descendants have now carried this rich heritage forward. Those of us living today can find much of ourselves in William’s story, and much of William in ourselves.

We can be proud of our family’s accomplishments. We owe it all to a young man searching for a new life in the late 1700′s.

William was born about 1747 in Northern Ireland and immigrated to America in 1772 at the age of 25. In this book, he is William Speer, Sr.1 to distinguish him from his son William Speer, Jr.2 Much about his life in America is contained in a letter written in 1869 and a narrative written in 1874 by his son William, Jr. These writings are treasures of

information to the Speer family and because the earlier letter is so well written it has been published several timesA. See APPENDIX A for transcripts of these writings.

….(click link for MORE)

via CHAPTER 2.

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One om ymaternal ancestors…

– Cathy

…

For non-members, please spend some time browsing through these pages. You are invited to explore the benefits of membership and you may find your missing cousins and many friends you haven’t met yet. Make plans to, and attend one or several of the many Highland Games held at locations throughout the United States and Canada. There are numerous other Scottish events held at many different locations throughout the world as well as the USA and Canada, such as Burns Night, usually in February and Saint Andrews Dinners in November. Let’s not forget TARTAN DAY on the 6th of April every year. Get involved with family and learn from whence you came and get to know other FERGUSSON and septs* of FERGUSSON.

Yours aye,

Rupert H. Furgerson II, FSA Scot

President, CFSNA

• WHAT ARE SEPTS???

Fergus, Fergushill, Fergussill, Ferrie, Ferries, Ferris, Forgan, Fergie, Grevsack, Hardie, Hardies, Hardy, Keddle, Keddie, Ketchen, Kidd, Kiddie, Kydd, MacAdie. MacCade, MacErries, MacFergus, MacFhearghuis. MacFirries, MacHerries, MacInlay, MacIrish, MacKadie, MacKeddie, MacKiddie, MacKerras, MacKersey, MacKestan, MacMagnus, MacTavert, among others.

All the above are eligible for membership in CFSNA.

….(click link for complete write-up)

via Untitled Document.

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Another helpful bit of information about the clan Fergusson, and related “septs” of the Clan Fergusson — show there may a connection between these surnames I have been researching lately: Ferris, Hardy, and Ferguson

– CAA

The original meaning of the word “Melungeon” is obscure (see Etymology below). From about the mid-19th to the late 20th centuries, it referred exclusively to one tri-racial isolate group, the descendants of the multiracial Collins, Gibson, and a few other related families of Newman’s Ridge, Vardy Valley, and other settlements in and around Hancock County, Tennessee. Some researchers limited application of the term further to the descendants of two early 19th century settlers of that area, Vardy Collins and his brother-in-law Shepherd Gibson. Recently, however, some researchers have begun to use Melungeon to mean almost all traditionally recognized tri-racial isolate groups of the Eastern United States.

[edit] Origins

[edit] A complex question

A common belief about the Melungeons of east Tennessee is that they are an indigenous people of Appalachia, existing there before the arrival of the first white settlers. But genealogists working in the late 20th century have documented, through a range of tax, court, census and other colonial, late 18th and early 19th century records, that the ancestors of the Melungeons migrated into the region from Virginia and Kentucky as did their English, Scots-Irish, Irish, Welsh, and German neighbors.[5]

The likely background to the mixed-race families later to be called “Melungeons” was the emergence in the Chesapeake Bay region in the 17th century of what historian Ira Berlin (1998) calls “Atlantic Creoles.” These were freed slaves and indentured servants of European, West African, and Native American ancestry (and not just North American, but also Caribbean, Central and South American Indian: see Forbes (1993)). Some of these “Atlantic Creoles” were culturally what today might be called “Hispanic” or “Latino”, bearing names such as “Chavez,” “Rodriguez,” and “Francisco.” Many of them intermarried with their English neighbors, adopted English surnames, and even owned slaves. Early Colonial America was very much a “melting pot” of peoples, but not all of these early multiracial families were necessarily ancestral to the later Melungeons.

via Melungeon – Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia….

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Excerpt from Wikipedia…

– Cathy Abernathy