Fleming County, Kentucky

Below map shows where Fleming county is located (it is outlined in Red)  I live in Huntington, WV....why have I never visited this place?  It is an easy drive on I64!  You will have to manipulate the big map to see location of Fleming County between Huntington, WV and Lexington KY

 My 4-gr-grandfather, James Hawkins, died in Fleming County, Kentucky in 1834.  I was 40 years finding the relationship with this man.  I know a lot about the Hawkins side of the family who settled in Fleming County,  But I know very little about the Ross side.  James Hawkins married a woman with maiden name of Ross....probably in Stafford County....c. 1790.  I have looked with no success for a marriage record for the couple.  I do not know this 4-gr-grandmother's first name.  But I do know that almost certainly her father was William Ross,  The reason I know this is that James Hawkins pays the personal property tax for Wm Ross in 1798.  William is ailing as he dies c. 1800.  I have given support to this information:  James and his Ross wife name my ancestor Thomas Ross Hawkins when he is born c.1797 and they almost certainly they gave all of their sons the Ross middle name as they all appear on Ancestry as John R. Hawkins, William R. Hawkins, and James R. Hawkins in trees of descendants.  James is the only Hawkins found in Stafford County in the time period, so it is almost certain that he moved there after his marriage to his Ross wife.  And the most telling piece of support is my 50 plus dna matches to all of James' children.  And these matches are on magic Chromosome #13 on the segment that I have identified as having come from John and Elizabeth Butler Hawkins.  I am very convinced of the validity of this connection! 

I have talked with Karen Carty about the Ross family.  I am not sure that I understand all that she has told me.  I hope to get it sorted out.  But one thing of great interest is that there seems to have been a birth incident between the Ross and Calvert family.  Other surnames to look for in Fleming County besides.  

This blog post is a place to look at the families who moved from Stafford County, Virginia to Fleming County, KY after 1820 (I find James Hawkins in census in Stafford County that year) and before 1834 when James Hawkins dies in Fleming County.  I am looking for the FAN club of this family.  

What made me start this project today?  I have a new dna match on Ancestry who has surname Calvert.  We have a good match of 19cM.  This man's tree shows his earliest know ancestor on his Calvert line to be:

Prince William County adjoins Stafford County just to the north.  And Rowan County. Kentucky adjoins Fleming County to the south east as you can see by the above map.

However, according to the tree of my dna match on Ancestry, William B. Calvert's wife died in 1851 in Fleming County, KY, so likely they were living in Fleming County before her death.  Her name was Hester Elizabeth Rigdon and her father was James Rigdon.  James Rigdon also died in Fleming County.  He died there in 1835.  

 

So we now have surnames of Rigdon, Calvert, Hawkins living in Fleming County.  I would add Ross to the list as I know that at least one of James' first wife's siblings accompanied the group.  I just double checked and it was brother Benjamin Ross who died in Fleming county after 1830.  

I found a few books of interest:

This book by Wade Cooper is available at the Boyd County Library very close to my home.  

And an amazing atlas that I want to look at better.  It is on-line at:

https://kycarter.com/maps/1884_Fleming_Bath_map/1884_Fleming_Bath.htm

The closest place where I can look at the atlas is the Fleming County Public library.