Over the past few years I've amassed a great deal of information on many Amite County families including my own. 19th and early 20th Century Amite County was also the subject of some of my graduate research. That project gave me the opportunity to examine the lives of several women whose legacies provided a glimpse of life in early Amite County. At the same time I was able to learn more about my own family history. My grandfather, John Clark
Payne, was born in the Zion Hill area of Amite County on land that had
been in his grandmother's family (the Moores) since 1805--four years before the county was organized in 1809. Using traditional print resources available to me at the Clayton Genealogy Library in Houston and the records residing in the Amite County Courthouse in Liberty, I was able to construct a family tree and learn of my ancestors' contributions to the creation of Amite County and the settlement of southwestern Mississippi. Later I was able to expand my research much further using Internet tools and e-mail. These web pages not only help me to organize some of my own work, but also share my findings with others who are interested in Amite County families.
My database at Rootsweb World Connect Project is currently under revision.
You can still access the old (1998) Family Tree Maker database by clicking on either "Surname Index" or "Personal Name Index" below.
Anyone who has participated in any Southern Genealogy research quickly
learns that geography is a key concern. Families moved with surprising
frequency in the 18th and 19th centuries. While there are exceptions
to any rule, most people followed set migration patterns; indeed, many
people followed former neighbors into the newly opened territories.
These lands were quickly organized into counties--the geographic and political
entity most frequently encountered by genealogists.
My current interest is the analysis of migration
patterns in the American South from the post-Revolutionary days until the
turn of the 20th century. Many of the settlers of Amite County, Mississippi came from up-country South Carolina, central North Carolina, and central Virginia. They came via the Natchez Trace, across and down the navigable Tennessee and Mississippi Rivers, and up from New Orleans. Some had already pioneered in the Carolina and Georgia Piedmont and were eager to move on to less crowded lands. As part of what I hope will be an ongoing project, I have cross indexed my own family names with known geographic locations. This has helped myself and may help others with tracking the known whereabouts of families who migrated to and through Amite County and other Southern communities.
LINK to INDEX PAGE with County/Family Name and Family Name/County Indexes
Amite County, Mississippi Family Names researched. Click on name below to get an outline family tree. Note: these are individuals from whom I directly descend. In many cases they only document the siblings of my ancestors, but not nieces or nephews. These charts are merely guides and are not meant to contain the names of everyone who descends from a particular individual.
BETTIS, BRACEWELL, CAIN, CASTON, CUNNINGHAM, COVINGTON, GARRETT, JONES, MCLENDON, MCCLURE, MARSHALL, MARTIN, MOORE, PAYNE, SWEARINGEN, WARE, WHETENALL,
# 1 #2
Map #1: Counties where my ancestors lived/transacted business
Map #2: Patterns of American migration, 1620s-1910s, adapted
from map found in "Built in Texas"
Link to larger versions of maps.
My USGENWEB-Amite County query
Two views of the house my Great-Grandmother Amelia Cunningham Payne grew up in.
Amite County June 2001 Reunion Photos
Kathy White Casey's Small Tales From the Boys of Ducktown
is owned by Jennifer M. Payne. [ Prev | Skip It | Next 5 ] [ Random | Next | List Sites ] Want to join the ring? Click here . |
JEN'S ALL ABOUT AMITE COUNTY MISSISSIPPI WEB PAGE
JEN'S AMITE COUNTY MISSISSIPPI GENEALOGY WEB PAGE
JEN'S ASSUMPTION PARISH LOUISIANA WEB PAGE
BAYOU LAFOURCHE AREA HISTORY AND GENEALOGY
JENNIFER PAYNE'S HISTORY HOME PAGE
SOUTHWESTERN MISSISSIPPI &
EASTERN LOUISIANA WEB RING