Family History

For those interested I have started a Dwiggins DNA project. The web site is at Dwiggins DNA Project and I hope some of you will be interested enough in sorting out the family to submit a DNA sample for testing. You can find out more information on the web site, or email me with questions. The test is a little expensive, but there are two gift certificates for $30.00 each if you order a DNA kit before December 31, 2005.

This is a section devoted to my digging into my family history. This is a work in progress, and probably will remain so forever. No matter how far back you trace your family there is always another generation to go and always family members you can't find. I have two different Dwiggins families listed here. They are John Dwiggins that I believe to be my 5th great grandfather, and who lived in North Carolina in the late 1700's and early 1800's. There was also a Robert Dwiggins/Lydia Hunt and family living in North Carolina at the time, and a lot of people get the children of these two families confused. That is probably because most of the descendants of John remained in the area of Davie County up to present day while most of the children of Robert Dwiggins/Lydia Hunt left the state in the early 1800's. Robert died in Guilford County in 1789 and that may have had some bearing on his children leaving, or it could have been because they were Quakers and were opposed to slavery.  I have added what I have on Robert Dwiggins and his family to give documentation on why I differ with a lot of people on the way the family lines go. I will add more information on Robert and Lydia's line as I gather information. Eventually I plan to add information on isolated families on their own pages so perhaps we can join them to the correct lines.

Feel free to browse the family pages and let me know what you think. If you have something you would like to add I would be glad to include it, please with some kind of documentation. If you differ with what I have I will be glad to consider it. If you have documentation to support your theory please supply that also.

Due to the limits on this freebie site I have only listed the descendents of John and Robert here. If you go to my larger Amateur Radio site there is a lot more information available there.

There are a couple leads that I have obtained from other family histories that may or may not be correct, so if you see a source listed as v90823489 or something similar it is an imported source which I hope to replace when I can with my own research. If the source is something like a birth or death certificate it is probably one I either have in my possession or I have seen it personally. So far all that are used I have a copy in my possession. The same goes for marriage indexes, estate papers, wills and other legal documents. I included here entries from a Holman file, and a Smoot GEDCOM. As time permits I will work on documenting those lines, so if you see something that doesn't look just right let me know. I have found several things in the imported data that just don't work out, like people getting married at age 10, or being born several years after their supposed parent had died. Take it all with a grain of salt if there is no documentation. If I have documented it myself I can share that with you. There are several versions of the Dwiggins family tree floating around out there that have Daniel Dwiggins/Ursula Crews in the Robert Dwiggins/Lydia Hunt file. That one just is not true and the documentation is pretty solid on that. I will upload images of estate papers later that will show why this Daniel Dwiggins is not the son of Robert and Lydia Dwiggins. There are also versions that have John Dwiggins/Margaret Ring in the Robert Dwiggins/Lydia Hunt line. While I am certain in my own mind that that one is wrong also, it is not as well documented at this time.

In time I will add images of scanned documents that support my view of the family lines. Some of these will be wills and estate papers, land transfer records, and anything else that illustrates a critical or questioned link. The main questions at this time are 1) that John Dwiggins of old Rowan County, now Davie County was the brother of Robert Dwiggins of Guilford County, and 2) that John Dwiggins Jr. that married Margaret Ring was the son of John Dwiggins of Rowan County and not the son of Robert and Lydia Dwiggins.

Enjoy and let me know what you think.