McMinnville is not in McMinn County, Crystal. McMinnville is northeast of Knoxville. McMinn neighbors Polk and Monroe and is close to both the Georgia and North Carolina state lines. McMinn Tennessee wasn't formed until 1820, prior to that it was Cherokee Nation East. From 1820 until 1838 McMinn was considered by the State of Tennessee to have legal jurisdiction over Indian lands to the Georgia and NC state lines. That was a bone of contention between the Cherokee Nation and the State of TN. One of the tools used by Andrew Jackson to instigate the Removal. I might suggest you do a lookup in Cherokee Old Settlers Payment Book of 1851 & 1896. You'll find Murphy Emigrants within the Old Settlers. Some of those Murphy's originated in Cherokee Co., NC and one or two out of Conasauga Village in McMinn Co., TN. Young Wolf Murphy lived near Ruth Helton/Matoy and emigrated apx the same time, perhaps the Harris detachment. Their Emigration lists show them to be from Conasauga BUT they traveled as McGray's. After they got west they reverted to Matoy. Jesse Murphy m. Pheobe Allen in CCNC. The also signed up to Emigrate but did return east. Jesse, Martin and THomas were the sons of Whiplash and Mary 'Polly' Murphy. Whiplash is the documented son of Bell Rattler (Rattling Gourd). Raven is a title not a name. Joyce Gaston Reece -----Original Message----- From: [email protected] Sent: Friday, December 28, 2012 11:31 AM To: [email protected] Subject: [CherokeeGene] Hughes lookups? To the person who is in McMinnville, TN. My Hughes line is from McMinnville. Prior to that, would be Bernard Hughes (trader) m. Cherokee/Shawnee. Out of McMinn Co. are: Bernard Hughes b. 1700 in Alabama, m. Sister Of Raven (?) 1726-1819 (some have her birth as 1716) James Hughes - b. 1742 m. Margaret (LNU) - (some question as to whether there was actually a 1st & 2nd James Hughes) James Hughes ggg-grandfather b. 1742-1762 (?) m. Margaret (LNU) Lucy Hughes gg-grandmother b. 1817 McMinn, TN m. John Murphy b. 1766 in NC Thank you for any help you can offer me. Crystal Mary Murphy =====*NOTICE THIS*===== Cherokee genealogy; topic specific certain conversation is allowed to do genealogy; and sort fact from (fiction). Rude people will be moderated asap! List archive http://archiver.rootsweb.ancestry.com/th/index?list=cherokeegene please take non genealogy to [email protected] Dual admin. Dan and Joyce ------------------------------- To unsubscribe from the list, please send an email to [email protected] with the word 'unsubscribe' without the quotes in the subject and the body of the message

Speaking from long years of experience...... One of the most important things any genealogist can do for themselves is to familiarize themselves with the geographics of any area they are researching. I can speak with some knowledge so will give this example......... In 1817 the Hiwassee Purchase was completed and the land set aside to form McMinn and Monroe Co's in southeast Tennessee. From this land all of the Tennessee Cherokee Indian Reservations were surveyed. Robert Armstrong and crew did an amazing job of laying off these, for the most part, square miles of land. In 1850 the map was printed called the Hiwassee Purchase Map. This original was the first time in history that any cartographers had laid off land sections by using this grid system of 1 square mile per. This grid system was amazingly close to the reservation lines that Armstrong had laid off 30 years before. This is the only map we have showing some of the Reservations. A Meridian line was laid off from Kingston, Fort Southwest Point directly south to the Indian Boundary on the Hiwassee River. WE then had east of the Meridian and west of the Meridian. The starting point. The Ranges were numbered beginning 1 east or 1 west progressing to the boundary. Each section was then laid off in Fractional Townships or Townships. Townships were 36 square mile sections. Fractional townships were portions of same. Each section was numbered in 36 sections, when possible, and each section divided up into 40, 80, 120, 160 & more acres. The land for military grants, land grants for settlers, grants for county seats and all other grants was laid off according to this map. Then comes 1936 when Monroe County decided to create another map. They used this same basis system but forgot all about fractional townships, omitted townships and made a whole new mapping system for the county. With each successive map of Monroe County these lines have changed until its almost nothing like the original map. Now, I'm not saying that this is a good or a bad thing but what I am saying is that you simply cannot get a handle on where land was the history of the land or any of these issues if you use a modern day map. Yes you really do need to learn the geography of the area you are researching but you also need to learn the 'rest of the story'. Joyce Gaston Reece

Well said, Joyce! I learned the very hard way. I spent 10 long years looking for my great grandfather as a child in his parents' household. My grandpa's Bible said Thomas Jefferson Wood was born near Prescott in Nevada (pronounced nuh VAY duh) County in 1851, but no parents were listed. I looked and looked and looked. Then one day I discovered USGenWeb and from there ARGenWeb. There was a clickable chart of the counties with formation data including date of formation and parent counties. Nevada County did not exist in 1851, it was formed in 1871 just about the time my great grandparents had their first child. The part of the county in which Thomas lived on the 1880 census was Ouachita County before 1871. In 5 minutes I had him and his family for 1850, 1860 and 1870 in AR and his father in Conecuh County, AL in 1840, land registered in AL in 1830. I also had Janie's family back to 1827. Since then, I have never failed to look at county formation information and do a brief historical overview of the area before I start any research. It's time well-spent and worth its weight in gold! I know people get tired of hearing me say it on one of the other lists I'm on, but other than to get organized and stay organized from the beginning, it's the single most important research technique in genealogy (or history, even!) Susan