This is a Message Board Post that is gatewayed to this mailing list. Surnames: Young, Speer, Miller, Clowdus, Murpree, McDonald, Bridges, Ellis Classification: Query Message Board URL: http://boards.ancestry.com/mbexec/msg/an/GeB.2ACI/980 Message Board Post: It seems a fair number of my ancestors were born in or around Abbeville District in the early 1800s and later many of them moved to Jefferson Co and Blount Co AL in the 1830s and 1840s. Just curous about whether Abbeville was a gateway to the deeper south or just why so many seemed to come from and end up in the same places. Some of the family names: Young (reputed Cherokee), Miller (Methodist preacher), Speer (married a Young), Copeland (married a Miller), Clowdus and Murpree (married a Clowdus). I've really just started my research and am not organized yet, but these coincidences caught my attention. Any websites out there about the history of Abbeville? Or any other sources to satisfy my curiousity?