Welcome!
IMAGINE A JIGSAW PUZZLE WITH A MILLION PIECES… This database is a fluid and “boundary-less” representation of the puzzle that ultimately connects the individuals and family groups who first ventured into the wilderness that is now known as Central Appalachia and, over the decades, stayed or moved on to other parts of this country.
Like many giant jigsaw puzzles, not all of the pieces have been exposed “face-up” on the table. And there are not even “edge pieces” to define the limits of the puzzle.
Instead, lots of folks have put together small segments (and occasionally incorrectly) in attempts to fit into the larger picture. Each segment has to be twisted and turned – and tested against “color and shape” in the form of documentary evidence – before a FIT can be confirmed or broken.
Thus it is with this database… It is a puzzle for which the pieces were carved and colored by others over the years. It is not something created from whole cloth by me or anyone else. Rather, it is the amalgamation of individual pieces and segments generated by many contributors over time. My role is simply to perform tests, in the forms of simple logic and documentay citation to validate events and relationships.
The underlying theory is that many – probably the majority – of Appalachian natives are, in fact, “cousins”. As evidence of this, my own “tree” mapping connections through blood or marriages connects me to more than 185,000 others in the database. [Hint: Think of the “six degrees of separation” game.]
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