William Lunsfords
Times Ten
By William "Bill" Lunsford mailto:[email protected]
Posted at http://rootsandbranches.com
Published
Talk about your family traditions. Men named
for their fathers and
grandfathers - commonly styled "Junior" and "III" - are far
from unusual
these days, but the Lunsford family has found a line of at least 10 William
Lunsfords stretching 250 years in time and thousands
of miles in geography.
Not all of these William Lunsfords
were a "William Thomas Lunsford," so the
highest Roman numeral any of the clan uses is "V."
Research initiated by
William T. "Bill" Lunsford Jr. of Lower Allen Twp. has proven the
previous
generations back to a William Lunsford born about 1734 in Virginia.
In succeeding generations the family moved
to Georgia, Tennessee and Missouri.
In several cases, Bill Lunsford engaged
professional researchers to do the
long-distance work, and they served him well, by and large; one researcher
even did extensive cleanup work to find one of the William Lunsfords
in an
almost-forgotten cemetery. The others investigated the proper primary
sources - U.S.Census, wills and deeds, church
records, and others - needed
to make the solid generation-by-generation connections.
The Lunsford family offers a number of
interesting research tidbits:
In some cases the William Lunsfords adopted middle
names or nicknames to
differentiate among generations. In one case, "Thomas Lunsford" ended
up on
a "William Thomas Marshall Lunsford" tombstone.
In a
number of Southern U.S. Census records, especially from the Deep
South, only the individuals' surnames are spelled out; first and middle
names are merely initials.
There might even be more than 10
consecutive generations of William
Lunsfords.
Research is concerning in attempt to tie the
William Lunsford
born about 1734 to a Sir Thomas Lunsford, Lord Lieutenant of the Tower of
London and a 1649 emigrant to Virginia. Sir Thomas Lunsford had a son
William, who is about two generations removed from the William born about 1734.
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Last Updated Friday, September 19, 2003 6:18:16 AM CST