Back to Family Story outcomes, S22
by Katie Kelly
Before I started my family research, I knew that the paternal side of my family was primarily Irish, with smaller measures of German and Scottish. However, I wasn’t really sure about my mother’s side of the family – while I was fortunate enough to know several people from a few generations back, including my great-grandmother Martha Singleton (1921-2008), and my great-great grandmother Bessie Keithly Jones (1903-2008), many of my maternal grandparents would focus their family histories on their Appalachian backgrounds, particularly in Kentucky and Tennessee. As I went through my family research, I found that the heavy emphasis on my Appalachian family history was entirely founded, as my ancestors have lived within those regions since the late 1700s down every one of my maternal lines. As a result of their extended presence in these regions, I found that my ancestors were connected to a number of interesting Appalachian histories.
Close Connections With a “Real McCoy”
One interesting Appalachian connection I found within my tree was one of that to the McCoy family, the same one associated with the Hatfield-McCoy feud which took place along the border between West Virginia and Kentucky between 1863 and 1891. Sometime before 1820, my sixth great-grandmother, Elizabeth McCoy Scott (1786-1860) was born in Maryland, but moved to Kentucky, as she and her husband William Scott (1784-1864), my sixth great-grandfather, appear as Floyd County residents on the 1820 census. Interestingly, another one of my sixth great-grandfathers, William Pinson (1790-1860) appears directly below the Scotts on the same Census – showing just how connected a lot of my ancestors were! The two lines eventually converged with Lucinda Alfare Pinson (1875-1944), my third great grandmother, who was the daughter of their respective grandchildren, Anna Amy Scott (1846-1916) and William R. Pinson (1844-1921).
In 1830, however, the Census shows that William and Elizabeth moved to Pike County, Kentucky, where a number of Elizabeth’s siblings also began to move to. It was in Pike County, Kentucky, that the McCoy family began to congregate, setting the stage for one of the most infamous family feuds in American history. Among other things, the feud centered around a (potentially) stolen pig, Civil War loyalties, and romantic disentanglements. Elizabeth passed away in 1860, which meant that she was never involved in the feud, and according to my searching, neither did any of her children, including Evan Scott (1818-1907), my fifth great grandfather. Instead, many of the McCoy family members that participated in the feud were descendants of Elizabeth’s nephew, Randolph McCoy (1825-1914), my first cousin several times removed.
Benjamin and the Blue Bollings
Another interesting Appalachian history I found was through my sixth great-grandfather through my mother’s paternal line, Benjamin Bolling (Bowling) (1734-1832). Benjamin is generally thought to have been born in North Carolina, and moved to Wise County, Virginia, by the time of the 1820 Federal Census, where he first appears as a resident. Up until Benjamin, there exist clear, documented connections up through my mother’s paternal line. However, Benjamin Bolling’s parentage is subject to intense controversy. On his gravestone, erected non-contemporaneously, Benjamin is claimed to be the son of Major John Kennon Bolling (1700-1757) and Elizabeth Blair (1709-1775).
John Kennon Bolling (1700-1757) was a member of a prominent Virginia family, and was also a known descendant of Matoaka, more commonly known as Pocahontas. In establishing a line from Benjamin Bolling to John Kennon Bolling, one would also establish a line between Benjamin Bolling and Matoaka. John Kennon Bolling’s grandfather, Robert Bolling (1646-1709), was an English immigrant who served in the Virginia House of Burgesses. Robert Bolling married twice – firstly to Jane Rolfe (1655-1677), Matoaka’s granddaughter, and secondly to Anne Stith (1660 – unknown). With Jane Rolfe, Robert had one child, John Bolling (1676-1729), whose descendants came to be known as the Red Bollings as a result of their indiginous heritage from Matoaka. With Anne Stith, Robert had seven children, the descendants of which are today known as White Bollings as they don’t share a connection with Matoaka.
In the particular case of my sixth great-grandfather, Benjamin Bolling wasn’t explicitly listed as a child in any contemporaneous accounts written by one of his alleged siblings: while Benjamin’s purported brother explicitly names seven children, he also states that his parents had more. Because Benjamin’s existence as John Kennon Bolling and Mary Blair’s child was only brought into public discourse later, Benjamin is known as “a Blue Bolling” as he and several other alleged relatives are deemed to have come ‘out of the blue.’
According to the Bolling Family Association, which also serves as the de facto organization for descendants of Matoaka as every recorded descendant of Matoaka is also a descendant of John Bolling, the Blue Bollings aren’t recognized as official members, as genetic testing has shown different groups exist within different descendants of various Blue Bollings, potentially showing that no paternal relationship exists between Benjamin and John Kennon Bolling.
In going through my familial research, I was fascinated with just how many Appalachian stories that I was connected with. In listening to the stories of my great-great grandmother and my great-grandmother growing up, I knew that my Appalachian roots ran deep, but I had no idea just how connected my family was to American folklore.
Works Cited
https://www.history.com/shows/hatfields-and-mccoys/articles/the-hatfield-mccoy-feud
https://www.ancestry.com/search/collections/49299/