There it was on the 1850 census,  the children of William Adams and Rebecca Hatcher: William 16, Elizabeth 13, Wyly 11, John 9,  Joseph 8, and Margaret 3.  John will be my great, great grandfather, John Calvin, known as "Cal."

Another relative had told us in the beginning that it was William, but it seemed that evidence pointed toward Sylvester. And he was so interesting with the three wives and a political history. But, that’s the way it is, searching for ancestors. They do not always turn out to be whom you would like them to be. However, we cannot change history any more than we can change who we are.

We cannot seem to find much about William. He had six children and was most likely a farmer. Little else is known. His wife, Rebecca, was the daughter of John Hatcher and Henrietta Ann Landrum from South Carolina. People seemed to be on the move a lot back then. Going west, to the frontier where there were new dreams and new life. William lived in the Jackson era, after the time of the American Revolution and prior to the time of the Civil War. These were primitive frontier times and life could not have been easy.  Yet, they continued to forge out a living, raise children, exist and go on.  

I wondered how it was that the people came to settle in an area so remote.  Even now, it is far away from larger cities and Interstate highways and remains in nearly rural isolation.  Then I realized - the river.  The Cumberland River was the Interstate highway back then.  Before railroads were built, people came by water and settled nearby. Probably by horse the ride was not that far.  

And so my search continues, always looking to find those that came before me, those that I am connected to by blood and by genes. It is a quest to understand myself though an understanding of those who made me who I am, a search that is only beginning.  

Next:  Erin