Scottish Roots

Our family's probable path to Troup County

One branch of my family has strong Scottish roots.  They were part of the mass of Highlanders who fled the oppression of the English in Scotland. These men were primarily farmers.  Accustomed to the wide open spaces of Scotland, the looming forests and dense undergrowth of America must have seemed forbidding, even more so, when they were attacked by the Indians who already lived there.

My genealogical brick wall is located in Fayetteville, Robeson County, NC, where my fourth grandfather, Archibald Wilkinson was brought by his parents as a very young child.  I know this, not because of Ancestry or other internet information, but because my aunt told us this, long before internet genealogy existed.

There are a number of men named Wilkinson who came to that area at the same time – Neill, Peter, Duncan, Allen, Daniel, Archibald and Edward.  I have been unable to discover which one was the father of my Archibald.  The names are repeated so frequently that it is totally daunting.  More than once, I have thought I had made a break through, only to realize someone else had definitive proof my conjectures were not fact.

For the last few years, I have been satisfied to explore the family that Archibald brought to Georgia, when he came to take advantage of the land lotteries.  I have been amazed at their journeys, and in the case of several, have been able to gather enough information about these distant ancestors to write brief biographies of them.  I greatly regret that I have none of their letters nor portraits, but still, they have come alive for me.