Category: 4th great-grandfather

By the early 1800s, multiple branches of my family were on the move.

One came from Virginia by way of Kentucky. Another from North Carolina. Another had begun its journey in colonial Delaware before moving south and then west.

By 1820, all had converged in the same rugged corner of southern Indiana.

That was not coincidence.

These families were part of one of America’s great westward migrations—the movement of settlers into newly opened frontier lands following the Revolution and the formation of the Indiana Territory.… Read the rest

When Indiana entered the Union in 1816, it marked the moment when vast stretches of wilderness began transforming into organized communities. That same year, my 4th great-grandfather, Francis May, made a decision that would anchor the ancestors to southern Indiana.

The May family, circa 1895. Standing are multiple generations descended from Francis May, gathered on the land first purchased in 1816.

A Land Purchase at the Moment of Statehood

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