Kilgore Project - Background

Background

The Kilgore project received a "jump start" with three distant cousins, all proven descendants of James William Kilgore b. 1701, Ireland, d. Aug 28, 1771, Newton Township, Cumberland Co., PA., who was married to Elizabeth "Betsy" Jack, daughter of James and Elizabeth McNulty Jack. These three cousins descended from James and Betsy's son Benjamin Kilgore who migrated to Laurens Co., S.C. about 1760 and valliantly fought there in the Revolutionary War. Benjamin was married first to Anna McCrary about 1764 and then to Martha Jane McDavid about 1766. Benjamin left S.C. about 1790 for Livingston Co., KY and died there in 1802.

Most of Benjamin's siblings remained in Pennsylvania except for, perhaps Oliver and John who went to Kentucky and Ohio.

David Kilore, another son of James and Betsy, has a descendant in the project and we are looking for others.

Another Kilgore famous for his service in the Revolution was Charles Kilgore who is known for the Battle of King's Mountain fought just at the NC / SC border in 1781. Much has been written about Charles, not the least of which was that he eventually died of his wounds from that battle. It is believed that Charles' family came out of Virginia.

It has long been a mystery if these two families are closely related or related at all but we are soon to learn as we gather more descendants of the two families into the project for comparison of their DNA.

Yes, there are many more Kilgore families who migrated from Ireland to America. Many will be represented and all are welcome to join our project and begin the search for a genetic connection.

Our group will, hopefully, be able to identify specific Kilgore family groups and aid each other in connecting to earlier ancestors than we each have been able to find heretofore in our paper research.

This is very exciting as we expect to uncover connections between the two families mentioined as well as unearth other Kilgore families while we grow the project. Anthrogenealogy is a very intriguing new science. We urge all Kilgore descendants to join us soon.

One of our members was searching for Kilgore ancestry as the descendant of an African American slave who has held the name since the late 1700's or early 1800's. The result was genetic proof of a descendancy directly from the tribes of Africa. But, nontheless, this family was closely connected to a Kilgore family in times past and continues to carry the name continuing a bond between our families. Hopefully, through comparison of paper trails, we will be able to help our member determine which Kilgore family bears the connection.

If you would like to join our project, please click the email address at the very top of this page and make your request. We remind you that only male descendants of a Kilgore can join the DNA project as males carry the Y chromosome.

Females can have their mtDNA tested which is the mitochondrial dna delivered to us by our mothers. There is no tracing of family through surnames. Please read more about it prior to requesting the test.