Or, Subtitled: When Facts Clash with Longstanding Family Stories — The Need for Sound, Collaborative Genealogical Research to Complement DNA Studies
This posting is not meant to be a comprehensive account of the life of Hugh Montgomery who died in Salisbury, Rowan County, North Carolina, on 23 December 1779, and of the documents that tell that life story.[1] What I’m primarily interested in as I look at aspects of Hugh’s life here and of the documents that chronicle those aspects is twofold: first, because there are indicators that Hugh may have been a relative of my own Montgomery ancestor, Catherine Montgomery Colhoun (1684-1760) and of her likely brother James Montgomery (abt. 1690-1756) of Lancaster County, Pennsylvania, and Augusta County, Virginia, I’m interested in examining any documentation I can find for Hugh’s early life and regarding his Irish origins, which may connect to the Irish roots of Catherine and James. And, second, since Hugh’s life has been overlaid by myths for many years and sound documentation about his early life is sparse, I want to see if it’s possible to separate fact from fiction in accounts of Hugh’s life prior to his settling in Rowan County, North Carolina, in 1765.
Begats and Bequeathals 