John Gurney Hutchens has, perhaps, one of the best documented pedigrees
of any of my ancestors. His great-great-grandfather was Strangeman
Hutchins of Surry County, NC. Strangeman and his descendants has
been the topic of several published genealogies, one started just
a few decades after his death. The most recent, "Descendants of Strangeman
Hutchins"
does a good job showing the children down to John Gurney, but the
information on John and Martha's family is extremely inaccurate (even
so-far as having Martha recorded as "Clara Fanny" who, I think, was
Martha's cousin).
John and Martha were (most likely) married in North Carolina. They
were likely neighbors, both families having deep roots in the Quaker
community in Surry County. Their oldest child, Walter, was born in
North Carolina. The family then moved to Beagle, in Miami County,
Kansas about 50 miles southwest of Kansas City where John was the
town blacksmith. This move appears to be part of a migration because
John's brother and
several
cousins
also moved nearby.
Martha's pedigree is a bit more uncertain. It took me quite a while
to discover William Harden Hickman and his second wife Lucinda Draughn
as her probable parents. I'm still not 100% sure they are her parents,
but I have a pretty good feeling. There's much more research to be
done
here,
but it's
down on my list.
