Thomas Walker Walked Through the Cumberland Gap in 1750 — These Names Were Already on the Other Side
In March 1750, Thomas Walker of Albemarle County Virginia led the first recorded European expedition through the Cumberland Gap. He descended into the Kentucky mountain interior, built the first recorded European structure in Kentucky, wrote detailed notes about the soil and timber and game, and went home to Virginia. He described what he found as available wilderness. It was not wilderness. The Cherokee had been managing the landscape west of the gap for centuries through controlled burning and seasonal hunting. The specific open park-like forest Walker described as virgin territory was the product of Cherokee land management, not untouched nature. This video covers fifteen family surnames that were on the Kentucky side of the gap in the decades following Walker's 1750 passage. Brock, from Washington County Virginia through the gap into Bell County and Knox County Kentucky. Sizemore, Harlan County, Poor Fork and Clover Fork, with documented Cherokee and European ancestry in specific family lines. Caudill, French Huguenot origin, Letcher County, the family that produced Harry Caudill who wrote Night Comes to the Cumberlands in 1963. Combs, the Combs triangle of Perry County Breathitt County and Knott County, the densest single surname concentration in the eastern Kentucky mountain records. And Hollon, fewer than 3,000 Americans carry it, Leslie County Kentucky, in the hollows Walker passed through in 1750 that the county records did not formally document until 1878. The Kentucky Department for Libraries and Archives at kdla.ky.gov and Thomas Walker's 1750 journal at loc.gov. The records are searchable tonight. Thomas Walker 1750 Cumberland Gap, eastern Kentucky surnames, Appalachian ancestry, Combs triangle Kentucky, Caudill Kentucky, Sizemore Harlan County, Cherokee ancestry Kentucky, Scots-Irish eastern Kentucky, German Appalachian settlers, French Huguenot Appalachia, Harlan County Kentucky history, Letcher County Kentucky, Perry County Kentucky, Leslie County Kentucky, Night Comes to the Cumberlands, Harry Caudill, Cumberland Gap history, Appalachian genealogy, eastern Kentucky genealogy, pre-colonial Kentucky #ThomasWalker #CumberlandGap #EasternKentucky #AppalachianSurnames #AppalachianAncestry #CombsKentucky #CaudillKentucky #SizemoreHarlanCounty #CherokeeAncestry #ScotsIrish #GermanAppalachian #appalachianhistory #AppalachianGenealogy #hiddenhistory #NightComesToTheCumberlands #appalachia #appalachians #goviral
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