Next Book - George Patterson of Ivylog, GA

A few weeks ago I began the early stages of my third volume in the Butterfly Biographies (BB) series. This next book will tackle the family of George Patterson (1800-1860) and his wives, Rebecca Chastain (1799-1845/7) and Sophia Dunagan (1825-1872/81). 

Volume 1 covered John Patterson, the father of George. Volume II covered Elijah Chastain, the father of Rebecca. Both of those fathers were 4X-Great-Grandfathers to me. George and Rebecca were my 3X-great-grandparents.

When I start a new book, the first thing I blaze through is the content in my FamilyTreeMaker database. That will end up being my guide for the rest of the book, so I make sure I have all details on all lineages correct, as much as possible. Volumes I & II covered a lot of the ancestors and cousins for George and Rebecca and was limited to 3 generations of descendants. Volume III for George will be able to focus on more details regarding his descendants. Therefore, I'm having to research and document all generational lines from George at least one generation further - coming forward in time. In fact, I'm taking the lines as far as I can to World War II descendants, and in some limited cases, even to recent decades. 

I always leave identifiable details blank in the book, however, for living persons. I do list their names, but not other details.

There will be 8 chapters on descendants of George Patterson, one for each of his children who had families of their own. My line is the 4th of the 8 lines - William Harden (Billy) Patterson, who lived from 1832 to 1884. Most of the 8 lines had numerous children and grandchildren, so it can take some time to research every single one of them in online resources, but that's the job!

So far, I have all lines for Jim, Mary and Kimsey completed. I'm currently on the 4th line, which is Billy. He had 12 children, and I'm finished with 10 of those 12 lines. So next I will finish Billy's remaining 2 lines, then finish up the last 4 of George's lines, that being Elizer, John A., Elijah M., and Margaret. Once I have those details completed in FamilyTreeMaker, I begin filling in the content in the book in Microsoft Word.

I was hoping that by the second and third volumes of this series I would be hitting my stride. I think that is starting to work out. I took a few months off this summer and didn't do any writing at all, which delayed Volume 2. However, once I picked it back up, I hit it pretty hard, and am happy to be able to say that the Printer/Publisher (Old Buncombe County Gen. Soc.) accepted it and published it without a single edit!!! Wow. 

OK. Back it...

Wes

Elijah Chastain - Father of 23 or More

Elijah Chastain was my 4X-Great-Grandpa. He was born in 1776 in Buckingham Co, VA and died in 1853 in Gilmer Co, GA. His daughter Rebecca Chastain was born in 1799 and she was his 3rd child - of 21 (at least). She married George Patterson in the early to mid 1820's and they were my 3X-Great-Grandparents. 

(3/26/24 update: at least 22 children)

(4/10/24 update: 23+ children)

Elijah Chastain and 3rd wife Catherine Carson, ca. 1850. Photo courtesy of Connie Cordell

Elijah was a character. I know he had multiple children (each) by his first two wives during the same two or three year period beginning in 1800. By 1803 he was officially married the second time to Anna Middleton. His first wife, my ancestor, was Hannah Adams. This first marriage ended in divorce. Many have said the second marriage did too, but I can't find anything about Anna after 1810, including no children born to Elijah between 1810 and 1820. I think Anna may have died around 1810 or soon thereafter, but I just don't know for certain. (4/10/24 update: Elijah had at least two children born after 1810 with Anna - Artemesia was born in 1812 and James Witt was born in 1813).

New photo of William Harden "Billy" Patterson

William Harden Patterson, aka "Billy" was born in 1832 in north Ga. He died from blood poisoning - perhaps Rocky Mountain spotted fever - in 1883. He served in the War for Southern Independence - aka "Civil War" from 1862 - 1864. He was first in Smith's Legion, part of the Georgia Partizan Rangers, and then later his company was merged into the newly formed 6th Georgia Cavalry. 

This picture is from a large framed photograph that was formerly in the possession of the late Nellie Patterson Mason, a granddaughter of Billy Patterson. In the 1980's, my father, the late Frank Patterson (nephew of Nellie) and I both visited Aunt Nellie at her home. We took the picture outside and dad took a few slides of the framed photo. 

In 2017 I was going through some of dad's slides and found these pictures. I in turn took digital pictures of these slides, and these are the pictures I took.

William Harden "Billy" Patterson (1832-1883)

Nellie Patterson Mason and Frank Patterson

Nellie Patterson Mason and Wes Patterson