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).

John Patterson book update

 I am making my final editing pass on this book on John Patterson of Jenkins Branch, Buncombe Co, NC.

Plan to be sending it to the publisher in the next week or two hopefully. I think we can get it published in March or in April at the latest.

This has been a work in progress for 40 years! 

Wes

Coming Soon - Book on John Patterson

I am still on target for finishing up the book on John Patterson in the next month or so. Hopefully by April 1st we could be going to print. 

John Patterson of Jenkins Branch, Buncombe County, North Carolina is the current working title. 

This has been a fun project to work on. Getting all my notes and documentation and photos and charts and maps updated, double checked, assembled in one place... it's been a long time coming. All previous attempts were just too large in scope. Once this is published, I can then branch off and focus on various lines, such as one specific child of John, or perhaps John's brother Robert Patterson, or their father, Thomas Patterson of Clarks Fork, and one day HIS father, Robert Patterson of Linville Creek. 

First draft of John's book is complete. I'm now going through and filling in a few gaps, and sourcing pieces missed in the first pass. Then I'll finish up the bibliography and the index and send off to editors for reviewing. 

More coming soon!

Wes