I’m so excited about some discoveries I’ve made doing research with Google since Saturday!
I had read a story that one of my ancestors, along with his brothers, had a trading post in the Danville, Kentucky area around the time of Kentucky statehood and I wanted to try to confirm that. The last ancestor that I have confirmed information on is John M. Smith from Russell County. I know that John purchased land in 1827 (Russell County was formed in 1826) and also had two land grants around the same time. I don’t know if John was in the area before his area became Russell County or where he might have come from before that. I don’t know his wife’s name or his parents.
I’ve latched onto the Danville area trading post as the clue that’s going to move me back a generation. But I have not been able to find anything helpful because there are too many Smiths in the county. While doing a Google search for trading posts, I discovered that I should be Googling the term “Stations” instead of trading posts. Then I came across a link that listed “Smith’s Station” located on the road from Danville to the mouth of Dick’s River. Now I had a better idea of which part of Mercer County to be looking for the Smith’s in Mercer County. Last night, I was THRILLED to find a map showing all of the pre-1800 Stations in Kentucky and there was Smith’s Station! Another web site told me the 3 people who are attributed with beginning the station. Could these 3 names be John’s father and his brothers?
So I’m excited to get back to the library on Friday to see what I can find in the Mercer County history books and tax lists. My hope has been to find that some of the people in John’s part of Russell County (witnesses, neighbors, etc) were also in the same area of Mercer County in the early 1800′s to help me confirm which John Smith in Mercer County could be my John Smith.
Great detective work!