Kingsport Spirit

I suppose if you go back far enough, we’re all cousins. But it never ceases to amaze me the nuggets I find on Ancestry.com. Each of us has 2 parents, 4 grandparents, 8 great-grandparents, 16 great-great-grandparents, and 32 great-great-great-grandparents, 64 great-great-great-great grandparents, and so on.

William Roberson was my 4G grandfather. In 1821 he lived on the Clinch River at Osborne’s Ford (Dungannon) in Scott County, Virginia (which adjoins Kingsport, Tennessee). Back then Scott County (1814) included land that became Wise County (1856). He married Hannah Hutchinson and was elected Sheriff of Scott County. In 1852 he moved to a farm on what is now the campus of University of Virginia’s College at Wise.

Six years later he moved the family to Pound, Virginia (on the Kentucky border) which is still called the Roberson Magisterial District of Wise County to this day.

So where does Old Hickory fit in?

William Roberson married Hannah Hutchinson (my 4G grandmother). Hannah Hutchinson’s Aunt Elizabeth married Andrew Jackson, Sr. Their son, Andrew Jackson, Jr., would become President of the United States. That makes President Andrew Jackson my 1st cousin 6x removed!

So that’s what Old Hickory, UVA-Wise, and I have in common.