My Old Kentucky Home – Wikipedia

My Great, Great, Great Grandfather, John McManus, showed up around White Sulphur, Scott County KY in 1810. He and his wife are also buried there. What info that I can obtain indicates that he was born in Ireland in 1789/1790 and a John McManus did show up on a list of migrants from Maryland. But there was no further info on the list. I would greatly appreciate any info or help that you could give me.
Thanks Tom Congleton email wtcjhc@kywimax.com phone 5023492807

In 1785, a group of families from the southern Maryland counties of St. Mary, Charles and Prince George formed a “Catholic League of Families” [aka "Emigration League"] pledging to migrate to Kentucky. Reasons for this move were varied. Economics may have played a large role in this westward movement, with the depletion of available land in Maryland and the after-effects of the constant plundering by the British during the Revolutionary War.

Certainly religious freedom was a likely concern to many of these pioneers. After a century of anti-Catholic bias in Maryland, many were seeking freedom to openly practice their faith. John Carroll (a few years later named the Bishop of Baltimore) told them that if they would settle together he would do what he could to supply them with a priest. 

True to their word, these pioneers largely settled together in what today are the three Kentucky counties of Nelson, Washington and Marion. Even now this central Kentucky area is known far and wide as the Kentucky Holy Lands.

(From a Hayden family history, “As first written by Rev. Wm. Hayden, 1877, copied by Mina Pomeroy in 1915“:

Notes for BASIL HAYDEN, SR:
1785- BASIL HAYDEN WAS THE LEADER OF THE ORIGINAL 25 FAMILIES FROM MARYLAND. Basil sold the land to Holy Cross church’s trustees for 5 lbs. His farm was in Pottinger Creek Settlement, next to Church. His widow lived in Holy Cross Parish until 1837. Church location was at present location of Ky 49 & Nelson County Line (Rohan’s Knobb). Four of their children died on the trip from Maryland to Kentucky. In 1799, the family owned 525 acres and 24 slaves. The first Catholic Church in Kentucky was built on his land. Special note: The picture on Old Granddad Whiskey bottles is Basil.

Also see “4. The Kentucky Migration” on rootsweb (Ancestry.com).)

As land further west opened up for settlement, some of these same pioneer families again packed up and headed out seeking a better life for themselves and their families. Many from this group seemed to have agreed to once again settle together. This led to many sister communities of this same group all across the western part of the United States.

The idea for this reunion originated in 1988 during the course of a Buckman, Leake and Montgomery family reunion in Monroe City, Missouri. It was thought that it would be wonderful if people who had for many years researched these families by mail and phone calls could at last meet, sit down together and share more family information.  The idea bore fruit in 1990 when the first Maryland to Kentucky reunion was held at Nazareth, Kentucky. It was such a success that we knew that it had to be repeated. A gracious offer came from St. Mary’s County, Maryland.

Maryland asked us to please come back to our ancestral home in 1992. In 1994, Cape Girardeau and Perry County, Missouri rolled out the red carpet for us, which was followed by a 1996 meeting at St. Charles in Lebanon in Marion County, Kentucky, where our keynote speaker was the Historian Laureate of Kentucky, Dr. Thomas D. Clark.  A video of the Maryland to Kentucky migration was made available. Owensboro, Kentucky in Daviess County fired up it’s renowned barbecue pits in 1998, and we were thrilled to hold our millennium meeting at Leonardtown, St. Mary’s County, Maryland in 2000.

The reunions drew genealogists from all faiths and anyone with an interest was welcome to attend the reunion weekends, which have been described as “a researcher’s delight.”

The 2002 reunion was held in historic Washington County, Kentucky, site of the third Maryland settlement at Cartwright’s Creek in 1787. We met on the grounds of Saint Catharine Motherhouse and College on June 28-30, 2002.  Other events took place at the Dominican Proto-Priory at Saint Rose, dating from 1806.

On July 16 – 18th, 2004, the reunion was held at Hannibal, Missouri. In 2006 the group enjoyed the great hospitality of St. Mary’s County, MD.  In 2008 the group met at St. Thomas Farm, Bardstown, KY.  A wonderful surname book was compiled by the committee.

In 2010, the reunion met in Leonardtown, Maryland, from July 16-18, 2010.  Many of those who had been involved for many years felt that the time had come to let others take on the work of organizing the biennial reunion. Several people attending the 2010 Reunion agreed that at a minimum we should set up a web site and attempt a “virtual reunion,” and to try and fill in some small way the shoes of those who have done so much work in prior years.

Again, if you have an interest in working with us, please contact us at mdtoky -at- gmail.com

Also feel free to leave information in the comments, including your web sites AND how others can contact you.

Thank you!

The short answer is that no one has stepped forward to organize the next MD to KY Reunion.

The long answer is this: in June 2010, at the last MD to KY Reunion, it was announced that the 2010 Reunion would be the last unless others stepped forward. The core group of volunteers who had organized and administered the Reunion for many years felt they had done their fair share and they no longer had the time or energy to continue, and, as importantly, felt that it was time for others to come forward and take on the responsibilities for future Reunions.

Several people did come forward. One of them, Chug Roberts, volunteered to set up and maintain a “virtual Reunion”, i.e., this web site. However, Chug was clear at the outset that his business and professional responsibilities did not allow time for him to take on the large task of organizing a physical Reunion.

The bottom line is that organizing and running a physical MD to KY Reunion is a LOT of work, and although there seems to be a lot of interest in continuing them, no one nor any group of people has stepped forward to continue doing the serious work necessary to make a physical Reunion happen.

If YOU are interested in working on a physical Reunion, please leave your name and contact information in a comment to this post. Then those of you who are interested should contact each other to get the ball rolling. Based on previous Reunions, what is desirable is that the main organizer(s) should live in the community where the physical Reunion is held.

Previous Reunions have been held in Kentucky and in Maryland. Past Reunions have attracted between 250 and 600 people, and that is a serious-sized event to design, organize, and administer.

The bottom line is that if YOU want a physical MD to KY Reunion to happen, then YOU or someone like you must volunteer to organize and coordinate the work of a large undertaking.

So, if you are interested in helping with the next MD to KY Reunion, leave your information (name, phone or email, city where you live, what you are willing to do, and family names) in the comments to this post and then ya’ll contact each other. Self organizing works, but only if there are enough interested people.

Please do not leave comments suggesting how to go about this – only leave your information if YOU are willing to get involved and do some work. (Comments to this post that do not contain this information will be deleted.)

Thanks.

From my father I am a descendant of William Hayden, brother of Basil Hayden, who were among the early settlers of Kentucky. From my mother I am a descendant of Leonard Hamilton, who was also among the early settlers fo Kentucky. I would like to include a link to my family genealogy web page under the “Family Sites and Sources” tab of your Maryland to Kentucky web page.

Here is the page with link, and welcome Edgar!

• Those who are here now.
• Those who were here in our past.
• Those passing through, who left their mark and moved on.

Submit YOUR story and someone else will edit, index, publish, and give you credit for the information. You may do send us your stories and photographs in two ways:

WRITE DOWN THE MEMORIES OF YOUR ELDERS. What was life like in their town? What did they do for fun? How did their family live, travel, celebrate holidays? What jobs did everyone have? Was there a town character they remember? Tell their story.

RECORD YOUR FAMILY ROOTS. Write a narrative about your family. Begin with the earliest generation you know with a connection to Nelson County and continue with later generations up to those who are living today. There is no limit on the number of surnames you may submit. Some things you may include are: when and where were they born, their occupation, something for which they were known, who they married, when they died, did they serve their country, the names and birth years of their spouses and their children. If entering persons who are now living, give only their name and the name of their spouse.

Pictures may be submitted: your ancestor, family reunion, the old home place, etc. but only a very limited number will be used, no more than one per family surname submitted and their use will be subject to the approval of the editors.

• Pictures must be of good quality
• All subjects must be identified
• Pictures must be submitted with the narrative

Bring your pictures to the Nelson County Library Genealogy Room for scanning or mail them, along with a self addressed stamped envelope to:

NCGR
PO Box 409
Bardstown, KY 40004

If you want to make a submission but writing has become difficult for you, you may request assistance by calling: 502-348-9145 or 502-348-2172.

For more information, see this 1-page PDF.

I found your website earlier today when I was trying to fill in some of my father’s extensive research on our family.  Records go back to MD, then things get less certain.  What is certain is that our family were some of the first settlers to KY (VA at the time) in the late 1700′s.  Later my gggg grandfather Charles Tewell went on to settle in southern IN with his brother where new Catholic churches were established on what was the frontier.

I have two binders of family information that my father spend a lifetime researching.  Upon his death in 2004, all his other research and documentation was forwarded to a genealogical society in Washington, Indiana.  Feel free to contact me for any infomation you need, and please respond in kind.  Of importance, I’m looking for information on my ggggg grandfather, William Tewell (Tuel, Tuell), who was born in either St. Mary’s County MD or Prince George’s County, MD approximately in 1760.  He was married to Elizabeth Riney and they had at least four children.

If you can help Patrick, please leave a comment.

The Boone family were among the first Catholic settlers of Maryland, and upon the strength of this fact it has been contended that Daniel Boone was a Catholic. Nothing, however, that is recorded of the life of this famous Kentucky pioneer seems to support this contention. In all probability, Dr. George Hart and William Coombes, who accompanied John Harrod, and settled at Harrodsburg in 1774, were the first Catholic settlers. Dr. Hart, if not the first, was certainly one of the first physicians to settle in Kentucky. He practised his profession at Harrodsburg until about the year 1786, when he moved to the vicinity of Bardstown, in what is now Nelson County, in order to join his co-religionists who had recently emigrated from Maryland.

The first distinctively Catholic body of immigrants came from Maryland in the year 1785. A league of sixty families, mostly from St. Mary’s County in that state, was formed for the purpose of emigrating to Kentucky, and in the same year twenty-five of these families, under the leadership of Basil Hayden, arrived in Kentucky and settled near the present site of Bardstown (Nelson County). In the following year, a second settlement, about ten miles distant from the first, but on better lands, was begun by Edward and Charles Beaven. Between this date and 1795 five separate bodies of Catholic immigrants settled in the vicinity of these earlier settlements, and a thriving Catholic colony was begun. In 1786 one of the companies of immigrants, while on its way to join the first settlers in Nelson County, attracted by the beauty and fertility of the country through which they were passing, decided to go no farther, and settled in what is now Scott County, near the centre of the famous Blue-Grass Region. By 1796 it is estimated that there were 300 Catholic families in Kentucky.

The first missionary priest to reach Kentucky was the Rev. M. Whelan, who came in the year 1787 with a band of immigrants under the leadership of Edward Howard. In 1790 Father Whelan returned to Maryland. Six months later the Rev. Wm. De Rohan arrived, but without faculties and unaccredited to Kentucky. He performed such service as he could, but the settlements were without full priestly attention until 1793, at which time the Rev. Stephen Theodore Badin and the Rev. M. Barriêres were sent to Kentucky by the Bishop of Baltimore. Father Barriêres remained but four months, but Father Badin laboured in the mission for about twenty-six years. After the departure of Father Barriêres, for three years Father Badin was the only priest in the whole of Kentucky. In 1797 the Rev. M.J.C. Fournier and, in 1799, the Rev. Anthony Salmon joined Father Badin, but the latter of these two companions of Father Badin was killed by a fall from a horse nine months after his arrival, and Father Fournier died in 1803. Again Father Badin was alone in Kentucky until 1805, when the Rev. Charles Nerinckx, a native of Belgium, joined him. Father Nerinckx laboured in the state for nineteen years, sharing with his associate all the hardships of this most trying mission, and by his wonderful zeal and great piety materially promoting the progress and prosperity of the Church. A French colony under the leadership John A. and Louis Tarascon arrived at Louisville in the year 1806 and settled near the Falls of the Ohio, to engage in the milling business, utilizing the falls for power. These colonists were, or at least should have been, Catholics, but the early missionaries do not appear to have considered them very faithful children of the Church. However, when the first church was built, in 1811, the name of J.A. Tarascon appears on the list of trustees for the new parish. Father Badin was the first pastor, and continued as such until 1817, when he was succeeded by the Rev. G.I. Chabrat, like him, a Frenchman, who was in turn succeeded by the Rev. Philip Horstman, a native American.

In 1808 the Diocese of Bardstown was erected, to include in its jurisdiction the whole of Kentucky as well as Tennessee (see DIOCESE OF LOUISVILLE). In 1841 the see was transferred to Louisville, and in 1853 the establishment of the Diocese of Covington brought into existence the present ecclesiastical division of the State of Kentucky into the two dioceses of Louisville and Covington.

Kentucky enjoys the distinction of having been the first great nursery of the Faith in the United States west of the Alleghenies. Closely connected with this fact (which will be more especially dealt with in the article DIOCESE OF LOUISVILLE) was a remarkably early development of new religious congregations in the old Diocese of Bardstown. In Marion County, the Sisterhood of Loretto, founded in 1812 as “Friends of Mary at the Foot of the Cross”, and, in Nelson County, the Sisters of Charity of Nazareth, founded in the same year, were almost, if not quite, the earliest religious institutes to originate in the United States (see SISTERS OF LORETTO; SISTERS OF CHARITY OF NAZARETH). Of the older institutes of women, the Sisters of the Third Order of St. Dominic have been established in Kentucky since 1822; the Sisters of the Good Shepherd, since 1842; Ursuline Nuns, since 1858; Benedictine Nuns, since 1859; Sister of the Poor of St. Francis, since 1860; Visitandines, since 1864; Sisters of Mercy, since 1867; Little Sisters of the Poor, since 1869; The Sisters of Notre Dame and others have come into the state more recently.

Among the religious orders of men, the Order of Preachers found their first home in the United States near Springfield, Washington County, Kentucky (St. Rose of Lima, 1806), where they are still flourishing; the Trappists founded their famous Abbey of Gethsemani, in Nelson County, in 1848; the Franciscans took charge of the parish of St. Boniface, Louisville, in 1849; the Benedictines came to Covington in 1858. Other male religious orders and congregations in Kentucky are the Passionists, Xaverian Brothers, Brothers of Mary, and Fathers of the Resurrection. The total Catholic Population of the state is estimated at 189,854, about three-fourths of that number (which includes upwards of 4000 coloured Catholics) being in the Diocese of Louisville.

I visited St Marys City during the reunion, and they have a wonderful web page as well. The Smithsonian currently has a display of Jamestown and St Marys City artifacts, including the lead coffin and skeletal remains of Lady Calvert, including a reconstruction of her facial features and a computerized avatar of her. These would be worthwhile additions to your site. Also, I’m dismayed that Holy Cross cemetery no longer knows the interment location of Basil Hayden and some others from the league. Perhaps a section calling for cemetery photos and family records would be helpful towards pursuing a professional survey of Holy Cross and other neglected burials. [Ed. note: please contact Ronald directly if you have information about Holy Cross Cemetery (Marion County, KY) or can help: molohaninsac -at- netscape.net]

Can anyone send us links for Holy Cross cemetery in Kentucky.

These are what we can find for Holy Cross cemetery in Kentucky: GraveAddiction, FindAGrave (here is what they have for Basil Hayden, Sr. and this entry says there is no marker on his grave), USGenWeb. My Kentucky Geneaology and Hearthstone Legacy Publications have some Marion County links but nothing specific to Holy Cross. Also see The Roman Catholic Diocese of Owensboro, Kentucky, by Turner Publishing Company, on Google Books.

These are what we can find for Holy Cross cemetery in Maryland: Google Maps, Internment.net, on Ancestry.com, USGENWEB archives, and MD State Archives.

Written In Bone: Forensic Files Of The 17th-Century Chesapeake, is an exhibition at the Smithsonian’s National Museum of Natural History, running through January 6, 2013.

See also “St. Mary’s City – Birthplace of American Freedom” by Dolores Monet

And when sending us info, it is a real time saver if you can send us the Internet/web links to those items. Thanks.

As part of that, rather than duplicate information available elsewhere, we ask that you send us links to those resources. We are especially interested in sites that have information for the various surnames. We will place those links in a post when we receive them, and ad the links to the Family Sites and Sources page.

We are not yet sure how this will play out, as we are just at the beginning, but we look forward to hearing from those of you who have spent years working on your family history and are willing to share with others. Ideally, your information is already hosted on a web site or blog that we can link to rather than posting that information here. If you need a web site, we suggest you consider setting up a free blog at http://wordpress.com/ . WordPress is easy to use blogging software that has millions of users all over the world. (Did we mention you can set up a WordPress blog for FREE at wordpress.com ?)

We also hope to keep the biennial reunions going. But our immediate task is to make this site useful – so let us know what you believe would be useful. You can email us at
mdtoky -at- gmail.com

Thank you.
Chug Roberts
Christopher and Leslie Hielig