Early Distribution of the Southern Family in the Eastern United States
Updated 3/30/02
1. Middlesex County, Virginia.
Possible birthplace of William Southern. Several Southern families
lived here in the 17th and early 18th centuries, and the William born
here in 1722, son of John and Margaret Kidd Southern, may have been the
William who later lived in Stokes County, N.C.
Link to Southern Families of Christ
Church, Middlesex
2. Manakin Town, Cumberland County, Virginia. French Huguenot
settlement; birthplace of Magdalaine Faure in 1736. Magdalaine Faure
may have been "Magdalen Ford" who became Magdalen Southern.
3. Buckingham County, Virginia. Home of William's father John by
late 1740s; home of William until 1774. Probable site of marriage of
William and Magdalen.
4. Stokes County, North Carolina (Part of Surry County until
1789). Home of William and Magdalen Southern from 1775 until their
deaths; home of their sons/probable sons Reuben, William II, and Ford
until their deaths; home of their other children into the early
nineteenth century.
5. Greenville County, South Carolina. After 1788 the home of
Gibson Southern; originally of Buckingham County, VA, who lived among
William and Magdalen's family in NC in the 1780s. James and Samuel
Southern, perhaps relatives from Buckingham Co., were also here by 1790.
6. Giles County, Virginia. After 1817 the home of William and
Magdalen's son John, who with his wife Elizabeth Duncan Southern raised
15 children here.
7. Monroe/Greene Counties, Indiana. After 1819 the home of
William and Magdalen's daughter Judith Southern Burch, who moved here
with her husband John and other members of the Burch family. Judith and
John raised nine children, all born in N.C. Also, Daniel Southern, son
of Reuben and nephew to Judith, appears to have moved here after 1820
and later moved to Kentucky.
8. Warren County, Kentucky, and Wilson, Warren, and Cannon Counties,
Tennessee. William and Magdalen's probable son Boaz moved from NC
to Warren County, KY in 1807. In federal censuses from 1820-1840 he
appears in these counties in middle Tennessee.
9. Mecklenburg County, Virginia. Another William Southern of
unknown relationship to the Stokes County Southerns lived here in the
late 18th century and had several sons who established families
elsewhere. William appears consistently in Mecklenburg tax lists from
1782 to 1800, and the lists identify his sons as John, Robert, William
Jr., Jesse, and Buckner. Robert settled later in Claiborne Co. TN, and
William Jr. and Jesse settled in Lee Co., VA. In the early 19th century
Buckner was living in Rockingham Co., NC.
10. Lee County, Virginia, and Claiborne County, Tennessee.
Sons of William Southern of Mecklenburg Co. VA (#9) settled in this
area -- Wlliam Jr. and Jesse in Lee County and Robert in Claiborne Co.
Their relationship to the North Carolina Southerns is not yet known.