Introduction

 

For years I have, off and on,  studied the family genealogy. This blog will present some of the results of those studies.

The earliest documented record is from the 1700's in South Carolina. A land release in the form of an indenture, records the names of Rene and Mary St. Julien. Rene would wind up in the area around Frederick, MD and Winchester, VA. There are about 50 miles between those two towns.

Rene would have a son, Isaac who would, in turn, have a son Isaac, jr. Isaac, jr would have a son Rene who would move to Knox county, Tennessee. Rene II would have a son William who would have a son, James Norman Julien, with his wife, Nancy. The couple would separate, with William moving away to a neighboring county. James would eventually marry Delilah Hampton from Roan Mountain, Carter County circa 1832 in Hampton, Tn. The couple would have a son Calaway Lafayette who would have a son Elkanah (Cane/Cain) William who would, in turn, have a son, Norman, my father.

In the move from Knox County to Carter County, James changed his last name from Julien to Julian. I consider the process of 'Americanization', not uncommon in American history, to be at work.

There are two cemeteries in Carter county that are immediately relevant: the Julien cemetery in Hampton and the Julian cemetery in Roan Mountain. James N. has a tombstone in the Roan Mountain cemetery but the name there is 'James M..' The 'M' is an error by the maker. 'N. or 'Norman', persists across census, and other, records.

All Julians in Carter county are descended from James Norman Julian. James N. first appears in Carter county in 1850. He had two wives: Delilah Hampton and Eliza Heaton. I believe Eliza Heaton was the family nanny before Delilah Hampton died on their return to Carter, from Knox..

Examination of census records show James and Delilah traveling to Carter with all their children but newly born Eliza. Delilah would pass away not long after arriving in Carter. For this reason, I suspect the infant was left behind. Delilah was probably not healthy enough to care for her, and Eliza would travel to Carter later. Eliza, when grown would marry a Bowman and move over the mountain to Bakersville, North Carolina where James N.'s son John would also move, after serving with the Union in the Civil War. He  worked as a brick layer. After a few years, John moved back to Roan Mountain with his family, where he lived from then on. 

John and his company were captured at the battle of Rogersville. He and others were force marched to Bristol where they were placed on a train and shipped to Virginia's Belle Isle Confedrate Prison. After some time, John was shipped to the infamous Confederate prison at Andersonville, Georgia where he remained for the rest of the war dealing with recurring bouts of smallpox. On Christmas Day of 1865, John was released and placed on a ship headed for the North, and ended up in Pennsylvania where he was discharged.

James N. Julian, his father, is listed as one of about a dozen men in Carter, trained as 'pilots' or 'guides' by Daniel Ellis, a local Union Captain and subject of a book from that period. Pilots/Guides helped those fleeing the South to reach Union territory in Kentucky.

James N. was the son of Nancy (Kiser?) and William Julian. William was an engineer for Knox county. Apparently, he abandoned his family and moved away. Records show Nancy petitioning the county comission for medicine. No reason was given, or the medicine specified. William's father was Rene St. Julien originally from the Frederick, MD-Winchester, VA area. 

The list:

Rene St. Julien

Isaac Julien

Isaac Julian

Rene Julien

William Julian

James Norman Julien/Julian

Lafayette Calaway Julian

William Elkanah 'Cain' Julian

Norman E. Julian

James Lynn Julian

At one time, James owned five hundred acres in Roan Mountain. One report has him brought to Roan Mountain to teach children by Johnston Hampton, Delilah's father. The land may have been a wedding present. I did, however, uncover a lawsuit against Delilah by a relative, around 1850. There is a story there.

There is a mystery around when Delilah and James married and moved to Knoxville, prior too 1850. Google AI reports a marriage 1832 in Hampton. I have not verified the data.

There is also a mystery around the land transfer and the will of Johnston Hampton. There is a record of a lawsuit against delilah by a sibling in Carter Chancery court records around 1850.

Another mystery is the origins of  Rene De St. Julien and his wife Mary circa 1685-1715. Legends have him arriving from Europe after fighting for William of Orange.  Rene reportedly received a land grant for his participation. Also in legend, he married Mary Bullock while in the Bermuda Islands.

There is a record of George Washington, a British officer stationed in Winchester, getting a conmplaint of Indians raiding at Isaac Julien's farm. That turned out to be a couple of drunkards shooting off their firearms. This was during the French and Indian War period, circa 1755.

In private communication, I talked with someone about Rene in Winchester and the legend he and his wife Mary were buried in the Opequon Cemetery,  Kernstown, Winchester, VA. He said he lived close by and would drop by and have a look. He later posted he had found two cemetery headstones lying on the ground in a little known, little visited area. The name on one stone was Rene S. Julien. He also said the was what was left of a marking of some kind near the top of the 'S'. I have interpreted that as remnants of the 't' in 'St' as in 'St. Julien'. The use of the 't' as a superscript for the 'S' was common for the period. The second stone had the name 'Mary' inscribed upon it.

Other events: the shotgun death of a Julian by a Tipton. Hatfield-McCoy situation?

The death of a man's wife and two daughters around the time of the 1919 pandemic. A tragedy unrivaled?

The travel of Rene between Charleston shore South Carolina and western North Carolina and northwestern Maryland.

Rene and the French and Indian War, and the Revolutionary War.

Occasionally, I drew tentative conclusions based on interpretations of data. These help to direct future research.

There is a related family, though some vehemently dispute the relation, in S.C history, namely that of Pierre De St. Julien, a plantation owner who arrived in 1685. There is no record of a 'Rene' in any of the records associated with him. However, though no ship passenger list shows a 'Rene', Pierre's wife could have been pregnant and, thus, the infant not listed. Rene's activities indicate that 1685 is a reasonable year guess for Rene's birth.

That family had, and still has, a signet ring with the family seal/coat of arms. That seal is a lamb under three heads of bulls. I've searched extensively through the French heraldic books of the time and fouund that seal as well as one identical but with two bulls heads instead of three. Such differences frequently indicate the splitting of the family into two branches. The two headed version was listed as from Britagne (Normandy), which also happens to be the legendary origin of Rene. 

Coiincidence? Maybe.

About the South Carolina data, the Indenture was released in 1733 and was a thirty year contract, therefore, the document was signed in 1713. If Rene were born in 1685, this would make him 28 years old at the signing. A very reasonable conclusion.

A member of the family tree spent time and money constructing a genetic tree. According to his research, the family originates in the far north around Finland Sweden Norway, etc. This implies a genetic relation to the Vikings, Norsemen, Northmen, Normans. Around 800-900, Vikings invaded Western Europe. Some settled in Northern France which is named after them, i.e. Normandy. Legend has our ancestors coming from Bretagne in Normandy. Coincidence? The family genes do point to a type isolated to the northern parts of Europe.

Just to be clear, the number of people who's DNA contributed to yours is equal to the number of the generation raised to the second power. Three gen=2^3=8. 

8 gen=2^8=256 people contributing to your DNA. 

At 20 years per generation, that's 160 years, or about the time of the Civil War. There is no such thing as racial "purity."