21 Nov 2001

Lola Sorensen
55l8 Revere Drive,
Salt Lake City, Utah, 84117

Lt Commander Scott Kirk
1907 Oakshire
San Antonio, Texas, 73232

Dear Lt Commander Kirk

As I promised you, I have studied carefully the latest family of a Stephen Kirk (son of a John Kirk of Montgomery county, N. Carolina at a point in time). I read carefully the e-mail data from you and others that you shared with me.

I knew I had seen a copy of a bible record for that Stephen, of John, and sure enough in the correspondence between myself and your relative, there was a copy of the bible records which appeared in the genealogical publication in Stanly county, North Carolina. I have, for your convenience in studying, made up family group sheets on his parents (who are referred to in bible record abstracts) and his wives and children.

The children all came through his 1st wife.
At no time did he leave the state of North Carolina.
Further please note that he is born in 1791 which makes him much younger than your last known Stephen (whose age I had approximated from the approximate age of his wife Anna in the 1830 census and from the ages of his children in the census.)

Also in reviewing the early court abstracts in various counties in North Carolina and Georgia, I have noted that differing Kirk families all seemed to be fond of the same given names: Lewis, Levi, William, John, and Stephen. This makes sorting them out tough. However, the bible record for that Stephen certainly establishes his families' exact dates and eliminates that family as your direct line. Further a claim is made on the internet that John emigrated from Ireland, which, of course is possible, but I didn’t see any documentation to back that up.

The areas of present counties of Chatham, Caswell, Orange, Halifax, and Northampton all have clues on the early Kirk families who settled there. In addition the "Early Wilkes County, Georgia Kirk’s" have reference to an elderly lady who came in colonial times to Wilkes from Pennsylvania and brought her 3 sons with her. In the same court abstracts (from an earlier search I did for you) I had noticed a Joel McClendon there and the mention of a Stephen Kirk. This would be the earliest mention of a Stephen Kirk in that county in the 1780’s. Therefore he would be too old to be your Stephen Kirk of Jasper and Jones counties.

However, from the time that the Stephen related to Joel McClendon (reportedly through a wife: Elizabeth McClendon) was in nearby Hancock county with the Womack’s (two Abraham's at once for a time) in l806, the last deed was reported from there. I had searched original deed indexes for Wilkes and Hancock, plus court abstracts.

In previous searching in Jasper county and Jones county on your Stephen, the earliest deed on him is in Jasper county, 7 March 1808, wherein it is stated that he is of Jones county.

Jasper county, Georgia, deed book one, film 0158493, pgs. 207/208.

Jasper county, Georgia, deed book two, film 0158493, pgs. 19/20.

Stephen Kirk of Jones county on 20 Jan 1809, sells land in the 9^th district of Baldwin county formerly 202 acres. Deed signed by Stephen and Anny.

Further the other Stephen Kirk of Wilkes and Hancock counties is referred to in the:

1805 Georgia Land Lottery book, 975.8R21w, pg. 196, land in Hancock county.

Earliest mention in Wilkes county, Ga. Deeds (975.8172R2fn), pg 120 states that Arthur Smith sells to Joel McClendon 100 acres Fishing Creek, deed proved in court by Stephen Kirk, 3 Feb 1788.

Pg. 35 of the same Hancock abstracts deeds refers to a land sale in 1784 adjoining land of Joel McClendon and Stephen Kirk on Ft. Creek.

Clearly the Stephen of Wilkes and Hancock counties must be the same one with lands adjoining Joel McClendon (his father in law) as reported by another researcher.

In both Wilkes and Hancock deeds abstracts Joel McClendon and Stephen Kirk were on bordering properties in deeds.

Further on 2 Jan 1794 Nathan Barnett sells to Stephen Kirk land on flat creek and Joel McClendon acts as one of witnesses to sale.

If the Stephen of Wilkes and Hancock is the same Stephen as the one of Jones and Jasper counties, then your Stephen of Jones and Jasper counties would have to have been much older than his wife Anna.

No definite death on the Stephen of Hancock or Wilkes areas.

No mention in the probate (on Stephen in the deeds in Jones county) of a relationship to any McClendon/McLendon families.

No mention that Elizabeth and Anna might be wives of the same man. (i.e. Elizabeth McClendon wife first, then Anna.)

No mention of additional children through a prior marriage being considered in deed estate settlement located for you previously on your Stephen of Jones county.

I did the "reconstituted tax lists book for 1790 for Georgia" to see if two different Stephen Kirks might be listed and didn’t find that to be the case

There is no census for 1800 or 1810 for Georgia. The first census and index was for 1820 and I have already tracked down all the heads of families named Kirk in that census year.

I checked:

statewide early court indexes, also
a huge series of early court abstracts compiled by the Georgia Genealogical Society was searched for you in the past, plus
early land abstracts,
early will indexes and
interstate proceedings indexes were also checked for Kirks in the past.

As previously cited, I noted the original deed indexes for all counties

where Kirks were found in early Georgia and also

where early Kirks were mentioned in North Carolina and South Carolina counties.

In addition to running off copies of the Stephen Kirk, of John Kirk (and his parent’s sheets too) for your records, I have also input new families (from data which I have been accumulating for your records). I have provided printouts on family group sheets and on a gedcom disc

In the Orange, Halifax, Chatham and Caswell counties in North Carolina we have the same names as those which appear in South Carolina and Georgia. The areas of most interest to us are Orange county and Halifax counties.

Note the family group sheet of Isaac Kirk who resided in Halifax county as early as 1770.

Note the extensive searching I did to try and locate more on the identity of all of his children, but was only partly successful when I found a land deed mentioning that he had died and his heirs living in Halifax county were selling his land in Hancock county, Ga.

This puts a definite place where a Kirk came from Halifax county, N. Carolina to Hancock county, Ga. (where the older Stephen was located during that time, who had married the Elizabeth McClendon, If another’s research is correct?)

Then we have the Lewis Kirk (one of your ancestors' is named Levi Louis Kirk (Lewis) who married the Sarah and who had a will in Orange county, North Carolina.

	He witnesses deeds with a William Kirk, Isaac Kirk and others.
	There was even a Levi Kirk early in the 1780’s who was involved in court proceedings in Orange county, N. Car.

It would seem (from the men appearing frequently as witnesses to one another’s deeds, and proving the deeds in court for one another) that the early men in Orange had to be related: brothers? cousin? uncles, nephews?

With Lewis' will, we can identify most of his children. However, the son Parham is proved from:

	the deed sale for 6 shillings of 190 acres by his father to him and
	by the DAR registration from the descendant of Lewis through Parham, with birth dates, etc.

The DAR data was sent to me via correspondence with your relative Stephen in Kansas City.

The early Stephen who sold property to two sons before moving away from state to South Carolina had a son, Lewis in estate proceedings used in South Carolina, Chester county, previously checked. That older Stephen who is involved in court records in Orange with Lewis, Levi, Isaac and William, is in the same generation as these older men previously mentioned.

With Isaac, Joseph and Lewis’ children known, I would ponder the possibility that:

your Stephen could be an only son, of the Stephen who married the McClendon,
or a son of the early Levi or William involved with Lewis, Stephen and Isaac in court matters in Orange ad Halifax counties early.

If your Stephen is the son of the older Stephen and he had no other children, then that could account for the lack of probate packets provided he reached his majority and his mother was dead about the time that his father died?

If your Stephen is rather the same Stephen that married the McClendon/McLendon first then he could be either:

the son of the Elizabeth mentioned in Wilkes as coming from Pennsylvania, or

the son of William or Levi involved in deeds with yet another Stephen (who died in S. Carolina in Chester county). The Stephen’s large court docket in South Carolina mentions his heirs and names them, however no Stephen is mentioned. Therefore he didn’t have a son, Stephen.

When you have had a chance to digest all of this with the family group sheets, if you have anything additional you would Iike me to check, let me know. In the meantime this has taken about $60.00 of my time for your turn for this time. I included in this review rechecking some books at the library to be sure I hadn’t overlooked anything. Also checked a General index to North Carolina wills from earliest to almost 1900 by author Thornton Mitchell. Read all Kirk wills in index and had already looked them all up, so nothing new there.

Rechecked book "An Abstract to North Carolina wills, by Fred Olds, 1760-1800" and read the whole book here at home and there were no Kirk names at all. This was time consuming but didn’t want to feel that I might have overlooked a possible clue.

It is my pleasure working with you on your family lines. I had in the past done the Valley of the Virginia 3 volume set of Augusta county, Virginia court records, called Chronicles of the Scotch Irish Settlement in Virginia and had copied out all the Kirk references to compare against the Pennsylvania and North Carolina references I had already checked.

For another search I could follow through on some of the possible clues in Pennsylvania to see about locating the Elizabeth Kirk who had the three sons and ended up in Wilkes county, Georgia early in deeds. If she is related to an older Stephen, then we would find that out. It would be good, too to find her husbands will, if possible?

You are doing a fine job of comparing sites on the internet with people on your research. Good for you!

Hope when you receive this you will have had a nice Thanksgiving with your dear wife and precious baby twins. Wish you and your family a happy Holiday season and much good health and happiness in the coming months. If any problems with disc, please let us know right away ad we will compose another.

Sincerely,

Mrs. Lola Sorensen / AG

Encl / family group sheets for:

George Kirk, wife, Mary and children;
Isaac Kirk, wife, unknown and children;
John Kirk, wife Mary and children;
Joseph Kirk, wife unknown and children;
Lewis Kirk, wife Sarah and children;
Stephen Kirk, wife Patsy Kimbrell and children (he had no children by his 2^nd wife);
Thomas Kirk / Kirke and wife Elizabeth and daughter,
And a ged-com disc

The following is a list of Kirk Books found through a search of the Family History Library Catalog:
These books contain additional Kirk Biographies or Biographies mentioning Kirks that could yet be checked if you wish:

	Jasper county, Georgia, deed book one, film 0158493, pgs. 207/208.
	Jasper county, Georgia, deed book two, film 0158493, pgs. 19/20.

	1805 Georgia Land Lottery book, 975.8R21w, pg. 196, land in Hancock county.
	Earliest mention in Wilkes county, Ga. Deeds (975.8172R2fn), pg 120 states that Arthur Smith sells to Joel McClendon 100 acres Fishing Creek, deed proved in court by Stephen Kirk, 3 Feb 1788.
	Pg. 35 of the same Hancock abstracts deeds refers to a land sale in 1784 adjoining land of Joel McClendon and Stephen Kirk on Ft. Creek.

	In both Wilkes and Hancock deeds abstracts Joel McClendon and Stephen Kirk were on bordering properties in deeds.
	Further on 2 Jan 1794 Nathan Barnett sells to Stephen Kirk land on flat creek and Joel McClendon acts as one of witnesses to sale.

	No definite death on the Stephen of Hancock or Wilkes areas.
	No mention in the probate (on Stephen in the deeds in Jones county) of a relationship to any McClendon/McLendon families.
	No mention that Elizabeth and Anna might be wives of the same man. (i.e. Elizabeth McClendon wife first, then Anna.)
	No mention of additional children through a prior marriage being considered in deed estate settlement located for you previously on your Stephen of Jones county.

	where Kirks were found in early Georgia and also
	where early Kirks were mentioned in North Carolina and South Carolina counties.

	Note the family group sheet of Isaac Kirk who resided in Halifax county as early as 1770.
	Note the extensive searching I did to try and locate more on the identity of all of his children, but was only partly successful when I found a land deed mentioning that he had died and his heirs living in Halifax county were selling his land in Hancock county, Ga.
	This puts a definite place where a Kirk came from Halifax county, N. Carolina to Hancock county, Ga. (where the older Stephen was located during that time, who had married the Elizabeth McClendon, If another’s research is correct?)