Tennessee History: Difference between revisions

*'''1584'''<nowiki>: The region of Tennessee was included in the English land grant to Sir Walter Raleigh.</nowiki>  

*'''1763: '''France surrendered all claims to the land east of the Mississippi River to England.  

*'''1769: ''' The first permanent settlement was established in Watauga Valley by North Carolina and Virginia settlers.  

*'''1776: ''' The Territory of Tennessee was designated by North Carolina as the Washington District.  

*'''1777: ''' Washington County, North Carolina was established to provide governmental jurisdiction over the Watauga settlement. Its boundaries included most of present-day Tennessee.  

*'''1779: '''Nashborough (Nashville) was organized and the settlement of Middle Tennessee was begun.  

*'''1784: '''North Carolina ceded Tennessee to the federal government. Watauga settlers organized a short-lived “[[State of Franklin|State of Franklin]].”  

*'''1790: '''The federal government created the “Territory of the United States South of the River Ohio,” also known as the “Southwest Territory.”  

*'''1791: '''The Knoxville Gazette was founded as the first newspaper in Tennessee.  

*'''1796: ''' Tennessee was admitted to the Union as the 16th state.  

*'''1803: '''The Louisiana Purchase increased settlement in the state and migration through it.  

*'''1812–1815: ''' The War of 1812 involved many soldiers from Tennessee.

*'''1815–1860'''<nowiki>: Tennessee settlers benefitted from improvements in transportation on rivers (using steamboats), canals, and railroads.</nowiki>  

*'''1817–1838'''<nowiki>: American Indian claims to land in Tennessee were greatly reduced by land cession treaties, until most Indian tribes were finally exiled in 1838. This became known as the “Trail of Tears.”</nowiki>  

*'''1818: (October 19,)''' General Andrew Jackson negotiated a treaty with the Chickasaw Indians for the purchase of western Tennessee, opening that area to white settlers.  

*'''1835: '''The treaty of New Ecota was signed, exiling most Indian tribes. A few Cherokees hid in the Great Smoky Mountains until their right to remain was recognized much later.  

*'''1861: ''' Tennessee seceded from the Union.  

*'''1861–1865: ''' During the Civil War, Tennessee fought for the Confederate States; however, its soldiers served on both sides—180,000 Confederate and 30,000 Union mostly from East Tennessee.  

*'''1866: ''' Tennessee was readmitted to the Union.  

*'''1878'''<nowiki>: The yellow fever epidemic struck Tennessee.</nowiki>  

*'''1908: ''' The statewide registration of birth and death statistics began.  

*'''1933–1951: ''' Tennessee Valley Authority (TVA), a federal program that brought hydro-electric power to the Tennessee River Valley, displaced communities and flooded some of the best farmland in the state, affecting nearly all Tennessee residents and involving Alabama, Kentucky, Georgia, Mississippi, North Carolina, and Virginia.  

*'''1945–1960's'''<nowiki>: The population shifted from rural to urban, making Tennessee by 1963 the 16th most industrial state.</nowiki>  

*'''1960: ''' Nashville was the first major Southern city to integrate its public facilities.  

Some of the most valuable sources for family history research are local histories. Published histories of towns, counties, and states usually contain accounts of families. It was popular to publish such histories in commemoration of the nation's centennial anniversary. Unfortunately, compared to the North, fewer Tennessee county histories were published in the late nineteenth century, as the state was still recovering from heavy economic losses resulting from the Civil War.<ref>Kory L. Meyerink, "Chapter 17: County and Local Histories," in ''Printed Sources: A Guide to Published Genealogical Records'' (Salt Lake City, Utah: Ancestry Incorporated, 1998), 627-669.</ref> An exception is Goodspeed's multi-volume ''History of Tennessee'', which contains histories for the majority of the state's counties and biographies of many prominent citizens. Much of the content found in these books is now available for free [http://www.tngenweb.org/records/goodspeed.html online], courtesy: TNGenWeb. Publishers expected to sell these "Who's Who"-type publications to successful local residents.  

In more recent times, particularly after the nation's bicentennial anniversary and the television series ''Roots'', print houses such as [http://www.turnerpublishing.com/SearchResult.aspx?CategoryId=21 Turner Publishing Company] (New York and Nashville), have published dozens of Tennessee county histories packed with compiled family histories targeted at genealogists with interests in the chosen areas. Because the market has changed, families selected for inclusion in these books are no longer only prominent citizens. One of the only detectable biases is that most of the individuals discussed left descendants, and at least one of them was an active genealogist at the time of publication. Many of the articles submitted to these publishers lack source citations and researchers should remember to verify the information.  

*[http://search.ancestry.com/search/db.aspx?dbid=30088 A history of Tennessee and Tennesseans : the leaders and representative men in commerce, industry and modern activities] at Ancestry ($)  

Local histories are extensively collected by the [https://www.familysearch.org/en/library/ FamilySearch Library], public and university libraries, and state and local historical societies. [[United States History|United States History]] cites nationwide bibliographies of local histories which include histories of Tennessee.  

*[http://search.ancestry.com/search/db.aspx?dbid=28237 History of Davidson County, Tennessee : with illustrations and biographical sketches of its prominent men and pioneers] at Ancestry ($)  

*[http://search.ancestry.com/search/db.aspx?dbid=28680 The conquest of the old Southwest : the romantic story of the early pioneers into Virginia, the Carolinas, Tennessee, and Kentucky] at Ancestry ($)  

*''Tennessee: A Guide to the State''. Compiled and Written by the Federal Writers' Project of the Work Projects Administration for the State of Tennessee. American Guide Series. (No Place: New Deal Network, 1996) Original published: Tennessee: State of Tennessee. Department of Conservation, Division of Information, 1939. [http://newdeal.feri.org/guides/tnguide/cont.htm Available online.] This book has chapters dealing with several topics of particular interest to genealogists, including: “Historic Indians,” "Negroes in Tennessee," “Chronology,” “Religion,” “History and Government,” and chapters relating to occupations.

See the [[Tennessee Archives and Libraries|Tennessee Archives and Libraries]] article for facilities with regional collections which might include histories. To find more books and articles about Tennessee 's history use the Internet [http://www.google.com/ Google] search for phases like "Tennessee history." [[FamilySearch Catalog Surname Search|FamilySearch Catalog Surname Search]] lists many more histories under topics like: