Copyright © Janice Tracy, Mississippi Memories

Tuesday, July 7, 2009

Garrard Family Connections - VA>NC>GA

Recently, I began researching my mother's Garrard family connections, beginning with Martha Elizabeth Garrard, who was married to my maternal great-grandfather, William Bailey Netherland. Interestingly, I found an abundance of information about the Garrard family in America, from its beginnings in Virginia and later the family's life in Kentucky, to its southern migration to Georgia, Alabama, and eventually into Mississippi.


According to unsubstantiated sources, the Garrard family's origins had its origins in America through the French Huguenot, Peter Garrard. Although the surname today is most commonly spelled "Garrard," other versions, including two French versions, "Girard" and "Gerard," as well as as the Italian "Ghirardi" and "Girardi," have been used throughout time.


The availability of much historical information about the Garrard family is due in large part, to the fact that James Garrard was well-known for his service as the second Governor of the State of Kentucky. Garrard, born on January 14, 1749 and who died on January 9, 1822, was further immortalized when Garrard County, Kentucky, formed during his first term as governor, was named for him.


According to the book, Governor Garrard of Kentucky, written by Anna Russell des Cognets and published in 1898, three brothers named John, Robert and Jacob, allegedly the grandsons of Peter the Huguenot, settled in Stafford County, Virginia about 1750. It is said that Jacob Garrard was married in Virginia, first to Sarah Waters, a daughter of John Waters and Mary Elizabeth Hack, and later to Mildred (last name unknown.)

According to the book by des Cognets, records of Overwharton Parish in Stafford County shows that Anthony, one of the two sons born to Jacob Garrard and his second wife, Mildred, was christened on October 12, 1756. According to all accounts, Jacob Garrard moved his family to North Carolina sometime after that date, where another son, named Jacob for his father, was born in 1763. Jacob Garrard, Sr. is said to have been killed in North Carolina during the American Revolution.

Anthony Garrard, born September 6, 1756, married Elizabeth Green in Caswell County, North Carolina, around 1811, and it is from these two people that I descend. Anthony and his family later moved to Georgia, where he had received land from his service in the Revolutionary War. It was in Wilkes County that Anthony died in 1807.


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