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 Preface

Coming to know so much about our very diverse and scattered family has instilled a deep affection and appreciation for all those who came before us. Whether it was the young Scot who grew up in the lowlands of Scotland, who traversed the Irish Sea to County Down in Ireland and thence crossed the Atlantic to the New World; or the first generation in the United States who courageously made lives for themselves in Georgia, Kentucky, New York or Pennsylvania or the future generations who spread across the United States, members of the Whigham family have personified a zest for life, a spirit of adventure, a commitment to country and a determination to succeed at whatever task they undertook.

I feel as if I know these people, having spent so many hours researching, writing and editing the information about their lives. I identify with the young wife and mother who must follow her husband as he moved from one county or one state to another. I find myself wanting to follow in their footsteps - to wish I could have been with Thomas Whigham at Queensborough; to join William and Thomas on their trek to Decatur County and to be with them as they created a new community - and ultimately a town in Whigham Georgia; to serve with Joseph Whigham in the General Assembly in Georgia; to experience the wandering spirit of a man like Joseph who to the very end was always seeking new frontiers; to live with William Whigham’s descendants in the beautiful Georgia town of Louisville; to go with James Barnett, Thomas Galloway and their siblings and cousins to Texas after the Civil War; to be there to share the grief of mothers who lost so many of their children and to have watched as they continually built new lives in new communities across this land. And, in the writing of this book about their lives and our heritage I have done so.

It would be very remiss of me to fail to mention my fellow helpers in this endeavor. In the naming of names, however, there is also the chance that I will leave someone out, so - if I do forget to mention someone who participated in any manner in putting this book together, please forgive me for it was not intentional.

There are so many who contributed to this endeavor. Without Robert Whigham’s dogged persistence in seeking to find our origins outside the United States, we would not have even the beginnings of an ancestry past Thomas. He was ably assisted in this research by our Scottish "cousin", John Cowie Whigham, who is committed to verifying information that we can now only speculate about. In addition, Robert had researched our family origins for more than twenty years, taking advantage of the immense efforts of Samuel J. Whigham, Jr. and Anna Ruth Williams. Each of these dedicated family members provided the foundation from which we have all begun our search

Joining the ranks of those who kept records and shared them with us were Whigham descendants across the United States, and I am immensely grateful to each of them. The following will be an incomplete list I am sure for there have been so very many of you, but I must make the effort to list as many of you as possible. Should your name not appear below, it is simply an error brought about by the pressures of time.

There are three other people without whom this book would not have been possible. The computer knowledge and expertise of my daughter-in-law, Anna Dorrycott, was a critical requisite in the final preparation of this book for the publisher. And, the editing skills of my daughter, Nancy Dorrycott Kasper, made it possible to finish on time. I am grateful to them both. However, my deepest gratitude is reserved for my husband, Donald F. Green, who spent innumerable hours on the internet, and taking me around the nation to state archives, cemeteries and libraries. The task of preparing this book would not have been the great adventure that it has been were it not a shared endeavor, and his name should truly be listed as one of the book’s authors.

Joyce Whigham Dorrycott

6454 Village Park

San Antonio, Texas April 18, 2003

Jan Allison, John Arnold, Donna Atwater, Oleene Benefield, Doris Whigham Baughman Boswell, Sandra Black, Christine Burton, Todd Case, Donna Clark, Norwood Cooper, Jeannie Dalrymple, Mary Dalton, Sue Dell, James Edmundson, Larry Evans, Elsie Farley, Frances French, Coraleigh Whigham Gassen, Carrie Gautreau-Hall, Jeannette Whigham Hayes, Barbara Hinton, Audell Jackson, David Johnson, Charles and Rebecca Johnson, Louise Jones, Marjorie Ruth Whigham Jones, Peggy Jones, Barbara Knotts, Andrew Lipscomb, Cathy Martella, Dr. Wayne McLaughlin, Brenda McNair, Robert L. Montgomery, Thomas "Mac" Morris, Dr. Quentin Price, Flogene Whigham Reynolds, W.H. Rudd, Lance Russell, Lynn Schechter, Steve See, Cathleen Smith, Patricia Stallings, Lackey Stephens, Sandra Whigham Strickland, Terri Tait, Harriet Thomas, Nell & J. L. Thompson, Judy Toy, Billie Jo Westby, Betty