December 1, 1980

Dear Blackards (or Blackard descendant):

First, I would like to apologize for the impersonal nature of this letter, as I am sending the same letter to a number of you who have been kind enough to correspond with me, at various times, concerning the Blackard family. Dody and I have just returned from a three week swing through Charleston S.C., Raleigh N.C., Vermont and Lower Canada (where my mother's family came from), Frankfort, Kentucky (for Dody's family), and the Mormon Library in, Salt Lake City. I did not make any astounding discoveries. concerning the Blackards, but I do wish to give each of you a report on the trip so I will use this means of doing, so, and perhaps save wear and tear on my two typing fingers. I will try to write each of you on a more personal basis as soon as time permits.

My interest in Charleston arose primarily from the story (which I have heard from several sources) that "two Blackard brothers left Scotland for America, having previous left Ireland to escape political persecution. Upon their arrival in this country they located in South Carolina, where they married and where the descendants of one of them are still to be found".

The basic resources in Charleston are the Charleston Library Society (although not primarily a genealogical collection it has a great deal of information which is of interest to genealogists), the South Carolina historical Society, and the Register of Mesne Conveyances which has deeds going back to 1719. I found no reference to Blackards in any of these sources. If one of the original Blackard immigrants, stayed in the Charleston area for any length of time, he managed to do so without leaving any trace.

In North Carolina, the basic research sources are the North Carolina State Archives and the North Carolina State Library, both of which are housed in the same building in Raleigh. I searched everything available on Person, Caswell and Orange Counties, but discovered very little that we do not already know. The tax list of Caswell County do tend to convince me that there were four Blackards in that County during the period 1780-1789, i.e. Charles. William, Willoughby and Job.

We also visited one evening with Mrs. Elizabeth (Lizzie) Holeman, in Roxboro, North Carolina. Mrs. Holeman has already done so much work on Person County, and the descendants of Job Blackard who stayed in that area, that I doubt if there is much to add on that branch of the family. Mrs Holeman has, on occasion, shown in answers to inquiries, that William Blackard was the father of Job and Willoughby. However, she told me that she really has no basis for this conclusion, other than speculation.

I am more inclined to the theory that the four shown above were brothers that Job stayed in Person County where he died in either 1799 or 1800 (Person County was formed from Caswell County in 1791); Willoughby went to Patrick County, Virginia where he died between 1832 and 184O; William _could be_ the same William Blackard who died in Sumner County, Tenn. in 1821 while Charles probably went to Kentucky and Tennessee and died, God only knows where. There is a frreat deal of speculation in this also.

Our time in Frankfort, Kentucky was devoted mostly to other family lines, and I did not expect to find anything on Blackards in that state. However, Charles Blackard does appear on the tax lists of Wayne County Kentucky (as a landowner) in 1814 and 1815. By 1816 he is gone and I suspect he went on into Tennessee, and died soon afterwards.

The Mormon collection in Salt Lake City is a tremendous collection. It took most of a three day visit to become oriented and to find out where things are located. Several years ago the Mormons set out to film all of the local records in the United States. They have not finished this task, as yet, but on many counties they have copies of all available records. Again, I learned little on the Blackards, which I did not already know, perhaps because I had already visited most of the local counties which were appropriate. Nevertheless, I recommend the Mormon Library if one is interested in genealogical research in any depth.

I am sorry that I cannot report any great discoveries, however, I felt each of ou would be interested in knowing where I have been looking, and perhaps I can save others from digging in the same places. If you think of anything I have missed, please let me know.

Sincerely;
Charlie