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We all treasure the stories about the distinctive Blackard family history that our grandparents, aunts and uncles told us as children. But the fact remains that if there are so many, differing and often conficting Blackard family stories, they cannot all be true in their entirity. For example: The Blackard family is according to family legends:
These are all very old stories, but they simply cannot all be true at the same time. Additionally, about one in three families in America has a legend about a family name-change or the every popular man with two sons or man with three sons legend. Name-change legends help explain away the lack of existing records and the 2 or 3 son legends explain away different lines in America with the same surname. For some reasons American families love these stories and believe them. But in most case they are false.
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However, as with all great stories that have been passed
down through the ages, there are kernels of fact that have been embellished
with fictional details over the generations to make for a good story.
Historians have found that this case with most stories for 5,000 or
6,000 years. Family Fables which appear to be false: |
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FABLE: The first American Blackard was William Charles Blackard. FACT: There is no evidence of a person of this name ever existing. FACT: According to information passed down in the family, the Charles Blackard who is found later in North Carolina was born in 1728. Charles was most likely born in Pennsylvania before the Blackards became part of the great relocation from Pennsylvania to North Carolina in the mid-1700's. |
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FABLE: The first American Blackard was William Willoughby Blackard. FACT: There is no evidence of a person of this name ever existing. FACT: According to information passed down in the family, the William Blackard who is found later in North Carolina was born in 1720. |
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FABLE: The first American Blackard was Scot-Irish and came from the Scottish highlands. FACT: Current information indicates that the Blackard family is English, and not Scottish, Welsh, or Irish. FACT: The Blackards are documented in England continuously from
1560 to the mid-18th century in church records for christenings and
marriages. They then disappear from England forever. If we are not these
English Blackards then where else did they go? FACT: Family history records in Aberdeen for the north eastern Scotland record no family named Blackard ever living there. FACT: Only one Blackard has ever been identified in Scotland - a Margaret Blackard who married a man in Fife, Scotland in 1753. Historians in Fife have no record of a family named Blackard there. FACT: Many English and Welsh protestants who relocated to northern Ireland were called the Scot-Irish. In fact, many of the Scot-Irish had no Scottish or Irish ancestry. Scot-Irish was a political term not an ethnic one. |
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FABLE:The first American Blackard married a girl in Wales and
crossed the ocean with two small sons.. FACT: A family Bible, written in Welsh, was seen by Kate Blackard (b.1833) in the home of Thomas Blackard (b.1798). This indicates the there was some Welsh connection in the early American Blackard history. FACT There was intense emigration from Wales in the 17th century to Pennsylvania including the Protestant Wesleyans and the Quakers. A Welsh immigrant in Pennsylvania could have been the wife who was the source of this family legend. |
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FABLE: The first American Blackard immigrated shortly before the Revolutionary war with two boys. One was Willoughby Blackard who fought in the Revolutionary war. FACT: Willoughby Blackard was not born in Wales. He was known to be born in 1758 in Bute County, North Carolina by his war records. His father, Charles Blackard, is recorded in Bute County in the 1766 tax list and was working in NC in 1755 before Willoughby was born. |
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FABLE: A William Blackard was living in North Carolina in 1720 in Orange County. FACT: There were very, very few white families in Orange County
in 1720 and the Blackards were not counted among them. Most of the inhabitants
of the Orange county region in 1720 were , in fact, American Indians.
Orange county was not formed until 1752. The region of Orange County,
NC had very few settlers before 1748 when the floodgates opened and
settlers from Pennsylvania poured into Orange and Rowan Counties in
the years of 1748-1755. |
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FABLE: William Charles Blackard was born in North Carolina in 1754.. FACT: Documentation has been found that shows Charles Blackard working in Edgecombe County, North Carolina as a surveryor's assistant in July 1755, therefore, he was most likely born before 1735. A birthdate of 1728 has been passed down among Virginia family historians for Charles Blackard. |
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FABLE: The Blackard family immigrated into Charleston, South Carolina from Aberdeen,Scotland and some remained there and some moved to North Carolina. FACT: Family history records in Aberdeen for the north eastern Scotland record no family named Blackard ever living there. FACT: The Blackard family in early America was often confused with the Blanchard family. This has probably mis-lead family historians. Although, the Blackard family was never in Aberdeen, Scotland, the Blanchard family did emigrate from France to Aberdeen, Scotland to catch ships to America. Dozens of Blanchard families immigrated into Charleston, South Carolina. Another Blanchard family immigrated much earlier into Boston. The similarity between the spelling of these two names, one English and one French, has probably resulted in a lot of false conclusions about the Blackard family immigration. FACT: Thomas BLANCHARD and his 4 living sons arrived in Boston, MA in 1638. Thomas Blanchard and his sons settled around Charlestown, MA. I believe that later Charlestown was confused with Charleston South Carolina and the Blanchard farmily with the Blackards. FACT: I have found no verifiable record of the Blackard family in South Carolina before about 1890. A Charlie Blackard also did extensive research in Charleston, South Carolina and found no trace of the Blackards every being there. |
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