more eTater .. Tracking back to Cumberland.. ftdna results

Norman Alderman continues to post old photos and pictures on his site which have much of the history of Pocahontas County. Since much of this involves the Beards... well. just say there have been some good finds:

http://www.wvbeard.com/bios/VirginiaMcNeelBeardCovington.htm
http://www.wvbeard.com/bios/WallaceWarwickBeard.htm
http://www.wvbeard.com/bios/LeetaEmmaBeard.htm
http://www.wvbeard.com/bios/JosephBeard.htm (interesting bio)
http://www.wvbeard.com/bios/ThomasSummersMcNeel.htm
http://www.wvbeard.com/bios/BertieMcHenryBeard.htm
http://www.wvbeard.com/bios/RubyEvelynBeardKerr.htm

One in particular.. look at the engraving on the headstone of Eveline Medora Yeager Beard (wife of Josiah Osbourne Beard):

http://www.wvbeard.com/bios/JosiahOsborneBeard.htm

Another great resource is the West Virginia Culture site which opened a number of very old Greenbrier County Records. I think Greenbrier county will be next on my list as I trace back the ancestors from Pocahontas County, back to Renick's Valley in Greenbrier County (John Beard), back to Staunton, VA, and back to I am starting to believe the Cumberland area of Pennsylvania.

William Price stated that Thomas Beard and his family first settled in Pennsylvania, then migrated to Virginia in 1746 (where Thomas first purchased his land). An interesting development is that I had a high match (25 marker DNA) with a Beard family from the Cumberland area. It would be consistent to think that Thomas Beard traveled to the Lancaster area in Pennsylvania, settled there for a time, and then moved on. This was very consistent with the pattern of the time of the Scots-Irish. The lands in Pennsylvania had been settled for some time, there was peace with the Native Americans, but the land was settled by the Germans, not the Scots-Irish. However, the Scots-Irish did not get along well with the mainly German population, and when the lands opened in Virginia around Staunton, many of them traveled the "Great Scots-Irish Wagon Trail" down the Appalachian mountains and into that area. It is believed Thomas Beard was one of those.

Perhaps as the DNA evidence matures we can find some more references and connections to the families back in Cumberland area. At least it is a new place to look for evidence of the Beard migration to the New World.