The Barnes family were pioneers and settlers, people prepared to face challenges and risks in pursuit of their dream of a better life and better land.

We can only imagine what hopes and fears may have been in Wright Barnes’ mind, as having been born in North Carolina, he set out on the journey west.

Wright seems to have suffered from wanderlust and an inability to settle in one place. Perhaps, for him, the grass was always greener over the next hill or round the next bend in the river.

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The map shows the counties and states which are mentioned in this account.

The wanderlust evidently died with Wright and for over one hundred and fifty years, many of his son Roderick’s descendants have remained settled, living and farming in Tennessee, in the bordering counties of Hardeman, McNairy and Chester.

Roderick Barnes was the grandfather and Wright was the great grandfather of the man we started with, Clarence Monroe Barnes.
 
 
From the censuses of 1880, 1900, 1910, 1920, 1930 and 1940, we have discovered the names of William Alexander Barnes’ wives and children and Clarence Monroe’s siblings and half siblings:

So Clarence had five full siblings plus three half siblings by his father and two half siblings by his mother.
 
 
This is far as I can go with the Barnes family tree, from my computer and desk in England, UK. But I hope my friend will follow up the references and links and explore the local and social history of where his ancestors were living. What were their lives like, at that time, in those places?

I think that he has ancestors to be proud of.

Susan Morris

Next: Barnes family tree