The Name's The Same

        As someone else posted on this topic - “the name’s the same” can be both a blessing and a curse to us family history buffs!  Isn’t that the truth! And I thought I had this particular name all figured out until I actually started writing this week’s blog. 

My dad’s family has very deep Tennessee roots. So it wasn’t too surprising to me that one of my ancestors was named after Andrew Jackson, the 7th US president. His name is Andrew Jackson Hinch, born between 1831 and 1833.  And then, he had a son Andrew Jackson Hinch Jr. Then I found a third one - also Andrew Jackson Hinch. The second two were first cousins, and all three lived in the same area of Tennessee, just south of Crossville. 

        I have to admit I did not know much about our 7th president other than he lived in a huge mansion “The Hermitage” around Nashville TN when he was elected president. He was actually born in the Carolinas in 1767, but moved to Tennessee, became a lawyer, judge, and served in the US Congress before being elected president in 1828. 

Andrew Jackson, 7th President of the USA

In the book on Tennessee “Cumberland County’s First Hundred Years” there is a retelling of a portion of Andrew Jackson’s travels in February 1829 on horseback from Nashville to Washington DC for his inauguration on March 4, 1829. Apparently he always rode on horseback, accompanied by trusted servants and escorts, also on horseback. Part of this journey was traveled on the Burke Road (basically a trail), which started at a town called Sparta and ended at  Kemmer’s Stand (a roadside inn) east of Crossville. 

Historical marker in Crossville TN mentioning Burke Road

The purpose for this detailed description above is that our dad’s family lived in the small community of Burke. Our 3rd G-grandfather John Hinch came from Kentucky to Bledsoe County, TN sometime before 1824. So he would have been very close to where Andrew Jackson’s group was traveling through in 1829. It was huge news back then that he would be traveling through this area. I have been wondering if he would have traveled a few miles away to see the president-elect on the Burke Road. Many folks in the area did just that, according to the book referenced above. By the way, Cumberland County itself did not exist until 1855, when it was formed from taking some parts of the surrounding counties, one of which was Bledsoe.

The reason for me wondering about all this is that John Hinch and his wife Anny Parham Hinch had a son born around 1833, and they named him Andrew Jackson Hinch. They had other children before this, one of which is our 2nd G-grandfather, William Hinch. But their son Andrew Jackson Hinch was the first son born after Andrew Jackson was elected to the presidency. It is an interesting thought.

So Andrew Jackson Hinch had a son he named Andrew Jackson Hinch Jr., who was born in 1868. And, if you want to add one more confusing layer to this, our 2nd G- Grandfather (mentioned above) William Hinch also had a son they named Andrew Jackson Hinch, born in 1857. I only had two of the three in my tree, and believe me I have done a lot of talking to myself this last week, trying to get them all straight in my head.

one of my family's Andrew Jackson Hinch namesakes and his wife Amanda Thurman. They moved to Washington State around 1890.

The only photo I have of any of “my” Andrew Jackson” namesakes is of my great -grand uncle (above), a son of William Hinch (my 2x g-grandfather). This Andrew Jackson Hinch moved to Washington state in the 1892, and he lived the rest of his life there.

    I still have more work to do in my tree getting these three men and their families documented properly. But this project certainly helped me to realize the gaps and errors that I had made.