A Brick Wall Revisited

  

        One of the hard truths of family history research is eventually every family line ends in a brick wall, because at some point you run out of written records and sources. In most cases being able to accurately trace ancestors back 6 or 7 generations is generally considered a successful result, at least to me.

        With that said, I am revisiting our John Hinch brick wall. Yes, I bet you didn’t know that he was a brick wall, or maybe even exactly who John Hinch was. Truth is, I haven’t really focused on him yet. So let me set the stage for a deeper dive into John Hinch and his ancestors over the next weeks, as I attempt to go back to the Revolutionary War period, and the mid 1700’s.

        

John Hinch headstone, Tollett Cemetery, Bledsoe County, TN

    (transcription: John Hinch, was Bornd January 4, 1804. Dec July 25, 1862

Age 58 ys 7 mo 29 dy)

Who was John Hinch, you ask? Good question. Let me explain what I know to be true. He is my 3rd great-grandfather. I am confident of this, and that he was born around 1804 in Kentucky. He migrated to Bledsoe County Tennessee before 1824. And of course his surname was Hinch !

A quick visual of where Bledsoe County is in Tennessee

If I could state one particular goal, it is to prove the Hinch line back at least two more generations - to Private (Kentucky militia) John Hinch, who fought in the August 1782 Battle of Blue Licks in the Revolutionary War. He was fortunate to survive.

Many Hinch family trees show that this Private John Hinch to be the grandfather of the John Hinch I am researching. And this very well could be true, but the catch is that none of the trees I have seen have reliable sources to back it up. So in my mind it might as well be fiction.

To make this a little more interesting to anyone who has heard of Daniel Boone, he was one of the commanders, and a participant in this Battle of Blue Licks. So if our Private John Hinch is our ancestor, he definitely knew Daniel Boone. And sadly, Israel Boone, one of Daniel Boone’s sons was killed in this battle. 

So join me on my quest to find the deeper roots of our Hinch ancestors. Similar to my Irish ancestors quest, this will not be a “one week and done” search. But with some assistance from Gemini, and new records it has found, Family Search “full-text search, plus transcriptions of various pension documents, I just might be able to do it! 

A scene of Bledsoe County, TN

Here is a quick pedigree listing of my 3rd great -grandfather John Hinch to my dad Roscoe Hinch, so you can get a visual.

John Hinch (1804 - 1862) buried at Tollett Cemetery, TN

William Hinch (1826-1909) buried on Hinch Mountain

James N. Hinch (1848-1929) buried Spring City Cem.

Stewart Hinch (1880-1960)         “

Roscoe Hinch (1911-1991) buried H’ville, NC