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West Roots

What follows is an attempt to put the West and Cherry family trees, or at least our branches of these trees, into some kind of historical perspective.  Until recently, it has been difficult to find any information about West family members who lived before James McDaniel West (D.L., Sr.'s grandfather), who was born in 1843.  In fact, other than the immediate D.L. Sr. clan, it has been difficult to find out much about any of our relatives who came after James McDaniel West, either.  Likewise on the Cherry side of the family, it was hard to find anything before Mr. James Merawell Cherry (D.L. Sr's maternal great-grandfather) who was born in 1802 (read notes on the Cherry family).

Arkansas census and other records have connected James McDaniel West with us.  He is listed in the census of 1880 in Conway County, Arkansas as the father of one Andrew Hamilton West.  Andrew Hamilton West is found in subsequent marriage, census and death records as having married Laura Edna Cherry in Yell County, Arkansas, having fathered Daniel Lafayette West, Sr,, and whose burial was in Prairie County, Arkansas.  Beyond that, the records available through web searches had not turned up any family connections before 1843.

Recently, however, with the help of a family historian from Texas who was also looking into the West and Cherry families and had developed an ancestry tree that included some of our dear family members, I was able to (possibly) track (maybe) the West ancestors to about 1718 in North Carolina, and a man named Thomas West (1718 - 1808).  All of the details included in the information about the family between 1718 and 1848 have not been completely verified, but it looks reasonable enough to assume that it is genuine, at least for now.

The particular family ancestry information that was used in the newly-found tree actually goes back to about 1300 in England (I later found one that took the lineage back another 150 years, or so), and includes some noble names, but I have had trouble corroborating that information.  The linkage between 1670 and 1718 in Virginia is a problem in particular because it includes people and dates that do not match up with the same people and dates in other family trees that have been published through the RootsWeb World Connect Project, a genealogical project sponsored by Ancestry.com.  

The RootsWeb site contains thousands of files (tens of thousands, even) of genealogical data and there are numerous files that contain information about the West family in question from approximately 1300 through near-current times (1700s, anyway).  Some of the people included in the ancestry data are notable (Thomas West, aka. "Lord Delaware" for one) and their lives are a matter of historical record, so much of the information in these files can be verified or discredited accordingly.  Since I have only been able to find one file (to date) that shows a connection between our family and that of the first colonial governor of Virginia in 1610 and literally dozens that do not definitively show any such connection, it would be rather presumptuous to lay claim to Virginia based on this limited information.  The back taxes would just kill you, anyway.

So, while I keep looking for earlier West connections, we probably should limit our claims to those shown in the genealogical data that is included in these WestClan web pages.  

However, if you would like to see for yourself, the data in question can be found HERE .(follow the "father" links back in time as far as you wish; the links to return you toward our generation are Thomas West, Thomas West, John William West, Owen West, James McDaniel West).  There is also another web site that puts the "upper reaches" of this tree into a more "noble" perspective, which can be found HERE (NOTE: it appears that this page is no longer available - which illustrates one of the hazards of linking to other people's work in the world-wide-web: here today, gone tomorrow).  Again, click the "ancestor" links listed in parentheses beside the person's name to follow the lineage back in time.  Our branch would have presumably been through one "Capt. Thomas West", born in 1670 in Virginia (ref #14 in the list of children on the above page), but this link is not developed any further through that particular family genealogical site.  An article about one of the principal characters (with links to many others) listed in these trees can be found HERE.

Also, the gentleman who so kindly responded to my questions about the West/Cherry families maintains a West/Cherry family web site HERE.  He uses the MyHeritage Family Tree Builder software, by the way.

Anyway, it appears that the West clan arrived in America in the early colonial days and made their way through North Carolina and then west to Kentucky before turning south through Tennessee and then into Arkansas, (leaving colonies of Wests here and there along the way), where our bunch settled down in and around Conway County, Arkansas in the vicinity of Petit Jean mountain (where they became mountain Hoosiers, perhaps?).

We begin for the moment with one Thomas West, born in 1718 in Chatham County, North Carolina, who was reported to have been a farmer, part time Baptist preacher, and a veteran of the Revolutionary War.  His son, also named Thomas West (b.1743 in North Carolina) was reportedly also a Veteran of the Revolutionary War, and a farmer and a Baptist Preacher, to boot (it must run in the family).  His son, John William West (b.1788 in North Carolina) started his family in North Carolina, but then evidently moved on through Kentucky to Tennessee where most of his offspring settled - in and around Gibson county, Tennessee.  John William died in Kentucky in 1870.

At least one of his kids, though, Owen West (b.1819 in North Carolina), moved into Yell County, Arkansas and then to Conway County in the 1850's.  Several of his children were born here. His son,  James McDaniel West was born in Gibson county, Tennessee in 1843 but came to Arkansas with the family and it is in Conway County, Arkansas that we find his son Andrew Hamilton West (another Baptist preacher) and Asa Cherry's daughter, Laura Edna Cherry getting together and launching a big adventure that leads them to Prairie County and Daniel Lafayette West.

Now for the Cherry crowd...