Claiborne County Collins Clans

"Claiborne County Collins Clans" was inspired by Joddy Collins's parents' desire to know their ancestry. Like many Appalachians, their parents would not tell them about their heritage and relatives for a variety of reasons: believing they were cousins, being ashamed of their relatives, and protecting outlaw relatives. Most, if not all, of these reasons were untrue and based on gossip not supported by documentation. This book of family trees is based on census records, deeds, wills, and marriage records and has many families of East Tennessee, Kentucky, Virginia, and North Carolina in it.

The Collins Families came to America as indentured servants around 1690. They earned their freedom and lands by bringing more relatives to the colonies as indentured servants through Charleston, Carolina Colony (present-day South Carolina). While settling the Carolinas, they joined the local militia to protect the colonies against the Indians and the British army. They flourished and prospered by fighting at Kings Mountain, gaining property around Greenville and Tazewell, Tennessee as payment for their military service during the Revolutionary War. Again, they joined the local militias to protect against Indian raids as John Sevier's reports indicate. Like many long hunters and pioneers, they settled down and had big families. Some of them stayed on their Carolina properties and some migrated westward to and through St. Louis, Georgia, Arkansas, Oklahoma, Texas, California, Wyoming, and beyond.

Joddy Collins is a retired engineer who researched his family heritage for his parents. A proud Appalachian who loves the mountains, hunting, fishing, whitewater kayaking, and 4-wheeling ATV trails, he stays active in east Tennessee living his motto "if it's not fun, don't do it."