Genealogy

Family lines, cemeteries and research resources.

• "Big John" Spurling and the Spurlin DNA Project · Genealogy mixed
  John Spurlin (or Spurling) Sr., known to researchers as "Big John", lived in Orange, Chatham, Richmond and Lincoln counties, North Carolina, and left a will in 1822 naming 23 children. Y-DNA testing places a descendant in the same paternal line as the Jeremiah Spurling family of Virginia, but no document yet found names his parents.
• A Spurlin Family in America (1987 genealogy) · Genealogy weak
  A Spurlin Family in America is a 230-page family genealogy compiled by Quincy Haggard Spurlin and edited by George Spurlin, published in 1987. It follows one line from Jeremiah Spurling (1680–1725) down to George W. Spurlin (1854–1921) and a Texas branch; WikiTree places a man of that name in a Georgia and Alabama family that moved to Texas.
• Andrew Jackson Spurlin (1817–1923) · Genealogy mixed
  Andrew Jackson "Uncle Jack" Spurlin (died 1923) was a North Carolina-born farmer and miller in Grayson County, Virginia. His grave memorial and obituary made him 105 or 106, but the 1860 and 1870 censuses put his birth around 1830.
• Early Spurlin and Spurling families in America · Genealogy mixed
  Spurlin and Spurling families appear in colonial Virginia and North Carolina in the 18th century and moved west and south into Indiana, Alabama and Texas during the 19th century. Their European origins are still debated.
• Jeremiah Spurling of Colonial Virginia · Genealogy weak
  Three generations of men named Jeremiah Spurling lived in colonial Virginia: a Westmoreland County shoemaker and planter who died in 1725 or 1726, his son (c. 1704–c. 1770), a tenant tobacco planter in Truro Parish, Fairfax County, and a grandson (c. 1745 – c. 1810) of Fairfax County. Many southern Spurlin and Spurling lines trace their descent to this family.
• John Spurlin (1780–1851) · Genealogy weak
  John Spurlin was a North Carolina-born pioneer who married Mary Willey in Ashe County in 1810. WikiTree dates him 1780–1851, places his death in Christian County, Illinois, and makes him a son of Zachariah Spurling of Surry and Ashe counties and a grandson of Jeremiah Spurling Jr. of Fairfax County, Virginia. Other records do not fit those dates, and a different John Spurlin (1780–1851) died in Christian County, Kentucky.
• Owen and Amanda Spurlin Family of Mississippi · Genealogy weak
  Owen Spurlin was born enslaved on a Mississippi plantation. He and his wife Amanda raised 14 children and bought farmland near Lexington, Mississippi, in 1899. Their story is recorded in a family history, and descendants have held reunions, including in San Francisco in 2010 and near Chicago in 2012.
• Published Spurlin and Spurling family histories · Genealogy mixed
  The main published genealogies are Quincy Haggard Spurlin's 'SPURLIN: A Spurlin Family in America' (1987) and Norman Kent Spurling's two-volume 'Spurling family history in Virginia & North Carolina' (1998). Shorter family articles appear in county heritage books, and the largest online trees are on WikiTree and FamilySearch.
• Sperling/Spurling DNA surname project · Genealogy mixed
  FamilyTreeDNA hosts a volunteer-run Y-DNA surname project, 'Sperling Spurling', for Spurlin, Spurling, Sparlin, Sparling, Sperlin, Sperling, Spirlin and Spirling lines. Its largest group links descendants of Jeremiah Spurling of Virginia with descendants of 'Big John' Spurlin of Lincoln County, North Carolina.
• Spurlin centenarians and longevity claims · Genealogy weak
  Family trees, grave memorials and old newspapers credit several Spurlins with lifespans of more than 100 years. Census ages often disagree with these claims. This entry sets each claim beside the records found so far and lists modern centenarians covered in the press.
• Spurlin family groups and reunions online · Genealogy weak
  Online places where Spurlin relatives and researchers gather: a family reunion blog and newsletters, surname DNA and genealogy projects, surname message boards and Facebook.
• Spurlin family lines by state · Genealogy weak
  A state-by-state guide to the main Spurlin and Spurling family lines in the United States, from colonial Virginia and North Carolina to Georgia, Tennessee, Kentucky, Alabama, Texas and Indiana, with the sources behind each link.
• Spurlin research resources · Genealogy mixed
  A roundup of free online tools for researching Spurlin families: collaborative trees, the Spurlin Y-DNA project, surname forums, digitized county histories and newspapers, federal land patents, cemetery and historical-marker databases, and military and African American records.
• Spurlings of Bermuda (variant spelling) · Genealogy strong
  In Bermuda the name is spelled Spurling, and Forebears ranks it the island's 202nd most common surname. Bermudian Spurlings have included the banker and parliamentarian Sir Stanley Spurling (1879–1961), his son Sir Dudley Spurling, Speaker of the House of Assembly, and his nephew Arthur Rowe Spurling, a First World War flying ace.
• Spurlins of Ashe and Alleghany Counties, North Carolina · Genealogy weak
  Spurlins from Fairfax County, Virginia, settled in the Blue Ridge counties of Ashe and Alleghany, North Carolina, in the late 18th century. Descendants served in the 22nd North Carolina Infantry, were merchants and farmers around Sparta and Ennice in the 20th century, and gave their name to three family burial grounds.
• Spurlins of Christian County, Kentucky · Genealogy mixed
  Spurlin families from North Carolina were in Christian County, in western Kentucky, by about 1800. Later generations included a line of Baptist preachers who served churches around Hopkinsville and in neighbouring Trigg County, and the county has a Spurlin Cemetery north of Hopkinsville.
• Spurlins of Cleveland and Rutherford Counties, North Carolina · Genealogy mixed
  The Spurlin line of Cleveland and Rutherford counties, North Carolina, descends from Isaac Spurlin Sr. (c. 1770–c. 1854), son of John ("Big John") and Myally Spurlin. It is traced through deeds, censuses, an 1826 North Carolina Supreme Court case, Confederate rosters and family graves around Shelby and Ellenboro.
• Spurlins of Coffee County, Alabama · Genealogy mixed
  Spurlins from Houston County, Georgia, settled around Elba and New Brockton in Coffee County, Alabama, by the mid-19th century. They took up federal land patents, served in Confederate regiments and appear through a century of the Elba Clipper newspaper. The rockabilly singer Tommy Spurlin was born into the Elba family, and streets in neighbouring Covington County carry the name.
• Spurlins of early Georgia · Genealogy mixed
  Spurlins were in Georgia from the late 18th century, around Warrenton, Greene County and Macon, and several were children or grandchildren of "Big John" Spurlin of North Carolina. From there branches moved into Alabama, Mississippi, Arkansas, Florida and Texas.
• Spurlins of Fentress County, Tennessee · Genealogy mixed
  Spurlins were among the early families on the Wolf River in Fentress County, Tennessee, where Daniel Spurlin is said to have started the family's Spurlin Cemetery in 1858. A 1920 county history profiles M. H. Spurlin, a Wilder lawman and justice of the peace.
• Spurlins of Hardeman County, Tennessee · Genealogy mixed
  Spurlins lived in Hardeman County, in southwest Tennessee, by the 1830s. Eli and George W. Spurlin are buried at Wesley Cemetery, Piney Grove, and George drew a Confederate pension. Another branch moved to Hot Springs, Arkansas, and on to Texas.
• Spurlins of Navarro County, Texas · Genealogy mixed
  Georgia-born Spurlins were in Navarro County, Texas, around the time of statehood. An 1893 county history records Emma Spurlin as the first wife of Isaac B. Sessions, one of the county's organizers, and the Hamilton merchant John L. Spurlin was born at Chatfield Point in 1853.
• Spurlins of New Hampshire · Genealogy mixed
  A New England Spurlin family lived in Madbury, Dover, Pittsfield and Epsom, New Hampshire, from the 18th century. Several members served in the Civil War, among them Charles Spurlin of Pittsfield in the 7th New Hampshire Volunteers and Charles F. Spurlin of Dover in the 11th New Hampshire Infantry.
• Spurlins of Old Hebron Cemetery, Pike County, Georgia · Genealogy weak
  Old Hebron Cemetery near Concord, Pike County, Georgia, holds the family of William Spurlin or Spurling (1769–1835), whom genealogists describe as a son of "Big" John Spurling of North Carolina, together with his son James Spurlin (1802–1887) and later descendants.
• Spurlins of Shelby County, Indiana · Genealogy strong
  Spurlin families settled in Washington Township, Shelby County, Indiana, in the 1830s. Several of them served in the 33rd Indiana Infantry during the Civil War, and Ithamar Spurlin was elected county sheriff in 1870.
• W. H. Spurlin (Georgia pioneer) · Genealogy mixed
  W. H. Spurlin was a Confederate veteran born in Shelby, North Carolina, who settled in Pulaski County, Georgia. His descendants spread through Worth County, Sylvester and Valdosta.