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Spurlin Family History in America

An overview of Spurlin and Spurling families in America, from colonial Virginia and New England through southern and western migration, Civil War service, and published genealogies.

Sourcing: mixed 15 genealogy · 7 reference · 1 commercial · 1 book · 2 government

Origins and spellings

Genealogists treat Spurlin as one of several related spellings, alongside Spurling, Sparlin/Sparling, Sperlin/Sperling and Spirlin/Spirling. The FamilyTreeDNA surname project groups all of them together[1]. That project says the name is believed to be German or Dutch, a form of Sperling ("sparrow"), and allows that some lines may come from the British Isles[1]. The Dictionary of American Family Names, as quoted by Ancestry.com, instead calls Spurlin an English variant of Spurling[2]. See Spurlin surname etymology for more on the name's meaning.

Colonial roots

The best-documented early southern line centres on three generations of men named Jeremiah Spurling. The first was a shoemaker and planter in Westmoreland County, Virginia, who died in 1725 or 1726[3]. His son moved to Truro Parish, Fairfax County, by 1743, according to Find a Grave and WikiTree pages[4][5]. See Jeremiah Spurling of Colonial Virginia. A 1987 published genealogy, A Spurlin Family in America, starts with a Jeremiah Spurling (1680–1725)[6]. A separate New England line starts with Benjamin Spurling (1752–1836). He was a Revolutionary War militia corporal and an early settler of Great Cranberry Island, Maine[7][8].

Migration south and west

Spurlin descendants spread from Virginia into the Carolinas and then beyond. "Big John" Spurlin lived in Orange and Chatham counties, North Carolina, by 1770. He moved to Richmond County by 1786 and later to Lincoln County. By the time of his 1822 will his family included 23 children[9]. Y-DNA testing links his line to the Virginia Jeremiah Spurling family[10], but no document yet found names his parents (see "Big John" Spurling and the Spurlin DNA Project). John Spurlin (1780–1851) was born in Wilkes County, North Carolina, married in Ashe County, and died in Christian County, Illinois[11]. William Spurling (1769–1835), a son of Big John according to WikiTree, married in South Carolina and settled in Pike County, Georgia[12]. The 1982 Cleveland County article names another son, Elijah Spurlin (1771–1845)[9]. The Find a Grave memorial of the Baptist preacher James M. Spurlin (1802–1887), who was ordained in Chambers County, Alabama, and served churches in eastern Alabama and western Georgia, names his parents as an Elijah and Susanah Spurlin with the same dates[13]. Ancestry.com's census summary says Indiana had the most Spurlin families of any state in 1840, about 36% of the U.S. total[2]. Federal land records trace the move south and west: the General Land Office issued 94 patents to people surnamed Spurlin between 1823 and 1963, 62 of them before 1861, mostly for land in Alabama, Mississippi, Arkansas and Louisiana[14] (see Federal land patents to Spurlins). The family history A Spurlin Family in America describes one branch settling in Texas before the Civil War[6]. Today the name is most common in Texas, Alabama and North Carolina[15]. The main lines are traced state by state in Spurlin family lines by state.

Civil War and later

Spurlins served on both sides of the Civil War. They included Confederate Private John E. Spurlin of the 16th North Carolina Infantry[16], and Union soldiers Joshua and Ithamar Spurlin of the 33rd Indiana Infantry[17]. A Maine relative, Andrew Barclay Spurling, received the Medal of Honor[18]. See Spurlins in the Civil War. Spurlin ministers served churches across the South after the war; the Alabama-born Presbyterian William Dexter Spurlin (1860–1935), for example, held charges in Tennessee, Alabama, Louisiana and Mississippi[19]. In the 20th century, Mary Jane Spurlin became Oregon's first woman judge in 1926[20]. Honor States, a private archive of Gold Star veterans, lists five Spurlins who died in the Second World War[21] (see Spurlins in the World Wars).

Research resources

The main public resources are the FamilyTreeDNA Spurlin project[1], WikiTree's Spurlin pages[22], FamilySearch[23], and the National Park Service's Civil War Soldiers and Sailors index[24]. Land, burial and memorial records add more: the Bureau of Land Management's General Land Office records[14], Find a Grave, which lists eight cemeteries with Spurlin in their names[25] (see Spurlin cemeteries), and the Historical Marker Database, which transcribes nine markers and memorials that name a Spurlin[26] (see Spurlin historical markers). A fuller list is in Spurlin research resources.

See also

  • 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.
  • "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.
  • Benjamin Spurling of the Cranberry Isles · History mixed
    Benjamin Spurling (1752–1836) was a New Hampshire-born sea captain and Revolutionary War militia corporal. He is described as the first permanent settler of Great Cranberry Island, Maine, founded a long line of Spurlings there, and is buried in the family's Revolutionary War cemetery above Spurling Cove.
  • 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.
  • 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.
  • Federal land patents to Spurlins · History strong
    The Bureau of Land Management's General Land Office records list 94 federal land patents to people surnamed Spurlin, issued between 1823 and 1963. Most are for land in Alabama, Mississippi, Arkansas and Louisiana before the Civil War.
  • James M. Spurlin (Georgia Baptist preacher) · History mixed
    Rev. James M. Spurlin (1802–1887) was a Baptist preacher, ordained in Chambers County, Alabama, who served churches in Randolph County, Alabama, and Troup and Fayette counties, Georgia. He is buried at Antioch Baptist Church in Fayette County, Georgia.
  • 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.
  • Spurlins in the American Civil War · History strong
    Spurlins served on both sides of the Civil War. They included Confederates from North Carolina, Virginia, Georgia, Alabama and Tennessee and Union soldiers from New Hampshire, Iowa, Indiana and Tennessee. This roundup collects service-index records, rosters, pension, pardon and soldiers' home records, and county-history accounts.
  • William Dexter Spurlin (Presbyterian minister) · History strong
    Rev. William Dexter Spurlin (1860–1935), an Alabama-born Southern Presbyterian minister, served churches at Cleveland, Tennessee, Demopolis, Alabama, Monroe, Louisiana, and Laurel, Mississippi.
  • Spurlins in the World Wars · History strong
    Five Army soldiers surnamed Spurlin, from Alabama, Arizona, North Carolina and Texas, appear on the War Department's 1946 lists of World War II dead. Two are buried in American Battle Monuments Commission cemeteries in Italy and the Philippines.
  • Spurlin cemeteries · Places weak
    A roundup of burial grounds named for the Spurlin family on Find a Grave: eight Spurlin cemeteries in Arkansas, Tennessee, Indiana, Kentucky and North Carolina, plus Spurlington- and Spurling-named cemeteries and the graves of notable Spurlins.
  • Spurlin historical markers · History strong
    Nine markers and memorials transcribed in the Historical Marker Database name a Spurlin, from a Georgia church founder of 1842 and an Alabama Masonic officer of 1852 to veterans on Confederate, World War I and Vietnam War memorials.
  • 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.
  • Etymology of the Spurlin surname · The Surname strong
    Scholarly surname dictionaries derive Spurlin, through Spurling and Sparling, from either an Old English personal name (Spyrling) or a Middle English word for a small fish such as the smelt; the popular 'sparrow' explanation belongs to German Sperling.
  • Andrew Barclay Spurling (Spurling variant) · People mixed
    Andrew Barclay Spurling (1833–1906) was a Union cavalry officer from the Cranberry Isles, Maine, and a brevet brigadier general. He received the Medal of Honor for capturing Confederate soldiers near Evergreen, Alabama, in 1865, and is buried in Rosehill Cemetery, Chicago.
  • Charles D. Spurlin (historian) · History mixed
    Charles Dennis Spurlin (1932–2013) was a Texas historian and Victoria College professor. He wrote Texas Volunteers in the Mexican War and a history of Waller's 13th Texas Cavalry Battalion, and edited the Civil War diary of Charles A. Leuschner.
  • 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.
  • Spurlins in Historic American Newspapers · History strong
    The Library of Congress's Chronicling America collection returns thousands of newspaper pages for the Spurlin name, from Louisiana politics in 1886 and an Indiana 'ghost' lawsuit in 1897 to a Texas railroad town named for John L. Spurlin and a runaway locomotive in 1935.
  • Spurlins of Hamilton County, Texas · History strong
    John L. Spurlin (1853–1935), a Hamilton merchant, banker and railroad promoter and a nephew of John H. Reagan, was a founding director of the Hamilton National Bank in 1890 and gave his name to the railroad town of Spurlin in northwestern Hamilton County.
  • 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.

References

  1. ↑ ↑ ↑ Sperling Spurling - Overview — FamilyTreeDNA Spurlin surname project Genealogy
  2. ↑ ↑ Spurlin Surname Meaning & Spurlin Family History — Ancestry.com Reference
  3. ↑ Jeremiah Spurling (1666–1725) (Spurling-233) — WikiTree Genealogy
  4. ↑ Jeremiah Spurling Jr. (1704–1770), Memorial 174776382 — Find a Grave Genealogy
  5. ↑ Jeremiah Spurling (1704–1770) (Spurling-226) — WikiTree Genealogy
  6. ↑ ↑ SPURLIN: A Spurlin Family in America — Higginson Book Company — Publisher's description Commercial
  7. ↑ Benjamin Spurling (1752-1836) — WikiTree Genealogy
  8. ↑ Cranberry Isles — RootsWeb freepages (Mount Desert genealogy) Genealogy
  9. ↑ ↑ "The John Spurlin Family" (article 1011, by Norman Kent Spurling), in The Heritage of Cleveland County (1982) — Internet Archive Book
  10. ↑ Spurlin Spurling Sparlin Sparling — Y-DNA Results Overview — FamilyTreeDNA Genealogy
  11. ↑ John Spurlin (1780–1851) (Spurlin-100) — WikiTree Genealogy
  12. ↑ William Spurling (1769–1835) (Spurling-593) — WikiTree Genealogy
  13. ↑ Rev James M. Spurlin (1802–1887) — Find a Grave Memorial — Antioch Baptist Church Cemetery, Woolsey, Fayette County, Georgia; biography and family links Genealogy
  14. ↑ ↑ GLO Records search: patents, name "Spurlin", results 1–100 — Bureau of Land Management — 101 results, read Sept. 2026; each card gives patentee, date, state, county, document type and accession number Government
  15. ↑ Spurlin Surname Origin, Meaning & Last Name History — Forebears Reference
  16. ↑ Military History Online Genealogy — North Carolina, 16th Infantry roster Reference
  17. ↑ Obituaries - Spurlin / Spurling — Shelby County Indiana Genealogy Genealogy
  18. ↑ Andrew Barclay Spurling — Wikipedia Reference
  19. ↑ Rev William Dexter Spurlin (1860–1935) — Find a Grave Memorial — transcribes a biography from the World's Fair issue of the Monroe (La.) Evening News, 15 May 1893 Genealogy
  20. ↑ Mary Jane Spurlin — Wikipedia Reference
  21. ↑ Gold Star Veterans: Spurlin — Honor States — 10 results, of which 6 are Spurlin (1 Vietnam, 5 WWII) and 4 Spurling; private-sector archive Reference
  22. ↑ Spurlin Genealogy — WikiTree — Surname page listing 361 Spurlin profiles, September 2026 Genealogy
  23. ↑ Spurlin Family History — FamilySearch Genealogy
  24. ↑ Search For Soldiers — Civil War Soldiers and Sailors System (National Park Service) Government
  25. ↑ Cemetery search for "spurlin*" — Find a Grave — 8 matching locations, all with Spurlin in the name (September 2026) Genealogy
  26. ↑ Entries containing the word «spurlin» — Historical Marker Database — 9 entries, Sept. 2026; search includes inflectional forms Reference

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Last reviewed 2026-09-24.