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Spurlin family lines by state

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.

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This guide summarizes the main Spurlin and Spurling family lines in the United States as they appeared in online trees and published sources in September 2026. Most links between generations come from user-contributed trees such as WikiTree, FamilySearch and Find a Grave. They should be treated as working hypotheses until checked against original records. The public Y-DNA results of the FamilyTreeDNA surname project fall into at least four separate paternal lines (see Spurlin DNA Project), so not every Spurlin descends from the Virginia family described first below[1].

Virginia

  • Westmoreland County. The earliest well-documented ancestor is Jeremiah Spurling of Cople Parish, a cordwainer (shoemaker) and tobacco planter. He died in 1725 or 1726, leaving sons Jeremiah and Thomas and a daughter Sarah[2]. A Jeremiah Spurling still appears on a 1782 list of Westmoreland County slave owners[3].
  • Fairfax County. Jeremiah Jr. (about 1704 – about 1770) was a tenant tobacco planter in Truro Parish from the 1740s[4]. A printed guide to Fairfax County land grants cites a survey showing that he had 108 acres, possibly leased, on the Fitzhugh and Pearson tract near Hunting Creek[5]. His son Jeremiah III (born about 1745; died about 1810 according to his WikiTree biography) stayed in Fairfax County. He bought land in Pittsylvania County in 1793 and 1797, and the biography assumes he meant it for his children, several of whom appear in Pittsylvania records[6]. See Jeremiah Spurling of Colonial Virginia.
  • Hampshire County (now West Virginia). The DNA project groups the Spurlings of Hampshire County with descendants of John Sperling (Sparling, 1752–1807) of New Jersey. This is its Lineage 2, which does not share a recent paternal ancestor with the Jeremiah Spurling lineage[1].

North Carolina

The online trees make three sons of Jeremiah Jr. the founders of the main North Carolina lines. For John, the eldest, that parentage has not been documented.

  • John "Big John" Spurlin (born by 1735, will dated 1822) lived in Orange and Chatham counties by 1770. He was in Richmond County by 1786 and had land on Buffalo Creek in Lincoln County by 1800. He had 23 children by the time of his 1822 will[7]. His son Isaac founded the main Cleveland County line, and his sons Elijah and Jesse also settled in Lincoln, Cleveland and Rutherford counties[7]. See "Big John" Spurling and the Spurlin DNA Project and Spurlins of Cleveland and Rutherford Counties.
  • Zachariah Spurling (about 1749–1837) was in Surry County in 1790 and in Ashe County by 1800[8]. WikiTree has a second profile, Zachariah Spurlin (1769–1837), with the same death date, 20 August 1837, and the same 1790 and 1800 census entries[9]. His descendants spread through Ashe, Alleghany and Wilkes counties. They include John Spurlin (1780–1851), who married in Ashe County in 1810[10]. See Spurlins of Ashe and Alleghany Counties and John Spurlin (1780–1851).
  • William Spurling (about 1752–1819) served in the Fairfax County militia and moved to the newly formed Chatham County by 1772. He died there in 1819[11].

Georgia

Big John's family is the best-documented source of the Georgia lines. According to the 1982 family article, his son William (1769–1835) moved to Pike County and is buried at Old Hebron Cemetery. His son Levi married in Warren County in 1815, and his sons Hugh and Andrew were in Habersham County by 1830[7]. FamilySearch's tree says another son, Jeremiah (1760–1820), married Drucilla Baldwin and died at Warrenton, Warren County[12]. The 1982 article instead says the couple settled in Mississippi, where Drucilla died in Hinds County in 1837[7]. WikiTree makes Jeremiah the father of John Jesse Spurlin (1783–1856), who was born in Richmond County, North Carolina, and died at Macon[13]. In a 2016 genealogy column in The Atlanta Journal-Constitution, Kenneth H. Thomas Jr. identified his own ancestor Nancy Pickard (born 1763) as "fairly clearly" one of the 23 children named in Big John's will. When she and her husband left Warren County about 1807, they sold their land to a neighbor named Jeremiah Spurlin[14]. The 1982 article lists a daughter Nancy who married "a man named Rickhardt"[7]. WikiTree lists William's children as including Curren Happock (1793–1878), who died in Clarke County, Mississippi; Green K. (about 1795–1860), who died in Lafayette County, Arkansas; and James A. (1802–1887) of Pike County[15]. The Find a Grave memorial of the Baptist preacher James M. Spurlin (1802–1887), who served churches in eastern Alabama and western Georgia, names parents whose dates match those the 1982 article gives for Big John's son Elijah and his wife Susannah[16][7]. See Spurlins of early Georgia and Spurlins of Old Hebron Cemetery.

Tennessee

  • East Tennessee. The 1982 article says Big John's son James (born 1770) married Frances "Frankie" Hicks and died after 1850 in Morgan County[7]. WikiTree cites an 1850 census entry for Frances Spurlin, aged 75 and born in North Carolina, in Morgan County, although the profile's own dates for her, 1784–1845, do not fit that record[17]. Their son Richard Green Spurling (1812–1886) married in Anderson County in 1832 and died in Monroe County. His children were born in Fentress, Morgan, McMinn and Maury counties[18]. WikiTree records this branch mostly under the spelling Spurling[18].
  • Smith County. The same article places Big John's son Eli in Smith County in 1820[7].
  • Hardeman County. A James Spurlin (about 1810–1846), whose WikiTree profile gives his birthplace as Hardeman County, moved to Hot Springs, Arkansas, where family tradition says he was killed while serving as a lawman[19]. For the family, see Spurlins of Hardeman County, Tennessee. For the Cumberland Plateau family, see Spurlins of Fentress County, Tennessee.

Kentucky

  • Green and Taylor counties. Two sons of Jeremiah III, William A. Spurling (1769–1857) and Hanson Spurling (1771–1838), moved their families from Virginia to Kentucky about 1816, after their father's estate was settled[20]. William's WikiTree profile says he was buried on his farm about a mile from Spurlington, "a town named for the family"[21]. See Spurlington, Kentucky.
  • Christian County. A William Spurlin (about 1758 – about 1818), born in North Carolina, died in Christian County. His WikiTree profile cites only a Sons of the American Revolution database[22]. See Spurlins of Christian County, Kentucky.
  • From Ashe County. WikiTree lists a William Spurlin (1798–1871), born in Wilkes County, North Carolina, and a son of Zachariah Spurlin of Ashe County, as dying in Kentucky[9].

Alabama

WikiTree's William Spurlin (1806–1888) was born in Warren County, Georgia. He married Elizabeth Kelly in Houston County, Georgia, in 1828 and died in Crenshaw County, Alabama. His sons William (1829–1901) and Riley (1833–1890) died in Coffee County[23]. WikiTree makes this William a son of Jeremiah Spurlin (1781–1870) of Alleghany County, North Carolina[23]. That profile also lists children born in Grayson County, Virginia, and Ashe County, and a wife who died in Owen County, Indiana[24]. The profile thus combines a Georgia-born son with records from North Carolina, Virginia and Indiana, which may belong to two different men named Jeremiah. WikiTree's surname page also shows later families in Clay County and around Albertville in Marshall County[25]. See Spurlins of Coffee County, Alabama.

Texas

  • Bell County. William Rufus Spurlin (1833–1899), son of the James Spurlin who died at Hot Springs, married in Bell County in 1861 and worked as a blacksmith and farmer[26].
  • Coffee County, Alabama, to Texas. Jeremiah J. Spurlin (1825–1865), a son of William Spurlin (1806–1888), married Mary Ann Lindsey in Coffee County in 1844 and died in Texas. WikiTree lists his son George Washington Spurlin (1854–1921)[27]. George W. Spurlin (1854–1921) is the last generation covered by the 1987 family history A Spurlin Family in America, which describes a Texas settlement before the Civil War[28]. See A Spurlin Family in America (1987 genealogy).
  • For other Texas families, see Spurlins of Navarro County, Texas and Spurlins of Hamilton County, Texas.

Indiana

  • Lawrence County. WikiTree lists three daughters of Zachariah Spurlin (1769–1837) of Ashe County as dying in Lawrence County: Sarah (1805–1864), Mary (1811–1899) and Elizabeth (1815–1880). It records that his wife Elizabeth died there in 1829[9].
  • Owen County. The wife of WikiTree's Jeremiah Spurlin (1781–1870), Cloey, is recorded as dying at Marion Mills, Owen County, in 1843[24].
  • Shelby County. WikiTree's Jesse Spurling (1794–1870) was born in Harrison County, Virginia, and died in Shelby County. His mother died in Warren County, Ohio[29]. For the Shelby County family that came from Virginia by way of Ohio, see Spurlins of Shelby County, Indiana.

Separate northern lines

For the New England families, see Spurlins of New Hampshire and Benjamin Spurling of Cranberry Isles. The DNA project's public results page has no lineage group for any New England family[1].

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.
  • 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 Family History in America · History mixed
    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.
  • 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 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 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 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 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 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 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.
  • Spurlington, Kentucky · Places mixed
    Spurlington is a small rural community in Taylor County, Kentucky, northeast of Campbellsville. It was a railroad station with a post office from 1880 to 1958, and it is named for the Spurling family, whose John Spurling Sr. was its first postmaster.
  • 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 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 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 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 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.
  • 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.
  • 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.
  • 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.
  • 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.
  • 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.
  • 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 Clinton Spurlin (Methodist minister) · People strong
    Rev. James Clinton "Clint" Spurlin (1890–1984), born at Ennice, North Carolina, was a Methodist minister in the Holston Conference in southwestern Virginia for 43 years.
  • 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.

References

  1. ↑ ↑ ↑ Spurlin Spurling Sparlin Sparling — Y-DNA Results Overview — FamilyTreeDNA — Public lineage groupings and haplogroups Genealogy
  2. ↑ Jeremiah Spurling (1666–1725) (Spurling-233) — WikiTree Genealogy
  3. ↑ "Slave Owners, Westmoreland County, Va., 1782," The Virginia Magazine of History and Biography, vol. 10 (1902–03), p. 234 — Internet Archive Book
  4. ↑ Jeremiah Spurling (1704–1770) (Spurling-226) — WikiTree Genealogy
  5. ↑ Beginning at a White Oak: Patents and Northern Neck Grants of Fairfax County, Virginia, by Beth Mitchell (1977) — Internet Archive Book
  6. ↑ Jeremiah Spurling (1745–1816) (Spurling-230) — WikiTree Genealogy
  7. ↑ ↑ ↑ ↑ ↑ ↑ ↑ ↑ "The John Spurlin Family" (article 1011, by Norman Kent Spurling), in The Heritage of Cleveland County (1982) — Internet Archive Book
  8. ↑ Zachariah Spurling (1749–1837) (Spurling-225) — WikiTree Genealogy
  9. ↑ ↑ ↑ Zachariah Spurlin (1769–1837) (Spurlin-7) — WikiTree Genealogy
  10. ↑ John Spurlin (1780–1851) (Spurlin-100) — WikiTree Genealogy
  11. ↑ William Spurling (1752–1819) (Spurling-232) — WikiTree Genealogy
  12. ↑ Jeremiah Spurling (1760–1820), LH1S-J8Z — FamilySearch Family Tree Genealogy
  13. ↑ John Jesse Spurlin (1783–1856) (Spurlin-29) — WikiTree Genealogy
  14. ↑ "Ancestors await our discovery," by Kenneth H. Thomas Jr. — The Atlanta Journal-Constitution, 16 January 2016 News
  15. ↑ William Spurling (1769–1835) (Spurling-593) — WikiTree Genealogy
  16. ↑ Rev James M. Spurlin (1802–1887) — Find a Grave Memorial — parents Elijah Spurlin (1771–1845) and Susanah Spurlin (1773–1845) Genealogy
  17. ↑ Frances "Fannie" Hicks (1784–1845) (Hicks-21885) — WikiTree Genealogy
  18. ↑ ↑ Richard Green Spurling (1812–1886) (Spurling-506) — WikiTree Genealogy
  19. ↑ James Spurlin (1810–1846) (Spurlin-52) — WikiTree Genealogy
  20. ↑ Hanson Spurling (1771–1838) (Spurling-278) — WikiTree Genealogy
  21. ↑ William A. Spurling (1769–1857) (Spurling-305) — WikiTree Genealogy
  22. ↑ William Spurlin (abt. 1758 – abt. 1818) (Spurlin-328) — WikiTree Genealogy
  23. ↑ ↑ William Spurlin (1806–1888) (Spurlin-18) — WikiTree Genealogy
  24. ↑ ↑ Jeremiah Spurlin (1781–1870) (Spurlin-99) — WikiTree Genealogy
  25. ↑ Spurlin Genealogy — WikiTree — Surname page listing 361 Spurlin profiles, September 2026 Genealogy
  26. ↑ William Rufus Spurlin (1833–1899) (Spurlin-53) — WikiTree Genealogy
  27. ↑ Jeremiah J. Spurlin (1825–1865) (Spurlin-118) — WikiTree Genealogy
  28. ↑ SPURLIN: A Spurlin Family in America — Higginson Book Company — Publisher's description Commercial
  29. ↑ Jesse Spurling (1794–1870) (Spurling-662) — WikiTree Genealogy

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Last reviewed 2026-09-24.