Duncan - Hensley - Briggs

In starting on proving that Robert Bruce line, that takes me to a branch of my tree I am not that familiar with. I grew up talking about Duncan's, Baldwin's, and Cowden's and I am familiar with some of that family history but now I crawl up the Hensley line and that brings me to North Carolina records. I have a good idea about the geography I am working with in Tennessee and this past summer I learned the counties of Virginia I needed to be familiar with. Now I venture into North Carolina territory and find the Hensley's a bit more elusive. I have birth date information on them but finding the proof is the work I am doing now. I have been trying to find cemeteries and census records and after a complete day of working on these surnames, finally I found a 1840 census record for Bannister Hensley. On this record he is "Banister" so this weekend I will work on trying a variety of spellings for him as I am sure this was probably an oft misspelled name. So anyway there was one find today.

Bannister Hensley born 1811, married Jane Briggs, Yancey County, NC.
Their daughter Martha Jane married William F Duncan.
Bannister's parents were Henry Halen Hensley and Barbara Angel.

This will take me back to searching all of those cemetery listings, I remember seeing a lot of Angel's. I suppose it helps to have a chart laying in front of you when you are knee deep in research.