My family tree may not branch out as much as it ought to. Two of my great-grandmothers had the last name of McMahan and I expected them to be related. There were more surprises in store for me.
1. Amanda Melsini McMahan Rolen who married David Crockett Rolen is one of my paternal great-grandmothers. I am also a descendant of Archibald McMahan (who came over from Ireland or Scotland) through at least two ways. Once through great-grandmother Amanda Melsini and also through her husband David Crockett's ancestors as he is a descendant of Joab Rolen. Joab married Archibald's daughter after Archibald raised him. I'll post later about how Joab ended up orphaned at 4 years of age on the banks of Cosby Creek.
2. Ruth Almeda McMahan who married M.C. "Bruff" Derrick was one of my maternal great-grandmothers. Her father was David McMahan and I have not been able to find any information on him... but, I'd imagine he might also be a descendant of Archibald McMahan. I believe he was because my Uncle Fred McMahan (he married Imogene Rolen - this is another intermarriage of McMahan and Rolen) visited the Almeda/Bruff home and openly recognized his kinship with Almeda. Unfortunately, Fred has died and I did not ask about the kinship while I had the time and opportunity.
Ask while there is someone to ask! Don't let information die with the generations. People have told stories as long as we've had language. The stories helped people pass along wisdom, sometimes they were just anecdotes remembering beloved relatives lives.
If I am correct about my family tree, which should fork with each line of generations, I've been given me a double helping of McMahan blood, without considering the Ruth Almeda/David McMahan line which gives me a triple shot of Scots-Irish McMahan bloodline!
Here's more on "the elder" Archibald McMahan:
Archibald, who was thought to be born in Ireland maybe migrated to Pennsylvania about 1762 at the age of 16. He lived in Virginia, North Carolina, Tennessee and Alabama. He applied for Revolutionary War pension at the age of 103 and some sources say he lived to 110. t is believed Archibald McMahan left his home in Ireland and came to America about 1746 to seek his fortune in the wilderness of the new world. Archibald McMahan, then 16 years of age, landed in either the state of Virginia or North Carolina.
"His great grandson Sanders McMahan said "Archibald 'the elder' was born in Scotland and he went to Ireland, met Mary McNulty and married there, then came to America through port of Washington North Carolina and settle Buncombe County, North Carolina.
There is debate over Archibald's given name. Some believe Archibald and Redmond are one in the same, but both names have not been found to be used together. Other researchers believe they were brothers.
During Archibald's lifetime he accumulated quite a bit of wealth and at the time of his death he owned seventeen slaves." This quoted information comes from this smokykin link - I thank my newly discovered distant cousin, David L. Beckwith for the information.
There is an extensively researched McMahan family history at this link.
Here is a site listing all the McMahan family researchers. According to this site there are 12 generations of 5,167 known descendants (7986 if you include spouses) of Archibald "Redmond" McMahan - this is only a partial listing.
