PRINCE FAMILIES

USA & Around The World

Salute To Our Veterans

 

Many of our Princes stop about late 1700's, but we are diligently searching for those illusive parents in order to stretch our lines back further. We do not know yet, where everyone connects, but these pages will show our ancestors as we know them now.

The Prince families came to the Colonies, some in the early 1600's, and from their initial landings, have spread out across the United States. Some came with money, so there are records to be found. They had land, so we are able to find land deeds, wills, records of political activities, church records, tax records. Some came with only a dream of what could be. Some of the early records also list Princes as "convicts", shipped to the colonies. Their "crimes" were petty, but the King of England, did not see them that way. Some just owed money and couldn't pay their debts.

These Princes worked hard to carve a life here. Some of them, also left records. There are still many records that have not been found. Sometimes the wills found still leaves questions as to how do some of the heirs fit into the family.

Over the 300 plus years that the Prince name has been in this country, many records have been lost. The wars that took place along the Eastern seaboard, destroyed some of the record depositories. Natural disasters, fires, also took their toll. Many of these early records will never be found. Many of the Princes were just downright illusive, evading the census, and leaving no records of any sort.

In searching for our ancestors, when we cannot locate information put down in writing, sometimes, strong circumstantial evidence will point to a certain family line that perhaps could be ours. Items considered were locations, migration patterns, common names, and time frames. Some of the connections will likely never be confirmed, so we are left with "probable ancestor" in our lines.

As more frontiers were opened, Princes moved west into territory that became some of our northern states. Ever pushing westward, some followed the Oregon Trail to the Northwest, the trail of the "49ers" to the gold fields of California. They fought the British again in 1812, fought the Indians, both in the east and the west. They were on both sides of the Civil War, and charged up San Juan Hill with Teddy Roosevelt. They lost family to the wars, the Indians, sickness and disease. They suffered through drought and poor crops and rejoiced with rain and good crops, the good times and the bad. This is our heritage, our family. These tough, resilient early immigrants to a strange unknown land and the tough pioneers that pushed the boundaries of our country from coast to coast, have made us as we are today, their lives and memories are a part of our lives.

These pages of information about our Princes are dedicated to the memory of those Princes who came before us, the Honorable Gentlemen, the laborers, the sharecroppers, merchants, seaman, and our loveable rogues, who sometimes indulged in occupations on the other side of the law. To our Prince Warriors, who fought in many wars, Revolutionary Soldiers and the Tories and Loyalists, the Confederates and the Union, World Wars I and II, Korea, Vietnam, and Desert Storm, down through the years and presently are still serving their country in Iraq and Afghanistan. GOD BLESS, WE SALUTE YOU!!


The Prince research group was formed in 1997 to help each other with these searches. If you are visiting our pages and have a Prince hanging from a branch in your family tree, we invite you to join our group on PRINCE-L. You may hold the key to one of our dead ends!. Or.... perhaps..... one of your new cousins will have the key you need! The Prince Message board has many entries. Perhaps an answer is there. Post your query here, maybe there is someone with the answer out there.

These links will take you to some of the information we have discovered in our searches.

Many of us have "family stories" of a "great great grandmother" or other ancestor that was "full blooded Indian". Here are a few tips for your search. Indian Heritage Research Tips Keep in mind, the search could be a long one, unless you get lucky and find the person you are searching for on one of the government rolls, as our Native American families did not keep the types of paper records our Euro ancestors did. Many of the family stories mention the Cherokee. This is my favorite legend regarding the Cherokee Origins

As we are researching our ancestors, we find them by documents or census, first in one place, then in another. How many times have we stopped to think, “They were here, now they are there, but how did they get from “here” to “there”? If we use the context of the time period, we can build a scenario of how they got from one place to another. This little article explores those concepts, and hopefully will give someone a “feel” for the way our ancestors had to travel in the 1600, 1700, 1800's.

First of all, they could not just call up Mayflower or United, or any of the present day movers, tell them where to come to, to pack up their belongings and take to a new place and unload. They could not then, call a cab to take them to the airport, to whisk away in a silver airplane to their new home. Or they couldn’t just hop in the car with the kids and make it a vacation trip to their new home. Their mode of travel was a lot longer, harder, and much more dangerous, than the way we would move today.

Many times the move to a new place held danger. Life in a new place for our ancestors was not easy. Take a..... Glimpse Into The Past...as we go Rafting A River,, over the mountains with a Pack Horse, cross the prairies with a Wagon Train.

It was not an easy life, carving a home out of the wilderness, as our Frontier Settlers did. When they decided on a place and a destination, land had to be cleared and prepared for Building A Settler's Cabin . As more people moved into an area, Early Churches and Early Schools were built. Little towns were formed as a general store, blacksmith shop and other small business men moved into the area to provide for the needs of the folks settled there. Small farms were carved out of the wilderness. In the spring the cleared fields were plowed with horses or mules, with the farmer following behind the plow. Following the plow, someone was dropping the seeds by hand, covering the seeds in the trench left by the plow, by raking the dirt from the sides, over the seeds, with their feet.

Through the summer the seeds poked their heads through the ground. The family worked the fields, chopping the weeds from between the rows as the cotton plants grew. Late summer the plants had grown large and started blooming. It would not be long now. Crops were harvested, gardens grown and food put up to feed the families during the coming winter. Wood was cut and stacked for heat and cooking. Foodstuffs they could not grow themselves, trades were made with the store keepers. When the winters closed in on those pioneer cabins, most activity was inside where a warm fire blazed in the fireplace. Outside chores were mostly trudging through the snows to the barn to feed the animals. Inside the barn, it smelled of hay and the warm smell of the animals. It was somewhat warmer than outside as the body heat of the animals helped. Water was hauled from the well, to fill the troughs, and the skim of ice broken, so they could drink. Hay was thrown down from above, the cows milked twice a day, with the barn cats getting warm steaming milk poured in their dishes. With the children busy with learning their lessons, the Quilting could begin in a corner of the cabin. In secret, Mama and Daddy would start preparations for their Christmas presents for the children, who in turn, being very quiet but amid lots of giggling, made the presents for their parents and each other.

Here are the homepages of some of our PRINCE-L cousins. Please visit to see if you have a Prince that will connect. You may find a cousin through one of the collateral familes.

Raymond Prince

Dick Prince

Tammy Sharp

Denis Graham

Ethel Taylor

Family of John Curtis Prince

Jim Parsons

Gale Prince Nash

Visit old Fort Prince, SC

2005 Prince List Reunion, Chattanooga TN

Before you leave, please sign our guest book. Thank you for visiting. We hope you found something to help.


View Our Guest Book

 

Sign Our Guest Book

Copyright 1997-2012
Web page update March 11, 2012

Homepage Pride Award

These pages composed, compiled by Ethel Taylor. Information supplied by Prince descendents. These pages may be linked to, copied for personal use only. They may not be duplicated on other sites or for commercial purposes.