Why did I (Merrell) write this book?

My great-great-great-grandfather was Jonas Jenkins, Sr., born c. 1772 in Virginia and died in 1856 in Macon County, North Carolina in what is now Bryson City. Like many genealogical researchers, I wanted to know more about my family. As I worked on the family tree (with a lot of help from other researchers), I discovered the impact Jonas Jenkins, Sr. had on the extreme western part of North Carolina. One of those impacts was the large number of descendants. Many residents of Swain and surrounding counties can count him as one of their ancestors.

This series of books of Jonas Jenkins, Sr. Identifies over 14,000 descendants. Are you one of his descendants?

John Jenkins

John Jenkins was born c. 1805 in Tennesse and married Mary Nations in 1825 in Haywood County, North Carolina. The marriage bond for John Jenkins and Mary Nations is on file at the State Archives in Raleigh, North Carolina.

There has been some confusion about the surname of Mary. However, the death certificates of her sons, Francis Marion Jenkins and Jonas Jenkins, as well as her marriage bond, listed her surname as Nations.