Mt. Vernon Langfords

Fielding Langford was born in Crab Orchard, Lincoln county, Kentucky and lived there with a number of Langford family members. About 12 miles from Crab Orchard, in Rockcastle county, is the town of Mt. Vernon, and there are Langfords living in that town. In the past we have assumed that the two groups of Langfords are related, but YDNA tests show that the male-lines of the two groups do not have a blood relationship, because the two male-lines have different YDNA.

YDNA gives no information about a female link into a family, and that leaves open the possibility that the two groups of Langfords could have a blood relationship via an illegitimate son of a female Langford who took the maiden name of his mother. The illegitimate son would have the YDNA of his father, who would likely be unknown, even though that son was known by his mother's maiden name. Similarly, if one son were adopted instead of being illegitimate, his YDNA would be that of his blood father, even though he was known by the name of his adopted father. In these examples, the common ancestor of the two Langford groups would be the father of a daughter who had an illegitimate son, or the adopted father of an adopted son.

It is the nature of YDNA testing, that the time span going back to a common ancestor could be large, perhaps 4 or 5 generations to 20 or more generations. Thus, if a common ancestor of the Crab Orchard and Mt. Vernon Langfords exists, he probably lived a number of generations before Fielding Langford. He may have lived in Great Britain prior to migrations of some of his descendants (blood or adopted) to the US.

Comments about an adopted or illegitimate relationship between the two groups of Langfords are, of course, speculation.  A more likely situation is that when surnames were adopted in Great Britain, persons not related chose the name Langford or its variant spellings, and their descendants spread throughout Great Britain and, through migration, to the US. Some of those descendants settled in Crab Orchard and Mt. Vernon, having the same surname but no genetic relationship. I've mentioned the possibility of an adoption or illegitimacy relationship with the hope that researchers won't assume there is no relationship of any kind between the two groups but will keep their mind open to the possibility of a social relationship between the two groups.

Even though this blog is focused on the genealogy of Fielding Langford, information about the Mt. Vernon Langfords is being kept in this blog in case it proves useful to persons who research the Mt. Vernon line and/or the Crab Orchard line.

• Mt. Vernon Langford Descendancy Chart
• Book of Langford Descendants of Mt. Vernon 
• The Old Langford house

The Langford families were prominent in the history of Mt. Vernon, and the old Langford house was the scene of interesting activities, ranging from stage coaches, to Indians, to Civil War battles, to  the storage of civic records.

• Liberty's Gold
• Elza's Brain
• Ina Judith Langford