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Despite recent DNA confirmation that we Kemps are of the VA-NC-SC Camp family line, we are yet to find the documentarial 'smoking gun' of Kemp Genealogy. The circumstantial evidence that our Nathan Camp/Kemp is the son of Edward Camp/Kemp continues to mount up as the years pass. Some of the most unarguable clues are: 1) documents in the Franklin Co., GA archives in which Edward Camp witnesses for the alters clan (Nathan's wife was Nancy Walters); 2) Nathan was named for his namesake, Edward's brother, Nathan Camp and he also named his first son Edward after his father; 3) Edward is known to have had up to three unknown children in the 1770s by his first wife (Nathan was born in 1774 in NC); 4) If the name discepancy bothers you (it bothered us all at first) legal documents give Edward and Nathan as Camp and Kemp, sometimes with both spellings in the same document; 5) Many more, if you want to add to this list, please email the webmaster. |
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Nathan Camp was born in either Rutherford or Rockingham Counties, NC. The Thomas Camp III line moved from VA and settled in Rutherford County in the 1700s. I must admit with shame that I lived in Greensboro, Guilford County, NC for seven years and did not go to Rockingham County, which was the next county above) to see what could be found. After the DNA tests were done, the point seemed moot (but I wish I had ruled the possibility out nonetheless). |
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We know that Nathan Camp's first wife Nancy Walters Camp died around 1810 or so because he sold his Franklin Co., GA property and moved his brood to Madison County, AL (then Mississippi Territory) before he married Margery Brashears in 1813 with whom he had another impressive gaggle of Kemps. We have not yet found the burial place for Nancy in Franklin County, GA or Madison Co., AL. I have searched the cemeteries and county burial records, but have only tried to contact just a few of the Walters/Waters family genes to see if they record her birth and death. No luck yet. |
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This issue is shared by me and some of my second- and third-cousins descended from Eddie and Mollie Kemp of Adamsville, TN. They are the great grandparents of myself and grandparents of my second-cousin Tom Kemp of Berea, KY. When they died in the 1950s, the death certificates report Adamsville Cemetery as burial site, but there were no stones laid. This required some detective work by myself and second-cousin Bob Wilkins who lives in that area. I noticed that Eddie's wife's parents, the Combs, had a plot in the center of the cemetery which had two rows: the first for Mollie's parents and Eddie & Mollie's infant child Ira, and second row which had no stones at all. The Combs plot is surrounded by "C" corner stones. We have deduced that Mollie, Eddie, and another infant son, Oran are buried in the other row of three plots. A few years ago, 'Uncle Tom' and I financed some small dated stones and 'Uncle Bob' and I placed them over Eddie, Mollie and Oran's believed graves. Two noteworthy wrinkles to the mystery: 1) all four of Eddie & Mollie adult sons were alive and nearby in the 1950s and none of them marked their parents graves; my grandaddy reportedly said, upon receiving the remaining burial bill: "Let him buy his own damn stone!" 2) the Adamsville Cemetery keeper at the time of their deaths was himself a Kemp cousin. I have reason to believe that Eddie Kemp was not 'popular' among his West TN family. |
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While settling West Tennesse quite a few Shultz married up with Kemps including my great-great-great-great-grandparents, Joseph W and Janey Shultz Kemp. Not much is known about Janey or Jincy Shultz, but that she was born in KY. We are hoping to know more about her Shultz background some day. |
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This is perhaps the grayest area in our line perhaps because it is the most distant. Sources report that Lawrence Camp(e), a wealthy weaver, bought into one or two of the companies that settled the new world - in particular Virginia's early colony. Supposedly, our Thomas Camp I who came over from England was a nephew of Lawrence which English records don't show as having a son of his own. There are a few other theories about the father of Thomas Camp I in England, a William and Mary Farmer Camp with dates in the 1500s, but the gap is too much of a stretch to be believable. |
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I'm sure that one of our NKN contributors over the years has the data for such a family tree, but none has offered it yet. It is stated in some research that Allen H. Kemp may have been an adopted boy, rather than a son of Nathan and Nancy Camp/Kemp. |
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Ditto. This Susannah Kemp, daughter of our Nathan, probably married the brother or cousin of Janey Shultz Kemp mentioned up in mystery #5. Please fill us in if you have this reclusive information. |
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Well what do you know? Another daughter of Nathan Camp - Betty - married to a Shultz boy. Please let us know what obscure database you have on this line. |
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This James Kemp is the youngest son of our Nathan and the only one born after they moved to Tenessee in the 1820s. All the rest of Nathan and Margery Brashears Kemp's children were born in Madison Co., AL and all of Nathan and Nancy Camp's kids were born in Franklin Co., GA or SC. |
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One of the eldest of Margery and Nathan's crew, John Coffey Kemp went down to settle central Arkansas near the end of Nathan's natural life. John Coffey is buried with his family in Sunshine, AR and we were given some really old photos of his group logging the virgin timber in the 1800s. But no one has given us the definitive family tree yet. |
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These next three Kemps are children of my great-great grandparents, Joseph Alton and Elizabeth English Kemp. We were given several family photos of Chester May Kemp's family in TN and their burial plot at Bethlehem Cemetery is right next to the plot I have claimed for my family - a beautiful site near a spreading old tree in view of Joseph and Elizabeth Kemp and several of their children as well as Joseph Alton's mother, Capt. Nathan MacDonald Kemp's first wife, Adeline Brassfield Kemp, who is my great-great-great grandmother. Ms. Agnes Scott of Adamsville has told me stories about the stern Elizabeth, her grandmother, who she knew until her death in 1930. Chester May Kemp's complete family tree would be appreciated. Chester May Kemp Family Group Sheet |
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Asa Baudy Kemp is the youngest brother of Chest May Kemp, #12, and his granddaughter Geraldine told me a lot about him and his family. All his photos show a painfully thin man and he is buried on the far side at Bethlehem Cemetery near his sons and their wives. We know his sons and wives, but need a complete family database. Asa Baudy Kemp Family Group Sheet |
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Another of Joseph Alton Kemp's sons is buried on the far side of Adamsville Cemetery, between Eddie and Mollie, my great grandparents and his sister and her husband, Hattie Lee Kemp and Tommy Phillips. But other than the photo of Nicklos and Edith Patterson Kemp's gravesite, nothing has been discovered despite many attempts by 'Uncle Bob' Wilkins. He queried all of the Pattersons in the area that he knew or could find and none had a clue about Nick and Edith. No children or any of their photos have been found despite living in Adamsville until Nick's death in 1932 and Edith's in 1977! This one slipped down into the crack I think, but perhaps the death certificates can be found which should name surviving children if any. Its an idea, any takers? This is one of the most inexplicable cases of the TN Kemps. |
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In my three or four journeys up into Virginia, I found a spite of Revolutionary War and Civil War Battlefield Parks, as well as learning the sad fact from one of the local historians there that a majority of the colonial burial grounds were destroyed beyond measure by the mass of artillery in those seminal conflagrations. The courthouses which stored the records we need to paint a better picture of our first American Camps also fell victim to the firey campaigns that purged our nation's most embattled commonwealth. I found little or nothing in the counties where our Camp ancestors settled English land grants, namely, Culpepper and Orange Counties in Northern VA, and King & Queen County further south where Thomas's line relocated. Other than a colonial burial ground (Metapony Cemetery) with several 'Kemps' and the courthouse deeds of Thomas and Ambrose Camp of Culpepper county, we need more information about this pivotal period when English Camps landed and slowly migrated south and then west. |
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It is held by Camp Genealogists hold that Thomas Camp III's daughter Ruth, who he mentions in his 1798 will, had a Bible which evidently recorded the names, marriages, and deaths of the immediate family. It is too much to hope that grandson Nathan would be mentioned there, but I would like to know what is contained in this elusive artifact. Can anyone find scans of this family hierloom or tell us to whom it has passed down to in the Camp family? |
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While searching in the Anderson County Library in South Carolina, I came upon a booklet compiled by a descendant of Prudence Camp Watkins - this led me to her burial ground, one of Nathan's 'unknown sisters' outside Anderson, SC. In the text, as well as showing convincing proof of Edward Camp and David Watkins' geographical affinity in both NC and SC, the author mentioned a Camp/Watkins relative in Texas who had a list of Edward's 'unknown' children from the 1770s. You guessed it - our Nathan and his Prudence Camp are one of those. But unfortunately, when I called him, he could not produce the relative or the list which is duly filed under the 'legend' category along with the conch shell that Nathan Camp's namesake and uncle brought from the Battle of King's Mountain after he and his riflers mowed down English commander Ferguson turning the tide of the battle and the American Revolution itself. It will stay there until someone shows us otherwise.... |
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