The Searcy Family History
Five centuries of a family, drawn as one long move — out of the Old World, across the Atlantic, and down through the American South to the corner of the map where every line finally meets.
Two old-world lines — English gentry and Swiss patricians — cross an ocean and travel two thousand miles of frontier to converge on one Alabama city.
Positions follow real geography but the map is lightly schematic, drawn for the story rather than to exact scale.
The route, stop by stop
Barbara Needham steps off the ship she boarded against everyone's advice — the family's first footfall in America.
The DeGraffenreid and Baker families settle the south-side frontier at Lunenburg and Amelia.
The Searcys are on the Carolina frontier; the surname is documented here before mid-century.
The Rorie and Hubbard lines move west across the mountains into Tennessee.
Freeman Jones Searcy is born — the great-great-grandfather through whom the surname descends.
In one twenty-mile corner of northeast Mississippi, the Searcy, Rorie, and Marlar lines converge.
DeWayne is born — the point where five centuries and every line finally come together.