Vanessa WoodA new article, “Freeman Modglin or Truman Modglin? One Man, One Name, and A Two-Hundred-Year-Old Error,” is now available in print and an online in the Tennessee Genealogical Society’s Ansearchin’ News.1 Our man Modglin moved from North Carolina to settle in Wilson County, Tennessee.
This last week I took an exciting genealogy road trip. We saw the North and the South. We drove from the East coast across the Mississippi to the West. I visited several locations and researched at four repositories.
The culmination of the trip was the visit to the Tennessee State Library and Archives in Nashville, Tennessee. I held a 1809 legislative petition that bears Mr. Modglin’s name. Petitions are a bit tricky… are they signed by the individual or did someone else write the name? Regardless, the signer represented the name as they thought it should be spelled or pronounced.
The original 1809 document supports the conclusions drawn through the several documents that mention this Mr. Modglin. Looks like family trees will be minus one man named Modglin.
FEATURED IMAGE: Vanessa Wood, “Log Structure,” The Homeplace, Land Between the Lakes, Tennessee, 2025.
Image: Vanessa Wood, “Tennessee State Library and Archives,” Nashville, Tennessee, 2025.
- Vanessa Wood, “Freeman Modglin or Truman Modglin? One Man, One Name, and A Two-Hundred-Year-Old Error,” Tennessee Genealogical Society, Ansearchin’ News 72 (Spring 2025), 48.
