Dr. Marshall Wingfield was widely regarded as the foremost authority on the history and genealogy of Franklin County, Virginia. Although his manuscript on the pioneer families of Franklin County--with references to nearly 15,000 persons--was completed in 1939, it remained unpublished until 1964, when the Virginia Book Company of Berryville, Virginia, issued it with the consent of Dr. Wingfield's widow. Now that the original edition of the Wingfield work is out of print, Clearfield Company has arranged to reprint it by special courtesy of the Virginia Book Company. If your Franklin County ancestor is among the following families, here is one book you cannot afford to do without: Akers, Bernard, Boone, Booth, Bowman, Brodie, Brown, Cahill, Callaway, Carper, Claiborne, Cooper, Craghead, Davis, Dillard, Dillon, Dudley, Early, Ferguson, Finney, Fishburn, Glass, Goode, Greer, Hancock, (Thomas) Hancock, Harper, Hill, Hook, Hopkins, (Charles) Hopkins, James, Jamison, Laprade, Lavinder, Lee, McNiel, Marshall, Martin, Mitchell, Montgomery, Motley-Martin, Naff (Naeff, Knaff), Nelson, Peters, Pinkard, Powell-Payne, Price, Prillaman, Prunty, Ross, Saunders, Swanson-Muse, Taliaferro, Tate, Tinsley, Turner, Walker, Webster, and Wingfield.

" ... about 1740, four brothers ... came to America ... from the County of Armagh and Province of Ulster, Ireland. Their names were George, John, William the 1st, and James Shearer. One settled in New York, two in Pennsylvania, and one in South Carolina. ... One of these brothers is the father of James Shearer 2nd ..."--Pg. 7

William Akers was born in 1730 in New Jersey. He married Elizabeth Martye. They settled in Virginia and had 11 children and he died in 1810. His descendants through his grandson Samuel and his son Archibald are the subjects of this family history.

Vol 1 905p Vol 2 961p.

Census listings for the Bishop family of Floyd and Montgomery Counties in Virginia, most of which are descendants of Hans Johannes Bishoff and Margaretha Overmeyer. Census listings from 1830-1930, annotated with additional genealogical information about the families.

Byrds are known to have settled in Franklin County as early as 1747. William J.O. ("Deck") Bird, a son of Vincent M. Bird, married Mary Susan Byrd in Franklin County in 1885. Their descendants lived in Virginia, West Virginia, Maryland, and elsewhere.

Leonard Helm, Sr. (1660-1745) immigrated from England (possibly via Barbados) to Virginia by 1700, and died in Winchester, Frederick County, Virginia. Descendants and relatives lived in Virginia, Maryland, Illinois, Missouri, Washington, California and elsewhere.

Johann Diel Bohne (later Boone) was born in 1711 in Germany. He emigrated in 1741 and settled in Frizelberg, Carroll County, Maryland. He married Mary Magdalena Burrier in 1804. They had nine children. Descendants and relatives lived in Maryland, Virginia, Tennessee and elsewhere.