An Introduction to the Book:
250 Years of Kitts Family History (1769-2019)
The genesis of this book stems from the recent flurry of activity for the 225th anniversary of the state of Tennessee. As news stories popped up about the founding of the state, I naturally wondered how John Kitts (Götz) would have felt realizing that he lived by and defended a wooden fort called Nashborough, a structure eventually germinating the largest city in Tennessee. This thought encouraged me to create this compilation to celebrate the Kitts family’s days in colonial America onward.
My objective is to gather in a single place major pieces of Kitts family genealogy and corroborating documents of early Kitts history. This book contains the foundational Kitts family history produced in 1958 by Ferol Frost Hubbs and the tremendous work by those seemingly tireless genealogists Verla Barr and Brenda Waldron. For these three women, the present Kitts family members (and the generations to come) should be eternally grateful. Their dogged endurance to make logical sense out of the clutter of marriage, census and estate records cannot be underestimated. Their natural tenancy to hunt down and bag pieces of historical evidence would make a rugged pioneer like John Kitts (Götz) very proud. Surely, John’s twin spirit of curiosity and perseverance lives on in these three resolute descendants of his. It is to these historians that this collection is dedicated.
I have entitled this work 250 Years of Kitts Family History (1769-2019) and this collection splits into two parts. The first division highlights the contemporary situation of the Kitts family history as we presently understand it. An overview of four key genealogical websites will be initially provided to let the reader know of the significant resources available. The rest of the first division is Verla Barr and Brenda Waldron‘s excellent book entitled Kitts Legacy Primer. The reader will quickly discover how Barr and Waldron have carefully combed through old courthouse documents to reveal historical nuggets and then painstakingly attempted to put the puzzle pieces together. I also credit Ginger Kitts for taking the time to create an “East Tennessee Descendants of Peter Kitts” addendum to the Kitts Legacy Primer. This listing is based solely on the material found in the Kitts Legacy Primer, except for the inclusion of a group of Ferol Frost Hubbs’ ancestors to show where her branch connects.
The second division of the book provides the foundational research that has guided the Kitts family’s genealogists as they unearthed documentary treasures. This division is written chronologically from the most recent to the oldest. The reader will walk through two important pieces of historical research before viewing photocopies of primary documents significant to the Kitts family’s heritage. The initial piece of research is the 2000 article from the East Tennessee Historical Society’s journal Tennessee Ancestors where documented evidence was carefully presented to connect the well-established family line of Peter Kitts and Elizabeth Wyrick of Grainger County, TN with Peter’s father John Kitts (Götz). Next, the foundational family history of Ferol Frost Hubbs (FFH) is included. FFH’s monumental, genealogical research was published in her book entitled Hubbs-Frost and Allied Families. Later in 1958, she published The Frost History Supplement that provided a collection of court records and oral traditions of the Kitts family living in Virginia and Tennessee. The reader should appreciate that FFH’s research was pre-internet and she relied on correspondence with people in faraway county seats who generously transcribed the handwritten court documents. FFH also relied also upon oral family histories as evidenced by her quotes from letters written by various branches of Kitts cousins. Furthermore, I have included photocopies of written correspondence between FFH and Betty Lee Kitts Wilkerson during 1959 and 1960. In these letters, one will read some of the unresolved genealogical issues that were present immediately after FFH book’s publication. As a reminder, FFH’s short history supplement in 1958 was the only known Kitts history written before the expansive work of Verla Barr and Brenda Waldron in 2014. The second division concludes with copies of important historical documents from mostly government records concerning the Kitts family of Southwest Virginia and East Tennessee.
It is my aspiration that the reader will spend some time examining this collection and will leave with a better understanding of the Kitts family’s heritage. Ultimately, I hope this compilation will help ensure that future generations will have a deeper appreciation of the legacy given to them.
Dr. David G. Kitts
“Hog Day” 2022
(April 6, 2022)
My objective is to gather in a single place major pieces of Kitts family genealogy and corroborating documents of early Kitts history. This book contains the foundational Kitts family history produced in 1958 by Ferol Frost Hubbs and the tremendous work by those seemingly tireless genealogists Verla Barr and Brenda Waldron. For these three women, the present Kitts family members (and the generations to come) should be eternally grateful. Their dogged endurance to make logical sense out of the clutter of marriage, census and estate records cannot be underestimated. Their natural tenancy to hunt down and bag pieces of historical evidence would make a rugged pioneer like John Kitts (Götz) very proud. Surely, John’s twin spirit of curiosity and perseverance lives on in these three resolute descendants of his. It is to these historians that this collection is dedicated.
I have entitled this work 250 Years of Kitts Family History (1769-2019) and this collection splits into two parts. The first division highlights the contemporary situation of the Kitts family history as we presently understand it. An overview of four key genealogical websites will be initially provided to let the reader know of the significant resources available. The rest of the first division is Verla Barr and Brenda Waldron‘s excellent book entitled Kitts Legacy Primer. The reader will quickly discover how Barr and Waldron have carefully combed through old courthouse documents to reveal historical nuggets and then painstakingly attempted to put the puzzle pieces together. I also credit Ginger Kitts for taking the time to create an “East Tennessee Descendants of Peter Kitts” addendum to the Kitts Legacy Primer. This listing is based solely on the material found in the Kitts Legacy Primer, except for the inclusion of a group of Ferol Frost Hubbs’ ancestors to show where her branch connects.
The second division of the book provides the foundational research that has guided the Kitts family’s genealogists as they unearthed documentary treasures. This division is written chronologically from the most recent to the oldest. The reader will walk through two important pieces of historical research before viewing photocopies of primary documents significant to the Kitts family’s heritage. The initial piece of research is the 2000 article from the East Tennessee Historical Society’s journal Tennessee Ancestors where documented evidence was carefully presented to connect the well-established family line of Peter Kitts and Elizabeth Wyrick of Grainger County, TN with Peter’s father John Kitts (Götz). Next, the foundational family history of Ferol Frost Hubbs (FFH) is included. FFH’s monumental, genealogical research was published in her book entitled Hubbs-Frost and Allied Families. Later in 1958, she published The Frost History Supplement that provided a collection of court records and oral traditions of the Kitts family living in Virginia and Tennessee. The reader should appreciate that FFH’s research was pre-internet and she relied on correspondence with people in faraway county seats who generously transcribed the handwritten court documents. FFH also relied also upon oral family histories as evidenced by her quotes from letters written by various branches of Kitts cousins. Furthermore, I have included photocopies of written correspondence between FFH and Betty Lee Kitts Wilkerson during 1959 and 1960. In these letters, one will read some of the unresolved genealogical issues that were present immediately after FFH book’s publication. As a reminder, FFH’s short history supplement in 1958 was the only known Kitts history written before the expansive work of Verla Barr and Brenda Waldron in 2014. The second division concludes with copies of important historical documents from mostly government records concerning the Kitts family of Southwest Virginia and East Tennessee.
It is my aspiration that the reader will spend some time examining this collection and will leave with a better understanding of the Kitts family’s heritage. Ultimately, I hope this compilation will help ensure that future generations will have a deeper appreciation of the legacy given to them.
Dr. David G. Kitts
“Hog Day” 2022
(April 6, 2022)