Archibald McClurken (1794 - 1853)

Archibald McClurken was the son of Thomas McClurken. He served in the War of 1812, as a private in the South Carolina Militia. He and his brother, James, started the first steam mill in Washington County, Illinois. A biography has been created for Archibald McClurken. See biography.

John McClurkin (1792 - 1874)

John McClurkin was a very religious person. He was an elder and a Charter Member of the Reformed Presbyterian Church in Oakdale, Illinois for 40 years. Two of his sons, three of his grandsons, and a great grandson were ministers of the Reformed Presbyterian Church. A biography has been created for John McClurkin. See biography.

Seven McClurkin Ministers

At least seven McClurkins were ministers of the Reformed Presbyterian Church. Two books, that were published, included sketches of their lives. "History of the Reformed Presbyterian Church in America" included six of them. "Sketches of the Ministers of the Reformed Presbyterian Church of North America from 1888 to 1930" included five from the first book and one additional. Pseudo biographies have been created for these individuals by presenting these sketches. The seven ministers, and links to their biographies, are: Albert Witsius McClurkin, Hugh Park McClurkin, John Johnston McClurkin, John Knox McClurkin, Samuel Rutherford McClurkin, Thaddeus Zwingle McClurkin and Walter Clyde McClurkin. All seven individuals were descendants of Thomas McClurken.

Thomas McClurken Outline Descendant Report Update

Building on the three previous posts, the Outline Descendant Report of Thomas McClurken has now been updated. The number of individuals almost doubled from 166 to 325. Numerous new links have been added. See the updated Outline Descendant Report.

Ancestor Tree Major Update

I have now completed a major update to the ancestor tree. 162 individuals have been added, bringing the new total to 449. A great many facts have been added and all have at least one source. See the update at Ancestor Tree.

Document Sources in FamilyTreeMaker

In 1999, I bought a copy of FamilyTreeMaker and began to load it up with what data that I knew at that time. Pages 109 through 112 of the 514 page instruction book described how to document a source for each fact. I doubt if I ever read that far into the book. The pdf manual that came with the 2005 FamilyTreeMaker used the word "source" only three times in the entire 101 pages and none of these applied to manually entering the source of a fact. Needless to say, I was doing a terrible job of documenting the sources for the data that I had entered.

When I began to use GedHTree, my lack of documented sources became painfully obvious. For the past several months, I have been adding the source information to each fact in the file. I needed a systematic way to do this, so I printed out the alphabetical surname lists available from the GedHTree display. Then I revisited each of the 38 biographies and checked off the names on the lists as each person was completed. When I started, I had 287 individuals in my public file. As this project progressed, the number increased to 449. The Narratives of Randolph County provided most of the additional persons.

I did not just add the source data for the facts that were in the file. As I revisited each source, I added all the facts and sources for all the individuals included in the source. I have over 104 census pages on my website and many others that are not. Some have as many as 11 persons on a page. I also have about 150 other source documents available on my website. Additionally, some sources are on-line, such as, the Illinois State Archives. For each of the individuals buried in the Oakdale Cemetery (on-line website), there were three fact and source entries needed (birth, death and burial).

This has been a monumental task. However, this comprehensive review has brought new facts to the surface and has caused others to be adjusted. Because the biographies are intertwined, all were at least tweaked as a result. I now see what a wonderful tool the FamilyTreeMaker is as an index for all the facts and sources for each individual.

Narratives of Randolph County McC - McM

The Narratives of Randolph County, McC - McM, is a wonderful source of information for descendants of Thomas McClurken. This is a portion of the research of Mrs. Frank Torrens that was "published" in 1958. Original copies can be obtained from the Sparta (Illinois) Public Library. Pages 37 through 83 provide details on 5 generations of descendants of Thomas McClurken. Pages 84 and beyond, are presumed to include details about his siblings. This portion of the document can be viewed at Narratives of Randolph County.