Introduction To Chancey Heritage
Who were our ancestors? Where did they come from? Why did they first leave their homes? What was the legacy they wanted to pass on to us, their descendants? These are only a few of the questions that I asked myself when I first set out to research my heritage. I soon learned that the answers were not that easily available. Most of the family members who I interviewed had the same questions. Presented here are the answers to many of these questions for only a handful of our ancestors. The results are from more than eleven years of research, several thousand miles of travel, and more motel rooms than I care to remember. Finally yet importantly, there are the wonderful stories about our ancestors passed-on to me from the many interviews of newfound relatives and friends. You will find many of them re-told throughout this site.
The information contained within this site comes from numerous sources. First, there were personal interviews conducted with relatives and friends of relatives. These interviews prompted me to visit the Clerk of Court offices located in Georgia, North Florida, and Central Florida in search of marriage, land, and probate records. In many instances, the Clerks of Court had passed their historical records on to the local Genealogical Societies, which became my next invaluable source of information. The Latter Day Saints (LDS) Family History Centers and public libraries became my next stop. Finally, I received numerous family histories and records, many containing entries without reference to their source, by U.S. mail and e-mail.
Although by birthright, I carry the Chancey surname; I am also a descendent of a great many other surname families such as the Severans and Severance, Brooking and Brookins, Walker, Osteen, Williams, Wright and the list goes on.
A number of the anecdotes, and tales passed on to me by relatives over the past several years were so interesting that they are being included in this Web Site without any verification, so please regard them as “stories,” and not “history.”