Following retirement, and living only a few miles from the North Carolina Archives, I began tracing my King lineage in 1984. After countless hours of searching I was able to connect my King line, through ten generations, to Michael King who patented land in Nansemond County Virginia in 1667. In this search, in addition to records at the Archives, I referred to several family histories which had been published and which lead to this same Michael King. Two of these Family histories had been published in the William and Mary Quarterly. They were not in complete agreement. Others published privately drew considerably on information found in the William and Mary Quarterly. The authors of the histories shown in the Quarterly were not given.

Nansemond County Virginia is a "burned" county. There are practically no surviving county records for the period of time when Michael King lived there. All information in regard to him is found mainly in the Bible record of Solomon King, a great grandson, who died in Gates County in 1795. This Bible record is the one and only source of information on Michael King prior to his being granted land in 1667. Any claims prior to this date have not been verified. The Bible record of Solomon King has been published in The Virginia Magazine of History and Biography. In the Bible account Solomon names his father, his grandfather and finally Michael King, the immigrant.

Using patents found in both the Colonies of Virginia and North Carolina, Colonial Records of North Carolina, other land records, deeds, wills, estate papers, processioning records, tax records, certain State records and other material I have been able to work through the loss of Nansemond County records. This would not have been possible without the Bible record. I have been able to verify the several links Solomon claimed to Michael King, the immigrant. What I have uncovered differs in a number of instances from what has been claimed by others. I believe I can show that what I am presenting is accurate.

In addition to connecting Solomon King to Michael I have expanded my search to identify the family connections for the name King in what is now Gates and Bertie Counties as well as Duplin and Sampson Counties in North Carolina. I have done limited research in Guilford and Cumberland Counties. There were Kings in other counties, however I have not studied these. I did not search in North Carolina after about 1830, at which time my King ancestors were in Monroe County Tennessee.

I put a lot of this information together in a publication titled "Some Descendants of Michael King of Nansemond County, Virginia 1667-1987". This was mainly for the benefit of my descendants. I have done additional research since then and have found that some changes need to be made. I do not plan to revise the book until my research is complete.

hankking@aol.com

HLK