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Mason,
I was intimately involved in production of Woodford Terry's book re James Terry of Jackson County, Tennessee. Woodford was a nearby neighbor and a good and close friend. We both descended from James Terry (Me by way of Frank Terry of Jackson County, Alabama, who is also your ancestor). We worked together for several years and daily for at least a year in production of the book. I literally typed the entire 737 pages into my computer and prepared camera ready copy for the printer. Woodford proofed and read every single word many times in his efforts to enhance its accuracy and to avoid misinterpretation of facts.
The bulk of the book deals with descendants of James Terry. It has a vast amount of information as to who they are/were and consists of a chapter for each of his children and descendant charts of children that Woodford was able to glean from his interviews and correspondence with family members.
Only the first chapter deals with a postulated ancestry of this James Terry.
Your father, Homer Terry, Woodford and and I visited Granville County, NC, and collectively searched dozens of file drawers in a dusty (seemingly abandoned) basement of the courthouse in an effort to establish conclusively the ancestry of our James Terry. We were not able to do so.
While circumstantial evidence could point to Rowland of Granville County as the father of James, Woodford was reluctant to even include such a postulation in the book. We discussed it many times, along with Jay Terry, who I regard as the foremost authority on our line of Terrys. Since many manhours and considerable expense had led us to the point where we were, we finally decided that it should be included in the hope that it would provide a starting point for others to continue the research. The statements in the first chapter of the book are documented to provide a rationale for what is written there - a possible answer to the question of James' parents. They do not provide proof positive that Rowland is the the father of our James nor was it Woodford's intent that such an interpretation should be made.
Woodford's statements in the preface of the book clealy sum up his intentions.
1. "In the first we (sic) chapter [we] present what is believed to be the parentage of our James Terry .... At the outset, it must be clearly understood that proof of the parentage of this man has not been definitely [word underlined] established [e. g. no legal document has been located that specifically designates James Terry of Jackson County, Tennessee as the son of Rowland Terry of Granville County, North Carolina]."
2. Woodford further stated in the preface "Should evidence become available during the author's lifetime which, in his opinion, definitely establishes the parentage of our James, each person holding a copy of this book will be so notified."
Unfortunately no definitive answer to the problem has been uncovered. Woodford died about five years ago and is buried in Jackson County, Tennessee. His wife, Lu, still has copies of the book.
As an aside, the Granville County records are now in better shape since they have been transferred to the NC State Library in Raleigh.
Wm Frank Skidmore
<skid@edge.net>
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