From John Birdsong [email protected]:

Hank,

I appreciate your website. I've often wondered about the origins of our family, and never knew anything about anyone before my great-grandfather. Now I've been able to see how I and my son fit into the family tree.

I'm a 10th generation Birdsong living in Arkansas. There are scores, maybe hundreds, of Birdsong's all over Arkansas, most of whom I do not know. But apparently we are mostly descendants of one Birdsong who came to Arkansas in the mid-1800's. That man was Jesse Richard Birdsong, son of William Birdsong Jr and Susan Stone Birdsong. (Family lore is that Jesse came from Kentucky, but your web site indicates it was Tennessee. Maybe it was right on the border.) Both Jesse Richard and his brother John settled in Arkansas and both are buried, I believe, in Cleburne County Arkansas. John had no sons who lived to pass the name along. (I think he had two sons, but both died in childhood.) He had a daughter who has many descendants in Arkansas.

Jesse Richard Birdsong (1830-1916) married Kizzie Stark (of another well-known Cleburne County pioneer family), and they had six sons and two daughters. One of his sons was George Whitfield Birdsong (1868-1932) (my great-grandfather). From his six sons, Jesse Richard had about 22 grandsons, who evidently dispersed all around the state. One was my grandfather, Bill Tom Birdsong (1899-1993), one of the few who remained in Cleburne County. Those 22 grandsons of Jesse produced hordes of great-grandsons, one of which was my father, Sidney Coleman Birdsong (born 1922, still living in Heber Springs -- Cleburne County --, Arkansas). I was born in Cleburne County and now live in an adjacent county, Faulkner.

And that's why there are so many Birdsong's in Arkansas. Many of us are related only in that Jesse Richard was our great-great-grandfather. I'm in a service business that requires me to travel all over the state. Everywhere I go someone will say, "I'll bet your related to ..this or that... Birdsong here in town.... That's such an unusual name, you'd have to be kin.... Do you know him???????" Of course, I usually don't..... I guess you're accustomed to that, too.

I have a son, Joseph. So, here's how our lineage goes, if I properly interpret the info on your website:

John & Elizabeth Birdsong (1683 ? - 1750 ?) (Virginia)
John Birdsong II (1701-1785) (Virginia)
Major John Birdsong (1733-1790) (Virginia)
General William Birdsong (1764-1850) (Virginia-Tennessee)
William Birdsong Jr (1791-1830) (Tennessee or Kentucky?)
---------Here begins the Arkansas branch of the family-----------
Jesse Richard Birdsong (1830-1916), settled in Cleburne County Arkansas.
.......(Notice that Jesse Richard was born the same year his father died.)
George Whitfield Birdsong (1868-1932) (Cleburne County)
Bill Tom Birdsong (1899-1993) (Cleburne County)
Sidney Coleman Birdsong (born 1922) (Cleburne County)
John Thomas Birdsong (born 1952) (Cleburne County)
Joseph Thomas Birdsong (born 1988) (Faulkner County, AR)

Would you like to have more information about the Arkansas Birdsong's? I have a listing of the children of Jesse Richard and many of his descendants, but it's not in any kind of organized format. What genealogy program do you use? I might try to put my data in your format so your program could read it directly.

Thanks again for all the work you have done.