Indexes which will help you locate your ancestor's home

What State was it ?

1769 -1777 The Watauga Association
1777-1784 part of North Carolina
1784-1788 The State of Franklin
1788-1790 part of North Carolina
1790-1796 The territory of the United States, South of the Ohio
1796- The State of Tennessee

Brief Historical Background, 1776-1792

from State of North Carolina Department of Cultural Resources Office of Archives and History
ARCHIVES INFORMATION CIRCULAR
Number 3 [1968, CFWC; GS: Rev. 2002, ACM] Raleigh, North Carolina

On August 22, 1776, the inhabitants living along the Watauga, Holston, and Nolichucky Rivers petitioned the North Carolina Council of Safety for recognition as a part of the governmental structure of North Carolina. The Council of Safety granted the request and, in November 1776, representatives of these westerners arrived in Halifax to claim their seats in the Provincial Congress, then in session drawing up a state constitution. The delegates represented the newly formed "District of Washington." However, the following year, 1777, the "District of Washington" was divided: the part of the "District of Washington" lying in what is now Tennessee became Washington County;1 the newly formed Wilkes County, North Carolina, annexed the remaining part of the "District of Washington."

Washington County comprised roughly the territory west of Wilkes County, North Carolina: bounded to the north by the Virginia line, to the south by the Cherokee Indians’ hunting grounds, and to the west by the Mississippi River. In 1779, the citizens of Washington County established Jonesboro as the county seat. In the same year, Washington County was divided and a new county, Sullivan, formed. Two more counties, Davidson and Greene,2 were formed from Washington in 1783. Sullivan County, which was subdivided in 1787 to form Hawkins County, was made larger by the annexation of a part of Washington County in 1788.

In 1787, Davidson County was subdivided to form Sumner County. The following year, still another county, Tennessee, was formed from Davidson County.

In 1784, the General Assembly of North Carolina, over the objections of many of its members and other prominent citizens of the state, passed an act known as the Act of Cession. This act ceded North Carolina’s

western country to the Continental Congress. However, a principal provision of this act required Congress to pass an act accepting this ceded territory within a year. The Continental Congress did not receive the act from the General Assembly until the last day of its session and therefore never acted upon it. Nonetheless, some of the inhabitants of the western country proceeded to organize themselves as a separate "state," and set about to write a constitution and establish courts and governmental offices. The attempt to establish a new state, undermined by internal rifts  collapsed upon the expiration of the time limit set by the Act of Cession. The territory once more came under the control of North Carolina.

The lack of communication and transportation between the western counties and the more populated areas of North Carolina continued to be a major problem in the governing of the western country. In 1790, the General Assembly once again ceded this region - comprising Washington, Sullivan, Davidson, Greene, Sumner, Hawkins, and Tennessee Counties - to the national government. However, this act of cession retained a part of Washington County for North Carolina. In 1792, the retained area was annexed to Wilkes County. From 1790 to 1796, the ceded area was administered by the United States government. The national government recognized the ceded territory as the State of Tennessee in 1796.

see below for an example of  Land Grants in Tennessee for "Rader" (notice that they were still getting them after the Civil War, 1883)