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The original Vandergriff’s came from Holland to Brooklyn, NY in 1644. The two brothers who came over were Jacob and Paulus Lendersten Van der Grift. The name means one who lives by a canal or moat.
Late 1770s: Leonard Vandergriff Sr. was in Henry County (Martinsville), VA along with his brother Jacob Vandergriff. I do not know the relationship between these two brothers and myself.
Jacob Vandergriff married Sarah (apparently in Johnston County, NC) and moved to Anderson County (near Oak Ridge/Clinton) Tennessee where they died in 1828. This was my great-great-great-great-grandfather.
Gilbert Vandergriff, who was born in Johnston County, North Carolina in 1768, lived in Hamilton County in the Soddy area until his death. He was my great-great-great-grandfather.
Gilbert Vandergriff had his first son, Gilbert Jr., who married Elizabeth. They had Jacob V. Vandergriff who married Lovie, Margaret who married William Scott, Mary Ann who married Harrison Dowlen, Jane who married a Brown, Hiley Vandergriff, Nancy Vandergriff, and Sarah E. Vandergriff who married a Morrison.
Gilbert had a second son, Joseph Vandergriff (born in 1799), who married Nancy Ann (born in Virginia in 1803). They were my great-great grandparents. Their children were Sarah Vandergriff who married Washington Hixson, Isaac Vandergriff, Dicey who married Francis A. Jackson, Lucinda who married an Andrew W. Evans, Elizabeth who married a Dail, Mary who married James Shannon, James Vandergriff, Nancy who married William McClanahan, Lucretia who married Joel W. Barker, Rebecca who married John C. Hixson, and Hiley who married William Dowlin.
Joseph and Nancy also had my great-grandfather Gilbert W. Vandergriff (born in 1845 in Hamilton County, TN), who married Elizabeth J. Selcer. Elizabeth was the daughter of Absalom Selcer. Gilbert died in Bakewell, TN in 1914 and was buried in the Gray Cemetery in Bakewell, Hamilton County, TN where my grandmother and grandfather are also buried. Gilbert enlisted in the Union Army at Chattanooga on August 2, 1864 at the age of 19. At the time of his death he had nine living children in 1914. They were Maggie Evaline (my great aunt Mag) who married W. N. McGill, Joseph Francis Vandergriff (my grandfather born 10-20-1871), Mrs. Riley Flerl, Lena (my great aunt Lean born 2-24-1884) who married Joe Guider, Absalom M. Vandergriff (born 9-27-1877), Mary Belle Vandergriff (born 8-17-1879 and died in Red Bank in 1-12-1981 at the age of 101) and John Vandergriff (my Uncle John, Grandfather’s younger brother); Nancy E. (born about 1874 who married Warren Windham of Daisy; Alfred D. Vandergriff (born April 1881 and died as an infant), Elizabeth (born 1889) who married Nicholas McCabe, and Laura L.(born about 1876) who married Gus L. Smith of Oklahoma. Gus Smith was my paternal grandmother’s brother. My cousin indicated that Gus Smith and his wife (Grandfather’s sister Laura) were living in Ft. Smith, Arkansas in the late 1950’s when my grandmother went to visit them on the bus. My great Uncle John, Granddaddy’s youngest sibling, later married Billie and worked as an engineer for the Southern Railroad. He lived in Chattanooga until his death in the 1990s.
My grandfather, Joseph Francis Vandergriff, married Mattie Gertrude Vandergriff, my grandmother, who died November 12, 1968. She was born September 25, 1877 to Dr. J. F. Smith and his wife Rhoda Wimberly Smith. Grandfather died about 1932 according to my cousin and was buried in Bakewell, TN at the Gray Cemetery. They had seven children with my Dad, James Malcolm Vandergriff, being the youngest. He was born March 14, 1915. He married Edwinna Naomi Alford (b. 9-7-20, d. 7-17-87) on December 330, 1939. Dad had a brother Raymond, who married Edna. They had one son, Jimmy Vandergriff. One sister, Watova, died as a young unmarried schoolteacher. Another sister, Annie Inez Ragle, who married Harvey Houston Ragle (b.1-5-06, d.8-21-77) was committe
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