David Graham’s History of the Graham Family (1899)

“His­to­ry of the Gra­ham Fam­i­ly” by David Gra­ham
Clay­ton, West Va (1899)

In 1899, David Gra­ham, 78, a grand­son of Colonel James Gra­ham (who built the Gra­ham House in present-day Sum­mers Coun­ty, West Vir­ginia), wrote a his­to­ry of the Gra­ham fam­i­ly as he under­stood it. He relied on the mem­o­ries of rel­a­tives, and on court and civ­il records.

A reprint of 200 copies of this book was issued in 1966. Both edi­tions are dif­fi­cult to find. A pho­to­copied tran­script of the book along with sup­ple­men­tal fam­i­ly group sheets is avail­able. (This tran­script was typed by Susan Gra­ham Red­mond as part of an 859-page geneal­o­gy com­pi­la­tion put togeth­er by William L. Gra­ham of St. Albans, West Vir­ginia.)

To help geneal­o­gists use this valu­able resource, I have pre­pared this online ver­sion. At one point, I scanned the 1982 tran­script of the full text of David Gra­ham’s book, and then com­pared my text to pho­to­copies of micro­film of the orig­i­nal 1899 edi­tion. The present ver­sion has been cor­rect­ed from the orig­i­nal 1899 edi­tion.

The sec­tions cor­re­spond to David Gra­ham’s table of con­tents (which he calls an index), except that items in square brack­ets were not specif­i­cal­ly called out, but have been added by the tran­scriber as a nav­i­ga­tion­al aid. Page num­bers in the orig­i­nal edi­tion are indi­cat­ed in red with­in square brack­ets to aid in cita­tion.

13 thoughts on “David Graham’s History of the Graham Family (1899)”

  1. I am a descen­dant of the Gra­ham fam­i­ly. My grand­fa­ther was William Gra­ham, the twin broth­er of James. I would love to find a copy of this book. My moth­er was Pauline Gra­ham.

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  2. I’m try­ing to find some one to work with regard­ing my Gra­ham. My Grand­moth­er was Willie Lou Gra­ham, dau of James Charles Gra­ham, son of (Samuel) Aaron Gra­ham, son of Samuel Gra­ham (c 1799). Believe Samuel to be the son of Robert and … Delany. I have Robert’s will. Any­one out there????

    Bet­tie in Port Orange, FL

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  3. Does any­one know how to get a copy of this book? My dad, who is 85 had a copy and can­not find it.. Any sug­ges­tions would be appre­ci­at­ed.

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  5. Hel­lo, Col. John Gra­ham is my 6th Great Grand­fa­ther. At a Gra­ham fam­i­ly reunion in Deer­field, Va a few years ago, we were told to con­tact the last pub­lish­er who actu­al­ly print­ed the book but if the pub­lish­er is no longer in busi­ness, you could always print this out and have it bound some­where else. That is what I have done.

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  7. My 3rd great grand­fa­ther name was Samuel Gra­ham Sr., and he mar­ried my 3rd great grand­moth­er Julia Ann Gra­ham (maid­en name Long). He was born in the year of 1836 in Vir­ginia and died in the year of 1891 in Rocky Mount, Edge­combe Coun­ty, North Car­oli­na. I’m try­ing to find out more about his par­ents and sib­lings and would love to know if I come from this lin­eage of the Gra­ham fam­i­ly. I would also like a copy of the book if I can get it please and thank you.

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