Cliffords

I started working on the family history and genealogy of my Clifford ancestors in 1965 (see Chart 1: "Direct-line ancestors of Ralph Zinn Clifford, #1346"). This was two years after my father died. His parents separated when he was about five and he knew little about his Clifford family. One picture and a few stories were all I knew about my grandfather Hugh McCune Clifford. And I had no information on Hugh's ancestors. I knew of no Clifford cousins.

Now, many years later, I have found Clifford cousins. Some had their triumphs: they acquired vast areas of land and became rich; they founded churches; they were daguerreotypists; they were Generals; they were Secretaries of the Navy; they were elected to Congress; they owned oil wells in the middle of cities; they were accomplished musicians; they treasured $20 sets of silver spoons; they came over the Allegheny Mountains on horseback; they floated down the Ohio River to Kentucky; they came to Kansas in covered wagons. Some had their tragedies: they had almost whole families wiped out by diphtheria; they were killed working on the railroad; they drowned during the famous 1889 Johnstown Flood; they lost the title to their land; they were captured by Senecas; they went bankrupt; they gave their lives during wars; they were captured by the Japanese and interned in the Philippines.

And some it would seem played a great game of hide-and-seek with their descendants. The surnames of my father's four grandparents are Clifford, Redick, Peterson and Zinn. This report deals with the Cliffords. Our Clifford origins in the British Isles remains a mystery to me. [BUT SEE YORKSHIRE UPDATE, AUGUST 2005, AT BEGINING OF GENERATION ONE.] And, as echoed by the Epigraph, even some of the early Clifford relationships in New Jersey seem problematic. I have offered an "alternate genealogy" to account for some of these New Jersey Clifford relationships. Also, the specific "Clifford-White-Beavers complex" of eighteenth century New Jersey may not be completely resolvable at this late date. I have put more emphasis on three of Charles and Jane (Gordon) Clifford's children than has hitherto been done in genealogical reports of the Westmoreland County Cliffords. These three children were Edward, Robert and Mary Clifford (Whitsett), all probably dying within a 20 mile radius of Cynthiana, Kentucky.

Our Cliffords were in North America before the turn of the eighteenth century. I wish I could say I traced our Clifford ancestors back to the Conquest in 1060 when the family's Norman name was Pons or Ponz, but I have not done this nor spent much time trying to. And, who knows, perhaps for our Cliffords it can not be done—surnames can be acquired in many ways, not all indicating a blood relationship.

My numbering system has features of both the two "standard" numbering systems: that of the National Genealogical Society Quarterly System and the Registry System. Both systems treat generations horizontally, using three types of numbers for each individual: (1) an unique identification number (Arabic) for individuals; (2) a small roman numeral that indicates, if known, the birth order of the child within a specific family; and (3) a superscript generation number indicating the generation of the person in question, with the progenitor of the line in North America being assigned the superscript Arabic number one. A plus sign in front of a child' name means the child is carried over and more detailed information follows under the child's identification number later in the text.

At this writing in 2003, almost all census years have been indexed and are available online. Although census records can be fraught with errors, they are still a valuable sources of information, especially for amateur genealogists tracing ancestors who have left few readily available records. For certain families, census records were my only source. Also I felt it would be instructive to add census data to information in a few valuable books that Clifford workers frequently cite, namely Maxwell (1895), Lytle (1909) and Sönn (1948). I found reported occupations to be especially valuable. Dates usually do not conger up an image of a person. But it is not so easy to forget the image we will have formed (rightfully or wrongfully) by knowing the person's occupation.

I included a separate References section, but have arbitrarily included in this References section only sources often cited in the text and end notes in author-date format. Otherwise, I cited the complete source in end notes.

In 1999, I published two volumes on my mother's ancestors: Clifford, H. F. 1999. The Oil Creek Flemings of Venango County, Pennsylvania, with the surname ”Fleming” and the surname ”McClintock” updated for the web 2005. The volume here on the Cliffords and the small forthcoming volume on the "Zinns, Redicks and Lytles" will complete the set. What a rewarding experience the search for my ancestors has been. Hopefully, what is presented here will some day be considered valuable by my descendants and other relatives and at least will be informative to workers with an interest in the various lines. I am sure that workers in the future will fill in many of the gaps in our genealogy evident from this treatise.

(April 2006 update) All web site versions are now online:
Oil Creek Flemings.
Oil Creek McClintocks and Culbertsons.
Oil Creek (and Westmoreland County) Jamisons.
Oil Creek Lytles.
Oil Creek Hendersons.
Oil Creek Watsons and Morrisons.
Ancestors and descendants of Conrad Zinn.

Possibly our Clifford ancestors can be traced to this Norman Clifford family, but at this writing, I have no evidence that we are related to these Pons Cliffords, who generally have well-researched genealogies, at least through the 16th Century. Surnames are acquired in various ways, not always through a blood relationship. For example, the Irish (Gaelic) surname Cluvane (or Clumhain or O'Clumhain) has sometimes been anglicized to Clifford. Also during the Middle Ages, people might take the name of the "lord of the manor," with at least no legitimate blood relationship.