Most of us have found that researching the early settlers of Tennessee can be quite perplexing. Although Tennessee didn't become a bona fide state until 1796, many of the eastern counties were formed much earlier than that date. Washington County was the first to be formed in 1777, then came Sullivan (from Washington) in 1779, Greene (Washington) in 1783, and then Hawkins was formed in 1786 from Sullivan.

History books tell us that these four counties were in the "Southwest Territory" or "Territory South of the Ohio" which was created around May 1790. By direction of the territorial governor, militia captains took a census in July 1791, the county lines had not changed from 1790.

What does this mean to you as a researcher? Many things. The one thing is that if you find your ancestor in say Greene County in the early 1790's but in Cocke in the early 1800's, they didn't necessarily pack up their families and move. Depending on the area of Cocke they lived in between 1790 and 1800, they could have lived in the following counties:  Greene (1783), Jefferson (1792) or Cocke (1797). Are you having fun yet?

The maps below are an effort to show boundary changes of some of the East Tennessee counties in 1790 and 1800. The top map shows the current boundaries and is put here for you to compare " now and then". These maps are not perfect but should give you a perspective of what the county lines were roughly in 1790 and 1800.