John Gaw

On Sunday I started exploring the Gaw side on my maternal family tree, and quickly traced the family back to John Gaw. He was originally from South Carolina, and had moved with his father's family to Jackson County, Tennessee. In the 1836 Tennessee Early Tax list, John Gaw appears with his brother Wiley and father Thomas in Jackson County, Tennessee.

Ancestry, Tennessee Early Tax List, 1836. Jackson County, Tennessee.

John Gaw appears in the North Carolina and Tennessee Early Land Records database, for acquiring two 50 acre tracts of land in Jackson County, Tennessee in April 1835. One of those tracts was neighboring land owned by his father Thomas.

John married Nancy Pridemore sometime before 1830. They had at least the following children (I may be missing some):
- Andrew Jackson Gaw (born 1830)
- Francis Marion Gaw (born 31 Oct 1831, died 11 March 1897 in Denton County, Texas)
- Mary Ann Gaw (born about 1834)
- Elizabeth Gaw (born about 1835)
- Arminda Gaw (born about 1837)
- Franklin Gaw (born about 1839)
- Sarah E. Gaw (born about 1840)
- Judah Emeline Gaw (born June 1845, died 1914 in Overton County, Tennessee)
- Martha Amanda Gaw (born 14 Jul 1847, died September 1915)

Several researchers note John and Nancy divorced in 1855, I am in discussions with a Gaw researcher who has more information. I hope to have more on this very soon.

I have seen some researchers who list John's death in 1863, and he may have been a casualty to the Civil War.

John's father Thomas Gaw has quite an extensive history in Tennessee, and I will have more on that in upcoming posts.