Record Atlas
6 eras · 1763–2026 · 74 places

Tennessee - the Overmountain settlements, Franklin and the Southwest Territory

Nashville, Memphis, Knoxville, Chattanooga, Jonesborough, Clarksville. Which empire held this ground in which years — and, the part that matters, which archive that means.

Whose archive this ground was

YearsWho held itWhose archive that means
1763–1776 Indian Reserve (Proclamation of 1763); settlements within North Carolina's bounds no registers survive

The Proclamation of 1763 restricted settlement beyond the mountains, but settlers still moved west; the Watauga Association formed in 1772 within North Carolina's bounds.
1776–1790 State of North Carolina - western counties; the unrecognised State of Franklin FamilySearch · National Archives Catalog (NARA)

Settlers organised the State of Franklin from 1784 to 1788; Congress did not recognise it, and the Franklinites agreed to rejoin North Carolina by early 1789.
1790–1796 Territory of the United States South of the River Ohio (Southwest Territory) FamilySearch · National Archives Catalog (NARA)

North Carolina's legislature voted to cede the settlements on 22 December 1789, Congress accepted on 2 April 1790 and organised the territory on 26 May 1790. In 1790 it had the Washington District (Washington, Sullivan, Greene and Hawkins counties) and the Mero District (Davidson, Sumner and Tennessee counties); Knox and Jefferson counties were created in 1792.
1796–1861 State of Tennessee FamilySearch · National Archives Catalog (NARA)

Admitted as the 16th state on 1 June 1796.
1861–1865 Tennessee - Confederate State, Union-held from 1862 FamilySearch · National Archives Catalog (NARA)

Tennessee declared secession on 7 May 1861 and voters ratified it on 8 June 1861. Union forces took Nashville and Memphis in 1862 and the Confederates held East Tennessee, a Unionist area, until Union forces captured it in 1863; Andrew Johnson was appointed military governor in 1862.
1865–2026 State of Tennessee FamilySearch · National Archives Catalog (NARA) · Chronicling America

Tennessee was readmitted to the Union on 24 July 1866. Statewide birth and death registration began in 1908, a 1914 law required registration and full compliance came in 1920; Memphis death records go back to 1 May 1848 and Nashville death records to July 1874.

The rings are approximate — deliberately. They exist to shade which filing system a place fell under, not to adjudicate a border. A place near a ring's edge should be checked against both neighbours.

See the whole span, 1763–2026, on the map →

The map takes a range, and a range that crosses one of the rows above is where records get lost: the family never moved, and the archive on the far side of the handover will tell you it holds nothing.

74 places on this ground

1742 FamilySearch collections reach this ground

Ranked with the regional ones first — a collection for a province is usually a better lead than a national index, though the national index is often where a name is actually written down. A free account opens the images.

…and 1682 more.

All record regions · The map