Who I Thought I Was - My Judd Family

I love the show Who Do You Think You Are and now that it is over for the season, Friday nights are just not the same.  This year's shows were even better than last year's in that I felt like they were a bit more focused on the process of genealogy rather than just the results.  Also, while I realize that there were people behind the scenes who did most of the actual research, the celebrities were more involved in finding and interpreting some of the documents.  

When the list of celebrities for this past season was announced, I was so excited!  There in the list was the name Ashley Judd!  Now, I do like Ashley Judd, but being a fan was not the reason for my excitement.  I was anxious for her episode because I was hoping that the focus would be on the Judd side of her family.

Ashley's Judd ancestors were in Ashland, Kentucky which is about 75 miles east of Maysville, Kentucky, where my Judd ancestors lived in the 1800's.  My Daniel Judd, who was born about 1772 in Harford County, Maryland was in the Mason County, Kentucky area early enough to be married there in 1796 to Rachel Nower, whose family had also traveled from Harford County.   Surely there was some connection between my Judds and Ashley's Judds.

Of course, as we now know, the show did not focus on her Judd ancestors and while I enjoyed her search for her father's roots, I was a bit disappointed.  Spurred on by Ashley's remark that she already knew all about the Judd side of her family, and by my hope of finding a connection, I turned to the Internet to see if there was a Judd pedigree online.  

I did find one, but as luck would have it, there is no immediate or apparent connection.  Her Judd family came to Kentucky from Connecticut, not Maryland and I had not heard of any of her family members.  However, this discovery brought to mind questions that can now, hopefully, guide my Judd research.

I know that Daniel's father was William and his mother was Ann Pogue.  William was born about 1737 in St. George Parish, Harford County, Maryland, and he died across the river from Kentucky, in Clermont County, Ohio.  Ann was born about 1742, but I do not know where.  William's father was another Daniel; his mother was Sarah Fowler.  While Sarah was born in the Bush River area of Maryland in 1704, I have no knowledge of Daniel's place or year of birth.  He and Sarah were married in St. George's Parish about 1736.  This information leads to these questions -

1.  Maybe I need to investigate some of the Connecticut Judd families.  Could my earliest Daniel have 

     come to Maryland from Connecticut?  If so, why?

2.  What were the geographical boundaries of the area during the early 1700's?  Could this be part of the 

     answer?

3.  What are the variations of the name Judd that might have been the "real" name of my family?  Could 

     it be that I am looking at the "wrong" name?

4.  I have found evidence of a Michael Judd in Baltimore during the 1700's, yet no connection between 

     him and my Judd family.  Could looking into this Michael's family bring me any answers to my Judd 

    questions?

5.  Finding information from that time is difficult.  I am nowhere near the Maryland area.  What 

     resources are available to me?

6.  For what reasons would families travel to that area of Kentucky from Maryland?  Or from 

     Connecticut?  Did my William Judd receive Ohio land for Revolutionary War service and did his son 

     just happen to go to Kentucky?  Daniel would have been in his late teens when he left Maryland.  

     Did he go with his father to Ohio or did he follow the Nower's to Kentucky?   

These are just some of the questions that are floating around in my head for further research.  Of course, since I promised myself that I would finish the task of cleaning up my source list in Reunion 9, I will have to wait before actually looking for answers.  I have found that this is actually a good thing.  This way, I am forced to just sit back, rethink, analyze, and when I am ready, maybe I will research smarter and more efficiently.