Nathan and Lorena Hudson Godwin of Lowndes Co., AL

This has been a very busy and probably unproductive week of genealogy research. I decided to revisit the family of Nathan Godwin and Lorena Hudson of Lowndes Co., AL. I entered this family into my family tree database. Nathan Godwin was born about 1807 in NC. Lorena Hudson was born about 1812 in NC. They had several children. most of whom I pulled from census reports as living in Nathan and Lorena Godwin's household in Lowndes Co., AL. Specific birth and death dates provided by a user-submitted family tree, The Kathryn Burns Family Tree by kate_415:

Children of Nathan and Lorena Godwin:
Nathan Godwin 1809-1867
Jonathan Godwin 1832-1834
Fanny Godwin, b. abt 1833
Joel Godwin 1835-1836
Mary Godwin, b. abt. 1837
Henry Godwin, b. abt 1838
Polly Godwin, b. abt 1838
Nancy Godwin, b. abt 1840
Enoch Godwin, 1842-1900
David Godwin, 1843-1926
Nathan Godwin, 1845-1846
Lorena Godwin, 1847-1934
George Godwin, 1850-1880
Elizabeth Godwin, 1854-1934

This family is of interest to me because the DNA of 3 descendants of this line matched my grandfather's DNA 100% on the 37-marker test. We also matched several other Godwin lines from NC.  You can read about these matches in my post: Our Godwin DNA Results.

I thought there was plenty of information on this line already published in message boards and online family trees, however to my surprise, when I did a search I found little information.

I did, however, make some progress. I learned that I could search records in ancestry.com from my Family Tree Maker software much faster than I could in Internet Explorer. I have blogged about some of the advantages of this here.

I collected census report information for all Hudson/Hutson families in Randolph Co., NC between 1790 and 1840 and added them to my tree and wrote a post about them entitled "Hudson Family Census Reports, Randolph Co., NC, 1790-1840."  I ended up with 3 John Hudson men enumerated on different census reports. I was not sure if any of them were one and the same, therefore, I added them as 3 separate individuals in my tree according to their appearances on the census reports. I also added information from my Godwin/ North Carolina excel database's records that mentioned any Hudson/Hutson men of Randolph Co., NC. At this time, I've only collected deed records and a couple of estate records. Sometimes deeds can be just as important as wills and estate records because familial relationships might be mentioned at any time. This is a certainly a move in the right direction. I have been so frustrated with myself for the past few years because I collect tons of materials from the Archives and then I never do anything with them! I'm trying to change that!

My goal is to find the parents of Lorena Hudson who married Nathan Godwin. I believe that this Nathan Godwin and my Nathan Godwin are connected somehow. I also believe that there are close ties between the Godwin and Hudson families of Randolph Co., NC, as well as Sampson Co., where my Godwin family was living in the late 1700s prior to their removal to Randolph Co., NC. DNA already proves there is a genetic connection. Now I just have to find the paper trail!