We are now building family pages for each family

Now looking for information/family ties to father of James Helton and which Peter Helton son/grandson or brother was James' father.

Helton Family History

There are numerous branches of the Hilton/Helton family but DNA research has revealed that the original European Hiltons were probably of Viking origin. These Viking Ancestors came to England around 787 AD and discovered America around 1000 AD. Hilton castle, in England, built around 1072 AD, was built on land given to Henry Hilton as pension for the Death of his father, Sir Launcelot de Hilton, who assisted King Henry in repelling the invasion of William the Conqueror.

In 1621, William Hilton-the Founding Father of New Hampshire, came to America on the Mayflower supply ship "Fortune". The Mayflower had arrived in America a year earlier, and had carried more passengers than supplies. The "Fortune" found more than half of the original Mayflower settlers dead or dying and its resupply efforts were critical to the Plymouth settlement's survival.

DNA Testing of Helton's in America show that the Helton line in America actually came to America more than 5,000 years ago during the last Ice Age or about 4,400 years before William Hilton arrived. These early Helton's came across the land bridge between Russia and Alaska. Many of these original Native American Helton's used the name "Hilton" until they were told the correct spelling was "Helton". Census records for early Hiltons would change from Hilton to Helton from census to census depending on the handwriting analysis of the census taker. Both Abraham Helton and James Helton are listed as Hilton's and Helton's in consecutive Census'.

These Native American Helton's probably took white wives and took the last names of their wives to become Helton's. While the thought of a "Barking Chicken Helton" may sound like the punch line of an old off-color joke from our childhood, this name, and other similar names exist in the Helton Family tree.

While Helton's and Hilton's can be found throughout the original 13 Colonies, their numbers are sufficiently limited that it makes tracing family lineage easier than some family surnames. Making verified, substantiated connections between brothers, fathers, sons and daughters is somewhat more difficult.

A large number of Helton's thrived during the 1600's and 1700's in Virginia, North Carolina, and South Carolina and from there they seem to have spread to Georgia, and Tennessee. There were numerous Helton's who came from Orange County, North Carolina. Orange County, North Carolina (Hillsborough) is west of Durham, NC and east of Greensboro and Winston-Salem. For those deep southerners who think everything North Of South Carolina fought on the wrong side of the "Great War", Hillsborough is about an 8 day mule ride due east of Knoxville. While we are just beginning to research these North Carolina Helton's in detail, we may find that these Helton's came from other settlements along the coastline.

As more Helton's perform DNA Testing we may find a single individual to blame for all of our inadequacies. However, finding these original Helton's may eventually display a location-based spider web that spreads from a few central locations to populate all of North America.

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