Turnage Family History
"The Children of Thunor" 
G
eorge Turnage Junior was born in Essex County (shire), England. He is the Founding Father of our family in America. A copy of his baptism record is printed in the book Turnage Family History, Volume I, published in 1996 by the Turnage Family Association. You can read more about George Senior and our Turnage relatives in England in the above book. To date, I have not found any other records on George Junior until he appears in the English Colony of North Carolina in 1711.George Jr. is the ancestor of all Turnages and descendants in America today. No other Turnage has thus far been found who came from England to America after him until modern times.
George Jr. married Elizabeth White. Both George Turnage Jr. and Elizabeth witnessed the will of her father written in 1725 in North Carolina. The family remained in Bertie County in northeastern North Carolina until 1738. His descendants are scattered all over the world today and number more than an estimated 50,000 kinfolk.
Ever since I discovered the birth record of George Turnage Junior several years ago, I have been trying to reconcile all the records I have found in North Carolina on "George". It appears that the English George Jr. also had a son named George. It is highly unlikely, considering the life span in that period averaged in the 40's, that the English George Jr. lived until the 1760's: that would have made him more than 90 years old. I believe that George Jr. died in the 1730's and his children then moved from Bertie County to what is now Pitt County -- then part of Craven District.
The George who received a Colonial land grant in Craven District in 1738 was actually the son of George Jr. and all the records from thence to the 1760's were for George Jr. III. Among the children of George III were George (IV), James, William Sr., Luke and Thomas. However, there are no records which name all his children and no daughters are known to date.
Previous published reports by another relative stated our Turnage ancestors moved around a lot: from Bertie to Craven County, to Johnston County and finally to Pitt County. This is not true: the idea is due to a lack of knowledge about development of North Carolina counties. In 1738, Craven District covered a huge area which later became parts of many counties. New counties were constantly being created: our ancestors didn't move a lot, the name of the place where they lived simply changed. Johnston County was created in 1746. After Pitt County was created in 1760, we don't find any records of Turnages in other counties until they actually moved there. Because our family has lived there since 1738, we can consider Pitt County as our American ancestral home. There are still many Turnages and their descendants living in Pitt County--some on land that has been in the family since the 1700's.
The first actual move by the family from Pitt County was just across the creek into what is now Greene County but was then part of Johnston County, later part of old Dobbs County--which was renamed Glasgow County briefly and finally split into Greene and Lenoir counties in 1791. It is easy to see how some of our relatives have been confused by all the changes of names for one location. One historian who failed to know this even stated the family lived in New Bern. Actually, New Bern was a county capitol and seat of the New Bern District (which covered several counties), where court sessions were held. They did visit there to serve on juries and as witnesses in court cases but they never lived there until the late 1900's.
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