Names We Carry

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Simeon Moore and the Opening of the Western Frontier

What happens when an ancestor seems to turn up everywhere you look?

When Donna Miller began searching for the parents of her third great-grandmother, Catherine Moore Green, she found a collection of online family trees that agreed on almost everything—except the evidence. Then a generous librarian named Marian opened the door to a much bigger story.

Meet Simeon Moore, Catherine's grandfather, a man whose life followed the westward movement of colonial America through Maryland, the Monongahela Valley, frontier Kentucky, and the Falls of the Ohio.

Along the way, his family crossed paths with Daniel Boone, George Rogers Clark, and James Harrod—the founder of Harrodsburg, who also happened to be Simeon's nephew. His sons became involved in the western campaigns of the American Revolution, while Simeon himself helped establish the settlement that became Louisville.

But this isn't simply a story about famous frontiersmen. It's about the rivers that carried families west, the conflicts that reshaped the frontier, and the ordinary people whose lives became intertwined with extraordinary events.

Sometimes, following a family tree means putting down the pedigree charts and picking up a map.

And sometimes, the names we carry aren't people. They're places.

This episode is dedicated to Marian, whose generosity and meticulous research helped open the door to the Moore family story.

In this episode: Genealogical research and documentary evidence; the Potomac, Monongahela, and Ohio rivers; the Proclamation of 1763; Lord Dunmore's War; Harrodsburg and early Kentucky settlement; the western Revolutionary War; George Rogers Clark; and the founding of Louisville.

Names We Carry explores the stories behind our family histories—and the unexpected places they lead us.

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What do a seven-foot musket, a washtub, and a hole used to store potatoes have to do with nearly four hundred years of family history?

In this episode of Names We Carry, Donna follows the story of her ancestor Sarah Woodson, whose family arrived in Virginia in 1619 and survived two devastating attacks on the English settlements along the James River.

According to a Woodson family tradition passed down for generations, Sarah's husband was killed during the 1644 attack, leaving her to defend her children. One son was supposedly hidden beneath an overturned washtub. The other was concealed in a potato hole—and his descendants became known as the “Tater Hole Woodsons.”

There's even an enormous surviving musket associated with the story.

But how much of it can actually be documented?

Donna follows the evidence from seventeenth-century Virginia through generations of Woodsons, Lewises, Adamses, and Triggs, exploring the sometimes-blurry line between documented history, inherited memory, and family legend. Along the way, the Tater Hole branch produces some surprising distant cousins—including Jesse Woodson James.

Because sometimes the most interesting question isn't simply whether a family story happened exactly as we've been told.

It's why a family kept telling it.

In this episode: Sarah and John Woodson • Flowerdew Hundred • the 1622 and 1644 Virginia attacks • the Woodson musket • the Tater Hole and Washtub Woodsons • family tradition and historical evidence • Jesse Woodson James • Virginia and Missouri genealogy

Got something to say to this podcast? Send a voicemail, and you might hear yourself on the next episode!

Welcome to Names We Carry.

In this premiere episode, I’m introducing myself—and the kinds of stories I’ve spent more than a decade uncovering.

It begins with a genealogical brick wall and a road trip to a tiny Kentucky town, where I arrived just days after an 1850s boardinghouse had been demolished. What remained was a pile of old red brick, a souvenir I probably shouldn't have taken, and a family story far more complicated than the one I had gone there to find.

Consider this episode part introduction, part trailer, and a glimpse of what’s ahead: DNA mysteries, forgotten histories, unexpected connections, and the people whose choices still echo through our lives generations later.

Because sometimes the most interesting part of a family tree is what was hiding behind the brick wall.