The Berry Jones and Vernon Kinard family lineage is a lineage filled with acts 
or courage and kindness. From our early ancestors, French Huguenots who stood 
up for their religious beliefs and survived the onslought of the King of 
France to kill all those who refused to give up their strong Christian 
Protestant beliefs and are among the earliest recorded settlers to the U.S. 
and are documented on the Ravenel List in the mid 1600`s in Charleston, SC, t0o 
our Cherokee Indian ancestors who stayed in North Carolina to establish the 
Nation of the Cherokee Indians and refused to be forced to join the Trail of 
Tears, to those who helped to establish the first US schools and homes for the
Cherokee Children, whose parents either did not survive the turmoils 
surrounding the Trail of Tears or whose parents refused to be a part of the 
Trail of Tears, to those who befriended and defended the Cherokee Indians during
many tumultuous years, to the many men who volunteered to fight for our 
country since even before its inception of our Declaration of Independence to
help bring about the creation of the United States of America,to another who 
was too old to fight in the civil war, but who voulnteered to deliver mail to 
and from the front line of soldiers, to those who played a significant role in 
establishing the lumber industry in North Carolina, and many more throughout 
history who have continued to leave us with the legacy of courage and 
kindness; a legacy worthy of passing along to all our decendents through 
stories, documents, and photographs which through my research and 
documentation hope to leave behind for all to know and continue our family 
legacy in their own way, in their own families and communities. 

May one such way be to revive our Cherokee Indian legacy of "story telling".
There was never a meal or gathering or just hanging out on the back patio or in
the yard where we didn't all tell stories, stories that evolved from the
simplest of events of the day. I remember the laughter, crying from laughing so
hard, a way of life for our family. Now, with so many people from so many places
living together, I've noticed this social venue of story telling is all but non
existant in the area I now live. 

Without the social thread of story telling that connect not only families, but
neighbors and colleagues, I find no one to engage in story telling with me. I
want the legacy to live on and encourage everyone to enjoy telling someone a
silly story that comes from an event in your day, embelish as much as is
necessary to enjoy the tears of laughter with another.

I hope you sign our guest book while visiting our family web site. I'm glad you
stopped by!

With Warmest Regards, 

Melanie Berry

This is web site is a compilation of on going research and there are a number 
of inserted documents and invitations to other researchers regarding areas of 
my research where I am stumped, if anyone would like to enjoy participating in 
this project. I always welcome emails if you have any additions or corrections.
Lastly, a couple of fun areas anyone researching may want to explore: there 
are overlapping dates, places, names, and events coinciding with the infamous 
Lowery Gang and one of its most notorious members, a Berry Boy. As I explore 
more of these branches, I`ll post any findings. Also, regarding the Pepin 
lineage on the Berry side, Pepin was the first King of France in circa 900 AD 
from which all kings of France and other surrounding countries come 
from...Most Pepins, having many occasions to want to escape rapidly from 
France sought refuge in Canada and indeed many Pepins along with other french 
nobles and royal families were murdered over the course of 1000+ years. 

Also,the area of land near Paris that the King appointed a Duke to was `Beri` and 
many Berry`s are either from Berry as a nobleman/woman or as a peasant...who 
knows? I am searching our Berry`s and Pepin`s from time to 
time. It would be interesting to find, in France during the 1600`s and before 
the Postell`s ties to other families while in France. It is possible that the 
Berry`s and Postell`s were connected geographically if not socially while in 
France. 

On a final note for fun: Any ladies out there accused of having 
Princess tendencies? Well, Hogeny Motes was the first full blooded Cherokee 
Indian I`ve found in our lineage (the French Huguenot settlers were known to 
befriend the Cherokees more than the English settlers in the 1600`s) and I do 
believe that Princes Pocahontas was a Cherokee from that general area. Again, 
have fun!

Note for Researchers: Our Brick Wall, Ezekiel Berry:
I have posted a Blog for Ezekiel Berry, an MSN Group, and a Google Group for 
Ezekiel, seeking to share primary documentation form others-not chat forums. 
Also, I have extra documtation on him, just let me know and I will send it to 
you. My goal is to now get as much of my research as possible on different web 
sites and in different countries. Lastly, I believe Ezekiel my have "Gone West" 
not too long after the War of 1812 and encourage curious folks to explore that 
venue, too.