Penny Ferguson

Penny was reluctant to put anything on my website concerning her own life and family. She is a dedicated family and Appalachian researcher and is also a volunteer in our records project she has donated her time and money in our project and we are very fortunate to have her on our team.

Penny was born in Hyden Kentucky, Leslie County.  Her family has been in the Appalachian Mountains of Kentucky for 200 years, her many surnames can be found in Knox, Harlan, Clay, Letcher, Owsley, and Perry Counties, usually the counties changing, the families not moving.  Penny was the 13th child in her family; she mentions that she was lucky they gave her a name and not a number.

 

Quoting Penny, "I visited with Martha Collins and William Grohse several times, and went to the auction when they sold Martha Collins home and contents in Sneedville, Tennessee. 
Although there are a lot of Melungeon descendants in eastern Kentucky, they were never referred to as such, they were thought of in the community as “Indian,” or as my mother said about the left handed, banjo picker named Collins, from Thousandsticks, in Leslie County, 'I don’t know what he was, but he sure was good looking.'"

 

Penny has two daughters, two grandsons, a granddaughter, and another grandchild on the way.  She is a Realtor and has been for 18 years.
 
She is pictured here in Rebel Hollow, in Hancock County Tennessee, "her favorite place over there."

See "Timeline" http://www.jgoins.com/webtimeline.htm

 

 

JG

Family stories say that 5 men were hung in Rebel Hollow during the Civil War.  They were hung from the same tree, all Melungeons or married into Melungeon families.  Current research has shown that some named in these stories were not hung there, but shot at a different location, research is ongoing about this.

 

Strange things seem to happen in Rebel Hollow.  Do you see a face in this picture, in the water?   In the below picture this light showed up.  Neither of these were noticed when the pictures were taken.