Pendley/Penley families of North Carolina

A number of Pendley's appear to have emigrated into western North Carolina about 1770 - 1780. The consensus seems to be that they came from the Shenadoah Valley of Virginia and settled in and around Burke Co, Wilkes Co and/or Rutherford Co. Big chunks of the family broke off to go to Kentucky, Indiana, Georgia, and Alabama, but a large branch stayed in North Carolina. This file covers only those descended from those who stayed in North Carolina. We are still trying to sort who belongs to which family and who the ancestors are. A great deal of thanks need to be given to Sandy Prather and Lem Pendley as well as many, many more who have, through their work created this file. There appears to be 2 major groups in this file. The Mitchell Co portion of the family seem to universally use the Pendley spelling, while the rest of the families in the database seem to prefer the Penley spelling. Most of the families residing in North Carolina in 1850 seemed to stay in the state, but a smaller group migrated to Tennessee, Florida, Georgia, Alabama, Texas, California and many other areas. Some of the early information of North Carolina is recorded here under the Early North Carolina Collector

Table of Contents