Family Roots And Residal Local English Branches Of The Tree

A Memory of Belmont.

My great-great grandfather and grandmother emigrated to the U.S. from Belmont in the late 1840's or early 1850. Their names are Thomas Spencer and Nancy McJunkin.
Their son William was born in Philadelphia in early 1850 and the family later moved south and lived the remainder of their lives in Atlanta, Georgia.
Thomas worked in the law courts although I do not believe he studied the law, rather he invented a sort of stenographic shorthand writing and became nicknamed "the judge".
The family lived through the occupation of Atlanta by Gen. Sherman's army and disguised their home as a hospital.
William became involved with the railroads as an engineer. He travelled the routes east and north through the Carolinas from Atlanta. He met a lady from Union South Carolina named after her father who died before she had been born named Harper Roe Thomas. Their only son died as an infant and three daughters grew to adulthood.
Elva Spencer married a man from just across the state line in Shelby, North Carolina which is near the site of a Revolutionary War Battleffield, King's Mountain. As so many ladies do, here, she put her family name on her son and called him by that name while growing up thus, Robert Spencer Howell.
When I was at St. Bartholomew's Hospital in London and introduced myself to my fellows quite a few told me that "Spencer" was not a proper Christian name. When I explained that my first name was Robert, that settled everything.
We love golf, and recently we visited the famous old cemetery in Atlanta where Bobby Jones is buried. As we stood near his tombstone, one of my sons looked around and saw a large stone nearby inscribed "Spencer". I walked over a few steps and found the graves of nearly everyone I have named in this message, including the message that Thomas and Nancy came from Belmont, Lancashire.
We are Anglophiles and would like to identify any local English "cousins" if it were possible.
If, by chance, any of these names ring a bell in someone's memory please leave a message and contact us.
My father was a physician and lived the largest part of his life in Miami, Florida where he is buried as is my grandmother who was a school teacher. I studied in North Carolina and have returned here after working my professional life in Miami as well. I was born during WW II while my father was participating in the invasion of Italy at Salerno. His Army career ended when his hospital was bombed at Anzio and he has hit by shrapnel while performing surgery.
Best wishes , I am sorry but I had written this message earlier and the computer did something which lost the message. When I restarted, I did not notice that the location had shifted to Bromley Cross.
Robert Spencer Howell
rshowell2012@yahoo.com

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