Coles Creek in early autumn near the Natchez Trace in Mississippi 2024. Photo taken by the author. Colonial British James Cole & Coles Creek: Family Tradition Meets the Records Was Coles Creek named after my ancestor James Cole? That is the story handed down in my family, but as a genealogist and family historian, I want to get the facts straight, and that meant locating sources and documenting my findings and conclusions. Coles Creek is a natural waterway in present-day Adams and Jefferson Counties, Mississippi. Family tradition, Camilla T. Denys's Cole Foot Prints, and several online family trees associate the creek's name with James Cole (1732-1794), husband of Mar
One of the smaller mounds on top of Emerald Mound on the Natchez Trace near Natchez, Mississippi. Photo by author. Colonial Spanish From Childhood Wonder to Ancient Lives — The Mounds That Stay With You Traveling across the South, you see occasional road signs for Native American Mounds. We try to stop and visit each of them when we come across them. Mounds have been important to me since I was a child. We visited the LSU Campus many times since my father went to LSU, and my parents took us to the football games as soon as we were old enough to walk the long distance from the parking lot to the stadium. Two things on campus were always our favorites: Mike the Tiger and the mounds! At first, we
