MR. GREENE GENES
© 2025 Terry Harmon
Just to be clear, this article is not about Mr. Green Jeans of Captain Kangaroo fame; rather, it’s an accurate portrayal of myself as I am descended three times from a particular Greene family. Granted, in these hills and hollars of Appalachia, it’s not uncommon to have your genetic wires crossed like that. Genealogists use terms like “endogamy” and “pedigree collapse” to describe it. I have, on occasion, said my tree doesn’t fork, and that it’s more like a spork. Some refer to their family trees as “family wreaths.” But my favorite, which I recently happened upon, is that my family tree is like a hula hoop – circular rather than vertical, and a little bit loopy.
The Greenes, one of the earliest and most prolific families in present-day Watauga County, North Carolina, descends from my 6x great-grandparents, Jeremiah Green, Sr. and his wife Joanna, New Jersey natives, who relocated to Rowan County, North Carolina by the 1750s. The surname was originally Green, while practically all of their current descendants spell the name Greene. I was once asked how the additional “e” came into play, and I offered a theory that, as the Greens acquired wealth over time, they were able to buy an extra vowel!
Jeremiah and Joanna had a large family of children, five of whom – Richard, John, Jeremiah Jr., Joanna, and Sarah – moved northwest to the Blue Ridge Mountains shortly after the American Revolution and settled across a vast area – Richard in present-day Blowing Rock, John in what is now Boone, Jeremiah further west in the Cove Creek community, and Joanna and Sarah even a bit further west in what became known as Zionville. Soon, these five and their spouses became fruitful and multiplied. The total number of their children was at least 30, and the subsequent generation consisted of more than 260 grandchildren. By the time all of these were born, it was the early 1840s, and Watauga County would still not be established for several years. Granted, all of these did not stay in the area, but many did, and in the almost 190 years since that time, the descendants have multiplied like grains of sand, spilling over into practically every community in the county. For those who have local ancestry stretching to that era, most are descended from this Greene family and often more than once. In support of my earlier admission that my tree doesn’t fully fork, I am descended once from Jeremiah Jr. and twice from his sister Joanna.
A scan of a local phone book (do those still exist?) confirms Greene as one of the most frequently occurring surnames, and a few years ago, while in one of our local drugstores, I saw baskets of prescription medications awaiting pickup, most of which were labeled with ranges of alphabet letters (for example, “Ba-Bi” and “Mc-Mh”). Two baskets, however, had full surnames spelled out – “Green/Greene/Greer” and “Harmon/Hayes.” I took this as further confirmation that there are a lot of local residents by those names. Or maybe they just need lots of meds. 
At any rate, I’m proud of my Greene genes and to be a part of this pioneering family. Now, pass me my pills!