Warren Native Compiles Genealogy Database

Joanna Anderson Hudson and Richard Hudson.

A Warren native has devoted countless hours to genealogy research and has compiled a massive database, primarily of individuals from Bradley, Calhoun, Cleveland, Dallas, and Lincoln counties. The information is now available on the Internet.

Richard Bruff Hudson, now of Fayetteville, says all those for whom he has records are related, however distantly, to either himself or his wife, Joanna Anderson Hudson, also a Warren native.
Hudson began his research years ago when it meant ordering rolls of microfilm through public libraries.  After running into many dead ends, he put the project aside for about three decades.  About 15 years ago he realized how many resources had become available on the Internet, and his interest was renewed.

Mr. and Mrs Hudson

Doing almost exclusively online research, he has developed information on over 4,000 surnames and almost 40,000 individuals.

He has tracked his Hudson ancestors back as far as 1222 when they were living in Cowlan, Yorkshire, England.

The most interesting fact he has uncovered so far involve one of Joanna’s ancestors.  He discovered her 7th great grandfather was Peregrine White, the first known English child born to the Pilgrims in America.  White was born while the Mayflower lay at anchor in the harbor at Cape Cod.  This ancestor was not previously known to Joanna’s family--at least to recent generations.  Peregrine White’s crib is in the museum at Plymouth, Massachusetts.

Among the 4,000 surnames in Hudson’s records, the most numerous are Hudson, Williams, Johnson, Moseley, Smith, Harrod, Harrelson, Huitt, Langston, Hickman, Parnell, Martin, Thompson, McKinney, Sharp, Wagnon, Hairston, Martin, Clanton, Cotton, Carraway, Bryant, Anderson, Carter, Clements, and Sharp.

Those interested in a link to Hudson’s database may email him at rhudson@uark.edu.