From my research, I have concluded that there are at least (2) two Hughes families residing in Mason County Virginia during the early 1800’s. One line seemed to be the Israel Hughes / Mary Clark lineage and the other seems to be tied in with the Jesse David Hughes lineage. There is a lot more resources available so far on the Jesse David Hughes line than mine.

One of the goals of this website is to discern whether or not that these really are two different families or branches of one larger family. It is my hope that I can prove the latter.

There is a strong connection between the Hughes of Mason County West Virginia and those of Vermillion County Indiana. According to census and birth notices, I have concluded that sometime between 1810-1830 several Hughes families migrated to Vermillion County. I have even shown where other related families had moved there as late as the 1880’s.

I do not know the appeal for them to move all the way across Ohio and most of Indiana to the Illinois border in the early 1800’s but the evidence is clear. If you have a Hughes ancestor in western Indiana, you may have luck tracing them back to Mason County (West) Virginia.