Descendants of John Mappin

Gold was discovered 1828 at Dukes Creek in the Nacoochee Valley near present day Helen, Georgia which prompted America's first gold rush. By the 1880s however, gold mining in North Georgia had seen its best days with many mines closed or in a dilapidated condition. Walter Sandell Mappin, John William Mappin's father and a mining / civil engineer visited the area several times looking for opportunities. In November 1886 the Hamby Mountain Gold Mines Limited was organized in England by a group of investors for the purpose of acquiring a number of properties. Walter Sandell Mappin, a company director and his son John William Mappin, came to Georgia in the Spring of 1887 to restart and improve the mines. John William Mappin stayed on as Superintendent and six months later brought his wife and four young children to Georgia to begin a new life. Today there are many descendants. John William Mappin was my grandmother's first cousin and his descendants are part of a much larger Mappin family with members worldwide. The Mappin family dates to the mid-sixteenth century when a French Huguenot family came to England to escape religious persecution. The first documented ancestor was a Derricke Mappin (1573-1634). The family settled in the Sheffield area and started the English silversmith business, originally crafting silver finger bowls for the rich (at the time fingers were the primary eating utensil). Many members of succeeding generations were silversmiths, cutlers, surgical instrument makers and other related crafts.

Research continues as a work in progress and I encourage contact from family members with new information and / or corrections.

  Descendants of John William MAPPIN
  Surname List
  Index of Names
  Sources (Bibliography)

Contact Information

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Send mail to:
Jim Little, 18581 Durfee Lane, Villa Park, CA 92861 (U.S.A.)

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