We are starting a list of donors to the Tranberg fund and hope more will join us in the future.

Thanks to the following family members:

Jerry Thornburg

Sharon House

Cecil Mae Feather

Richard Harrison

Patricia Stokes

Vance Thornsberry

Ron Thornburgh

Robert Rhoney - Grandson of Uncle Charles Thornburg died yesterday. He was in the garage and fell on his face. There was a big knot on his head but no signs of life after that. He and his wife have been in poor health for a long time.

Cecil Mae Thornburg Feather

News has come to us from a friend that:

Darrell “Preacher” Thornburg, age 60, resident of King’s Mountain, NC died December 4, 2012 at his home. He was son of the late Rev.Hen ry Thornburg and Billie Dean Bookout Thornburg. He was also preceeded in death by his longtime companion Wanda Jordan. Darrell was a Journeyman Iron Worker, a Native American ecthusiast and a talented and creative craftsman.

Survivors are his son, Zachary Thornburg , his daughter Anna Fowler Stepson, Andy Lesley, Brother Mark Thornburg and Sister Vickie Thornburg Hicks.

Darrelll was interred at Mountain Rest Cemetery in Kings Mountain

Erelene E. Thornsberry, of Crocker, departed this life to a better place Friday morning, September 14, 2012. She was born on March 19, 1923, the daughter of John and Helen (Whalen) Hamilton. Mrs. Thornsberry had attained the age of 89 years, 5 months and 25 days.

She was united in marriage on November 16, 1946 to Kenneth W. Thornsberry at the home of the Reverend Hicks in Waynesville. To this union, three children were born and raised. Erelene and Kenneth lived their life on the farm they bought in 1949 in the Tavern Creek Valley. She was preceded in death by her husband on July 12, 1999; her parents; one brother, Norman Hamilton and two sisters, Erma Salveter and Mary Hamilton.

Mrs. Thornsberry was baptized in July, 1957 at Schlicht’s Crossing on the Gasconade by the Reverend Norman Sanders and joined the Swedeborg Baptist Church August 3, 1957. Erelene attended Warrensburg State Teachers College for two years and taught school at Sweet Home, Swedeborg and Hicks for several years. She met her husband-to-be while they were both teaching at Swedeborg, and later married when he returned home from War II. Erelene was a loving and devoted mother, spouse and homemaker; always putting her family ahead of herself in her kind, strong, lady-like manner. Mrs. Thornsberry was a member of the Crocker Garden Club for many years and enjoyed gardening, cooking, quilting, living in the country and especially being with her family.

Those left to mourn the passing of Mrs. Thornsberry include: two sons, Vance Thornsberry and his wife, Steve Ann, Spokane, Washington; Dennis Thornsberry, Crocker and his fiancé’, Margaret Trimble, Tulsa, Oklahoma; one daughter, Beth Thornsberry-Hirstein and her husband, Kenneth, Kaiser; one brother, Dale Hamilton, St. Louis; two sisters, Velma Morris, Crocker and Evelyn Deardeuff, Waynesville; three grandchildren, Sonnet Glover, Quinn Thompson and Ryan Thornsberry; five great-grandchildren, Payton, Piper, Riley, Leighton and Ashlan; and many other relatives and friends. Erelene was loved and will be missed by all who knew her.

Photo on Family Tree

Vance Thornsberry is still continuing on his quest with further DNA tests to pinpoint where our family originated from in Europe before they came to America. Vance's latest DNA test indicates we belong to a North to South or South to North cluster of P-312 Y chromosome population migration ranging from Scandinavia as the Northernmost areas for our DNA strain Southward through the Iberian Peninsula. This DNA strain is not prevalent in Eastern Europe as originally thought and does not have an East to West migration pattern. It parallels the Atlantic Coast and is much younger than the Eastern European Y chromosome DNA .

Our DNA strain appears in ~ 30 percent of the German population and up to 75% in the British Isles and Denmark. It does not appear that we are originally from the same Celtic DNA strain of most Germans but likely an original or an offshoot strain appearing 5000 years ago in the range listed above.

We are adding a photo album for Joseph Jasper Thornburg, son of David Thornburg, grandson of Ludwig Tranberg. Joseph and two of his sons were really characters and a story is included in the photo album.

Joseph left his wife before 1880 and started living in South Carolina with Mary Camp. After his death she married Lawson Camp Wells who adopted the three children she had with Jasper. John Stanford Wells was one of those children and the Robert E. Wells Jr. family of Gaston County are descendants of John Stanford Wells. Robert has been DNA tested and matches the Thornburg family.

Read the rest of the story in Jasper's album.