Bill Leslie: The Great Tree

From the aspens my dad planted and later painted in our backyard in Morganton to the gorgeous and graceful willow oaks at WRAL-TV in Raleigh, I draw energy and a sense of peace from trees. I’ve even thought about putting together a photography book on the most remarkable trees across North Carolina. Little did I know that a recent gift from my wife Cindy would lead me to “The Great Tree.”

That’s how a newly discovered cousin in Arizona described the Leslie family tree.

Like so many of you, I am fascinated with genealogy. Cindy gave me the Ancestry DNA kit where you spit into a tube and send it off to a lab in Utah and find out a few weeks later where your ancestors are from.

I am a true “American mutt” with family lines going back to England, Wales, Scotland, Ireland, France, Germany and Sweden.

Along with Leslie, my kin includes the following families: McDowell, Bergeron, Avery, Wilhelm, Walton, McKesson, Murphy and many more.

Here was my ethnicity estimate from the DNA test:

I was a little surprised my Ireland-Scotland percentage wasn’t higher. The Leslies came from Scotland. I first visited the town of Leslie, Scotland in 1986 while doing a series of WRAL stories called “Tar Heel Tartans.”

More than 40 years ago, Senator Sam Ervin conducted a Leslie family study for his wife Margaret, who was a first cousin of my family in Morganton.

Sen. Ervin traced our line of the Leslies back to Scotland via Ireland, Pennsylvania, Waxhaw and Concord in North Carolina. However, Sen. Ervin was unable to pinpoint the precise family connection in Scotland due to several different Robert Leslies living and leaving at the time.

Technological and research advances since Sen. Ervin's study solved this family mystery. That cousin who popped up on my ancestry.com computer screen reached out to me and shared research that traces our Leslie line back more than 25 generations!

Yuma, Arizona cousin Julia, who shares my Leslie roots in Concord, North Carolina, sent me a massive file totaling nearly 13,000 ancestors dating back to the year 1039. Sifting through all of those names including "Robert the Bruce” was a powerful and emotional experience.

My favorite family tree name of all was great uncle Levi Leslie. That would have made a cool broadcast name! I also love the name of a great grandmother, Clementine Wilhelm Leslie.

What are your favorite family names and unusual stories of ancestors?

I would love to hear your stories. I may share a few of your yarns here on Carolina Conversations. Please email me at bleslie@wral.com.