October 17, 2025

WILLIAM BRADSHAW FORSYTH

October 17, 2025/ Clan Forsyth U.S.A.

When researching a new member’s ancestry, I stumbled across a dramatic tale from mid-19th-century Illinois. It involved William Bradshaw Forsyth, a Kentucky-born farmer whose quarrel over a missing calf escalated into a deadly feud, a sensational trial, and a sentence that nearly ended in the gallows. What began as a slander dispute turned into one of the most talked-about murder cases of the 1850s. Digging deeper, I uncovered newspaper reports, prison registers, and even the governor’s pardon that finally closed this extraordinary chapter of Forsyth history.

You can read the full story in our January 2019 Griffin newsletter

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Clan Forsyth Society U.S.A.

The Clan Forsyth Society U.S.A. is a non-profit organization designed to honor Celtic heritage and promote family unity within the clan.

As the Family of Forsyth has with its variants of spellings, lost genealogy, and contact with family and heritage, it is the hope of the Clan Forsyth Society of the United States of America to find, rekindle, and merge together the many families of Forsyth that have gathered on these shores of North America from the earliest of times, lived and died, and while doing so, have raised new generations to the glory of Forsyth.

THE FORSYTH CHRONICLE

Clan Forsyth Society U.S.A.