Pound Family

The Pound-Pounds Family History Project

Pound Immigrant Families:
Arriving From Many Countries

At least 72 persons named Pound or Pounds have immigrated to the United States and Canada over the past 400 years from England, Germany, Switzerland, Ireland, Italy and France. Many African-American Pound-Pounds families originated in the American South as descendents of former slaves.
I am collecting data on the descendants of all of these families for inclusion in the project. Ultimately I will publish a CD collection or a book detailing all of the descendants. You are invited to submit your data for inclusion in the database. I am willing to share information on your family that I might have.

Please click on the links below to see more information about each family.

Please use the information contained in these family histories with care.

Some of the connections are speculative or unproven and should not be used, copied or entered into your databases without attribution or further checking of original records. Changes discovered in the course of research will be posted here as they become available. If anyone has corrections to any of the data on these pages, please communicate them to me by e-mail so the correct information can be entered into the database.

The Pound family history project database currently has approximately 28,000 names of descendants and spouses of the various Pound immigrants. Only a small portion of that data is included here. I have posted no data for persons born after about 1920 to avoid including information on living persons.

Some of these files are very large and will take some time to download. Please be patient.

Piscataway, Middlesex Co., NJ
c1660-1691

Most Pound families in the northern United States and Canada descend from John Pound (c1660-1690/1) of Piscataway, New Jersey. There has been much speculation as to his origin, however there is no proof. All we know for certain is that he arrived in New Jersey from New York in 1682. Any connection to earlier families of the same name is unproven.

Richmond Co., Virginia
c1650-1717

Most Pound and Pounds families in the southern United States descend from John Pound (c1650-1716/7) of Richmond Co., Virginia. There has been much speculation on the his origin, however, nothing is known for certain. We know only that he arrived in Middlesex Co., Virginia in the 1670's. Any connection to earlier families of the same name is unproven.

Western Pennsylvania
c1730-c1780

Adonijah Pound was in New Jersey as early as 1758. It is possible that he descends from John Pound of Piscataway but there is no proof. Adonijah Pound does appear in a will with John and Joseph Pound, grandsons of John of Piscataway. It is possible that is a son of one of John Pound since Joseph was too young to be his father. He settled in western Pennsylvania, took the name Pounds and fathered a large family there and in Ohio.

Orange Co., New York
c1740-c1795

Thomas Pound arrived in New Jersey in the mid-1700's and fathered several sons before moving to Orange Co., New York. His descendants are scattered across southern New York and into Ohio and the middle western states.

New York City, New York
1795-1866

Jesse Pound arrived in New York City about 1830. One son went to Minnesota. A grandson, Jesse Pound, settled in Oro, Simcoe Co, Ontario and left many descendants in Canada and in the American Midwest.

Paterson, Passaic Co., NJ
c1784-1839

Robert P. Pounds arrived in New York from England before 1812 and eventually settled in Paterson, Passaic Co., New Jersey, where he left a large family.

England to Kingston, Frontenac Co., Ontario
1831-1897

Germany to Chicago, Cook Co., Illinois
c 1829-c 1890