In the Summer of 1952, the grandchildren of Thomas Culbreath (b. 1817 - 1892) and his wife, Anne Eliza Peabody (b. 1828 - 1893) gathered for the first Culbreth Family Reunion. They were all first cousins and though some had forged new homes in Florida (Newt Culbreath) and Mississippi (Nettie [Culbreth] Johnstone), they spent much of their childhood at the turn of the century in and around Robeson County, North Carolina. 

This website provides a cursory overview of these branches of the Culbreth family and gives the reader a mere glance into the work I have done collecting our genealogy. I am happy to provide anyone additional information, including source material, upon request.

I would also like to thank and acknowledge the work done by "Aunt Annie" Gaitley and others for recording and preserving records; James Roberts' "Some Descendants of 'Sailor' Hector McNeill";  S. Edgerton for his work on the website Cape Fear Clans and continued patience for all my inquiries, my parents, cousins, aunts, uncles, and my grandmother, Beatrice Marshall Culbreth, for telling these fascinating stories all these years.

Our Story

The Culbreath/Culbreth name is derived from the Scottish name Galbraith. When in Gaelic, it translates to "Mac a' Bhreatnnaich" (son of the Briton), or more interesting translation is gall ("stranger") + Breathnach ("Briton"), meaning "British foreigner."

It is likely our branch of the Culbreaths were among those that settled in the Isle of Gigha and Kintyre region around the fifteenth century. Some DNA evidence has shown that our ancestors spent some time in Ireland within the last five hundred years, it is likely this was part of the failed Ulster Plantation of Northern Ireland. Family lore is that "Three Culbreath brothers arrived in Philadelphia in 1730s and headed south, stopping in Virginia, North Carolina and Georgia." This certainly fits the larger narrative of the Ulster Scot migration to the Continent.

Then there is the equal probability of the Culbreths arriving with the Argyll Colony, which first arrived at the mouth of the Cape Fear River in 1739 and moved inland to settle much of southeastern North Carolina. Some records show settlers from the colony moving further northward to counties such as Orange and Granville in North Carolina, and there were certainly other branches of Culbreths living in Cumberland and Sampson Counties of North Carolina. There were also several Galbreath families in Bladen and Robeson County at the turn of the 19th century as well.

Ambiguity abounds from a period where record keeping was sub par, the possibility of records being destroyed and forever lost was real, and literacy was a luxury. This site is dedicated to unraveling these peoples' puzzle, and learning more about the people, places and events that surround them.