Welcome to PCFA!! If you're researching a Chastain, or a similar spelling surname ancestor, this should be the place for you!! Most Chastain lineage research generates a direct or indirect relationship to the French Huguenot immigrant, Pierre Chastain (1659-1728). Pierre's descendants, as with most American families of this era, migrated westward from his original home in Virginia, both across and up and down the Appalachian Mountains, and from there further westward.

Later generations came to use varied spellings of the surname, for various reasons. Common spelling variations of Chastain include Chastaine, Chasteen, Chastine, Chesteen, Shasteen, Shastine, and Shastid. The spelling was also corrupted as Chasten and Castain on many early legal documents.

The Pierre Chastain Family Association was formed in 1975 after Mr. Elby F. Bowan sent invitations to fellow "Chastain" researchers to attend a conference on the interests of further research and the coordination of these efforts into a society or association.

A group of interested parties met on August 31, 1975 at Dyer, Arkansas that led directly to the formation of the association. The objectives were to collect, document, organize, preserve, and eventually publish the lineage, genealogical, historical, and related data concerning the descendants of Pierre and in general that pertaining to the Chastain surname.

There were fifteen charter members of PCFA and by the time of the first issue of the association's newsletter, The Chestnut Tree, in January of 1976, the PCFA had grown to 42 members! Today the membership numbers approximately 500. A computer database of close to 40,000 individual records submitted by members in their research over the years is maintained by a volunteer Genealogist. The data includes not only the demographic data associated with usual lineage material but also numerous census, Bible, land, and other legal records documenting the descendants of Pierre, often covering 12 or more generations.

Due to research efforts of the membership since 1975, a great amount of documentation has been accumulated that allows almost instant lineage verification, and the PCFA has placed this material in print for generations to come in volumes such as "Pierre Chastain and His Descendants".

PCFA is a non-profit membership fee-based family association that functions exclusively with volunteer participation in the various administrative and clerical areas of organization.

As mentioned earlier, PCFA has a Genealogist who supervises and directs the compilation of genealogical records of the ancestors and descendants of Pierre Chastain. The Genealogist provides the membership with assistance in accessing the existing compiled data and provides research tips and advice to those doing further research on any Chastain genealogy.

The association also has a Historian who directs the compilation and writing of biographies, family histories, and personal histories pertaining to Chastain ancestors and descendants. The association's Librarian maintains a Family History Library of all Chastain publications. PCFA continues the tradition of the founding members by holding a reunion or annual conference at various locations around the country.

We are extremely interested in making contact with anyone who has a Chastain ancestor, and we extend an invitation of membership to all with interest in Chastain genealogy; detailed data can be found under Membership Information. If you have a Chastain ancestor, please contact our Genealogist and relate your ancestry, interest, etc. Contact info is noted under Association Officers.

It could be you who supplies that missing link!