(this post was first published in “Worldwide Genealogy – A Genealogical Collaboration, 30 Jan. 2018)
photo of Amphill Plantation in Chesterfield County, Virginia–from Wikipedia Commons
This is the story of two plantations in Virginia, USA, which were both called Ampthill Plantation at one time. More so, it is about the discovery of these two homes both still standing in Virginia today, and realizing that the ownersand families involved were all wealthy, influential, aristocratic First Families of Virginia and all related at least distantly to this author. How exciting to.find informationlike this, factsthat breathe life into old homes and broaden our understanding of our ancestors. One of these homes has become a Bed and Breakfast—I can hardly wait to stay in it and experience the very atmosphere of my ancestors!
While working on my family tree on Ancestry, I had come across a picture of the first AmpthillPlantation builtabout 1730 in Colonial Virginia by our Great Uncle Henry Cary, 1675-1749.When I posted the picture on my family tree on Ancestry, a knowledgeable woman named Margaret wrote me a kind note lettingme know there were two Ampthill Estates! I was very surprised to learn thatthere was another Ampthill Plantation House in Virginia, and even more so, that it had also beenowned bymore of our own family’s ancestors.
The Cary’s Ampthill Plantation was originally located in part of the Henricus Settlement of Colonial Virginia, which became Chesterfield County in 1749. The house was built by Henry Cary Jr. our eighth great –uncle, whose father, Henry Cary, Sr. our 8th Great -Grandfather, was an architect who designed many famous buildings in Colonial Virginia, including the Capital Building at Colonial Williamsburg. The Cary Ampthill home was inhabited for many years by Henry Jr.’s son, our first cousin and a Revolutionary War hero, Col. Archibald Cary among others of the well-known Cary family. Later the house was physically relocated into the city of Richmond, Virginia near Cary Street named for the family. As a child growing up in Richmond, Virginia, my mother worked as a realtor in an office on Cary Street. We often saw this first Ampthill Estate home on our local travels. Unfortunately, at that time we did not know of our kinship.
This is what Wikipedia says about the Cary Family’s Ampthill Plantation:
In 1929, Ampthill House, the manor house of Ampthill Plantation, was dismantled, moved to a site on Cary Street Road in the West End of Richmond, and reassembled where it sits today. Although it is not open to the public, Ampthill House is a noteworthy local landmark, and is marked by a Virginia Historical Marker.[4]
Ampthill Estate in Cartersville, Virginia–from Wikimedia Commons
The second Ampthill Plantation is located in the town of Cartersville, in Cumberland County, Virginia. I call it the second Ampthill because it wasn’t named Ampthill until the early 1800’s, almost 100 years after the Cary’s Ampthill Estate. However, the land began to be developed about the same time as the first Ampthill—in the early 1700’s.
In 1714 Charles Fleming took on a land patent of 670 acres (2.7 km²) with an intent to cultivate it. The land, however, “lapsed,” and was later granted to Thomas Randolph in 1722. This area was later included in a tract made up of 2870 acres (11.6 km²), which later came to be known as “Clifton.” But it was this initial purchase of the 670 acres (2.7 km²) that would form “The Fork,” known for its position on the James and Willis Rivers. It would later become Ampthill. In 1724, Randolph sold the site to Robert “King” Carter, then the wealthiest landowner in Virginia.
In his will dated 22 August 1726, King Carter willed the 2870 acre (11.6 km²) tract to his then unborn grandson, with the stipulation that the child carry the Carter name. Some time later, Anne Carter and Major Benjamin Harrison of Berkeley Plantation, christened a son, Carter Henry, who later become the owner of the property known as “Clifton,” in Cumberland County, Virginia.
Carter Henry Harrison moved to Clifton upon graduation from law school. There he raised his family and wrote the Cumberland Resolutions, which were presented to the community from the steps of the Effingham Tavern. These resolutions were later incorporated into the Virginia Resolutions, which were the basis for the Declaration of Independence, written by Harrison’s nephew, Thomas Jefferson.
Ampthill
Carter Henry Harrison died in 1793. In his will, Carter Henry willed Clifton to his son, Randolph, and The Fork to his son Robert. Robert sold The Fork to Shadrack Vaughan in 1804. Randolph later repurchased the property in 1815. The Fork was a clapboard structure of no more than three bedrooms. In 1815, the decision was made to add an addition to the existing manor. Randolph called upon his cousin, Thomas Jefferson, to design the brick addition that exists today. These plans exist today on file with the University of Virginia. The addition began its first phases of construction in 1835 and was completed in 1837. The two “houses” were separate for a number of years until a one-story passageway was built to connect the two. After the construction of the brick addition was completed the structure was renamed Ampthill.[3]
In 1998, the property was purchased by George Costen of Charlottesville. Beginning in 1999 and for a number of years that followed, Ampthill went under a major historic restoration.
Ampthill becamea bed and breakfast and enjoys the prestige of being the only privately owned Jeffersonian property in Virginia. Her windows are the original glass. Ampthill exists today on 60 acres (240,000 m2) of the original 2870 acres (11.6 km²), is the home to 40 head of cattle and includes the manor house, four outbuildings and the barn, which dates to 1920, by far the youngest standing structure on the property.” —https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ampthill_(Cumberland_County,_Virginia)
Wow, that is a lot of information, and it looks like the property moved through a lot of different families—however, let’s look a bit more closely through the eyes of a descendant, who is learning through genealogy! Remember also, I have just learned of this estate, although it belonged to my ancestors, I never knew of it until recently.
Charles Fleming originally owned the land that became the second Ampthill Estate in 1714. The Wikipedia author states that Fleming’s grant lapsed and the land was then given to Thomas Randolph in 1722. However, I wonder if he realized that Thomas Randolph’s wife was the daughter of Charles Fleming, Judith Churchill Fleming, 1689-1743! She could not legally own property in Virginia, so I wonder if Charles Fleming willed it to his son-in-law perhaps. Thomas Randolph, 1683-1729 of Virgina, 2nd owner of the 2nd Ampthill, was my family’s ninth cousin.
–all family trees are the personal work and property of Helen Y. Holshouser
In 1726, only four years after receiving the land, Thomas Randolph sold it to the fifth Governor of Virginia, Robert “King” Carter, my family’s 9th Great Uncle! Nothing like keeping it in the family! Thomas Randolph died in 1729, so he may have known he was not able to care for the land.
Robert “King” Carter, 1663-1732, Public Domain
Robert “King” Carter’s father, John Carter, was our 9th Great Grandfather. Robert “King” Carter willed the land to his grandson Carter HenryHarrison (our 2nd cousin), through Robert’sdaughter Anne Carter (our 1stcousin) and her husband Benjamin Harrison IV, the grandparents ofour 9th President of the US, William Henry Harrison! Carter Henry Harrison willed the land to his sons, Robert and Randolph Harrison. Randolph Harrison (our 3rdcousin 7 times removed) ended up purchasing all of the property by 1815, where two clapboard houses stood, one named the Clifton and the other The Fork. But wait– who was the wife of Carter Henry Harrison and the mother of Randolph Harrison? None other than one Susannah Randolph, 1738-1779, our 10thcousin! Yes, she is related to us and is the niece of the original Thomas Randolph who owned the property on which the second Ampthill Estate was built! Amazingly, she married a second time to Thomas Fleming, the grandson of the original owner of the 2nd Ampthill property, Charles Fleming! Wow! In fact, Susannah Randolph’s father is Isham Randolph, who is the brother of Thomas Randolph, 1683-1729, the 2nd owner of the 2nd Ampthill. Isham and Thomas Randolph’s parents were William Randolph, 1651 of England who immigrated to Virginia, and his wife Mary Royall Isham.
That is not all of the important connections for this amazing family—and we haven’t even talked about their many roles in shaping the new country of the United States—but Isham Randolph b. 1685 and his wife Jane L. Rogers had eleven children including Susannah Randolph of course, and they also had her sister Jane Randolph, 1720, who married Peter Jefferson b.1708 andbecame the parents of our President, Thomas Jefferson, 1743-1826. As you read above in the article from Wikipedia, Thomas Jefferson designed the second Ampthill Estate for his Uncle, Carter Henry Harrison who was also the Uncle of President William Henry Harrison! Wow, simply amazing! As the article stated, the Ampthill Estate in Cartersville is the only privately-owned Thomas Jefferson designed home in Virginia and it is now a bed and breakfast! I can hardly wait to visit this home and walk andsleep where my ancestors slept and worked 200-300 years ago!
William Henry Harrison, Daguerreotype of an oil painting depicting William Henry Harrison, 9th President of the United States. Public Domain, Wikipedia
Albert Sands Southworth (American, 1811–1894) and Josiah Johnson Hawes (American, 1808–1901). Edited by: Fallschirmjäger –The Metropolitan Museum of Art, Accession number: 37.14.44. Search for “William Henry Harrison” on the museum’s site.
Just to add other amazing discoveries (amazing to me) let’s look at the mother of Susannah Randolph b. 1738, for a minute. Married to Isham Randolph, her name was Jane Lilburnie Rogers, 1692-1760, and she was the 2nd great granddaughter of Thomas “The Pilgrim” Rogers, 1586-1621, who came to Plymouth Colony on the Mayflower! Not only is Thomas Rogers my own tenth great grandfather, he is my husband Max Holshouser’s eleventh great grandfather! Yes, it makes us distant cousins!
Other very interesting information about the Randolphs is that my sister Anne is married to Joseph Prince, who is also related to the same Randolph family of Virginia, making them distant cousins like Max and I are. What a small world native Virginians make!
Through my DNA testing on ancestry, I have discovered other cousins also related to the Randolphs, Carters, Carys, Harrisons and Jeffersons. One of the DNA cousins I met is Pam Maudsley Cooper, a dear cousin whom I have come to admire greatly, and who lives in Queensland, Australia! I was born in Virginia, but have lived in the State of North Carolina in America since 1980. Thanks to the internet, Pam and I can work together often on the genealogy we both enjoy and enhance our cousinship! Different continents, but we share13th great grandparents in William Carter, 1475-1521 and his wife Alice Croxton, 1478-1525 of England. Again, I say totally amazing!
Then there is this information tying the families of the two Ampthill Estates together: the 3rd owner of the 2nd Ampthill in Cartersville, Virginia was Robert King Carter, fifth Gov. Of Virginia and our ninth great- Uncle, who received the land in 1726. He willed the land to his daughter Anne Carter Harrison’s son Carter Henry Harrison—although it was not called Ampthill until 1835. Meanwhile, Henry Cary Jr. built the first Ampthill Plantation in Chesterfield County, Virginia about 1730. Henry Cary Jr.’s sister, Anne Cary, my 7th great grandmother, was married to Maurice Langhorne,whose mother, Anne Cary’smother-in-law, was none other than Rebecca Carter, our eighth great grandmother, and a member of the same Carter family of Colonial Virginia. Even closer perhaps, Colonel Archibald Cary of Ampthill in Chesterfield County, married Mary Randolph, 1722-1781. She belongs to this very same famous Randolph family.
If all of these intermarriages make you dizzy, I surely understand. However, as you get to know the individuals and the immense contributions they made to the founding of America, I imagine you will admire them as I do. There is a book written by Robert K. Headley, Jr. titled Married Well and Often, Marriages of the Northern Neck of Virginia, 1649-1800.While it is a book of valuable marriage records, the title always makes me smile especially when I read of the many inter-family marriages that were common in the colonial days of Virginia.
I do love family history! Until next time, I am wishing you the very best, Helen Holshouser
Mapping My Genealogical Research by Helen Y. Holshouser
-first published on the Worldwide Genealogy–Genealogical Collaboration Blog, May 27, 2017
In honor of Mother’s Day, May 2017, my daughter Annie gave me a world map, cork to post it on, and a large box of colorful push pins! What a lovely gift to give a Mom who is totally “into” genealogy! As we opened the gift, she explained that she thought we could post it on a wall and use the pins to mark some of my genealogical discoveries. I was touched by such a thoughtful gift. We had so much fun not only posting the map, but placing the push pins according to things we thought important. We have just started this project, and already realize that we need a larger map! How wonderful is that! The first thing we did, was place red pins where our immediate family lives. That is mainly in three places, North Carolina, South Carolina, and Virginia, USA. Next. we looked at the family trees I had developed for both my side of the family, and for my husband’s side. We also looked at the genetic ancestry, or ethnicity maps that Ancestry gave me based on my DNA testing. It was exciting to see the details of our family represented on a map, and like my own genealogical work, the map evolved as we thought it through. It is still a work in progress, and I would welcome your suggestions for other things to add. From working on both family trees, I knew before doing my DNA, that I personally was a melting pot American. On my mother’s side I had inherited traits from Irish, English, French, and Italian ancestors mostly. Perhaps that is where the passionate, emotional side of my genetic makeup was nurtured. On my father’s side, I have the more practical traits of the German and Scottish. (Stereotypes, I know!) My husband Max’s ancestral make up is mainly English and German. On our map, I used orange push pins to symbolize our ancestral heritage. Notice how they are clustered in Western Europe– well, that is 99% of my heritage according to my DNA results. Look how ancestry breaks it down on this map:
I keep thinking I need to make a list of all the cousins I have met through my research and on facebook where the many genealogical and family groups enhance our meeting DNA matches as well as ones found in encouraging each other’s research. For awhile I kept telling people I had met 100 new cousins through my research, then 200, now I have no doubt that it is 500 or more new cousins who have come into my life with a similar interest–genealogy and family history! How exciting and life enriching is that! I used blue pins on the map to represent all the cousins I had met in the States and in Europe and Australia! Obviously, I did not have a big enough map, nor enough blue pins, to represent all the wonderful cousins I have met.
The yellow pins stand for the focus of my most recent genealogical research and DNA detective skills that improve with experience. One of the great joys of my life, has been the honor of joining an adoptee’s search for their own ancestral and biological roots. I used the yellow pins to represent some of the adoptees whose journey’s I have joined. Sharing these life experiences–life stories–has been intensely rewarding—and intensely painful. There have been the joys of reunions, the pain of rejection, death, lies, hiding, and even discovering horrors like the fact that your biological parent was a rapist or other criminal! We must look for biological roots with wide open eyes–bracing for the worst that can shake our identities, and allowing joy for good news, which can still shake our identities. We must work to center ourselves before embarking on such a search, which should ultimately enhance, deepen, and expand our sense of self–not shake it to the core! You are not your parents, not your DNA traits, you are who you choose to be.
This new ancestral map hangs in the hallway in the center of our home. How wonderful to pass by it many times a day and think of all the individuals and their unique stories and personalities–all the new family I’ve come to know and appreciate! Still it’s evolving. All of the authors of this blog engage in genealogical research, most of you readers are interested as well. What a life enhancing experience doing genealogical work has been for me. With my severe heart disease, I was told years ago that my time on earth was limited–the joy of this work, the joy of being involved with the people the work represents, well, that has brought an immense quality to my life. Mapping a few of the projects is a wonderful representation of the joy I feel. Until we meet again, I am wishing you the very best, and that you meet new cousins who add joy to your life as well! Helen
During the months of September and October, 2015, we’ve been honoring and recognizing the Educators in our Family Tree, past and present. I am presenting quite a few educators in today’s blog post. I am sure that there are many more whom I either have not identified, or did not know. Please feel free to comment and tell me about those I have missed so that I can either include them here with a correction or write an addendum.
It just so happens that I had the blessing in my life to teach children with behavioral and emotional issues in first through sixth grade right out of college. After being at that level for three years, I moved to the Junior High level where I taught students aged 12-16, they would be classified middle and high schoolers today. When we first moved to Raleigh, North Carolina in 1980, I had the opportunity to teach Interpersonal Communication at North Carolina State University for 3 years as a “Visiting Lecturer”. Most of you know, with my BA from Greensboro College and my MA in Clinical Psychology from Chapman College, I went on to become an individual and family therapist for twenty years after that. My point is to say, having taught at the different levels, and known so many teachers over the years, I can say that teaching is challenging at all levels! The challenges are different for sure, but the ultimate goal is to educate, and every single level is needed to create success at the next level! We cannot skip any level of development and learning and expect to have a well-educated person! As the saying above aptly states, “Teaching is the profession that teaches all other professions!” Nothing could be more true! Why then don’t we make the salary of our CEO’s! I’d vote for that! It’s past time the importance and value of our teachers be more highly recognized by our States and National Government budget makers!
We have amazing people in our family–I hope you will enjoy “meeting” these people and knowing just a bit about what they do and where they teach, if you want to be in touch with any of them, let me know and I will ask them to get in touch. I am presenting them in alphabetical order by first name, we are family after all!
Carol E. Winters, PhD, RN, CNE (Doctorate, Registered Nurse, Certified Nursing Educator) my cousin through the Scottish Hogue family, is currently a Professor of Nursing at East Carolina University in Greenville, NC. She is the Director of the MSN Nursing Education Concentration–she teaches Graduate level nurses to be Nursing Educators! Carol served as the Dean of the School of Nursing at Hawaii Pacific University in Hawaii for 16 years before returning home to North Carolina. Carol has a BA in Christian Education from Greensboro College in Greensboro, NC, then an M.S. in Nursing at the University of North Carolina at Greensboro. She earned her PhD at the University of Pittsburgh in Pennsylvania. Not only has she these teaching , leadership accomplishments, but so much more! She is a published author, has been a hands-on nurse of obstetrics, and since 2009, has been a Faculty Advisor for the NFLA, Nurse Faculty Leadership Academy, a national organization sponsored by Sigma Theta Tau, the International Nursing Honor Society jointly with the Elsevier Foundation. There is so much more I could tell you about this dynamic woman who happened to be my college roommate and friend of almost 50 years! We only discovered our cousinship last year through my genealogical research! She has three children, five grandchildren, and has done vast amounts of volunteer work in her communities, and served and led many committees.
October 1, 2015,–Carol Emerson Winters was honored as the 2015 Nurse Educator of the Year by the NCNA, the North Carolina Nursing Association! CONGRATULATIONS! AN HONOR WELL DESERVED!
My Hogue cousin, Dee Horn, has tutored College level English at two different colleges over the years. I have known many college level tutors. When I was at NC State University I quickly learned how invaluable they were to many students–like those who had learning disabilities, some who were blind, and even some who were valuable sports team members who needed extra help to keep up with academics during their physically demanding playing and practice seasons. We take our hats off to one on one teachers!
Another Hogue cousin Donna Miller earned her degree from Indiana University of Pennsylvania and taught Business Education at the High School level, in Business Schools, and at Community Colleges. Life, marriage, and children took her from Pennsylvania to Connecticut and Rhode Island. In Norwich, Connecticut, for 23 years, she taught at a business school and served as an Academic Dean! After retirement, she worked part-time at Three Rivers Community College.
When I asked Donna about some memories, she said several things which I wanted to share. One was a simple teaching technique but fun: “I liked making the students think about what they were doing. Sometimes I would purposely make a spelling or grammatical error on a test and then tell the students that they would get extra points if they found it.” That’s the kind of thing that adds an extra challenge and a bit of fun for students! She went on to say: “It’s the one profession where students have actually come back and said, ‘Thank you for believing in me,’ or ‘pushing me,’ or ‘making me realize that I can do . . . .’ When you are finished teaching, you know that despite some of the negatives (there were stressors), you feel that you have done something positive with your life.” Oh yes! I know a lot of the educators we have profiled feel this way, and it is why we admire and love them so! When a teacher’s philosophies so resonate with you, you know you’d love to have that teacher for yourself, or for your children, and you know with certainty that they are a GREAT teacher!
My first cousin James Goodell, great-great grandson of J.Steptoe Langhorne, has taught computer sciences for many years at Menlo College in Atherton, California. He studied at the University of Freiburg located in Freiburg im Breisgau, Baden-Württemberg, Germany. He currently serves as President of the Goodell Corporation, a family real estate school and business his father founded.
Larry Youngblood is one of our multi-leveled/multi-talented teachers as well! For years he has home schooled his grandchildren through all the levels of education! Having studied at Texas A&M University Larry has taught at Private Catholic Schools, Business Schools and Universities. For several years now, Larry has been the Administrator of the International Youngblood DNA Project researching the different family lines of Youngbloods evidenced by their dna. He is currently writing a book about the Youngblood/Jungblut/Jungbloedt families. Thank you Larry!
Pat Spangler, PhD, my second cousin, son of Charles Langhorne Spangler and Kittie Cockram Spangler, grandson of Fanny Langhorne, and Great Grandson of J.Steptoe Langhorne is a geophysicist in a family with three close cousins who are/were geophysicists! What honor he and they bring to our family! You can read a previous blog post featuring them at Buck, Spangler and Houchins, Three Cousins Who are Geophysicists as Well! Pat Spangler, PhD, is retired from the University of Florida, and thus his title is now Associate Professor Emeritus of Geology. Pat has published extensively and is highly respected in the academic community as well as in his family community.
I am thrilled to introduce to many of you, our cousin Dr. Rick White, PhD, Chemist. Rick is the second great-grandchild of James Steptoe and Elizabeth Rachel Omohundro Langhorne, same as James Goodell, Roger Buck IV, PhD and I are. Pat Spangler above is their great-grandson. Rick is a Professor of Chemistry at St. John’s River State College in Jacksonville, Florida after a twenty plus year career in industry. He has also taught at Florida Southern College, and at the University of Tampa. He earned his PhD at the University of Florida and did post doctoral studies at King’s College in London. (At the time of his post doctoral work, the school was called Queen Elizabeth College, but Margaret Thatcher consolidated the colleges in the mid-1980’s and it became King’s) Rick has three sisters by the way, more cousins for us to enjoy. Another extremely accomplished professional, Rick has over 25 peer-reviewed publications, and over 200 internal company reports from his time with industry.
Rick worked for over twenty years for Procter and Gamble. Twelve of those years were spent in their Food and Beverage business before moving to their Health Care business where he worked for another ten years! He was an analytical chemist, supporting all aspects of product development, from inception to launch. Some of the products he worked with included brands you will recognize like Folger’s Coffee, Pringles Potato Chips, Citrus Hill Orange Juice, Pepto-Bismol, Metamucil, Crest Toothpaste, and Vick’s cough and cold remedies! Just think, from now on when you pick up one of those products, you will know that our DNA is part of the brain that helped develop them! We are very proud to be related to you Dr. Rick White!
Voorus Home in PA
Robert Voorus, 1891-1985, my cousin through the Spangler and Hogue families, had brothers and sisters who were featured in the earlier educator posts. Robert worked in the Library of Congress as a young man. When he moved back to Pleasantville, Pennsylvania he taught at a Business School in Oil City, Pennsylvania. He is remembered by family as an excellent educator.
Roger Buck,III was a master’s level Marine Biologist. He spent most of his professional life researching for the Virginia Institute of Marine Science, Gloucester Point, VA, which is now part of William and Mary College for their Oceanography Concentration. Roger not only researched heavily, but he taught at William and Mary College and earlier at Duke University. With all of his major accomplishments, Roger, my Uncle by marriage to Katherine Langhorne Kerse, was a kind and genteel man who raised a son and a daughter who both earned their PhD. His son, W. Roger Buck IV, became an educator and research scientist as well, while his daughter Tyler Buck is a financial analyst and advisor with her own company.
Roger Buck, IV,PhD, my first cousin through the Kerse, Houchins, Langhorne families, is a Professor of Geophysics at Columbia University in New York. His speciality is earthquakes and he researches through Columbia University’s Lamont-Doherty Earth Observatory in New York. He has traveled the world lecturing and researching as he says, from “collecting rock samples for radiometric dating in Egypt, and in the Mojave Desert, to diving on the Reykjanes Mid-Ocean Ridge in a Russian submersible, and helping with GPS surveys on Iceland.” What amazing adventures this cousin has experienced!
I just want to make a couple observations regarding our families. The Langhornes were a wealthy family from England. But James Steptoe Langhorne became blind, several of his children, grandchildren and more, were blinded by the same inherited disease, his only natural son drowned at age 16, and after the Civil War, he was land poor and devastated! Wouldn’t he be amazed and gratified that his grandchildren and greats would grow to be such good and educated people, and educators! He and his wife Elizabeth started a school and a Sunday School in Meadows of Dan, Virginia both of which were very important to them. We have carried on that philosophy–because it is imbedded in our DNA? It is interesting!
The Hogues emigrated from Scotland, the Youngbloods from Germany, while the Voorhees originated in the Netherlands. They fought in our Revolutionary War and our Civil War and many others. They were honorable people who supported their new country, but most of all, the Voorhees and Hogues were Presbyterian Ministers and educators. It is amazing to me to see the traditions and/or the DNA at work in such a continuing fashion.
What accomplishments for all of us to be proud of, and thankful for! Thank you our family members who educate all of us– for your inspiration, your wisdom, and your hard work! We honor all of you as you have honored us!
School is starting again this week for millions of children around the USA and the world. What a perfect time for me to tell you about some of the teachers in our family tree. I can count almost forty teachers in just a couple of generations! What a legacy they are leaving, what an example they are and have set! I am so proud of each of these educators, and so pleased to be counted among them and related to them!
Teachers are so important, how is it that we, as a society forget that, or neglect them sometimes? All it takes is to send your 5 year-old child or grandchild off to school under someone else’s control, influence, and guidance all day, to realize just how important they are! As the years progress, not only do we count on teachers to socialize our children, we count on them, depend on them to actually educate them! We want our children not only to read, write and do math, but to learn to think critically and solve life’s problems well! We might also hope they learn a sport and sportsmanship. What about a foreign language? Art, music, theatre, calculus, geometry, history? Yes, we want it all–and we don’t want our teachers to complain that they are poor or to act out in any way! Wow! Tall order! I am proud to say many men and women in our family have chosen this noble profession!
This post will highlight family members who have chosen Special Education and Elementary School Teaching for their career. The next couple of posts will feature Middle and/or Junior High School teachers then climb the ladder through High School, and meet the Principals are in our family tree! There are also family members who’ve taught in our business schools, community colleges, and Universities as well! All of these educators represent a great deal of brain power!
Special Education Teachers are teachers who teach children with cognitive and/or developmental impairments, learning disabilities, and behavioral and emotional difficulties that impede learing. They are courageous and magical!
Janey Bell Kerse Sommers
Previously I wrote a blog post about my Mother’s sister, my Aunt Janey Bell Kerse Sommers! She was a teacher of students with behavioral and learning problems. She spent over twenty years dedicated to helping them do the best they could do, then became the Special Education Supervisor for all of Forsyth County Public Schools, Forsyth County, N.C., mentoring other teachers along the way. You can see her story “Janey Bell Kerse Sommers, 1923-2002, Brilliance and Joyfulness Dimmed by Alzheimer‘s” by clicking on the title.
Helen Y. Holshouser in 1997
What is amazing to me, is that even though Janey Bell Somers had no children of her own, she inspired several generations of young people to teach and to learn. She motivated me to teach students with special needs–in learning, in behavior, which I did for seven years before I became a family therapist. I taught children in elementary school at first, then I moved to a Junior High where I had children ages 12-16 in my classroom . Their academic skills ranged from about 3rd grade to 9th grade, and I prepared individualized plans for each student at their level in each subject! Every day we worked on social and behavioral skills and goals as well. One student got angry while in time out, and set our classroom which was in a mobile unit (trailer) behind the school, on fire! Another time a student attacked me physically and took me backwards, over the sofa where I was seated, onto the floor! One student hot-wired and stole my car! (He brought it back after a brief joy ride!) LOL, no wonder I had a heart attack at age 50! I was challenged everyday with these students, and cared for them deeply.
Susan Youngblood Kerr
One of my younger cousins is still teaching Special Education– Severe Behavioral Needs Children, now in her 33rd year! Susan Youngblood Kerr who lives in Missouri with her husband and three children, has two Master’s Degrees, one in Special Education and one in Educational Leadership. She served as a Language Arts teacher to General Education students for several years and worked for others at the Middle School level. Susan was honored when one of her former students got in touch with her recently with a heartwarming message: (This from a student she had in 1985. He was from the projects–no dad–she never met his mom.)
“Hi Young lady well so nice to hear from you. I was unforgettable– I hope that’s a good thing. how’s your family doing? fine I hope. they have the greatest mom in the world but you already know that. well I’m doing great myself –just retired last year from the Navy after 20 years of service. I live in Japan with my lovely wife and 3 beautiful kids. yes who would ever think me a husband and a father! well for what it is worth I’ve always known that you cared about us kids even then. when I think about any teacher that cared and made a difference in my life, you are #1 on my list and I mean that from the bottom of my heart! so you see you did make a change in a little boy’s life, but now I’m a man. thanks and God bless.”
Wow! The above brings tears to my eyes–what a great tribute!
Remarkably, we have another young cousin, also through the Langhorne line, who taught students with behavioral and emotional difficulties! Jonathan Daniel Nichols is my second cousin, and he taught in Maryland. He is smart, caring and well-respected. He continued a family tradition he didn’t even know existed when called to teach the most challenging students. We especially need men to serve as role models for this population of students. I am so proud of him.
Special Education seems to be a calling for many in our family, as we had a Great Aunt Josephine Bell Houchins who taught deaf students at the Virginia School for the Deaf and Blind in Staunton, Virginia for many years. I remember how interesting it was to go and visit her and her husband my Great Uncle John Langhorne Houchins, and see her talking with the students in sign language. During breaks I was mesmerized to watch the students gather with their friends and engage in animated sign language chatting just like we did between classes at school, only they were quieter but more expressive.
Another Youngblood cousin, my second, once removed, Jamie Beck Skinner is a Special Education Paraeducator at Abingdon Elementary School in Abingdon, Maryland. While the teacher leads a group activity, Jamie might be giving another student private reading lessons. She is truly a para–beside–educator who teaches where and when the teacher cannot. It makes it possible to reach some students, to prevent melt-downs, to teach to certain strengths and weaknesses not possible with only one teacher in the room! What a blessing a paraeducator in the classroom is!
It’s hard to believe, but in our immediate family system, I have another cousin who is a Special Education Supervisor! She serves the people of New Hampshire! Mary Casey Goodell is a dynamic, dedicated educator who has been mentoring other Special Education teachers for many years now! So, two supervisors of Special Education, and eight special education teachers in one family, pretty amazing! I wonder if there is a call to serve others embedded in our dna?
Elementary SchoolTeachers
Those who teach kindergarten through fifth grade work with children as they meet a great number of their developmental milestones, socially, physically, and intellectually. Teachers and parents are the ones who help mold and shape us at these formative ages. My sister Anne Youngblood Prince has retired now after teaching fourth, fifth, and sixth grades in both public and private schools for over 36 years! She earned her Master’s Degree in Reading at the University of Richmond (Virginia). Most of her teaching career was spent guiding fourth graders at St. Christopher’s School, a private Episcopal school for boys in Richmond, Virginia. Anne was highly dedicated to her students and was an excellent teacher who was always thinking about, training for, or putting into practice her myriad skills to give her students the best education possible. You couldn’t ask for a kinder, smarter, more successful teacher. She taught long enough to teach the children of some of her students who were so proud to have their children in her care.
One of Anne’s mentors was Elizabeth Walker Youngblood, wife of Lewis Jr. and mother of Mary, Lewis III, and Susan. As described above, Susan is now teaching for her 33rd year! What a great influence Liz was for her children and many others. Liz and Anne, my sister, taught fifth grade at L.L. Beasley Elementary School in Prince George County, Virginia at the same time, and my sister remembers her as creative, skilled and highly motivated to do an excellent job. I remember Liz also as a wonderful, firm, kind, and very intelligent woman. Unfortunately, she is the second teacher in our family taken ill by that crushing disease Alzheimer’s! Liz also served as an assistant principal as well in a school in Colonial Heights, Virginia.
My sister Anne tells an interesting story about how she first met Elizabeth Walker Youngblood in 1952. Anne was in fourth grade at Bon Air Elementary School, and was her classroom’s representative to the Red Cross School Committee. Elizabeth was the Red Cross School Coordinator for all the schools in Chesterfield County,Virginia. Liz sat right down beside Anne and introduced herself as the fiancée of her cousin! (Her husband Lewis Jr. was our father’s first cousin.) “Let me show you my ring. I just got engaged to your cousin!” Elizabeth was so kind to ten-year old Anne, that they became friends for life and then coworkers.
My first cousin once removed, Susan Youngblood Rawls, taught fifth grade for ten years at Crestwood Elementary School in Chesterfield County, Virginia. She is now the Director of a preschool. Energetic, enthusiastic, and smart as a whip, she is quite amazing! How lucky are all the little children, all the families who enter her school! She will help get them started in the right direction, will help lay the ground work for their happiness and their learning the rest of their lives! That is one tall order and a major accomplishment!
Lauren Ruby, daughter of Jamie Beck Skinner and another Youngblood cousin, teaches Kindergarten at Taneytown Elementary school in Carroll County, Maryland. Do you remember the poem by Robert Fulghum that reminds us what we need to succeed in life we learned in kindergarten? Well, that’s Lauren– preparing her students to succeed in life and in school! A tall order that she handles with aplomb!
Maryrose Youngblood, my first cousin once removed in my wonderful family tree, taught fourth grade like my sister for many years in Highland County, Virginia. These Youngblood women– we are hard workers, and we are directors at heart and by dna! Kind, efficient, smart…Maryrose was an outstanding teacher.
Kathy Lee Pack, daughter of Marshall Youngblood Lee and Robert Lee, has been teaching at the elementary school level in Florida for 31 years this year! All of those years were as a 4th grade teacher until the last two when she changed to second grade! Kathy has four adult children and grandchildren to keep her busy. She is my second cousin once removed, and a Youngblood woman through and through. By that I mean she can handle a room full of 30 restless 6 year olds and make them feel good about themselves because they chose to complete their math assignment while she was reading with a small group!
A cousin through the Voorus, Hogue, and Spangler family lines, Besse B. Voorus was born December 12, 1893. Miss Voorus was graduated from Pleasantville High School and received her bachelor of arts degree from Slippery Rock Normal School. She was an elementary school teacher for over 43 years, teaching in both the Oil City and Meadville School Districts in Pennsylvania. One of her great nieces remembers her mother talking about having Bessie as a teacher and her encouraging them to learn about Geography especially. Wouldn’t it have been a surprise to realize a little girl you taught in elementary school would grow up to marry your nephew and her children would be your great nieces and nephews!
Besse taught for forty-three years and died in 1992 at 98 years old! Can you imagine what she witnessed in her lifetime!? The things she witnessed and was able to teach her students–she lived through horse and buggy days to automobiles and rockets to the moon! She saw cooking with wood to gas, electricity and even microwaves! Television didn’t exist in her childhood, but later became a huge part of our lives! Talk about having to be adaptable! Just to live successfully she had to be willing to change, grow, and adapt–weren’t her students lucky to have such an experienced teacher and a versatile one!
Bessie’s sister, Dorothy Pearl Voorus Hogg was a teacher also, teaching in Slippery Rock, Pennsylvania. Her husband was also a teacher who will be featured as well. Dorothy and Calvin had six children of their own, can you imagine how busy this lady was day in and day out! . She began teaching in a one-room school-house with all grades together, and taught long enough to enter a modern elementary school building in the 1950’s and into the early ’70s! This kind of longevity always inspires me.
Lena Voorus is the third sister to teach in the Elementary Schools of Slippery Rock, Pennsylvania! Born in 1889, Lena died in 1978 all in Venango County, Pennsylvania. Unfortunately, Lena had a stroke and became wheelchair bound. Her sisters took care of her and stayed supportive of each other. Her great nieces and nephews remember her as sweet and kind, a great tribute. What’s amazing to me, is that these women, born in the late 1800’s, at a time when women didn’t generally work outside the home, went out and got their education, and worked at a profession. That takes a lot of courage and fortitude, good for them!
Julia in the 1940’s
My Great-Aunt Julia Houchins Nichols became an attorney. However, she was only 15 in 1900 when her mother died. Her father soon deserted his six children and moved out-of-state. Thank heavens the children did have a guardian angel and grandparents nearby. Nonetheless, never one to let grass grow under her feet, Julia went out and got a job teaching. The story goes that Julia, only a teen still, went to apply for a teaching job in the mountains of southwest Virginia in Patrick County, where she lived. The person interviewing her asked her what she could tell him that would impress him and make him think she was smart enough to teach. She told him she could tell him exactly how many boards for lumber he could get from any sized tree. She had caught his attention, and he pointed to a tree outside the window and said “Okay, tell me how many boards could you get from that tree? Julia solved the problem aloud, and her reasoning and math skills so impressed the man, he hired her on the spot! Later she told family that she was so thankful that her family member, I’m not sure who, had worked in a sawmill, so that she had learned this skill. I’m sure she was an excellent teacher, she had four younger brothers to wrangle with after her mother died, children didn’t scare her! Julia lived from 1885 to 1969, another witness to travel by horse to travel by rockets to the moon! She served as the very first female Assistant District Attorney in the State of Virginia. Julia was a force to be reckoned with, and was highly loved by her family and still is today by grandchildren who are now grandparents themselves!
Eight Special Education teachers, and ten Elementary Education teachers–what a group to be proud of, but they are not all of the educators in our family! In the next post I will tell you about our Middle and High School teachers as well as our Principals, and College Professors! What a legacy they are creating or have left for our family.
It’s Fall– “time to go back to school”– it seems that teachers hear this call in their souls!
(This blog post was written as part of the A – Z blogging challenge given by 10 Minute Novelists. Therefore it is somewhat of an introduction of my blog and genealogical work, very familiar already to my blog readers whose support I appreciate greatly, hope you enjoy this as well.)
Everyone who knows me, knows I am into genealogy! Yesterday, I joined a facebook group called “Genealogy Addicts Anonymous”! Seriously. Not one of us who joined this group wants to give up genealogy, we just want to join together with other ancestry obsessed! I belong to four or five other genealogy groups online as well–like Genealogy Bloggers, Genea Bloggers, Irish Genealogists, Scotland’s People, Italian Genealogy, and more. Besides my own blog, I write for “Worldwide Genealogy~A Genealogical Collaboration”. My blog is featured in a Netherland blog as well, as I occasionally write about my Dutch ancestors. It’s fun, it’s informative, and we hope our work will leave our families something to treasure. Now that I’ve added stories about my ancestors through my blog “Heart of a Southern Woman”. I hope it just adds joy to the facts I’ve found in my research.
I keep my main family trees on ancestry .com, with a backup on Family Tree Maker on my computer. My main tree, “Old Virginia Families” has over 23,000 people in it now! I have actually got 26 other family trees I have started on ancestry as well. These include, one for my husband’s family, and the rest for cousins! This has been my hobby/avocation for the last nine years. It is absorbing, intriguing, and makes me feel like a detective at times. Yet, I have several “brick walls” still, places where I can’t find the next generation. Lots of times, a group of us have gotten together to pool our skills, but we still can’t always find that elusive connection!
Katy and Liam, grandchildren of author, in front of the Governor’s Palace in Williamsburg, Virginia, designed by their 10th Great Grandfather, Henry Cary
A lot of people ask me questions about my work, other than who did you discover in your family tree this week? (one of my favorites) Questions like have you found anyone famous? Yes– how exciting is that! How about anyone historical? Yes, and yes! Have you ever found someone in your family tree in jail? The answer is yes, I was shocked! These finds thrilled and surprised me! I had no idea I could trace my family back to Jamestown and the Mayflower! That I had ancestors who were the first in New Jersey! No idea one of my cousins married the daughter of Daniel Boone–after saving her from the Indians! Can you believe I am kin to the Plantagenets, the Tudors, and royalty in Scotland, Denmark, and Russia for heaven’s sake! You can find all these stories in the index of my blog. I actually did trace my granddaughter Eve back to Eve of Adam and Eve! No wonder I am kin to everyone, I guess we really all are!
Six Degrees of Separtion visualization by Dnnie Walker featured in Wikipedia article about this subject. see link in accompanying post
One of the most fun things I have done in my life, was to get my dna done for genealogical purposes! Oh my gracious, it opened doors and introduced me to a hundred cousins I never knew before! I have attended at least two family reunions, with a third planned, for family I met through my dna or genealogical research alone, who are now good friends and actual family! The heart just grows you know!
DNA also gave me my ethnic background, and verified what I already knew from my research–I am a melting pot American! Scottish, Irish, English, Welsh, French, Dutch, Danish, Russian, Italian, Iberian Peninsula, Caucasus and more! LOL What fun is that, kin to the World!
This journey of genealogical research has turned into a lifetime’s adventure and more fun than I ever dreamed possible! What do you know about your own ancestors?
Aerial view of cul-de-sac with neighbors who are related from Google Earth
Due to privacy concerns, I will not name two of my neighbors whom we love and are involved with, and with whom I’ve found that I am kin to or were neighbors of as much as 400 years ago!
I wrote a blog post about my 7th great-grandfather, Hartman Vreeland (read it here) who was one of the Founders of the state of New Jersey in the USA. I found a marvelous book by Evelyn Hunt Ogden who listed the founders of NJ and included brief biographies of all the founders. Besides our 7th great-grandfather, I have discovered kinship or connections in present times with ten of this community who were alive and well in New Jersey in the mid and late 1600s!
One of my neighbors used to be a police officer in this area of North Carolina where we now live. In my research, I find his own 10th great- grandfather was the sheriff of the community in New Jersey where my Hartman Vreeland lived! How is that possible? They both purchased land from the Native Americans as well! What an incredible find, and what an amazing ancestral history to discover you share with your neighbor. His grandfather kept my grandfather safe in 1665, and now my neighbor helps keep us safe!
Also living on our street is a family where the father used to teach in the same school with my husband, before my husband retired. They are a loving, young family whose child is friends with our grandchild. They moved into our neighborhood after we did, and were not known to us before then. Now I find through my dna, and a paper trail, that I am kin to both the husband and the wife! It looks like our ancestors were together in Jamestown in the Virginia Colony, 400 years ago!
We live on a cul-de-sac with 12 houses; I can now draw kinship or connections to at least five of my neighbors from 300-400 years ago! Five out of twelve is 41.6% , almost 42% of those twelve, and I haven’t investigated the rest! In my next post, I’ll disclose a discovered kinship to a neighbor in our same subdivision, but on a different street, with whom I can prove a relationship from the 1300’s–over 600 years ago! To me this is a miracle, awesome, and such an amazing adventure in research, dna, and genealogy!
In this series of blog posts, I’ve been discussing connections to my neighbors found in my family tree. Having moved into a cul-de-sac about ten years ago, it has amazed me that I have discovered either relationships, or connections by marriage with several of my neighbors! All of us were new to this neighborhood, and new to each other. I had never done any genealogy so we became acquainted through shared interests and proximity, then I discovered the genealogical connections.
My next door neighbors were a delightful couple, named John and Dora Burgess Pryor. John was an accomplished genealogist at age 92! He’d been researching for years the old-fashioned way– no internet! He and his wife had traveled the towns and states, and spent many hours in libraries and courthouses, poring over tax records, marriage and death records and the like. They’d walked cemeteries and taken copious notes! I was impressed with what John had accomplished and he inspired me to think about creating my own family tree.
Many of my readers know I have severe heart disease and can’t walk far or stand long. I had always loved to garden, but unable to bend over or stand for any length of time, I thought my gardening days were finished. John was in his nineties as mentioned. He could not stoop or bend over either, so he sat on the ground and scooted or crawled to where he wanted to go, gardening up a storm! I watched him work and again was inspired! If this 92-year-old man could sit on the ground and garden, I could too! What a pair we made. Other neighbors got used to seeing us crawling around our gardens! I loved it, and hadn’t had as much fun in years–playing in the dirt! We both had beautiful flowers to show for it as well. Not that we could take all the credit! John’s wife Dora was quite a bit younger than John, and she could and did work rings around both of us! She was the true gardner! Her yard was spotless and beautiful! I didn’t even try to keep up, just tried to enjoy what I could do. My own husband didn’t consider himself a gardener, but he was the labor end of our efforts! Dora and I became great friends! Unfortunately, John passed away a few years ago, and even though he has left a hole, we love Dora with a passion! John passed away shortly after I started my own genealogical work, so we had only a couple of opportunities to compare notes! What a loss.
Daylilies line the path to Dora’s
Asiactic lily
Double red knock out rose
Just like with the Voorhees and McLaughlins, it wasn’t long until I was seeing Pryors and Burgesses in my tree! What’s up with this?! My neighbors thought I was crazy as they heard me saying again, “Dora, I think we are kin to each other…and I might be kin to John as well! LOL Like before, I asked Dora to let me work on her tree a bit so that I could check out these things I was finding! The “coincidences” are amazing in my book, and unfortunately, I can’t even remember them all! I wasn’t thinking I’d ever write about them, so I noted them, talked about it with Dora, then went on with my research.
But look at this. As you know, my paternal grandmother’s line is Hogue on one side. Hogue is Scottish, and Pryor is generally English in origin. However, I found the name Pryor all over my Hogue family tree! My neighbor John was named John Hamilton Pryor. Right there in my tree was a John Pryor Hogue, a Pryor Hogue, and a John Hamilton Hogue! My neighbor John was born and reared in West Virginia, and I could trace my Hamilton Hogues right to West Virginia! I could never quite prove the kinship however. After John passed, I took a dna test to aid with my genealogy research. As I learned more about the Hogue dna, I discovered that the Pryor and Hamilton Hogues were not in my Hogue haplogroup! Hard to believe, but definitive. Nevertheless, what are the chances we’d have these name connections moving in next door to each other from different states and backgrounds?
Dora and I not only shared the love of gardening, we became red hatters together and played like there was no tomorrow! She and Linda and I shared our strong faith as well, we were great “pray-ers”! Dora and Linda were avid volunteers in the community, at their church and in other endeavors. I couldn’t believe the blessing of moving next door to such a dynamic, loving woman.
Burgess and McKay (pronounced McCoy) were her main two genealogical lines. Her McKays were from Scotland like my Hogues, and I saw them everywhere, along with Burgess!
After I got my dna done, I began to zero in on my exact relationship to her Burgesses! We shared a third cousin! However, we were kin to that same person by opposite sides of the family, so we were still only kin by marriage. But, hey, it seemed amazing to me!
Thomas Burgess was born in 1814, He was one of fourteen children –so we share 14 third cousins! LOL Just think, 200 years ago, Dora’s family and mine were the same, our families , or our kin folks lived together in West Virginia!
If that isn’t enough, our families were together again in Jamestown, Virginia! Dora’s eighth great- grandfather, John Chew, 1587-1668, has an illustrious history in the colony of Jamestown, Virginia, and qualifies her to join the Jamestown Society. We can verify in The Genealogy of the Chew Family by Robert L. Chew,published by the Gloucester County Historical Society, Woodbury, N. J. that John Chew was a Burgess in Jamestown for almost twenty years starting in 1624. He also served as a Justice for York County. Quoted from this same source: “John Chew of Jamestown, VA (1587-1668) was born in Whalley Parish, Lancashire, England. A wealthy merchant, he may have been with John Smith as early as 1607, when the first permanent English settlement in the new World was founded at Jamestown. It was certain that John Chew received land granted from the Virginia Company in 1618. He married Sarah Gale in England, and returned to Virginia in 1622 on the ship Charity, which was owned by his wife’s family. He operated a tobacco plantation on Hogg Island, across the James River from Jamestown. His wife, indentured servants and oldest children immigrated from Chewton, Somersetshire, England on the ship Seaflower to join him in 1623. John built a house, warehouse and store in Jamestown, where he dealt in wine, corn and tobacco. He was a member and secretary of the Virginia House of Burgesses. By 1642, he also owned 1200 acres in York County. When the Virginia Governor oppressed
Puritans in support of the Church of England, the family migrated to Anne Arundel County, Maryland. John used Virginia tobacco to buy 500 acres near Annapolis. When his wife died in Maryland, John returned to Virginia. He was the oldest son of John Chewe of Bewdley, Worcestershire, England.”
When you look at the history for my own 9th great-grandfather, Nicholas Martiau (blog post here), the similarities are striking and the shared experiences so strong, they surely must have been acquainted! From John Baer Stoudt’s book entitled Nicolas Martiau –Adventurous Huguenot, we learn that Nicholas “left England and sailed for Virginia arriving in June, 1620. His construction of a fence or palisade around the Jamestown Fort helped the settlers survive an Indian uprising in 1622. He …was elected to the House of Burgesses from the colony. Later he served as a Burgess from Elizabeth City, Yorktown, and Isle of Kent. Nicholas also served as a Justice for the early court system of Virginia–with court sometimes being held in his home.” It seems they must have known each other, I cannot imagine how they would not have.
How can we explain Dora and I moving next door to each other and becoming close friends, 400 years after our grandparents worked and played together as well?! It certainly seems as if our families are connected. Add to that my connections to the Voorhees and McLaughlins across the street…well, what do you think? Is it serendipity, reincarnation-traveling with our tribes, or coincidence–the definition given us saying “coincidence — a miracle where God’s presence is invisible?” Kind of feels like that to me–like a miracle of friendship!
The Voorhees Family of Maryland, with Linda Voorhees in the center (in dark blue) of her siblings. Thanks to Linda for permission to use this photograph.
Time Travel? Six Degrees of Separation? Reincarnation and traveling through life with your tribe? God’s miracle? In this mini-series of blog posts, I am exploring connections I found, especially with my neighbors, as I researched my family tree. Can you imagine what my neighbors thought as I began to say to more and more of them, “I think we might be kin to each other!” LOL Once maybe, but five times!? There are many other connections that coincide with these. It raises questions, makes me think of things I’ve only read about before! The VanVoorhees family was originally from the Netherlands. They came to this country of America by at least 1660– when Steven Coerte VanVoorhees, born in Hees, Drenthe, Holland in 1600, came to New Amsterdam, New York. The name was shortened to Voorhees in America, with some families changing it to Voorus, Vorhis, and other spellings. My introduction to the Voorhees family came in 2004, when I moved into a new neighborhood in North Carolina, USA, and Linda Voorhees and her husband Jerry McLaughlin lived across the street from me. They had retired and moved from the Washington DC area, Maryland to be specific. The day we first saw our perspective new house, we met Jerry McLaughlin. He was in his yard working, and we asked him a few questions about the neighborhood. His warm welcome, best wishes and most of all, his incredibly charming laugh…stayed with me and made me feel like we had found the place we were supposed to be. Little did I know how much at “home” this neighborhood would become. Linda and I became good friends, she is one of the smartest, most giving, kind, and friendly people you could ever meet! Besides that, her past was so very interesting in that she had worked with congressmen, for the World Bank, and had an office in the White House when Bill and Hillary Clinton were there! We became good gardening friends as well and she was President of our local gardening club. We became Red Hatters together also, and had so much shared fun! I was struck by the fact that she had six sisters and one brother! My mother had been one of six sisters and one brother as well, it intrigued me how close to each other both families were. It wasn’t until 2011 that I began to explore the world of genealogy and develop my family tree. I was truly a newbie, and knew very little about my ancestors when I started. First, I began to see the name McLaughlin crisscrossing my family tree! I even asked Jerry to let me develop a family tree for him so that I could tell if we connected! He already had a lot of family information, but said “sure”. That exploration connected with my Hogue family of Scottish descent, although Jerry was Irish. A lot of Scots of course, settled in Ireland for a period of time before coming to America. I was exploring and cataloging my Hogue family who came to Pennsylvania in 1747 with some moving to Ohio shortly after 1800. I came across the most wonderful book titled The Story of the Dining Fork, by Joseph T. Harrison, copyright, 1927. The Dining Fork was a valley near a branch of the Tuscarawas River in the southern part of Carroll County and northern part of Harrison County, Ohio. Harrison writes this story in such a way that it covers many historical events of the nineteenth century, at the same time, he writes so personally of the citizens and neighbors that you feel you get to know them a bit! I was intrigued and read most of the book, available from the card catalog on ancestry.com. Imagine my shock and surprise when I discovered that he wrote about neighbors there, Hogues and Voorhees! Wow! Not only were they neighbors, but they were teachers and more at the brand new Scio College built in the town, later to become a Methodist college. Linda and I are both Methodists. It took some work to link these Voorhees to Linda’s family and those particular Hogues to mine! Thanks to Linda’s helping me develop a tree of her family, and many Hogue relatives helping me with my research, we were able to determine, that the Jacob Voorhees who moved to Ohio from New Jersey, was Linda’s third cousin! Robert S. Hogue who also taught at Scio College, was not my 4th great uncle as I had first thought , but my own cousin as well! They lived and worked together in the late 1860’s, at least 155 years ago! Now Linda and I are friends in 2015. But that was just the first time I found our families in close proximity! Continuing to work closely with a group of family researchers, I met a woman named Dorothy Hogg Moore from Pennsylvania. In studying her family tree, and how our Hoggs/Hogues were related, I made a startling discovery–several in fact. She was a Voorhees descendant! Another connection! Her family had changed the spelling to Voorus, but her line tracked right back to Garret Voorhees, born 10 April, 1761 in Monmouth, New Jersey, USA, Linda’s fourth great grandfather! That made Linda and Dorothy fifth cousins!
The Voorus sisters of Pennsylvania. Dorothy Voorus, fourth from left, is the one who imarried Calvin Hogg, and is the namesake for Dorothy Hogg Moore. thanks to Dorothy H. Moore for permission to use this photograph.
In Dorothy’s tree also, I discovered another amazing thing. Now, the Hogues who are on my father’s side of the family, were the connection between the Voorhees and me, but here were the Spanglers from my mother’s family—German descent Spanglers, in the family with these Hoggs and Voorus/Voorhees families! Her Spanglers definitely traced back to my Spangler ancestors! We were kin through the Hogues and the Spanglers, and she and Linda through the Voorhees. The Spanglers joined the Voorus’s in the mid 1800’s, and the Voorus’s joined the Hoggs/Hogues around the turn of the century to 1900, so we’re talking interactions again about 100 to 150 years ago! All in one family tree with a neighbor. But I wasn’t finished yet. My maiden name was Helen Spear Youngblood. I was tracking all my major lines back as far as I could, so the Spears of course were one of those lines. In the Spear/Spier line, I have surnames Banta, Vreeland, and VanSwol among others. It wasn’t long before I ran into the surname Voorhees again! This time it showed that my 8th great-grandfather, Henrich Jansen Spier, 1619-1679, and Linda’s 9th great-grandfather, Steven Coerte VanVoorhees, b,1600 in Hees, Drenthe, Holland, Death 16 Feb 1684 in Flatlands, Kings, New York, United States, were both in New Amsterdam together. In the mid 1600’s, it’s likely they knew each other! As I explored this time era with this family further, I found more connections with Linda’s family! Look what I wrote her via email late one night as I was researching –this connection takes us back 250 years! Hi Linda darlin, As you may have seen, I just wrote a blog post yesterday on an ancestor from the Netherlands, Magdelina Van Swol who married one of my Spiers, my maiden name was Helen Spear Youngblood, same line of Spears/Spiers. Anyway, the Spiers, VanSwols, and Bantas are all contemporaries (in the mid 1600’s!) in my line, so imagine my surprise when I saw Magdalena VanVoorhees married to one of my Banta cousins! Wow! They both lived in Bergen, NJ, and went to the Dutch Reformed Church there. Magdalena (1739 – 1810)) is your 2nd cousin, 8x removed (8 generations removed). Her husband Albert Hendrickse Banta, 1728-1810, is my 2nd cousin, 7x removed! that makes their children our mutual 3rd cousins, removed 7x for you, and 6x for me! LOL We keep crossing paths in this life, we were meant to be friends and neighbors I think! Awesome! Linda and I became neighbors in 2004, we had never met before. I had never heard the name Voorhees as far as I know. Then in 2011, I started doing genealogy and wow, Linda’s ancestors and mine certainly seem to have traveled through time together! How can we explain this? How interesting that Linda was not my only neighbor with whom this happened! In the next couple posts, I’ll outline how I found that at least four more of my neighbors’ ancestors and my ancestors knew each other! I’m thinking of Linda’s sending me this definition of coincidence–“a miracle where God’s presence is invisible.” That idea speaks to me! We might also consider, Six Degrees of Separation, Reincarnation, and Serendipity!
LOL I love my neighbors, and my family, and isn’t genealogical research fun!
Born and raised in Richmond, Virginia, we lived only a couple of hours from Jamestown! We went there often in my childhood, to Yorktown and Williamsburg as well. My mother was very interested in history, and wanted to be sure her children understood their Virginia history! She was also very interested in family history, but as far as I know, she had no idea that she had grandparents who had lived in Jamestown! Oh my gracious, she would have been so excited to know all this I’m sure! I am excited as well! As my genealogical research progressed, I began to realize we had some lines of ancestors that extended back to that time frame. However, I had not investigated particularly if we had ancestors who were on the “approved” lists from the Jamestown Society indicating that you did indeed have ancestors from Jamestown. As I approached the end of this 52 ancestors in 52 weeks challenge, I decided to write about some of our first ancestors–the Huguenots, Pilgrims on the Mayflower, and Jamestown Settlers. I gathered all the lists I could find, and started searching! Some were easy as I readily recognized the names! Several were amazing to me, because I had perhaps stopped at a daughter or son, never dreaming that including one more generation would take me to Jamestown! Wow! Altogether, as of this writing, I have identified twenty grandparents who were present in Jamestown, and therefore would make my siblings and I , and many of my cousins eligible for membership in the Jamestowne Society. That is simply amazing to me!
I am going to list all twenty of our grandparents here, and highlight the ones I’ve already blogged about–so that you can simply click on them and see their story. At the end of this post, just for information’s sake, I will list their relationship trees. Therefore cousins can tell who comes through the Houchins, the Langhornes, the Omohundros, etc. and see their own relationships.
The very first discovery I made that I’d not known of before, just blew me away! I was looking at the lines, and noticed a Mirian Newport married to a William Hatcher. It was the Newport name that caught my attention. I knew I had seen that name on the lists. I thought I’d extend her line a bit, and who turned out to be her father? Oh my gracious, none other than Captain Christopher Newport, Captain of the Susan Constant and in charge of all three ships that sailed to Jamestown! I had no idea, and was so excited! He is our/my ninth great- grandfather! His daughter Marian is my eighth great-grandmother and is a qualifying ancestor in her own right! Her husband William Hatcher, my eight great-grandfather is identified as well! William Hatcher served for many years in the House of Burgesses.
The following story, originally shared to his family tree on ancestry, by Theodore Walker27, by an unknown author, can be found on ancestry, and is very interesting about the Susan Constant and Captain Newport:
Jamestown Ships, The Susan Constant, the Godspeed, and the Discovery. source: Private Jamestown VA Tours Virginia http://www.williamsburgprivatetours.com197 × 193Search by image
“The Susan Constant, captained by Christopher Newport, was the largest of three ships of the English Virginia Company (the others being the Discovery and the Godspeed) on the 1606-1607 voyage that resulted in the founding of Jamestown in the new Colony of Virginia. Susan Constant was rated at 120 tons. Her keel length is estimated at 55.2 feet (16.8 meters). Her overall length from tip to stern is estimated at 116 feet. On the 1606-1607 voyage, she carried 105 colonists, all male. She returned to England in May 1607. She served as a merchant ship through at least 1615. Her fate is not known. The alternative name Sarah Constant has been cited, and is shown as being the name noted on the earliest document, leading to a belief that Samuel Purchas had the name wrong in his Pilgrims book. There is growing support for the name Sarah Constant. The article that cites the Sarah Constant is as follows: He tolde me of three barques on route to the New Worlde, thouse whose names are, as he tolde me thereon, be consysted of “Godspeed”, “Discoverie” or “Discovery”, and one whose name splyte twice, I think ´was “Sarah Constant”.- presumably written by Sir Walter Raleigh. December 20, 1606, 150 passengers left Blackwall, London, England in three London (Virginia) Company ships, Susan Constant with Master Christopher Newport and 71 passengers, Godspeed with Capt. Bartholomew Gosnold and 52 passengers and the Discovery under Capt. John Ratcliffe, carrying 21 persons. They headed for the New World. After 18 weeks, the ships landed in Cape Henry, Virginia. 105 survivors established the town of Jamestown. April 30, 1607: The ships arrive at Cape Comfort, a vanguard boat stopped at Kecoughtan where the natives welcomed the English Settlers”
If you like interactive websites, and if you’d like to know more about the women in Jamestown, there is a wonderful website titled the National Women’s History Museum. There we learn that the Englishmen named the river that flows into the Chesapeake Bay the James River and named their settlement Jamestown, both to honor their King, James I. The settlers of Virginia were looking for gold especially, but none was to be found!
In this same website we finally learn about the women in Jamestown!” For over a year after the founding of Jamestown, no English women lived in the colony. Then in October of 1608, two women arrived with the “Second Supply” of men and provisions. Thomas Forrest, listed as a gentleman in the supply lists, brought his wife, Anne Forrest, and her maid, Anne Buras. Buras was about fourteen years old when she arrived. She married the carpenter John Layton within a year, an event that Captain John Smith described as the first wedding held in Virginia. Anne Layton later gave birth to a daughter, named Virginia. While the Laytons are not mentioned again in later records, their arrival represents the beginning of families in Jamestown.
In August of 1609, about twenty women arrived on ships sent by the Virginia Company of London. One hundred more women arrived a few months later. Many of the female passengers on the first ships were traveling with their husbands and families. All were recruited by the Virginia Company, a land-development, stock-issuing corporation based in London. For the most part these women’s names are lost, but a few survive in the record.”
Lo and behold, listed on this website, is Jane/Joan Pierce, my grandmother! Until this very moment I didn’t know she and her daughter existed, only men are usually discussed! “Joan Pierce sailed with her husband William and daughter Jane. By all accounts, Joan was a dauntless woman and enjoyed the challenges of living in Virginia. During a visit to England in 1629, she was described as “an honest and industrious woman [who] hath been [in Virginia] nearly 20 years.” She apparently considered the new colony rich in resources; she was quoted as saying that “she can keep a better house in Virginia . . . than in London.” Many women were in the same situation: while their men took off for the New World, women supported their families and managed the finances. Before leaving England to join their husbands, these women made the decisions about selling property and planning for the long voyage.”
“Her daughter, Jane Pierce, married John Rolfe, the widower of Pocahontas. Pocahontas had been the favored daughter of Chief Powhatan, and her marriage to Rolfe in 1614 brought over eight years of peace between the settlers and Native Americans, during which the colony was able to produce profitable tobacco. Pocahontas died in England in 1617, and Rolfe returned to Jamestown. He became active in colonial politics and married Jane Pierce later that year. They had one daughter, Elizabeth, also named for the powerful Virgin Queen.”National Women’s History Museum. Jane Pierce was my 10th great Aunt, with her sister Edith being my 10th great-grandmother! Edith Pierce married Jerimiah Clements, my 10th great-grandfather. It is so amazing to me, that I happen to share the Pierces and the Clements with other genealogical researchers–making us cousins now as well as friends!
From Jamestown Rediscovery we learn that the “Recent discovery of the exact location of the first settlement and its fort indicates that the actual settlement site was in a more secure place, away from the channel, where Spanish ships could not fire point-blank into the fort. Almost immediately after landing, the colonists were under attack from what amounted to the on-again off-again enemy, the Algonquian natives. As a result, in a little over a month’s time, the newcomers managed to “beare and plant palisades” enough to build a wooden fort. Three contemporary accounts and as ketch of the fort agree that its wooden palisaded walls formed a triangle around a storehouse, church, and a number of houses. It is amazing to realize that my own 9th great-grandfather Nicholas Martiau, a Huguenot, French Engineer, helped design and build the improved palisades around the Jamestown Fort in 1620, allowing for the survival of some of the settlers during the 1622 Indian Massacre.
While disease, famine, and continuing attacks of neighboring Algonquins took a tremendous toll on the population, there were times when the Powhatan Indian trade revived the colony with food in exchange for glass beads, copper, and iron implements. It appears that eventual structured leadership of Captain John Smith kept the colony from dissolving. The “Starving Time” winter followed Smith’s departure in 1609 during which only 60 of the original 214 settlers at Jamestown survived. That June, the survivors decided to bury cannon and armor and abandon the town. It was only the arrival of the new governor, Lord De La Ware, and his supply ships that brought the colonists back to the fort and the colony back on its feet. Although the suffering did not totally end at Jamestown for decades, some years of peace and prosperity followed the wedding of Pocahontas, the favored daughter of the Algonquian chief Powhatan, to tobacco entrepreneur John Rolfe.
The first representative assembly in the New World convened in the Jamestown church on July 30, 1619. The General Assembly met in response to orders from the Virginia Company “to establish one equal and uniform government over all Virginia” which would provide “just laws for the happy guiding and governing of the people there inhabiting.” The other crucial event that would play a role in the development of America was the arrival of Africans to Jamestown. A Dutch slave trader exchanged his cargo of Africans for food in 1619. The Africans became indentured servants, similar in legal position to many poor Englishmen who traded several years of labor in exchange for passage to America. The popular conception of a race-based slave system did not fully develop until the 1680s.”
The Algonquian eventually became disenchanted and, in 1622, attacked the out plantations killing over 300 of the settlers. Even though a last-minute warning spared Jamestown, the attack on the colony and mismanagement of the Virginia Company at home convinced the King that he should revoke the Virginia Company Charter; Virginia became a crown colony in 1624.
The fort seems to have existed into the middle of the 1620s, but as Jamestown grew into a “New Town” to the east, written reference to the original fort disappear. Jamestown remained the capital of Virginia until its major statehouse, located on the western end of Preservation Virginia property, burned in 1698. The capital was moved to Williamsburg that year and Jamestown began to slowly disappear above ground. By the 1750s the land was owned and heavily cultivated, primarily by the Travis and Ambler families.
You can read or listen to the history of Jamestown in so many places, I have not tried to tell you even half of the history here. I have included a video which is very instructive in the history. I am going to list some of the websites I utilized as well, especially the ones with the lists of settlers, much more than the beginning ones listed here: From the website Historic Jamestown, , Understanding America’s Birthplace, we find this list of the very first settlers and their occupations!
Original Settlers–Spring, 1607
Name
Occupation
Master Edward Maria Wingfield
Captaine Bartholomew Gosnoll
Captaine John Smyth
Captaine John Ratliffe
Captaine John Martin
Captaine George Kendall
Councell
Master Robert Hunt
Preacher
Master George Percie
Anthony Gosnoll
Captaine Gabriell Archer
Robert Ford
William Bruster
Dru Pickhouse
John Brookes
Thomas Sands
John Robinson
Ustis Clovill
Kellam Throgmorton
Nathaniell Powell
Robert Behethland
Jeremy Alicock
Thomas Studley
Richard Crofts
Nicholas Houlgrave
Thomas Webbe
John Waler
William Tanker
Francis Snarsbrough
Edward Brookes
Richard Dixon
John Martin
George Martin
Anthony Gosnold
Thomas Wotton, Surgeon
Thomas Gore
Francis Midwinter
Gentlemen
William Laxon/Laxton
Edward Pising
Thomas Emry
Robert Small
Anas Todkill
John Capper
Carpenters
First Supply, January 1608
Name
Occupation
Matthew Scrivner
appointed to be of the Councell
Michaell Phetyplace
William Phetyplace
Ralfe Morton
William Cantrill
Richard Wyffin
Robert Barnes
George Hill
George Pretty
John Taverner
Robert Cutler
Michaell Sickelmore
Thomas Coo
Peter Pory
Richard Killingbeck
William Causey
Doctor Russell
Richard Worley
Richard Prodger
William Bayley
Richard Molynex
Richard Pots
Jefrey Abots
John Harper
Timothy Leds
Edward Gurganay
George Forest
John Nickoles
William Gryvill
Gentlemen
Daniell Stalling
Jeweller
William Dawson
Abraham Ransacke
Refiners
William Johnson
Richard Belfield
Refiners
Peter Keffer
A Gunner
Robert Alberton
A Perfumer
Raymond Goodyson
John Speareman
William Spence
Richard Brislow
William Simons
John Bouth
William Burket
Nicholas Ven
William Perce
Francis Perkins
Francis Perkins
William Bentley
Richard Gradon
Rowland Nelstrop
Richard Salvage
Thomas Salvage
Richard Miler
William May
Vere
Michaell
Bishop Wyles
Labourers
John Powell
Thomas Hope
William Beckwith
William Yonge
Laurence Towtales
William Ward
Tailers
Christopher Rodes
James Watkings
Richard Fetherstone
James Burne
Thomas Feld
John Harford
Apothecaries
Post Gittnat
A Surgeon
John Lewes
A Couper
Robert Cotton
A Tobacco-pipe-maker
Richard Dole
A Blackesmith
With divers others
Second Supply, Fall 1608
Name
Occupation
Captaine Peter Winne
Captaine Richard Waldo
Were appointed to bee of the Councell
Master Francis West
Thomas Graves
Rawley Chroshaw
Gabriell Bedle
John Russell
John Bedle
William Russell
John Gudderington
William Sambage
Henry Collings
Henry Ley
Harmon Haryson
Daniell Tucker
Hugh Wollystone
John Hoult
Thomas Norton
George Yarington
George Burton
Henry Philpot
Thomas Maxes
Michaell Lowicke
Master Hunt
Thomas Forest
William Dowman
John Dauxe
Thomas Abbey
Gentlemen
Thomas Phelps
John Prat
John Clarke
Jefry Shortridge
Dionis Oconor
Hugh Wynne
David ap Hugh
Thomas Bradley
John Burras
Thomas Lavander
Henry Bell
Master Powell
David Ellys
Thomas Gipson
Tradesmen
Thomas Dowse
Thomas Mallard
William Taler
Thomas Fox
Nicholas Hancock
Walker
Williams
Morrell
Rose
Scot
Hardwin
Laborers
Milman
Hellyard
Boyes
Mistresse Forrest, and Anne Burras her maide
eight Dutch men and Poles, with some others
Relationship Charts for Ancestors in Jamestown,
Capt. Christopher Newport (1563 – 1617) is your 9th great grandfather
This is IT! I did it! I completed writing about 52 Ancestors in 52 Weeks! Actually, more than that as many posts dealt with multiple ancestors like this one! What a difference a year makes! Fifteen years ago, I was told I would only live five years or so, now this year, my fifteenth year of survival with severe heart disease, I have accomplished this challenge, and I have written a novel! Amazing!Thanks to Amy Johnson Crow for issuing and maintaining the challenge, and thanks to all the other authors who’ve shared their techniques and their family stories! I could not have done all of this without the support of my family and friends who have encouraged me every step of the way! Thank you so very much! It has been a wonderful experience!
Sugggested reading and reference:
–Jamestowne Society, Richmond, Virginia, http://www.jamestowne.org/ (includes list of approved ancestors)
–National Park Service, Historic Jamestowne, http://www.nps.gov/jame/historyculture/index.htm
–National Women’s History Museum, https://www.nwhm.org/online-exhibits/jamestownwomen/index.htm
As I worked further and further back in time in our family tree, I was amazed to realize that my family had ancestors who arrived on the Mayflower! Some people know that their whole lives, they wear it like a badge of honor–“My family arrived on the Mayflower!” As a Southerner, I never even thought about that being part of our family history. Of course, as I’ve learned, my family hails from all over the United States as well as the British Isles and Europe. I may identify with the Southern United States, but that is only part of our rich family history! It’s so exciting! The Mayflower, Plymouth Rock! The Colony was settled mostly by people who wanted the freedom to worship as they chose. They were members of the English Separatist Church and felt persecuted by the Church of England. Ten years earlier a group of Separatists had left England for Leiden, Holland, in search of religious freedom. It was William Bradford who was their leader and helped them decide to travel to Virginia where the colony of Jamestown had been settled in 1607. At that time, Virginia reached almost all the way to the Hudson River. Some of the settlers signed the Mayflower Compact which was an agreement that bound the signers into a governing body, establishing constitutional law and the rule by majority–an important step towards democracy. We came to call these settlers Pilgrims. They were helped to succeed in establishing their colony by a Native American of the Patuxet people named Squanto. He helped them establish a treaty with Chief Massasoit. Our tradition of celebrating a day for Thanksgiving started in Plymouth. As I understand it, both as a way to thank the Native Americans for helping them, and as a way of setting aside a day to thank God for their very lives.
Just look at this painting! Can you imagine traveling for two months with 102 other people and livestock in this 90 foot long ship! No wonder they were in such bad shape that most of them died the very first year that they lived in America. Can you imagine the courage, the commitment, the beliefs you would have to have to take such a journey to a strange and unsettled land! Now I know three of my grandparents, some cousins, and many people related to my family through marriage did exactly that! What a legacy! Their blood runs in my veins, in the veins of many of you who are reading this article, and to me that is amazing! 1620-2014, 394 years ago–do you think they dreamed their lives would undergo such scrutiny!?
Another reason I want you to look at these paintings closely, is that these beautiful works of art are displayed here with permission from the artist, Mike Haywood! It helps us understand the journey so strongly I believe! He sells lithographs and canvas prints on his website, I hope to get one soon. In a discussion forum in which I participate, Mike posted this comment: “Help….. I painted this canvas in 2005 as one of my series portraying the dramatic voyage of the Mayflower. Normally I keep my paintings but this one was purchased by a descendant. Because of a computer malfunction, I have lost the name and address of the purchaser, who I would now like to contact. Can any group member shed some light? It is my personal favourite of all my Mayflower paintings. The title of the canvas is “Seas so high”, a phrase extracted from William Bradford’s contemporary account of the voyage……”In many of these storms the winds were so fierce, and the seas so high, as they could not bear a knot of sail, but were forced to heave to for many days together. ……………..Conditions below decks on that cockleshell of a boat would have been ghastly for the passengers.”
If any of you know this information for Mike, please contact him directly at Mike@MikeHaywoodArt.com.uk. –or leave a message here in comments and I will be sure to get the information to him.
I’ve learned that many on that boat were related to my family, or related to us by marriage! I am still amazed. According to the Mayflower Society, these are the names of the passengers and crew who were on the Mayflower:
Mayflower (1620)
View the original list of passengers (PDF, 2.6Mb) from the handwritten manuscript of Gov. William Bradford, written up about 1651 (file link is to the State Library of Massachusetts). Below is a complete list of all Mayflower passengers, along with a link to each for further information.
As you see, Thomas Rogers and his son Joseph are listed among the passengers. Thomas is my 10th great grandfather on my mother’s side, and is my husband’s 11th great grandfather through his Mother! I had no idea my husband and I were cousins until I learned this bit of information! That makes our children and grands double descendants of Thomas Rogers. I have discovered that this is not uncommon for the Mayflower passengers! This is the way our lines look:
While Thomas’s eldest son Joseph came over with him on the Mayflower, his son John, whom I descend from, and his son James, whom Max descends from came over later and became landowners in Plymouth Colony also. There is so much I’d like to tell you about the Rogers family and their rich, rich history! I think however, it will have to wait for a separate blog post. I do want to remind you that these relationships are based on my own research, which is always a process, and have not been proven by any of the governing bodies or societies.
Because they are ancestors of our ancestors, we are also kin to John Alden, Priscilla Mullins and her father William Mullins. My daughters would have loved their 12th great- grandfather, William Mullins, because he was apparently a shoemaker, who reportedly took over 250 pairs of shoes and boots with him on the Mayflower! The colonists didn’t go barefooted!
John Alden and Priscilla Mullins would have made a romantic pair on the voyage as well, they apparently fell in love during the arduous trip! From John Alden & Priscilla Mullins Biography from the website: Alden Kindred of America, we learn that: “Priscilla Mullins was the daughter of William Mullins, also a passenger on the Mayflower with his wife Alice and son Joseph. William, Alice and Joseph all died in the terrible sickness and deprivation of the first winter in Plymouth. Priscilla, who as probably still too young to be married, was orphaned, her only surviving kin her brother and sister in England. Poet Henry Wadsworth Longfellow celebrated the story of how Priscilla attracted the attentions of the newly widowed Captain Myles Standish, who asked his friend John Alden to propose on his behalf only to have Priscilla ask, “Why don’t you speak for yourself, John?” Most of the world draws its image of the Pilgrim story from Longfellow’s epic narrative poem, The Courtship of Myles Standish. The basic story was apparently handed down in the Alden family and published by John and Priscilla’s great-great-grandson, Rev. Timothy Alden, in his Collection of American Epitaphs and Inscriptions in 1814 (264-271).” The picture below of John Alden and Priscilla was found on ancestry with no reference to artist, and is part of the public domain.
We are kin, as cousins to John and Edward Tilley and therefore to their families who came with them aboard the Mayflower as well. John came with his wife Joan Hurst Tilley and their daughter Elizabeth who married John Howland in Plymouth. Edward’s wife, Agnes Cooper might be kin to us separately as well, only more research will tell. Their niece and nephew who came on the Mayflower with them, Humility Cooper and Henry Sampson are also connected to the family. Because he is my cousin’s grandfather, I am kin to Edward Fuller and his son Samuel, through marriage, thanks to Kay Youngblood Fuller and her husband Jim Fuller. We have a family connection to the Hopkins as well that may turn into direct kinship once thoroughly researched. That is at least 18 of the 102 people aboard the Mayflower that we are related to or connected to by family! That is hard for me to believe, and quite eye-opening! Sometimes I just stand awestruck by history and finally the understanding that historical events were about family, not just events! Those were our ancestors being tossed around on those waves, and our ancestors putting their pen to paper to agree to make their own laws! Good for independent spirits, I’m so proud to be related!
Heart of a Southern Woman 