In this the second part of honoring the high school teachers in our family, I have some more very interesting people to introduce to you! One is a retired English teacher so that I’d better watch my dangling participles! Continuing in alphabetical order by last name we’ll be saluting a science teacher first.
Martha Powell Beck Holshouser, wife of my husband Max’s first cousin, John Alton Holshouser, is a retired Science teacher who was married to a farmer. She worked on the farm and helped raise prize-winning show cattle, as well as reared three wonderful, smart and kind sons– all married, some with children of their own! Besides her busy schedule and teaching responsibilities, Martha has helped organize the Holshouser family reunion for 4o years!
In 1973, Martha graduated from Pfeiffer University in Misenheimer, North Carolina. She then taught for 30 years! Fifteen of those years were spent teaching science at Erwin Junior High School, and 15 at East Rowan High School. Both schools are located in Salisbury, North Carolina. Martha taught science all of those years! She taught Physical Science, Earth Science, Environmental Science, and Chemistry! I know Martha well, and she is a doer, a go getter. I bet those students who had her for a teacher knew they were blessed to have such a knowledgeable teacher. She is an enthusiastic person whose positive spirit is catching! Congratulations on a wonderful career and family and thank you for teaching our leaders of tomorrow how to problem solve!
Sharon Lynn was my friend first, we were neighbors and gardeners together when we discovered our kinship though my genealogical research! We are cousins through my mother’s family, Beard, Reynolds, and Pierce through the Houchins, and the Clements all the way back to Jamestown! Sharon is a retired English teacher married to a retired Woodworking teacher. However, although they are retired from teaching, both of them work full time. Sharon went back to school after retirement and earned her CNA so that she could work with seniors, helping them remain in their homes. Sharon is a force to be reckoned with! Intelligent, creative, energetic even driven at times, she is dedicated to her clients and works diligently to make them happy and comfortable. It is easy to see why she still has former students who call her and ask for her advice. She lives here in North Carolina, taught in Pennsylvania, Ohio, and West Virginia, and has students calling her from California! She is a strong advocate who goes the extra mile to help students and friends through life, as well as school. Sharon is a talented craftsperson also, making wreaths, cloth flowers, quilts, and costumes among other things. She and her husband facilitated the staging of plays and events for their church for many years. Over the years, they have kept a sick parent in their home and have helped support and care for their chronically ill adult son . The old adage, “ask a busy person” comes to mind when I think of my dynamic cousin Sharon!
My younger cousin Stephanie Williamson Nicklin is the next teacher I want to honor. Stephanie is my first cousin once removed through the Kearse, Houchins, Langhorne family lines. Her Mom Claudia was my first cousin with her mother and my mother being Kearse sisters. Stephanie comes from a family of educators with her father a teacher and principal, and her sister plus many cousins and Aunts and Uncles being teachers. Stephanie lives in Virginia Beach, Virginia which is where she teaches Biology in the High Schools. She is assigned to different schools as a part-time instructor. Just think of all the more students whose lives she touches that way! She has two teenagers at home, and a husband who is a leader and instructor on the SWAT team of the police force.
–source, depositphotos.com
I know Stephanie well, and I take my hat off to her every day! She is a friendly, strong, smart, and kind individual whose enthusiasm and energetic approach to life never seem to wane! The students of Virginia Beach are so lucky to have her influence in their lives, although they may not realize that until later in life. I stand in awe of her ability to organize so well and cope with the dangers of her husband’s career while coping with teens and her own career. Way to go Stephanie, you rock! The sign below is one she loves, and that tells us just about all we need to know about the positive person she is–one who builds people up, doesn’t tear them down!
Betty Spangler Smith is the first of two Spanger/Langhorne family member cousins I want to acknowledge. Betty is a retired Latin and Spanish teacher in High School who taught full time 33 years, and has been substituting for the last seven! She taught Latin levels 1-5, and AP Latin as well as Spanish levels 1 and 2. She also taught an Introduction to Foreign Languages class. What a rigorous career! What a great opportunity to expand the minds, abilities, even the worlds of so many students! Research shows that learning a foreign language is good for our brains–creating new learning pathways. We also know it allows us to communicate with many other cultures at home and around the world. Thank you Betty for giving our children this opportunity–for training our leaders of tomorrow!
Betty is also an excellent genealogical researcher. I had the opportunity to hear her speak at a family reunion last year and loved it! She told of the history of the family, and anecdotal stories for all of us to enjoy. It was so great to see this dedicated teacher in action!
Betty is also the supervisor of the Credit Union at her old high school, a job she really loves! She explains, “We are the only high school in our district that has a credit union! I work with 4 students who get community service time for helping me, and they get banking experience, so it’s a win-win situation for all! The kids I have are juniors or seniors and since we have some days of no customers, it really gives me a chance to get to know the 4 who work with me.” You know she is a genuine, caring teacher when you hear her say, as I did the other day, that it almost makes her cry to think of not interacting with students everyday when she truly retires again- possibly next year! Your influence will go on forever dear Betty.
My own mother required me to take Latin in High School. She impressed upon me the importance and helpfulness of learning this classical language in developing my vocabulary and knowledge of words. I have Mom and my Latin teachers to thank that I now know these Latin phrases and enjoy using them!
One thing anyone who knows our family, from one end to another, has to admit is that we have incredibly talented, intelligent, and dedicated people in our group. The fact that many have chosen education for their careers, only speaks more highly of our values. Epitomizing those character traits is Harriet Ann Caldwell Spangler who retired after 35 years of teaching all levels of High School Mathematics! She taught 7 years in Kentucky, and 28 years in Florida! Harriet actually taught Physics as well, but her favorite was always geometry with algebra running a close second! Harriet’s leadership skills were well recognized as she served as the Math Department Chairperson for many years at Newberry High School in Alachua County just west of Gainesville, Florida. What a career! When I look back at my own High School career, geometry was one of my favorite subjects as well, and I loved my math teachers all the way through school. I have no doubt that Harriet Spangler inspired many, many students to make the most of their lives. Teachers are our first line counselors, guidance counselors, and instructors–when are we going to let them know how strongly we value them!
When I asked Harriet about how she and Otto met, she told me such a sweet and touching story, that I thought I’d share her words with you!
“Otto and I were high school sweethearts. We met on the tennis courts near my home when I was 13 and he was 14. He was there playing with a friend and I too was there with my girl friend. It started pouring down rain, and his friend offered my friend a ride home, and Otto offered to take me home on his motor bike. He sat up on the tank and I sat behind him. By the time we got home, his shirt was soaked, so I invited him in and mother dried his shirt by hanging it in front of the oven. We listened to 45 RPM records, and talked while it dried. Otto tells that when he went home to eat lunch, he told his parents that he met the girl today that he wanted to marry. It took a few more years to convince me. We were married when I was 19 and he was 20, and had been married for 57 years when he passed away. Fifty-seven wonderful years.”
Harriet and Otto attended Carson-Newman University near Knoxville, Tennessee. Since her husband was a year ahead of her, Harriet decided to quit college–NOT! She decided she needed to finish college in three years so that she could go with him when he attended seminary in Louisville, Ky! She went to summer school and carried some heavy loads of classwork–they both graduated in 1958! Harriet graduated with honors! That same drive and determination carried her though life in raising her family, teaching her classes, and in helping Otto with his ministry to their community. What a wonderful woman and a wonderful teacher—whose life sets an example for us all!
Together she and Otto raised three children, Chuck (Otto Jr.), Elizabeth, and Victor, who have become the kindest, most considerate adults who could ever make a parent proud! Otto was the Baptist Campus Minister at the University of Florida. When he died recently, there was an outpouring of love for him and for Harriet that was awe inspiring and let us know just how much this couple has touched their whole community. Harriet continues to lead her family through their grief, and to keep the faith she and her husband believed in so strongly! Harriet shared this video with us recently via facebook, and I thought it a blessing to share with all of you as she has blessed so many.
Thank you, thank you, thank you to all of our high school teachers! It is surely not enough, but please know it is worth more than diamonds to our youth and our society! We are thankful to God for your gifts and your talents and for placing you with us and in our world! As we honor more educators, we will turn the spotlight on our Principals and on our Professors and Instructors in our colleges and universities. How exciting!
This is the fifth and last post of this series regarding connections and relationships I have found with my neighbors. It has been a joy and a continued amazement for me to put on paper the relationships and connections that I have been noticing regarding my neighbors’ families and my own for the last few years during which I’ve been doing genealogical research. There are more connections I might explore at a later date that have involved the many cousins I’ve met since doing this research, and connections to other genealogical bloggers, but today, I want to talk about this very special family– the Pierce family, and how it connects me to a neighbor and much more.
As I have said before, about ten years ago, we moved into a new subdivision, where everyone was new. Because the neighborhood was new perhaps, many neighbors set about fixing up their yards and gardens, which simply had the bare basic landscaping of any new subdivision. We often walked, well, I rolled in my electric wheelchair due to a heart condition, around the neighborhood, looking at what folks were doing, and getting to know the neighbors. In this way I met neighbors from other streets as well as my own. One such person was Lynn Pierce. Lynn was a great gardener, and had a special joy for daylilies, one of my passions as well! It was such a joy to learn that she was not only a devoted gardener, but a craftsperson extraordinaire and a retired English teacher with a flair for drama and costuming. My husband was very happy to meet her husband Bill and learn that he was a retired woodworking teacher, as my husband had taught woodworking also, along with drafting and engineering. We became good friends and remain so today through joys and sorrows.
I hate to admit this, but I’d known Lynn several years before I even knew her maiden name! I had not been doing genealogical research, so until about a year ago, gardening and traveling together to the beach and to the mountains, were the basis of our friendship, not family background! Lynn met another friend who did genealogical research and was a Pearce. She began to talk with me about it, wondering if she might be kin to him, and so we began to work on her family tree to find out! Sure enough, as I worked on Lynn’s Pierce ancestral line, I began to see surnames I was related to, in her family tree! It finally dawned on me, like a light bulb going off, that I had never checked my dna to see if I was kin to the Pierces myself, and I was! That didn’t mean I was kin to Lynn’s Pierces, but it was a place to start. I began to build Pierces into my own family tree as well as Lynn’s, to see if I could discover if we were related! Lo and behold, I discovered that this close friend of mine was also my cousin! We were both descended from Richard Pearce, born between 1540-1563, and his wife Marguerite Coney born in 1568. Lynn descends from his son Richard Pearce b.1590, and I descend from his son the sea Captain, William Pierce/Pearce, b. 1595. Lynn and I are eleventh cousins! You can find a relationship tree at the end of this article.
As I mentioned, Lynn had met and become friends with Tony Pearce since moving here, and he lived only a couple miles from us. She wondered if she was kin to him, and so we added more to her family tree to try to ascertain whether or not they were related. At the same time, I realized that a friend of mine for over 45 years, Thomas Clayton, was the son of a Pearce mother! I was more than surprised when I realized he and Tony shared the same ancestral line!
Within weeks of our moving here, our neighbors introduced us to a retired mechanic named Jack Strickland who had started his own business. They recommended him highly, and we became friends as well as he helped us keep our cars in shape. When I found Stricklands in my friend Thomas’s tree, I felt compelled to ask Jack about his ancestry, and so I started working on his tree as well, with his help. Of course, he, Tony, and Thomas shared the SAME Pearce line!
Although Lynn is from Pennsylvania, and I am from Virginia, we now live near the small town of Bunn, North Carolina. I was surprised to see that several Bunns were married to Pearces in these guy’s family trees! So I looked into the history of the town and the Bunn family, and found that they were indeed very involved with the Pierce/Pearce family! The town was named Bunn, and nearby was Pearce’s Church Road! Of course, with serendipity reining supreme, I got a note on ancestry from one Donnie Bunn, who ended up being from this founding family of Bunn, and a Pierce through his mother’s family! In fact, he shares the very same line as Thomas, Jack, and Tony! It appears that they would all be part of the Southern Pearce/Pierce branch by dna.
At first I thought all six of us were related, but after consulting someone with the Pierce dna project, he said that more than likely Sharon and I were not related to the other four guys by dna, but that all four of our friends were closely related! We are all contemplating getting male relatives with direct line Pearces/Pierces to join the DNA project for their family, perhaps then we will know for sure!
The Pierce/Pearce family is rich with history and notable ancestors and descendants. In this very group of cousins, our Thomas Albert Clayton is a published author and screenwriter! In 2011 he published the screenplay, Rebel with a Cause, The Radical Reformer, an amazing story of Servetus, the first Protestant martyr burned at the stake not by a Catholic Pope but the Protestant reformer himself, John Calvin. He is currently rewriting this film as a novel which will soon be available.
They can also be proud of being kin to Capt Michael Pierce, 1615-1676, who fought and died in a battle with the Indians. This Michael is Lynn’s 8th great grandfather. Another ancestor of note was Sea Capt. William Pierce, 1560-1641. This William Pierce captained the Mayflower on her second voyage to Massachusetts and was the master of the Lyon, a ship he owned.! Capt William Pierce was my 11th great grandfather.
Not to be confused with the Capt. William Pierce above who lived in Boston and arrived there about 1835 to settle for a bit, he was mostly a mariner, there was also one Capt. William Pierce who settled in Jamestown Colony, Virginia about 1609. He became a well respected land owner and planter in Virginia, and became the Lieutenant Governor of Virginia for awhile. He was married to one Joan Phippen and had a son Thomas, and a daughter Jane who married John Rolfe after Pocahontas died. There was also a son William who died young of disease, a stepdaughter Cecily Reynolds by Joan Phippen’s first marrieage, and possibly a daughter named Edith, who married Jerimiah Clements and became my 8th great grandmother in a different Pierce ancestral line!
On Feb. 13, 2015, I will have the opportunity to hear Connie Lapallo speak to the Chesterfield County Historical Society about her books about the women and children of Jamestown. She is specifically discussing Joan Phippen Pierce and her daughter Cecily! I am so excited to meet her, and possibly be hearing the stories of my grandmother! My sister Anne told me about Connie and her exciting books two of which are titled: Dark Enough to See the Stars in a Jamestown Sky, and the second in the trilogy: When the Moon Has No More Silver. Connie is currently working on the third book.
The Pierce/Pearce family also has an illustrious ancient history. Richard Pierce of 1540- 63 traces right back through Her Royal Highness Mary Lancaster Plantagenet, 1320-1362, King Henry III, and King Henry II. These Royals are our grandparents! John Lockland Plantagenet, King of England, 1166–1216 who signed the Magna Carta is Lynn’s and my 21st Great- Grandfather!
Look at what this means! Lynn and I were strangers who moved from different states and ended up in the same subdivision, where we met over daylilies, and became good friends! Back in the mid 1500’s, close to 500 years ago, we shared a common 12th great grandfather! Even more amazing, we can trace the Pierce lineage back to 1004 ad! It takes us through the Plantagenet’s, through King Henry II and King Henry III! Her Royal Highness, Mary Lancaster Plantagenet, 1320-1382, is our joint 17th great grandmother! How is this possible! Have we been traveling through time together for sure? Our ancestors were the same over 1000 years ago!
I do want to say for all my genealogical researching friends out there, and for all of my family, old and new, research is always a process. This Pierce/Pearce ancestral line is controversial. There are currently DNA studies going on, and if we are lucky, they might finally unlock the true answers to this line. The first scholarly genealogical work on this line, written in 1888 by one Frederick C. Pierce, titled The Pearce Genealogy Being the Posterity of Thomas Pearce has proven to have many errors so that it is more a guideline than proof. However, there has been a multitude of research on this family. If you are interested in more specific information regarding articles helping to distinquish between the two different Capt. William Pierces, leave your contact information in the comments section and I will send you some infomation.
That said; look at how this family connects all of these people, these neighbors! Thomas,Donnie, Jack and Tony are cousins and friends of friends of mine! By the way, even though they don’t live in our subdivision, Tony, Donnie, and Jack live within a couple of miles of Lynn and me. Thomas is not far. We are planning a get together for these newfound Pierce/Pearce cousins very soon, won’t that be interesting?!
I really want to know what you think of this series. Are you as amazed as I am? Have you found this with your own neighbors by any chance? Maybe you should start checking out their genealogy! My favorite explanation, above reincarnation and traveling through time with my tribe, above six degrees of separation, is the definition given me by Linda Voorhees McLaughlin that coincidence can mean: “a miracle where God’s presence is invisible” –how about you?
Relationship Trees:
Helen Spear Youngblood Holshouser(1949 – ) is your 11th cousin 2x removed
Margaret Steptoe Kerse (1918 – 1980) mother of Helen Spear Youngblood
Katherine Steptoe Houchins (1883 – 1943) mother of Margaret Steptoe Kerse
Walter Houchins (1854 – 1937) father of Katherine Steptoe Houchins
Nancy J Houchins (1833 – ) mother of Walter Houchins
William Houchins (1807 – 1860) father of Nancy J Houchins
BENNETT HOUCHINS (1780 – 1815) father of William Houchins
Edward Houchins (1760 – 1846) father of BENNETT HOUCHINS
Joyce Clements (1739 – 1821) mother of Edward Houchins
Stephen Clements (1692 – 1746) father of Joyce Clements
John Clements (1669 – 1704) father of Stephen Clements
John Clements (1631 – 1710) father of John Clements
Edith Pierce (1607 – 1644) mother of John Clements
Capt. William Pierce (1560 – 1641) father of Edith Pierce
Richard Pearce (1540) father of Capt. William Pierce
Richard Pearce (1590 – 1666) son of Richard Pearce
Capt. Michael J Pierce (1615 – 1676) son of Richard Pearce
Ephraim Pierce (1647 – 1719) son of Capt. Michael J Pierce
Ephraim Pierce Pearce Jr. (1674 – 1772) son of Ephraim Pierce
Mial PIERCE (1693 – 1786) son of Ephraim Pierce Pearce Jr.
Caleb Pierce (1726 – 1776) son of Mial PIERCE
Caleb Pierce (1758 – 1836) son of Caleb Pierce
Caleb Pierce (1808 – ) son of Caleb Pierce
John W Pierce (1840 – 1918) son of Caleb Pierce
Luther C. Pierce (1881 – 1960) son of John W Pierce
Betty Lou Pierce (1933 – 1984) daughter of Luther C. Pierce
Lynn M. Pierce You are the daughter of Betty Lou Pierce =======================================
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
King John of England signs the Magna Carta–source– commons.wikimedia.org
Genealogical research is always amazing and enlightening to me! I’ve been pursuing it for about four years, and it has been one of the most rewarding, challenging hobbies I have ever had. Adding my dna testing to my research just opened the doors to incredible new discoveries! One thing that has amazed me, is that as I expand my tree and search my dna matches on ancestry.com, I have discovered that I am related to almost everyone I know! LOL I live on a cul-de-sac, and am related to at least four other families who live on this same street! Some kinships have come through DNA, some just through expanding my family tree. When you come across names of neighbors and friends like Vorhees and Hollingsworth, you know you just have to check it out! Sure enough, I am kin to those neighbors! Not necessarily close kin, LOL We can prove it by dna and written records! Can you believe it! ? It blows me away as well! I recently met a nineteenth cousin! I have gotten so that 5th and 6th cousins seem like close kin! LOL
Recently, I’ve been helping a friend Sharon research her family tree. She is a Pierce by birth, and we have enjoyed researching and filling out her tree together! I had no idea where our exercise would lead! In her tree we ran across a Baird, then a couple other names that I thought I recognized, and sure enough, they were in my own tree. We learned we were related, but weren’t sure exactly how.
As I studied her Pierce/Pearce line further, I realized I had seen some of the names before. I had helped another friend complete some of his family tree, and yes, he had this same line of Pearces in his tree–Thomas Clayton from Greensboro, NC! We had already learned that through his Pearces, he was kin to our mechanic and friend, Jack Strickland! On ancestry.com, I got an email from a man named Donnie Bunn whose Pearce line matched Thomas Clayton’s exactly! Not only did we now have four people knowing each other and kin to each other, but Donnie ‘s family was part of the family who founded a small town near me, the town of Bunn, North Carolina. How very interesting to learn that the Bunns and the Pearces were part of the same family! I soon learned there were many Pearces in the area, and even a Pearce’s Church Road nearby! But wait, through ancestry.com, I met another Pearce researcher, one Tony Pearce, again the same line, and lo and behold, he was a friend of my friend Sharon! What a small world, they had no idea they were related! Sharon is from Pennsylvania by the way, the others are from this area, or at least North Carolina. So, now there were how many? Five I believe who all were cousins with the same Pearce line, although some of the lines didn’t join each other until 1590! LOL Richard Pearce, born 1590, came to America from England in 1647 settling in Rhode Island. While Sharon comes down from his son, Capt. Michael Pearce, Thomas comes down from his son Richard, as do Donnie, Tony, and Jack. What a small world!
But the piece de resistance for me, the ultimate shock and joyful surprise, was when I finally realized I had never checked my dna to see if I was related to the Pearce family–this line of Pearces, and my dna said I was! It took quite a bit of research for me to prove that indeed, this was the very same line of Pearce’s from which Sharon and the others also descended. To be quite honest, it blew me away! So, what–that makes 6 of us who have the same Pearce line that I know, and makes cousins out of us all! Thomas and I have been friends since college–about 47 years! Now we discover we are cousins! LOL And Sharon–we are neighbors, gardeners, and became friends ten years ago over our mutual love of daylillies! The others are newer friends and acquaintances, now cousins!
I had approximately 300 dna matches to the spelling Pierce, and 150 to Pearce, many of which were the same match for both spellings. But one match immediately caught my eye, because it was francielou! Francielou is the owner of a tree on ancestry.com–my ONE and ONLY dna match to my Italian Bottos! My Italian Bottos were kin to the Pearces! –along with my Rosas, Devotos, Brignardellos, and more! LOL My friends had some Italian ancestry also! Not only that, Francielou had taken the Pierce/Pearce line, the exact line as Sharon’s, and extended it all the way back to the 1100’s, including many Royals in the line. Now we were kin to King Henry II and III Plantagenet through the Pearces and through my Italian family! Awesome! Her Royal Highness Mary of Lancaster Plantagenet, 1320, was in the line, and King John Lackland Plantagenet, King of England who signed the Magna Carta was now a grandfather of all of us–Sharon’s and my 21st! Now that was a find! All in a day’s work, okay, several days work–but it is so much fun, and so rewarding!
Here’s wishing you similar adventures in exploring your family tree! Let it open new doors for you and introduce you to many delightful new people!
Martha Powell Beck Holshouser, wife of my husband Max’s first cousin, John Alton Holshouser, is a retired Science teacher who was married to a farmer. She worked on the farm and helped raise prize-winning show cattle, as well as reared three wonderful, smart and kind sons– all married, some with children of their own! Besides her busy schedule and teaching responsibilities, Martha has helped organize the Holshouser family reunion for 4o years!
gardeners together when we discovered our kinship though my genealogical research! We are cousins through my mother’s family, Beard, Reynolds, and Pierce through the Houchins, and the Clements all the way back to Jamestown! Sharon is a retired English teacher married to a retired Woodworking teacher. However, although they are retired from teaching, both of them work full time. Sharon went back to school after retirement and earned her CNA so that she could work with seniors, helping them remain in their homes. Sharon is a force to be reckoned with! Intelligent, creative, energetic even driven at times, she is dedicated to her clients and works diligently to make them happy and comfortable. It is easy to see why she still has former students who call her and ask for her advice. She lives here in North Carolina, taught in Pennsylvania, Ohio, and West Virginia, and has students calling her from California! She is a strong advocate who goes the extra mile to help students and friends through life, as well as school. Sharon is a talented craftsperson also, making wreaths, cloth flowers, quilts, and costumes among other things. She and her husband facilitated the staging of plays and events for their church for many years. Over the years, they have kept a sick parent in their home and have helped support and care for their chronically ill adult son . The old adage, “ask a busy person” comes to mind when I think of my dynamic cousin Sharon! 
My younger cousin Stephanie Williamson Nicklin is the next teacher I want to honor. Stephanie is my first cousin once removed through the Kearse, Houchins, Langhorne family lines. Her Mom Claudia was my first cousin with her mother and my mother being Kearse sisters. Stephanie comes from a family of educators with her father a teacher and principal, and her sister plus many cousins and Aunts and Uncles being teachers. Stephanie lives in Virginia Beach, Virginia which is where she teaches Biology in the High Schools. She is assigned to different schools as a part-time instructor. Just think of all the more students whose lives she touches that way! She has two teenagers at home, and a husband who is a leader and instructor on the SWAT team of the police force. 
Betty Spangler Smith is the first of two Spanger/Langhorne family member cousins I want to acknowledge. Betty is a retired Latin and Spanish teacher in High School who taught full time 33 years, and has been substituting for the last seven! She taught Latin levels 1-5, and AP Latin as well as Spanish levels 1 and 2. She also taught an Introduction to Foreign Languages class. What a rigorous career! What a great opportunity to expand the minds, abilities, even the worlds of so many students! Research shows that learning a foreign language is good for our brains–creating new learning pathways. We also know it allows us to communicate with many other cultures at home and around the world. Thank you Betty for giving our children this opportunity–for training our leaders of tomorrow! 
Harriet Ann Caldwell Spangler who retired after 35 years of teaching all levels of High School Mathematics! She taught 7 years in Kentucky, and 28 years in Florida! Harriet actually taught Physics as well, but her favorite was always geometry with algebra running a close second! Harriet’s leadership skills were well recognized as she served as the Math Department Chairperson for many years at Newberry High School in Alachua County just west of Gainesville, Florida. What a career! When I look back at my own High School career, geometry was one of my favorite subjects as well, and I loved my math teachers all the way through school. I have no doubt that Harriet Spangler inspired many, many students to make the most of their lives. Teachers are our first line counselors, guidance counselors, and instructors–when are we going to let them know how strongly we value them!
When I asked Harriet about how she and Otto met, she told me such a sweet and touching story, that I thought I’d share her words with you! 
Heart of a Southern Woman 