Genealogy Serendipity

Sometimes I wonder why I spend the hours on this hobby.  It is the most "hour eating" hobby that there is!  Other times I have a day like today that reminds me how much fun the hobby is!  I received an e-mail on the Granville County, NC mail list about an area of NC that has water ways of Nutbush and Grassey Creeks.  I don't even remember why I originally joined this particular mail list.  Do I have family in Granville County?  So I look for a map that shows Nutbush and Grassey Creeks....


I find a map that is perfect on a website that has surnames of Graves and Hawkins.  This is almost certainly NOT my Hawkins line even though there is the surname Simms.....But no....these are not my people....still I share the map on the mail list....and then!

Other researchers begin to respond to my message.  One lady tells me where to find a better version of the map....that is great "stuff"!  another lady tells me that she found her "people" on the map....I had not even realized that the map had information on where people lived!  Another person sent me information on a website:

http://dc.lib.unc.edu/cdm/singleitem/collection/ncmaps/id/3419

as I scrolled down through the information, I found


 (5)  Delores Crumrine Rutherford, Carmichael, CA, in a letter dated 11 Apr 1988 stated that Henry Graves was married to Mary Williams.  She did not present documentation, but later partial documentation is found in Alvahn Holmes, SOME DESCENDANTS OF FARRAR'S ISLAND.  Others quote Martha Hiden's works which specify Mary Williams was second wife of Henry Graves.  Other historians state that Mrs. Henry Graves was a daughter of John Williams, [Sr.] and thus inferred is she was an aunt to Charles Williams.  However, there is evidence that another Mary Williams, perhaps a sister of Charles and the others, was married to Willia fferrar/Farrar (qv) in Goochland Co. in 1755.  Even students of the Farrar family are unable to separate the contemporary William Farrars.  A John Farrar was associated with the Transylvania Co.  See Virginia Calendar of State Papers. 

So then I spent the rest of the evening ordering Alvahn Holmes' books about the Farrar family.  Who would argue with me that this is soooooo much fun.  You just don't know when you are going to find something wonderful in the craziest of places?