Southside Virginia

I have spent the day today working on the organization of my many files and piles.  It was a gorgeous day, but just a touch cold and the first day this fall (except for the one or two days of rain) that I have not been lured outside.  One of the books that I found among my piles and files is Southside Virginia Families by John Bennett Boddie Vol I.  I find that it is available to read on-line, so perhaps it is a bit of money that I didn't need to spend.  But since it is in my hands, I thought I might take a look.  First question is what is Southside Virginia?  I turned to Wikipedia to answer that:

Traditionally, the term Southside refers to the portion of Virginia east of the Blue Ridge Mountains and south of the James River, the geographic feature from which the term derives its name.^[1]

Southside of Virginia

During the colonial era, Southside was considered the area where entrepreneurs settled, as opposed to some of the more established families in the Tidewater counties, although many early Southside settlers were younger sons of established Tidewater families.

Today, however, some people use a more limited definition of the region: those counties lying east of the Blue Ridge, west of the fall line, and south of the James River. That is to say, the southern end of Virginia's Piedmont region. While this definition describes an area long considered to be the heart of Southside, it also accounts for changes that have occurred in recent decades as the Richmond suburbs have eaten up large portions of Chesterfield and even Powhatan Counties.

While Southside has long been reputed for its isolated, rural, and culturally conservative character, in recent years the aforementioned counties have become increasingly linked to the Richmond metro area. Counties often considered part of this region include Patrick, Henry, Bedford, Pittsylvania, Halifax, Charlotte, Mecklenburg, Campbell, Lunenburg, Brunswick, Nottoway, Amelia, Prince Edward, Appomattox, Buckingham, Cumberland, Powhatan, Dinwiddie, and Greensville counties. The cities of Danville, Emporia, Lynchburg, and Martinsville, which under Virginia law are not located within any counties, are also considered to be in this region.

There was information about a Wooten family and also the Jordan family, but nothing that was helpful for my research.  I will donate this book as it is available via the internet.

OGS conference 2016 and ideas to pursue inspired by the event

I attended the Ohio Genealogical Society's 2016 Conference at the Great Wolf Lodge near Cincinnati April 28, 29, 30.  It was an excellent conference!  I came home with the usual problem:  so many things that I want to do and so little time after having been out of town much of last week.

However, I decided to write this post after chatting with Mark Stickle via an e-mail that he sent me today.  Mark and I sat together by chance at one of the classes.  I had enthusiastically encouraged him to blog as I have found blogging to be a huge addition to my life.  Mark wrote me today that he had already posted twice on his blog site since the conference.  The URL for Mark's blog is:

http://cliounbound.blogspot.com

Mark's post yesterday was about the conference itself.  I totally agreed with the coffee suggestion.  I found it hard to hold my eyes open during the classes just after lunch.  I dreamed of Starbucks, but did not find that I had quite enough time to get to my car and drive to the local Kroger and back in the amount of time allotted for the break.

The other thought that I had while reading Mark's blog was that I wished for some informal time with other researchers who had similar interests.  The Great Wolf Lodge is smack dab in the middle of the area in which the Quaker families moved in the first decade of the 1800s.  The Miami MM white brick building is the oldest continually used building in Ohio, and it is just down the road from the conference site.

I probably know as much about the migration patterns of those families who moved into the area as anyone.  By chance I had ancestors who lived in Randolph and Guilford Counties in NC.  I had ancestors who lived in Newberry County, SC.  I had ancestors at Wrightsboro, Ga.  And I had ancestors who lived for a short amount of time in both the area of Virginia that is now Grayson County and in the area of Lost Creek MM in Tennessee.  Some of these ancestors had moved to NC from Nantucket.  Some of these ancestors had moved from Philadelphia area to NC and then farther south.  Some had been associated with the Eno preparatory meeting associated with Cane Creek MM in Orange County, NC.  All of the families were either Quaker or associated with the Quaker families.  I would have liked to have had the opportunity to have had some sort of an informal gathering with other researchers who may have had interest in the area in which the conference was being held and chatted about if indeed our ancestors could have migrated together, known each other, attended church together, been a part of the "FAN" club in their neighborhood.  Perhaps there could have been a way for participants to have bought a box lunch and had several interest groups in place for one or more of the two hour lunch breaks?  Or a dinner event in which tables could be joined by area of interest being discussed during the meal:  DNA?, a particular area of Ohio?, in my case: Quaker or migration into the area in which the event was being held.  

Mark's blog post that he wrote today (May 5, 2016) is about Obituaries.  It has inspired me to think about a project that would be great fun and would let me try out some of the new skills that I learned at the conference.  I have never spent time looking at the obits of siblings, uncles, aunts, and other miscellaneous family of some of my ancestors.  I could use new skills learned in the class: Cool Tools for Online (and Offline) Newspaper Research given by Lisa Louis Cooke  and in the the class by the same speaker: Finally! A Methodology for Using Google for Genealogy.

If you want to be inspired to use obituaries as I have been, take a look at Mark's blog post:

http://cliounbound.blogspot.com/2016/05/obituaries-saving-best-till-last.html

Two more thoughts that I want to remember for future use:

1.  Mark had glowing words for Dr. Michael Lacopo and his classes.  I only attended one of his classes, but it was EXCELLENT!....One of those crazy serendipity events that sometimes happen did indeed happen in his class.  Dr. Lacopo mentioned that Barbara Vines Little had sat in on one of his classes (quite the compliment....) and had added to the information that he was presenting that the original Parish register of Goochland County 1756-1797 is found in the Small Library at UVA.  This would be the information found in the Douglas Register.  I will double check that I have this correct.  I think that this is what I understood.  This information is NOT found at LVA.  Since I am in the process of proving my connection to William Farrar and his wife, Cicely, this is very interesting information for me.  My Perrin Farrar and his wife, Sarah/Sally Lacy were married in this county in this time period.  There seem to be quite a few events that happened in this county in that time period for this family.  I would like to view the original documents.

2. I had to laugh at Mark's comment that I copied below!  I only wish that I had thought of using these very words for my own reason for not having attended the "getting organized" classes!

Many folks commented positively on what they had learned in sessions dealing with the perennial challenge of getting (or staying) organized.  I purposely avoided these sessions, knowing that my own case is hopeless: my organizational crisis is long past the point of no return.  

OK....I reread my post and woke up this morning thinking about a possibility to incorporate some of the ideas that I had posted above.  The first slot after lunch is the sleepy slot....need coffee....It is also the slot that one is still buying books and might want to skip....why not have a discussion group planned for some of the smaller rooms with a particular topic:  for me this year it would have been Quaker migration into Warren County, Ohio....but it could just as easily have been German ancestors to the area in which the conference is being held that particular year.  Or Italian...or catholic...or whatever one can find a moderator for who has an interest  area.....or DNA experiences....or beginning blogging.  Just a thought.  If everyone is talking and chatting, it is much less likely to be a sleepy experience.

Which William Webb is my ancestor?

My gut feeling tonight is that MY 4-gr-grandfather, William Webb, was living in the area of Kentucky near Bowling Green in 1812 when his daughter, Nancy, was born.  Nancy is my 3-gr-grandmother.  I wanted to explore the idea of how many William Webbs were living in that area in that time period.  So my first thought is to look at the census of 1810 to see who I can find.  Using the census collection on ancestry, I find the following in the County of Logan, Kentucky.  It shows William Webb with 2 male children under 10, 1 male between the ages of 26 and 44, 1 female under 10, 1 female between the ages of 26 and 44.  It is a young household with five people living in it.  My Nancy is not yet born.  This is a possible scenario for my ancestor.

There is an older couple with last name Webb just after William's entry.  The man's name is Thomas.  According to other researchers, William and his wife, Nancy, named a son Thomas.  Is this a coincidence?  Is this meaningful?

There is another William Webb in the same time period who also has a young family in Warren County:

This man has 2 males under 10,  1 male 10-15,  he is 26-44, 1 female 10-15, and female in his same age bracket.  This family is also a possibility for my ancestors as other researchers have given me ages for children, and it would seem that my Nancy was one of the later children.  Actually this is a better scenario for the William that our group has been thinking about as Isaac should have been in that age range of 10-15 in order to have married his wife in 1816 in Indiana.

And there is also a William Webb in Barren County:

Oh, phooey....it is never as simple as I had hoped.  This man has 3 males under 10, 1 male 10-15,  1 16-25, and 1 male 45 or over.  2 females under 10-15, 1 female 16-25, and 1 female 26-44.  If other researcher's information is correct, William Webb had birth date of c. 1762 which would have made William 48.  Hmmmm....The William Webb in Logan and Warren may have been too young.....This last William Webb would have been a better age.  However, my Nancy is not yet born.  So she must have parents young enough to have another child in 1812.  And Torey tells me that her ancestor, Sarah was not born to the couple until 1815.

This morning I started the morning thinking that MY William Webb was likely to be the William Webb that connects to Winnie's Martin/Merry Webb line.  However, Winnie has told me that she has recently found information:

Marsha, I recently found records where William Webb lived on land belonging to my Martin Webb just after Martin died.  This William is mentioned in 1826 Edmonson County Ky ca 1826 along with other family members.  Edmonson was created from Warren, Hart and Grayson Counties. I cannot find him at a later date.

Torey just explained:

Yes, they moved to Warrick County (adjacent to Gibson) in Indiana in 1814 and stayed for ten years.  Son Isaac married Ruth Strickland in Gibson County in 1816.  The Stricklands were a family that travelled with the Webbs.  They are listed on the same census as James McClure in Gibson County in 1820.  They all moved on to Illinois in the mid-1820s.

With that clue, I will look this morning to see if I can find a Strickland Family in the census of 1810.  I don't find this to be a helpful clue.  The only Strickland Family in the 1810 census found in Kentucky is James Strickland who lives in Smithland, Livingston, Kentucky.  This is too far to be neighbors.  If this is Ruth Strickland's family, they are not yet traveling with the Webb family.  But they do live close enough to Indiana to have moved there in the coming years.

Webb family in southwest Kentucky

I have been chatting with Torey and Shirley and Jane about our mutual Webb family.  I descend from William and Nancy Webb through their daughter, Nancy, who married Bird Hensley in Clay County, Illinois in 1829.  They descend from others of William and Nancy's children:  Isaac or Thomas or Sarah.  These are the children that we have identified so far.  My Nancy is said to have been born in Kentucky by her husband on her death certificate.  Her date of birth is c.1812 based on census information (she is said to be 38 in the census of 1850).

I ruled out the possibility that the marriage of William Webb and Nancy Smith in Bourbon County could be my family.  I am now committed to the idea that my Nancy Webb Hensley was born while William and Nancy Webb were living in southwest Kentucky near Bowling Green.

Today I decided to follow up on an idea that has been nagging in the back of my mind for a while.  Is it possible that William's father moved to the area of Kentucky near Bowling Green because of Bounty Land from service in the Revolutionary War?

http://www.virginiamemory.com/blogs/out_of_the_box/2016/03/09/a-collection-within-a-collection/

Is this area actually military reserve is the first question.  And it is answered above.  Next question were there men named Webb who received bounty land in Kentucky?  For the answer to that I went to the Kentucky Secretary of State website:

http://apps.sos.ky.gov/land/military/revwar/Revdetail.asp?Type=v&warrant=1512.0

There are six men with surname Webb who have warrants on this website:

Isaac Webb (this man is of particular interest to me as William named one of his sons Isaac).  Isaac served three years as a lieutenant in the Virginia Continental Line.  He received 2000 acres for his service.  The date is 1/13/1784.

The second man is James Webb.  James received his warrant but never use it.  Possible reasons that James never used his warrant can be found at:

http://apps.sos.ky.gov/land/military/revwar/noauthexplain.htm

The third man is John Webb.  John also has no identified land in Kentucky leading to the assumption as above that he did not use his warrant.

The fourth man is Joseph Webb.  Joseph apparently sold or passed his warrant on to William Reynolds who had the land surveyed and purchased.

The fifth man is Richard Webb.  Richard received 200 acres for his service in the Virginia State Line. The date on his was April 1783.

And the sixth man was Thomas Webb (also of special interest since William and Nancy named one of their sons Thomas).  Thomas received 100 acres for his service in the Virginia State line for three years.  The date for Thomas is also 1783.

Well, phooey.....Torey did some looking for me and found the following:

All three of these got land grants from Virginia, which means they would have served with the Virginia regiments and are thus likely to have been from Virgina, ....

Captain Isaac Webb received land in the Ohio Military District for his service according to:  http://www.rbhayes.org/hayes/genefiles/hayes_fgs/b162.htm  The land is described as being north of the Ohio River between the Little Miami and Scioto Rivers.  However, he does not seem to have lived on the land as he died in Fayette County, Kentucky in 1833 according to the same source.  This source has some conflicting information.  But one piece of information states that they floated down the Ohio River from the area of Northern Virginia.

Richard Webb is likely to be Richard Bennett Webb, b 1755, son of Richard Crittenden Webb, part of the Crittenden Webbs, originally of Orange County, VA.  His land patent was in Montgomery, KY.

I can't find the Thomas Webb.  He may not have taken up his patent, as he was granted only 100 acres.

Illinois in the early 1800s

My 3-gr-grandfather, Ichabod/Ike/Bird Hensley moved to Illinois before 1839.  He married Nancy Webb 14 Jan 1839 in Clay County, Illinois.  I do not yet know if Bird was living in Clay County before his marriage to Nancy.

Illinois Statewide Marriage Index:
http://www.ilsos.gov/GenealogyMWeb/MarriageSearchServlet

But I do know that it is likely that Nancy was living with her parents before her marriage to Bird.  Her parents are found in the 1830 census of Clay County:

William Webb

1 Male 20 to 30

1 Male 60 to 70

1 Female 15 to 16

1 female 40 to 50

Bird and Nancy are still living in Clay County in 1840: 

 The  1840 Clay County census lists:   Bird Henslee household as the

following:  1 male under 5 years of age, and one 20 to 30 .  1 female under 5 years of age, one 5 to 10, one 10 to 15, and one 20 to 30.

By 1850 Bird and Nancy had moved their families back to Cabell County, Virginia (now WV).


Nancy HensleyAge:38Birth Year:abt 1812Birthplace:VirginiaHome in 1850:District 10, Cabell, Virginia, USAGender:FemaleFamily Number:453Household Members:

Name	Age
Bird Hensley	39
Nancy Hensley	38
Lucinda Hensley	20
Belinda Hensley	18
Elizabeth Hensley	16
William Hensley	11
Mary A Hensley	9
Sarah Hensley	6
Columbus Hensley	3

What I am finding is that there seem to be a number of families who made the same journey to Illinois who came back to what was then Virginia before 1850.  As I find these families, I would like a place to add them into my notes.  So here they are.  This is NOT my research below.  It is gathered from the sources that I note without my checking to be sure of the accuracy.

"Benjamin Franklin Swann (2nd child of Leven and Elizabeth Jenkins Swann) is said to have:

Benjamin Franklin (1793-1870) married Elizabeth Jarrett and had at least four children.  After a brief move to Sangamon County, Illinois (1828-abt. 1836) he came back here and settled in Mason County.  He was a widower with his brother Hezekiah in the 1870 Cabell Census."  [this information taken from an article written by George Swann and published in the KYOWVA Fall 2011 Newsletter on p.6]  George maintains a website at:  http://freepages.genealogy.rootsweb.ancestry.com/~swannfamily/

I have sent George an e-mail as it seems that his ancestor, Josiah Swann also moved to Illinois...perhaps even Clay County.....I will update this as I have more information.  After Josiah moved back to Cabell County, he married Rachel Morrison and it is from this wife that George descends.  I will edit this after I talk with George.

Franco-Prussian War and Hornberger

On my third week of treatment for lymphedema in my right arm, I began cleaning out my bottomless pit of an inbox to pass the morning hours with right arm bound.  One e-mail piqued my curiosity, and I began to read an article about JK Rowlings "Who Do You Think You Are" episodes:


http://www.jkrowling.com/uploads/documents/en_GB-press-wdytya-1373364821.pdf

The link had been sent via one of my favorite mail lists:

alsace-lorraine@rootsweb.com

and from reading that I decided it is a good time to read more about what was happening in the Alsace-Lorraine area just before my grandmother's Hornberger/Schweikart family moved to Ironton OH from that area.  It is quite possible that Jack and I drove through this town on our way to Strasburg.  No looking at map we probably drove on the larger highway shown in blue.  Brumath is the area outlined  with A4 marked going through the town just south of Haguenau.

The family folklore says that Fred Hornberger's father, George, had fought under Napoleon.  Well after my reading today, it definitely was NOT Napoleon Bonaparte!

Summer 2014 Charlotte Erickson and I went to library in Ironton.  At this visit, I made a copy of the Naturalization of Fred.  It is stored in Hornberger file on computer and can be viewed in multimedia in Reunion.  It states that Frederick Hornberger is a native of Germany and that he came to the US about July 1880 and was under the age of 18 when he arrived.  He is now (2Nov 1886 in probate court) over the age of 21.


[Naturalization records have been filed in the U.S. District and Circuit Courts and in the local courts in Ohio counties, especially in the courts of common pleas and the probate courts (after 1851). No centralized files exist before 1906.]

Napoleon Bonaparte rose to prominence during the French Revolution (1789-1799). The Napoleonic Wars took place from 1803-1815.  Napoleon died in 1821.  Much too early for George Hornberger to have been a part of.  Perhaps an earlier generation?  Or perhaps Napoleon III.....Napoleon II ruled for a VERY brief amount of time.  He was the son of Napoleon Bonaparte,  However, Napoleon III was in power

Louis-Napoléon Bonaparte (20 April 1808 – 9 January 1873) was the only President (1848–52) of the French Second Republic and, as Napoleon III, the Emperor (1852–70) of the Second French Empire. He was the nephew and heir of Napoleon I. He was the first President of France to be elected by a direct popular vote. When he was blocked by the Constitution and Parliament from running for a second term, he organized a coup d'état in 1851, and then took the throne as Napoleon III on 2 December 1852, the forty-eighth anniversary of Napoleon I's coronation. He remains the longest-serving French head of state since the French Revolution.

So it would have been this man under whom George Hornberger would have served.  He would have probably taken part in the Franco-Prussian War of 1870-1871.  The german victory led to 

The people of the area were allowed to choose to become German and stay where they lived or to move.