Philemon Chapman and his wife, Frances Holderby

I could not help but look at my matches on Ancestry Thrulines for potential ancestor Sarah McCorkle (1750-1820) who was the wife of Edward Chapman and the mother of Philemon Chapman if the hints on ancestry are correct.  Ancestry suggests that this couple are the parents of Philemon Chapman who married Frances/Fannie Holderby.  I know a little bit about Philemon and Fannie as they lived most of their lives in what is now Cabell County, WV and both died in this county.  My data base says that Fannie died in 1872 at the age of 90 in the home of her son-in-law,  Dr. J.D. Kincaid.

Ancestry suggests that I have 2 dna matches who descend from Philemon's brother, William Chapman and 6 dna matches who descend from Philemon's sister, Sarah/Sally Chapman who married a man with surname Pointer/Poynter.  That is enough matches to seriously look at Edward and Sarah McCorkle Chapman as a good possibility for 5-gr-grandparents.

The BIG question is if all of these matches have accurate research and that there is indeed proof of marriage of Edward Chapman and Sarah McCorkle as well as proof of relationship of the children.  Is there a will for Edward Chapman?  Where was Sarah living when Edward married her?

Right now, my mind is somewhat confused about the facts.  So I am going to put down the facts that I know whether they support the theory or are in conflict with the theory and then try to write my story from what I know.

First of all, there is a marriage record found on Ancestry that looks quite excellent for Philemon and Frances/Fannie:

Digitally enhanced from multi-generation photocopy of original. Original photocopy produced from Green County, Kentucky official records (repository unknown, assumed to be Green County Court House) retrieved first hand by Evelyn L. Miller c.1985. Scan and digital enhancement in 2009 by Douglas Miller (related through Martin family, not Miller).

DonnaJeffrey48

DonnaJeffrey48 originally shared this on 14 Feb 2016

Where is Green County?  It is shown below as a highlighted area just South of Louisville and east of Bowling Green.





So the question in my mind is who is the Chapman family moving with?  Where have the come from.  Ancestry researchers suggest Culpeper County, Virginia....but had they been somewhere else between the move from Culpeper to Green County?

And the biggest question in my mind is why did Philemon and Fanny move to Cabell County in what is now WV instead of west?  And why did they marry in Green County if Fanny's family was in Cabell?

Fanny's father, William Holderby, is already in Cabell County.

“We (the undersigned), appointed to locate the public buildings under the act, etc, taking into consideration the convenience and inconveniece of the population, and interest of the county do fix the mouth of the Guyandotte, on the upper side, in the middle of a field occupied by William Holderby, as the most practicable place for said public buildings, etc.”

    Holderby’s field consisted of 100 feet of land on either side of what is now Bridge Street (3rd Ave) and extended from Guyan to Main Streets.  It was in this field that the first county courthouse was built in 1809

 He purchased the first lot which was sold in the town of Guyandotte, in 1811.  (Deed Book I-page 164).  THis Deed is recorded in 1810, but since the town was just being laid out it is very probable that it was not occupied before 1811.  It was purchased from Thomas Buffington.  Also in this book on page 163, is the Deed for seventy nine acres on the Ohio River, purchased from Jonathan Buffington, which ran down the Ohio river from the Guyandotte a certain distance and extended towards the hill, which was  purchased by James Holderby in 1811, a brother of the William Holderby mentioned above.

 There is no doubt that William Holderby and family were in Cabell County in this time period.  It would seem most unusual for the bride to have traveled to the Groom's place of residence to marry.

However, a look at the WV marriage records shows no marriage for Philemon and Frances and the information about WV marriages say that the records start in 1809.

Did William Witcher have two wives?

In May 2021 I am rethinking all that I have said below.  please do not spend time reading without getting in touch with me to see how I have updated my best guesses.  mosesm@earthlink.net 

Please mention blog post you are reading and why you have interest.  marsha

I have been working on my dna matches who claim Witcher ancestors.  So as part of this process, I have also been working on what I know about William Witcher who lived in Pittsylvania County, Virginia during the Revolutionary War.  There are more blog posts about this family on this site.  (use Witcher, Morrison, Goad as search terms to narrow the posts to those of interest on the main page)

In my data base, I have Lydia Atkinson as his wife.  However, many of the Ancestry trees have Ann Majors as his wife.  I am looking at the possibility that both women were wives to William.  Ann Major having been closer to William's age while Lydia was younger and is the mother of the last four children.

William leaves a very good will when he dies in which he names 8 children.  He leaves slaves to seven of these children:  Son, John, son William, Jr,  Son Daniel, Son, Ephraim, Son James, Son Caleb, and daughter Elizabeth Razor.

To daughter Rachel, he leaves no slaves.  He leaves land on which her husband, William Morrison, now lives.  I believe this land to be the land that William Witcher had bought from William Atkinson in 1758 for 5 shillings.

The trees on Ancestry give 1724 as the date of birth for William Witcher, Sr.  They give 1725 as date of birth of Anne Majors.  Many of them suggest a death date of 1766 for Ann Majors Witcher.  I believe that they most likely have no documentation for this date.  Instead they have chosen to have her death make the birth of all of the children make sense....They give the following dates of birth for the children:

John        1742
Daniel     1746
Ephraim  1749
James      1750
William   1758
Caleb       1762
Rachel     1764
Elizabeth 1765

They give the date of death for Ann Majors Witcher as 1776.  I do realize that often families lost children which would account for time periods of no children.  But I suggest that Anne Majors was the mother of the first 4 children.  Then there is a lull in the births for 8 years.   I have documentation for land that William Witcher buys for 5 Shillings from William Atkinson.  It is a 100 acres.  This is a gift.  It is nice land for 5 shillings.  It is land that is given in July1758.  I believe that William married William Atkinson's daughter, Lydia, in this time period and the two of them then are responsible for the births of the next four children.

I would like to have other Witcher researchers use their matches to Majors and Atkinson to try to prove or disprove my theory.  Any help you can give me is greatly appreciated.

marsha hawkins moses
mosesm@earthlink.net

.

I have filed a copy of the deed that I found on Family Search

It is a digital copy in genealogy documents/Witcher

William and Nancy Webb (Parents of Nancy Webb who married Bird Hensley)

I have an unusually free week this week.  I am cleaning out my inbox and combing through saved e-mails for information that I do not want to loose before I delete them.  I have wonderful information from my Webb research group.  I just don't seem to be able to catch up with their research.  And I want to be able to start where I am now any time that I get back to looking at this family line.

First I have a timeline filed in Genealogy documents>Webb that I have used to capture some of this information.  I also have at least one e-mail saved that has all of these researcher's e-mails on the same addressed e-mail.

This group have proven that William Webb and Nancy Webb had at least the following children:
Nancy
Isaac
Thomas
Sarah
William Jr.

Their proofs are both DNA and also documents.

Also I can throw out all of the old blog posts about where this family lived when they were in the Warren County area of Kentucky which is where my Nancy was born.  This group has proven to their satisfaction that the family was in Logan County, Kentucky.

Lastly, there is a thorough summary of the research of the group to date on this family attached to William, Isaac and Sarah on our trees.  Just click on 'Gallery' under their names on the profile page and you will see it as 'Webb History'.

https://www.ancestry.com/family-tree/person/tree/71255109/person/48236488851/facts

This is Torey's tree above.

Shirley Culpeper Brooke's tree is:

https://www.ancestry.com/family-tree/person/tree/75244082/person/34311391349/facts

And Jane Cartwright's is:

https://www.ancestry.com/family-tree/person/tree/68305750/person/30562447242/factsThi

Joseph Belt (1680-1761)

Ancestry sent me a photo to add to my tree on Ancestry.  It is a quite impressive photo.  It is the photo of a monument to Joseph Belt who is a part of my Sprigg line.  I will check with Suzanne to make sure that I am adding this correctly.  Here is the photo:



And here is the information about this marker:

Inscription:  Colonel Joseph Belt
1680 Maryland 1761

Patentee of "Cheivy Chace", Trustee of first free schools in Maryland, one of the founders of Rock Creek Parish, member of the House of Burgesses, Colonel of Prince George's County militia during the French and Indian War.
 
Erected 1911 by The Society of Colonial Wars in the District of Columbia. 
 
Location. 38° 58.082′ N, 77° 4.599′ W. Marker is in Chevy Chase, Maryland, in Montgomery County. Marker is at the intersection of Western Avenue and Chevy Chase Circle and Connecticut Avenue, on the right when traveling west on Western Avenue.  Touch for map. It is on the northeast corner of Western and the circle. Marker is in this post office area: Chevy Chase MD 20815, United States of America.  Touch for directions.

James Hawkins of Stafford County, Virginia c.1800

This blog post is going to take a while to make sense.  I am trying to sort through the information about James Hawkins who is found in Stafford County at least from 1797 until 1820.  I have such a mish mash of information that I am going to just start adding it and then sift through what I have.

Why did I get interested in this James Hawkins?

Because my "brick wall" for 20 years or more, Thomas Ross Hawkins, had a daughter named Angelina.  Angelina married James A. Whitlock.  When Angelina died  either her husband or one of her children  filled out the death certificate.  And the person took the time to put in good information in the blanks.  And Thomas Ross Hawkins ....that I had thought for MANY years to have been born in Orange County, Virginia suddenly had a new birth county:  Stafford County.  So suddenly I believed that Thomas Ross Hawkins was born in Stafford County, Virginia.  And then, Phooey....Stafford County is a burned county....not a lot of information ....But I do have an approximate birth date for Thomas R. Hawkins of 1797 based on census information and the following from From the Religious Herald of Richmond, June 18, 1885:

 On the 6th day of April,

1885, at the residence of his son, Rev. E.P. Hawkins of Louisa County, Rev

Thomas Hawkins quietly fell  asleep, being eighty-seven years and seven

months old."

I would then calculate his birth to be Sept 1797.

You can see from Angelina's death certificate that clearly her father was born in Stafford County.  There would have been no reason for husband or child to have made such a thing up....all of the years that they had known him, he lived in Orange County, Virginia.  If they were just guessing, they would have guessed Orange.  They knew he had been born in Stafford.

 

So next I ran my new information by Elaine....and not long after Elaine found a tax record in which James Hawkins was paying taxes for William Ross in Stafford County, Virginia in the right time frame.  These have to be my men right?

Here is the blog post that I wrote at the time I discovered this information so you can see that tax record for yourself:

https://marshamoses.blogspot.com/2019/01/james-hawkins-and-william-ross.html

Timeline for James Hawkins and William Ross in Stafford County:

1783 William Ross and William Ross Jr are both on Stafford County Property list .  There is no Hawkins on the list in this year.

1797  On list B James Hawkins is paying for Wm. Rofs and there is another William Rofs later in the list.  This is approximately the same year in which Thomas R. Hawkins was said to have been born in Stafford County.

1800 Tax List James Hawken 103 acres Pt. Park and William Ross 202 acres Pt. Park   Jerrilyn says: 

"Pt. Park" means part of the Parke tract.

 The 1800 Virginia census was lost so the tax list is our best documentation. There is no Hawkins male listed on the personal property tax list at all in the County (I am using Binns tax list to do this research).  William Ross is on the list with 2 males over the age of 16.  This could be his own son or it could be his son-in-law, James Hawkins.  But there seems to be only one William Ross on the list.  So perhaps  as another theory the father-in-law, William Ross, has already died.  I feel certain that if Thomas Ross Hawkins was born in 1797, his father must have still been living in Stafford Count, but I don't know why he would  not have been on the tax list.

1811 James Hawkins is on the Stafford County personal Property List …on list A.  William Ross is on the same list.

1812 There is no Hawkins on the Stafford County personal Property List.  Killis Hord is listed.

1813  There is no Hawkins on the Stafford County personal Property List.  Killis Hord is listed.  There seems to be only one William Ross on the list.  William Ross is on the list, but I only see one William Ross. (I believe that this is because William Ross the father is deceased)

I looked at a deed book for Fleming County, Ky at the Filson library in May 2019.  There is no Hawkins transaction in the years between 1797 and 1818.

1820 There is a James Hawkins in Stafford County, Virginia in the 1820 census.  It is a large household.  3 sons:  1 under 10, 1 between 10 and 15 and 1 older than 16.  James is 45 or older.  4 daughters under 10 and one older than 16.  His wife was 45 or older.  In 1820 Thomas R. would have been 22-23.  So he could have been the one older son.  He is not yet married....but he could also be in Orange County with Uncle Benjamin.  He is found earlier than that in Orange County…perhaps when he was going to school.  And he has not yet married Matilda.  It is a large family.
  

Is there a will for William Ross?  Are there wills available at all in Stafford County?  

From Olyve:  I don't know where James b. ca 1765 was born. He left Stafford's tax role about 1825 and showed up in Clark CO. KY in 1826.   Other researchers say that James died in Flemming County in 1834.

I need to clarify this and find some documents.

Then I pulled out notes from a lady that I had communicated with for many years.  Her James Hawkins was from Stafford County and died in Fleming County, Kentucky.  There seems to be only one James Hawkins in Stafford County in the right time period....why would my James Hawkins move to Kentucky...and leave children in Virginia?  

So I started looking at Ancestry trees ....and there is more than one that looks  like the following:

This James Hawkins has wife, Margaret, born 1769 in Virginia and died in Fleming County, Ky 1834.    

And James is given dates that are similar as you can see from the above.  

So what is wrong with this picture?  James is about 26 when his first child is born and his wife is about 21.  That seems normal enough.....but then....they have three children that make sense for the age...and then don't have any more for 16 years. After 16 years they suddenly have six more children at ages 35 to 53.  It is absolutely not impossible.  But there almost has to be more to the story.  

Especially when you factor in that my Thomas Ross Hawkins was born in 1797.  And that he has sisters, Mary and Elizabeth and brothers, Moses and Benjamin.  I think it possible that Moses joined the family in moving to Kentucky.  But Mary and Elizabeth and Thomas Ross stayed behind in Virginia.  I don't know much about Benjamin but I do find a Benjamin Hawkins in Orange County who is of the right age.  These children stayed behind in Virginia with Uncle Benjamin and Aunt Mary/Polly...perhaps because of their age?  Don't know yet.

So was there a first wife?  And when she died, did James remarry ....and then his older children joined him in moving to Kentucky while his teenagers stayed behind...and James moved his baby, Moses, with him and with his new wife?  It would seem that all of James' children were born in Stafford County.  If the dates on the Ancestry tree are correct.  

So I guess the first question I'll start with tomorrow is:  When did James move his family to Fleming County, Kentucky?  And did he first move to Clark County, Ky?

Ok, I am still looking at trees tonight.  Walter R. is said to have been born in Stafford County so they are still in Virginia in 1817.  I am using Walter R. to search the trees.  He has wife Angeline Snedegar.  Here are some of the facts that I am finding on various Ancestry trees:

James Hawkins' wife is Margaret Jane Morton

James and Margaret's marriage was in Culpeper in 1790.  My best guess is that this researcher used the date of the first born child to come up with this information.  I have looked the Culpeper, Spotsylvania, and Orange County marriage books and while there are a number of Hawkins marriages, this one is not listed.  I have also checked Theresa A. Fisher's book for marriages between 1722 and 1850 that includes City of Fredericksburg, Orange, Spotsylvania and Stafford Counties.  I find no marriage between James Hawkins and Margaret Jane Morton.  Nor do I find a marriage between James Hawkins and any woman with last name Ross.  Stafford County is a "burned" county and the records are scarce.

Again from Ancestry trees, all of James' children are said to have been born in Virginia.  The last child named is Sally Ann born in 1819....so they did not move until after 1819 to Kentucky.

Many of the Ancestry trees say that this James is the son of William and Elizabeth Bourne Hawkins.  I would like this to be true if it is my James.  However, Elizabeth is certainly dead by 1819.  My notes say that William is still alive and probably living in Jessamine County, Kentucky at this time since he died in Jessamine in 1836.  Why did James not move to Jessamine County instead of Fleming?  Perhaps he and his wife moved to an area where her family lived? 

While I was looking for a deed for Sandi, I found the following map that I had worked on several years ago.  I have added it to the blog in two sizes to make looking at it easier.  Note that Clark County is much closer to Jessamine County than is Fleming.  I need to work on these ideas a bit.  And look how close Madison County is to Jessamine and the other Counties of interest in this time period!

The below map can be manipulated to read smaller parts better.

 

Then I have to make the fact that the father of my Thomas Ross Hawkins had a brother named Benjamin work for William and Elizabeth Bourne.  Uncle Benjamin has to fit into the family.  William and Elizabeth Bourne did indeed have sons named both James and Benjamin: 

Deed Book B. Pg 328 John, Benjamin, and James Hawkins, Polly Barnett, Willis Hawkins, and Sally Hawkins children of Elizabeth Hawkins daug of Andrew Bourne of Culpeper Co, VA to our brother Moses Hawkins P of A to recover slaves left us by our grandfather, Andr. Bourne: Feb 1808 s and ack. by John Barnett and Willis and Sally Hawkins only and rec. same.”

 So far nothing to absolutely rule this theory out totally.  Just need to work on it a bit.  

Joseph Sprigg and his wife, Ann Taylor

An Ancestry thruline that I looked at yesterday put me in contact with Suzanne who is the researcher who is connected to my dna match on FTDNA, William Donaldson Sprigg, Jr.  Mr. Sprigg is Suzanne's deceased father.  Suzanne has always been the researcher connected to the kit.  Suzanne and I had tried to exchange information a few years ago, but neither of us had done enough research to come up with the connection.  Now with help from all of the bells and whistles that are provided by the five big DNA sites, we are able to identify a really good match between Suzanne's dad and me on Chromosome #11.  So, of course, I first painted the chromosome match on dnapainter and then began to look at all of the new information that this makes available to me.

I descend from Joseph Sprigg and his wife, Ann Taylor, through their daughter Lucretia who married John Redmon in Pulaski County, Arkansas 23 April 1828.  I had found this marriage information on Ancestry in 2005 and my comment at this time was:

..... I found a marriage entry on Ancestry in June 2004 for John Redmon to Lucretia Sprigg in Arkansas Pulaski County for the date that I entered above.  The date works well for Louisa M. Redmon’s parents and is further substantiated by the fact that Louisa and John Slater name a daughter Lucretia “Luty” C. Slater.

Lucretia Sprigg and John Redmon had daughter, Louisa M. born in Arkansas.  I already had information that L.M. Redmon and Dr. John Slater had married in Arkansas.  

My notes that I had saved in my data base seem to firm up that what I have found is correct:  

I interviewed my grandmother (Mary Ann McGregor Hawkins.  She was the gr-granddaughter of Dr. John Slater and Louisa M. Redmon Slater) in the early 1970's.  My notes from that interview say:  Helen's grandfather (Dr. Slater) left North Carolina after the war and was a doctor in Lassen County, California.  And he was also the grandfather of John S. Partridge of San Francisco, California who was recently [letter written July 26, 1923] appointed Federal Judge in this state...

My research has shown the time when John Slater left North Carolina was BEFORE the war.  The census of 1860 in Lassen County shows John to have been born in North Carolina--so that substantiates granny Mary’s statement that he moved from NC, but tells us that he left NC before the Civil War.

Then the 1850 census finds John A. Slater living in Greenbrier, Independence, Arkansas with a wife: Louisa M. Slater who is 19.  This John has North Carolina as his birth place as well. 

It is quite interesting to note from the family sheet that Tim Purdy sent me that this family came via wagon train as the 4th child is born in Kansas in 1875...ˆmy date must be wrong....it must be 1855....I will double check this.

According to Fairfield’s Pioneer History of Lassen County California Dr. John Slater crossed the plains and came into the valley in 1857

I feel very good about all of these facts adding up to a story that is substantiated.

Now with Suzanne's help I have added Louisa Redmon's brother to my tree.  Ignatius Sprigg is the brother from whom Suzanne descends.  Ignatius Sprigg married Mary Polly Adkins.

Now I am working on adding more using the information from the Maryland Historical Society's magazine:  Volume 8, Issue #1.  I accessed this issue from the Maryland Historical Society's website.  And the URL for that is:

http://mdhs.msa.maryland.gov/pages/Login.aspx

Newspapers

I have an almost impossible project that has nagged at the back of my mind for years.  My question has been:  could there be the possibility of the mention of a family reunion of my Webb family in Bowling Green, Kentucky Newspaper?  I am not going to take the time right now to ask the question accurately...just jotting down some ideas for another day:

The Newspapers in Bowling Green in the right time frame were: Spirit of the Times (this one seemed to be Horse related) and Green River Gazette.  Both newspapers started in 1832.  My notes also say something about Publick Advertiser...but not sure what I was looking at when I saw that one.

The right time frame for this possibility was likely to have been between 1840 when Lucinda Hensley would have been about 10 until about 1870 while her mother was still well and living

And then the following came across one of my mail lists this morning.  It is a reminder of the Library of Congress site:

https://chroniclingamerica.loc.gov/

While at the Ohio Genealogical Society's fall retreat, I took a class from Lauren Kuntzman.  At the end of one of her classes we talked about newspapers and places to find newspapers.  I wanted to add these ideas here.

Newspapers.com is a paid subscription.  If you have a world subscription on Ancestry this subscription is in included in the package.

Genealogy bank also has Newspapers and this, too is a paid site.

Chronicling America is a free site and is part of the Library of Congress.

A site called Ancestor Hunt has a section on newspapers and serves as a kind of index of where you can find various Newpapers.

For Ohio Newspapers, try Ohio Memory.