Arm treatment 2020

Almost every January I do an arm treatment for the lymphedema that I have in my right arm from breast cancer surgery 10 years ago.



This treatment makes typing very annoying....cooking and knitting impossible.....and golf and tennis out of the question.  The first years that I did this I felt very sorry for myself during the week or two that I was so handicapped.  But I have learned to do this treatment in January when I am missing no golf and sometimes a smaller treatment in August when it is hot and nasty in Huntington.  And I have realized that I can eat, drive, and talk on the phone....and I make plans to do just that all week.  Plus I go through piles and files to read information that I never seem to have time to read.  And often I run out of treatment time before I run out of things I wanted to accomplish during the week.

So this post is about serendipity caused by spending yesterday reading and thumbing through piles and files.

I am planning a trip to Boston around Sarah and Rudy's birthday time of the year in February.  As I often do, I plan on driving part of the way and taking the train the rest of the way and including genealogy research and a visit to my brother, Greg, and his wife Mary Jo on both sides of the visit in Boston.  During 2019 a dna match opened up an entire new branch of my family tree.  If you have interest in details:

http://marshamoses.blogspot.com/2019/08/cooley-coley-and-other-close-families.html

So as part of my week doing the treatment I have been reading about the Coley/Cooley family that Mike and Terry and I share.  But I have also been reading old New England Ancestors magazines that have piled up.  And here is some of the serendipity:

I was looking at a book on Ancestry by  Donald Lines Jacobus (1887-1970)



This is where our mutual ancestors are most likely to have been living.  In the very same day, I was reading in New England Ancestors Spring 2003 Vol 4 No 2 on page 31 from an article by Christopher Hartman called:  A short History of Genealogical Publishing.

"The next crucial period in the development of genealogical writing and publishing follows the end of WWI......There emerged a new generation of genealogists who employed a rigorously structured brand of genealogical scholarship and in addition to chronicling the histories of colonial American families, were also concerned with the integrity and endurance of their work.  Perhaps the greatest genealogist of the half-century between 1920 and 1970 who clearly embodied this idea was Donald Lines Jacobus (1887-1970).....Specializing in the genealogy of Colonial Connecticut"

Thus the book is said to have contained good research.

Then in another New England Ancestors, I see that there is a Cooley family reunion....and that the one that was in the year of the magazine was held in Athens, Ohio....only 85 miles from my home.

And then I lucked into information that is on the NEGHS website on both Fairfield Ct and Millford Ct where this Cooley family settled before move to Fairfield.  So I Renewed my subscription to NEGHS last night and am contemplating a day at their site in Boston during my trip.

I will edit and add to this post.  But scroll down for more information on the Coley/Cooley family

Coley/Cooley

Milford

Origin of Milford Settlers

Aylesbury in Buckinghamshire may be regarded as the centre from which emigrated the original settlers of Milford, Conn. The following Milford families appear to have come from Aylesbury or its vicinity: Fowler, the Baldwins, Beard, Hatley, Bryan, Fenn, East, Cooley, Fletcher, Bolt, Tomkins, Harvey, Gunn, Whitman, Welch, Lyon, Hynd, Piatt, Botsford, Rogers, Brookes, Benton, Miles, Brown, Tyrrel. 

 As the principal men of the New Haven colony were Londoners and were more or less engaged in merchandise, so the principal men of the Milford colony were from Buckinghamshire, and were engaged in agriculture;

The Lavender area in below map is Buckinghamshire:








Below is a map showing Milford in Connecticut:



There is more information at:

https://www.geni.com/people/Samuel-Coley-immigrant/6000000006585521052

Northern Neck of Virginia

I started reading the book The Willis Family of the Northern Neck in Virginia 1669-1737.  Partly I am reading this because my dna connects to participants who connect to every child of Benjamin Hawkins and his wife, Sarah Willis.  Benjamin is one of the orphans of John and Elizabeth Hawkins who both die in some sort of an epidemic c. 1715/16.

The book is worth the purchase price just for the information about the area in which families were living around what is now Richmond County in the Northern Neck of Virginia in the time period in which I have interest.  I have not read the entire book.  The author spent years doing research.  There is too much to read in a few sittings.

I have to add to the above that I have never proved that Sarah had maiden name Willis.  I have not found anyone yet who does have that proof.  Sarah is the daughter of  the oft married Sarah who married and had children with William Willis, Henry Wood, and Rush Hudson....then after the death of her third husband married a man with last name Turberville (I am to lazy to look him up right now to be sure of his first name) and died in Orange County, Virginia with last name Turberville.  There were no children with this last husband.

Benjamin Hawkins was a witness or some such thing on his wife's mother's will....again I am not double checking ...in a hurry to just put this paragraph in place quickly.  This author admits that she does not have proof to which of the oft married Sarah's husbands her daughter Sarah descends.

I just needed to put these paragraphs SOMEPLACE tonight.  They are found on page 97 of this book. I will put notes from me in [ ] .

Isaac Arnold's name is found on many of the documents for William Willis and his wife Sarah from the will of John Willis Sr. to Turberville's administration of Rush Hudson's estate, but no direct relationship was found.  It is known that Isaac and his wife Margaret were given 40 acres by her father Thomas Goff in 1707/08 (see Chapter IV)/  This tract was undoubtedly part of either the 403 acres which Goff and Kendall purchased jointly with John Willis Sr. in 1687/88 or Goff's 1696 grant of 105 acres which adjoined John Willis Sr.

[ notes from me on that paragraph:  Isaac Arnold is the man that John Hawkins names as executor of his deathbed will c.1715/16.  There is no doubt in my mind that these men are neighbors and friends.
http://marshamoses.blogspot.com/2012/11/will-of-john-hawkins-of-richmond-county.html]

In November 1758 William Willis (son of William and [the oft married Sarah]) placed an attachment on the estate of an Isaac Arnold in Orange County, and James Arnold paid the debt to Willis in 1759 [footnote says Orange County orders] While Issac Arnold Sr. of King George County wrote his will in September 1757 and it was proved the following May, Isaac did not have a known son named James, and it seems doubtful that this was the man whose estate was attached by William Willis.  Review of the records for the Arnold family continues because of their proximity to the Willises in both Richmond/King George and Orange Counties.

The Butler connection to the Willis family is elusive, but a Christopher Butler witnessed John Willis Sr's deed to his son William in 1701, and earlier references to the Butler family can be found in other parts of this manuscript.  If or how Christopher was related to Richard Butler or Caleb Butler is unknown.  What is clear from the records is that  Richard Butler and wife Susanna were neighbors to the Woods and Hudsons, and that Henry Wood was related to the Butlers, and that Richard acted as guardian to both William Wood and Benjamin Hawkins who migrated to Orange County with the extended Willis family.

Quaker blog posts

All of the mail lists are in a bit of chaos now as they try to sort through the ramifications and solutions for the announcement that Rootsweb is shutting down their mail lists.  Rootsweb may have done us all a favor as I have never seen so much activity on lists that have been very quiet for a long time.

I have maybe five favorite lists and all of them seem to have found good solutions so far....some to groups.io  and some have disappeared but found good solutions for their members.

But I find myself posting extra to the groups that have moved to groups.io  I just posted to the Quaker list about my Quaker research found on this blog site.  And I wanted to make it easy to find my other sites that might be of interest to a Quaker researcher.  I do realize that they could find these sites by going down to the words:  View my profile to find all of the blogs that I maintain...but I do want this to be easy.

For Bush River, SC  I work a little bit on a blog site....but it is probably my most neglected site.  I would work on this site if anyone wants to add anything:

http://bushriverquakers.blogspot.com

For Warren County, Ohio and the Miami MM blog site....Again I add a little bit every once in a while but most of it was done when we had our reunion there in 2013

http://quakerhomecomingwarrencountyohio.blogspot.com

The above site is the site on which Tom Hamm gave me permission to add the talk that he made to us in the Miami MM during the homecoming.  It was a VERY special event!  And his talk was excellent.  Please go there to read it!

Atkinson/Adkins Family

I just used a yDNA and Family finder kit combined for a male with last name Adkins.  My friend who agreed to test has paper trail connecting him back to Hezekiah Adkins who is found in Cabell County in the early 1800s.  I believe this to be the Hezekiah Adkins who married Mary Levon/Lafon and was an early preacher in the mud River Baptist church according to Lynda Davis-Logan.  There are three Hezekiah Adkins in a row.  The son of Hezekiah who married Mary Levon/Lafon married Sarah/Sally Childers and the grandson married Rachel Morrison the granddaughter of William Morrison and his wife, Rachel Witcher.  These people moved to Cabell County in the early 1800s from Pittsylvania County, Virginia.

It is my theory that these Adkins males connect back to William Atkinson who is found in Halifax County, Virginia until Pittsylvania was carved from Halifax.  William is then found in Pittsylvania County.  I believe it very likely that William is also my ancestor.

 I have not heard anyone claim to know the earliest immigrant(s) in the Atkinson family.  But they are said to have been living in Charles City in Henrico County before the move to Halifax County.

It is my William Atkinson who was married to Elizabeth Parker who is the earliest Atkinson/Atkins/Adkins that I know.   Lynda has told me that Ronnie Adkins' book says that this couple was married in St. John's Church in 1716 in Henrico County, Virginia.  This is the same church in which Patrick Henry made his famous speech
in 1775.  (images from Wikipedia)

.



William and Elizabeth Parker Atkinson had two sons (there were others, but I am not going to take the time to pull that information up right now).  One was Parker Atkinson and the other was named after his dad and also carried the name William.  It is son, William,  that is of interest to me.  William Jr. married Lydia Owens.....although a wife named Sarah signs on a deed that I have in my possession in 1777.    At least one Ancestry tree says that my ancestor, Lydia Atkinson, was born c. 1742.  I think it very likely that Lydia Atkinson was named after her mother, Lydia Owens Atkinson.

Son, Owen, signed the petition while living in the area near Nolichucky with the other men from Pittsylvania County to set up their own government unconnected to North Carolina.  Owen died in an Indian massacre along with his wife, Agnes Goad:

In Ronnie Atkins book it says that Owen, Agnes, and all but three of their children were killed by Indiana in TN in 1790.  The baby was scalped but lived and two of the children were able to hide in a hollow log until the Indians had left.

I am not clear in my head where in TN they were living when this massacre happened.  I will look it up and add here at a later date.  

The third son of this William Atkinson that I am aware of is Randolph who is an ancestor of Lynda Davis-Logan.

Why do I believe that this William Atkinson married to Lydia Owens is my ancestor?  Because he sells land to William Witcher in 1758:  

William is found living in Halifax County in 1758:  

20 July 1758 William Adkinson of Halifax County, planter, to William Witcher of same, planter for 5 shillings, 100 acres, part of a larger tract of 150 acres granted to sd William Adkinsons by patent 1 June 1750, relation to may more fully appear.  All houses, buildings , trees, woods, etc.  Wit: Clemt. read, Jr., Wim Wright, George Watkins, Recoreded 20 July 1758

This is a very small price for very nice land on the Pigg river.  Clearly William Atkinson is selling his new son-in-law land next door to his home for them to live on.  

http://marshamoses.blogspot.com/2019/06/did-william-witcher-have-two-wives.html

I wanted to record the information that my  Ydna participant shared with me before I forgot about the church in which William and Elizabeth Parker were married.

I want to add one more piece of information to my Atkinson post.  My Adkins dna participant had good results.  He is definitely an Adkins.  But it was of great interest to me that he had as many Mullens matches as Adkins.  I will get an Adkins to explain that to me one of these days.  He also had family finder matches to Adkins.  But the most interesting thing is that he matches me.  At first I was soooooooo excited!  Finally the proof that I have been looking for that I am really an Adkins!  But I woke up the next morning and realized that my participant matches me on my Dad's side.  It is my mother who has all of the Adkins and Morrisons and etc,....

So I remembered that there is a Judith Atkinson on my dad's side.  And I started looking at her.  Judith is born in 1741 in Goochland County.  She married John Scott 29 September 1767 in Goochland.  The birth date is just taken from a website, but the marriage is found in The Douglas Register.  And both the bride and groom are said to be from the St. James Northam Parish in Goochland.  Some of the Ancestry trees have Judith's father as John Atkinson and her grandfather as Thomas Atkinson married to Sarah Hughes.  This couple is Quaker.  My notes say:

This couple is found in Quaker records living in Charles City 1713/14 announce intention of marriage.  There is also A John Atkinson in Quaker records in this time period.

This fits well with the paragraph on page xix in Ronnie Adkins' Adkins Family book that I borrowed from Lynda Davis-Logan:

William also was almost surely born in America, however, his parents have not been discovered.  Elizabeth (Adkins) Wright of St. Louis and several others believe William's father to be Thomas Adkins. Jr. of Henrico County.  Others including Tom Atkinson of Ashville, NC believe John Adkins of New Kent County to be the one.  I personally agree with the Thomas faction and have spent many, many hours trying to prove it,  His will gives dates that would fit, he had a son named William and lived in the right area.   However, no hard record actually stating William to be his son has been found.

My participant and I have not worked on his tree yet and we may find another place that our dna match might be quite obvious....so I am no banking my money on this theory.  But it is of interest.  I looked at Quaker records and probably wrote something down.  But if I did, I don't know where I put my notes....and this is all of the time I have tonight to spend on this part of the puzzle.