Family group #27 of Harris yDNA and connecting families 1700s in Virginia

 In April 2026 our three yDNA matches plus Pat Harris rehashed what we had talked about in the past on the puzzle of why our family group #27 is so small and what we already know about this family.  And it was not a surprise that our consensus was that in order to figure out the birth incident or whatever happened we need to get our earliest Harris ancestors back one more generation.  I am only speaking for myself in this post, but I wanted to summarize what I am thinking so that I am not always starting all over when I look at these lines.  Here was what I was saying to the group when I decided to add it to my blog so it is easier to find in the future:

I felt that Pat and I came up with the same idea yesterday that we phrased differently….Pat was a bit more precise.  And I know it is what everyone was thinking as well….I am not going to look at the Davis match at all at this time.  What I believe we need to work on as a group is connecting our known earliest ancestor to parents……not easy, huh?  And because we have so many Harris/Harris marriages, we have to look at Wife’s Harris line as well….already we have had the good luck to find Lurita’s parents…..

Pat, I think you said that your Harris family line #10 was also found in Cumberland County…..Peter Harris married to Elizabeth Gunn ….

Hanover was formed in 1720 and you will see below (Hvr) was long and skinny...Goochland (Go) was formed from in 1728 from Henrico and was a quite large county at the time.  And Hanover and Goochland share quite a long border....and in the western parts of the county the border would have been iffy.....Goochland became smaller in 1744 when Albemarle was carved out of the Western part of the county.  And it was not until 1749 that Cumberland County was carved out of the southern half of Goochland.  And not until 1761 that Buckingham was carved out of Albemarle while Cumberland stayed the same and now adjoined Buckingham rather than Albemarle.  

So, while the more modern map shows the below, we need to be aware of the changes in the Counties as we move back in time.

So at this point we know that the general area that we are looking at had our Family group #27 as well as Lurita's family group #....hmmm do we know which family group John Harris who died in Cumberland County c.1795 and was the father of Lurita belonged to?  and Pat's family group #10 which included Peter Harris and wife Elizabeth Gunn with will 1775 in Cumberland County.

Early Cabell County

 I am working on the early settlers in Cabell County this morning and wanted to to add some links to information on the internet.  The first is an article written by Doris Miller for the newspaper in 1976:

https://sites.rootsweb.com/~wvcabell/history/guyandotte_oldest.html?_gl=1*fhy9h7*_gcl_au*ODQzODg0OTI3LjE3Njg4MzU2ODY.*_ga*MjAxNzU2MDkzLjE1ODYwMDcyMzA.*_ga_4QT8FMEX30*czZlZDE5YWU4LWFhMTQtNGM4Yi05MzJkLWQ4NTk3YWU5ODY5OCRvMTY1NSRnMSR0MTc3MjU1MjQ1OSRqNDckbDAkaDA.*_ga_LMK6K2LSJH*czZlZDE5YWU4LWFhMTQtNGM4Yi05MzJkLWQ4NTk3YWU5ODY5OCRvMTIwNSRnMSR0MTc3MjU1MjQ1OSRqNDckbDAkaDA.

There is information that this painting can be found at the Huntington Museum of Art and that the person in the foreground was a traveling French painter who was on the Ohio side of the river painting the town of Guyandotte across the river.

William Witcher and family

I started a Colonial Dames application for Sara Jane this weekend and after an entire weekend of trying different lines, I happened on to a line that was REALLY fun.  It appears that Sara Jane has Witcher connections and that William Witcher has already been recognized as a proven ancestor in the Colonial Dames.  I found her connection to be Agnes Witcher (b.1793) who Ancestry trees suggest was the wife of   Stephen Wilson.  I have found their marriage record on the WV archives site.  They were married in Cabell County VA  20 Dec 1810.   At that time Cabell County was a huge county encompassing the entire area that is now southwest WV.  

I have found Daniel Witcher in Cabell County in this time period.  In the land records three Witcher men show up 1810, 1811, 1812....Daniel Witcher Sr, Daniel Witcher Jr., Sanders Witcher.  And in 1815 my ancestor, Solomon Hensley, purchases land on Beech Fork from Daniel Witcher Jr.  It is not surprising that some of these names are found together as I believe that Solomon Hensley is married to Elizabeth Morrison who is the oldest daughter and perhaps the oldest child of William Morrison who is married to Rachel Witcher.  They are living on a beautiful farm on the other side of the Guyan River from Barboursville.  William Morrison is squatting on the land as his son does not buy it for several more years.  

My research indicates that William Witcher (the patriot in Pittsylvania County) had children between the years of 1742 and 1765.  The first four children had mother, Ann Majors: John, Daniel, Ephraim and James.  The second four children had mother Lydia Atkinson: William, Caleb, Rachel and Elizabeth.  I descend from Rachel who married William Morrison.

So my question at this point is who is the father of Agnes Witcher Wilson.  I will do some more research and sorting out and post more.  

Here is the URL for the site that seems to have answers to many of my questions that I received after a post to the Witcher Facebook site:

https://witchergeny.com/daniel-witcher%2C-jr?fbclid=IwY2xjawQKom1leHRuA2FlbQIxMABicmlkETFCTEdobnVLN0Y5Ym44bk54c3J0YwZhcHBfaWQQMjIyMDM5MTc4ODIwMDg5MgABHg3DXB7Z6kRC_KDUYuLXDZXOAB-a5j8PwrDlcC_E_0InO2g7fEPuHZinGPZ__aem_vFfMir_DXgfUI2QC-2PKag

Immigration of James and Rose/Roose Moore into Philadelphia c.1682

 I have been chatting with Moore descendants and wanted to put a few thoughts down where I could mull and ponder.  Some of what I am looking at today was information that I found in an article written by Joseph Moore and published in the Georgia Genealogical Society Quarterly Volume 4, No 1.  

My first question is where was James Moore living before he moved to Philadelphia?  

Likely came from the area of Shropshire, England according to Joseph Moore.  It is known that they had Moore connections living in neighboring Radnorshire, Wales

James was present in Philadelphia, within two years of the city’s founding by William Penn.  James’s town lot at the City Center, on which he built a house in 1684.  This lot is on  the southwest corner of present Dilworth Plaza.  He was a blacksmith by trade and performed work on Penn’s Mill, for which he was partially paid by a 1692 land grant (which he shortly sold) in Merion township, Philadelphia County, and in 1690 he assembled the leaded glass windows for the Quaker’s Center Meeting House in Philadelphia.

http://marshamoses.blogspot.com/search?q=Philadelphia

http://marshamoses.blogspot.com/2015/02/james-and-rose-moore-in-philadelphia.html

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connections living in neighboring Radnorshire, Wales.

So I looked up information via AI go see if there were Quakers in this area in the 1600s and there were.  I do not believe that James Moore was a Quaker, but it is possible that he migrated with Quaker family and friends.

So it is quite possible that James Moore's move from Shropshire to Philadelphia was influenced by the persecution of the Quakers in the area even though he was not Quaker himself.  

McKinsey Family

I found in 2025 Ruby Mundell Barry's book about the McKinsey family on-line on Ancestry at:

https://www.ancestry.com/search/collections/62282/records/4540759566 

Atkinson (were Charity and Littleberry children of Indian Mother?) as well as Shawnee atrocities including Clendenin massacre

I have a Adkins yDNA participant who tested for me several years ago.  Today I upgraded his kit to Big Y as I wanted to be able to look at the big Y block tree and also the time tree.  The man who tested for me descends from Hezekiah Adkins who died in Wayne County in 1842.  I do not descend from Hezekiah.  We both descend from Hezekiah's grandfather, William Atkinson who married Elizabeth Parker in 1710.  My participant descends from William and Elizabeth's son, Parker.  I descend from William and Elizabeth's son, William.  So we share 8-gr-grandfather.  

The reason for my blog post tonight is to copy and paste a website that is written by a man named Thomas Adkins who is clearly a cousin to me and I thought his website of interest and wanted to note it to look at again.

https://adkins.ws/tree/Adkins.GED

The next site is written by a woman who believes that mitochondrial dna refutes the theory that Charity Adkins was the daughter of an Indian woman (Mary/Bluesky) with whom Parker Atkinson had relationship.

As part of her argument she lists many of the Shawnee atrocities including the See and Clendenin massacres.

https://parkeradkins.wordpress.com/2017/06/02/parker-adkins-blue-sky-was-their-story-possible/

Castle Garden

I received an e-mail this morning from Family Tree Magazine that gave me a link to an article about Castle Garden.  I loved the photo of Castle Garden and wanted to save it for future perusal.  Below is the photo and the link:  

https://familytreemagazine.com/records/immigration/castle-garden-immigration-a-genealogists-guide/?trk_msg=8PJ8T19SJLTKT64QEOE6P3I7QS&trk_contact=STK22DA1HH0VEFQ7OBV4PD2ID4&trk_module=new&trk_sid=DAD50IK567I7GIQEFIE4VEGA00&trk_link=2VEPPJDV3D94PCHI2GAKVEGQRS&utm_source=Listrak&utm_medium=Email&utm_term=https%3a%2f%2ffamilytreemagazine.com%2frecords%2fimmigration%2fcastle-garden-immigration-a-genealogists-guide%2f&utm_campaign=FT+Newsletter 

Before Ellis Island even opened its doors, immigrants arriving in New York City passed through Castle Garden. Now known as Castle Clinton National Monument and listed on the National Register of Historic Places, Castle Garden served as the primary gateway for over 8.5 million newcomers between 1855 and 1890.

I have been working on my Hornberger Family a bit this past month and I quickly checked to see when my 2-gr-grandmother and 1-gr-grandfather arrived from Alsace Lorraine.  And the date fell within the dates for Castle Garden.  Barbe Hornberger Unger and her son, Frederic Hornberger, as well as Barbe's second husband, George Unger are said to have arrived about 1880 in Fred's naturalization papers (which I have).

The article is excellent with lots of information to follow up on.  My summer is too busy to spend the hours on this project that I would like to spend....but perhaps this winter?