John and Milly Hensley, my new 5-gr-grandparents

I received help from George Swann today.  After we had chatted only a small amount, he sent me a copy of the register in which Solomon Hensley's death was recorded.  It is quite hard to read on this site, so I have enlarged it to show the part about Solomon and the very important part that it is Elizabeth, his wife, who submitted the information.  And Elizabeth was kind enough to give parents for Solomon:  John and Milly Hensley!  And she says clearly that Solomon was born in Pittsylvania County.  Solomon died in Wayne County, Virginia in 1859.  The register says he is 83 which makes his date of birth c. 1776.  I had guessed before c.1779 as he is reported 71 in the census of 1850.










I had suspected that John Hensley was a likely suspect for father for Solomon as I had collected the following information in the notes of the blank place in my data base reserved for Father of Solomon:

there seems to be a Samuel Hensley in Pittsylvania in 1765.  Magazine of Virginia genealogy, Volume 50 (2012).No. 2 has article by Barbara Vines Little of Pittsylvania County Judgements 1767-1770.  In the article she has transcribed what seems to be a loan to Daniel McCinsay that has Samuel Henslee as a witness along with Sarah Beard.  This is on page 98 and is among my magazines.

There is a John Hensley in the 1782 Pittsylvania Land Taxes list:

http://www.rootsweb.ancestry.com/~vapittsy/1782LandTaxes.htm

John is the Only Hensley in Pittsylvania County in 1782.

There is also a John Hensley in the 1767 Titheables (and that is the only Hensley that I see)

http://adkinsmetcalffamily.wordpress.com/2009/02/28/the-history-of-pittsylvania-county-virginia/

Others of interest listed here are William, Daniel, and John Witcher, John Good, William and Owen Atkinson, Abner Cochran, Mack Foster (I think this is probably misspelling of Mark Foster), William Webb.

And from another blog written in the past:

 The following is taken from Marty Grant's (Hensley expert) timeline for John Hensley who was born before 1724 and is said to be "of Louisa and Albemarle Co. Va.  I believe that this may be the right man!  But the below is my own first sighting of relationships between a Henslee and Foster family:

On 25 Feb 1752 Benjamin Henslee of Fredericksville Parish, Louisa Co., VA sold 300 acres to David Watts. The land was on Wolf Trap Branch. Witnesses were John Foster, John Henslee, and John Hammack. Benjamin Henslee signed, and "Elizabeth his wife" relinquished her dower rights to the land.

There is an article on these people on Marty Grant's site.  The person who wrote the article thinks i might be possible that the John Hensley from Wolf Trap Branch was the same John Hensley in Pittsylvania County....but does not have proof.

http://www.martygrant.com/genealogy/hensley/hensley-john-louisa-va.htm

Quaker terms; Baptized into the States of the People

I love my Quaker mail list!  I have always loved the Quaker mail list.  Every time anyone posts a question, there are many good answers.  This week, Sara Scribner sent a query to the list about an ancestor.  At the end of the answers Sara has given me permission to copy and paste her transcription of the  testimony which includes names of members of York Quarterly Monthly Meeting.

Here is part of what Sara posted:

Dear All,

I'm working on my English Quakers and recently transcribed a published
testimony about Elizabeth (Ryley) Wetherald (abt 1735-1784), a "Minister
near eighteen years." The the account also mentions: "She was often engaged
in visiting Families both in our own Monthly Meeting and several others, in
which she was often Baptised into the States of the People, was very
Serviceable in our Preparative and Monthly Women’s Meetings wherein she
labored to promote good order, with truly Christian Concern."

I'd like to understand the part about being "Baptised into the States of
the People."

There were several good answers to this question.  I started to file them in my crazy inbox.  But decided that if Sara and others were willing, I would be more likely to be able to find these answers if I added them to my blog.  So here goes:

From Jeff Palmer:  
My understanding of Quaker baptism seems to be well expressed by https://classroom.synonym.com/the-quaker-view-on-baptism-12085718.html :

"... Quakers believe that all of life is a sacrament and that special sacramental rites are, at best, unnecessary and, at worst, hypocritical....  Quakers often point to John the Baptist's claim that 'I baptize you with water, but after me comes One who is greater than I...  He will baptize you with the Holy Spirit and fire.'  ....  When Quakers speak of baptism, they generally mean 'baptism in the Holy Spirit.'  According to their teachings, this is when a person has experienced an inner change as the result of God's presence.  Quakers tend to view this as an ongoing experience [rather than as a one-time sacramental ceremony]."

I suspect the terminology to which you refer reflected the above, i.e., merely that the woman was thought to have had spiritually fulfilling interactions with the families and meetings she had visited.

Jeff Palmer 

From Tom Hamm:
In this case, "Baptised" meant that she was led to insights and empathy with the spiritual states of individuals she encountered. That was considered one of the marks of good Quaker ministry. 

Tom Hamm

From Dan Treadway:

Would it help to replace "baptized" with "immersed"?  That's the literal meaning of the Greek word baptized comes from.

and Jeff Palmer added to Dan's comment:

I also liked the response by Daniel Treadway I think who said something about the Greek origin of the word “baptize” meaning “immersion.”  According to https://www.biblestudytools.com/lexicons/greek/nas/baptizo.html , baptize (“baptize”) meant an immersion which changed the thing being immersed.  That’s sort of the point of a Quaker meeting.

Jeff Palmer 

From Richard White:

Dear Sara and friends all,

I am a 12th gen Quaker and am glad to have been enlightened by your query and the thoughtful and informed replies you have received.  

I make no exception to what’s been offered by others, but thought I would complement their responses by providing a “translation” of the phrase, “baptized into the states of the people,” by suggesting what a more contemporary Friend might have said (or penned a minute) in place of those words:

“The Friend was so open to the light (or the lord) in her worship with us, that she seemed  to gather a true sense of our condition and, indeed, did speak to that condition and minister to us in a loving and truthful way, which was beneficial to our spirit.”

Someone here suggested “immersion” in place of “baptized”... I like that... immersion is suggestive of that corporate mysticism, I believe uniquely Quaker, to which Fox alludes:

"All Friends mind that which is Eternal which gathers your Hearts up to the Lord and lets you see that ye are written in one another's Heart."

Richard White


From Sara Scribner:
Here is my transcription of the testimony :

Anon. 1784. *Testimonies Concerning Friends Deceased*. Vol. 3, pp. 271-2.
TCMD. London: Library of the Society of Friends, 1784. Testimony from York
Quarterly Meeting Concerning Elizabeth Wetherald, pp. 271-2.



“Elizabeth Wetherald, wife of Joseph Wetherald, was one who the Lord
visited in her early youth and as she gave up to the manifestation of Truth
in her own Mind, she became more and more enlightened and fitted for use
and service in the Church. Her first appearance in the Ministry was about
the year 1766 and we believe she Laboured Diligently according to the Gift
received, not being forward but Solidly waiting in awful reverence for the
arising of Life whereby she was many times enabled to Speak to the States
of the People __

She visited some parts of the County, and some others adjoining several
times, and in the year 1778 visited the Cities of London, Norwich, And
Bristol, and several other parts of the Southern Counties__

She was often engaged in visiting Families both in our own Monthly Meeting
and several others, in which she was often Baptised into the States of the
People, was very Serviceable in our Preparative and Monthly Women’s
Meetings wherein she labored to promote good order, with truly Christian
Concern.

She had for several years been in a [S]ickening State of Health and for
some Months mostly confined at Home, yet appeared to be in a lively frame
of Mind, and to Rejoice in having been made willing to give up to the
Requiring of Truth, in which she then had Peace.

She was a Loving and Affectionate wife, a tender and prudent Parent and
kind Neighbour__

She departed this Life in the eighteenth day of the first Month 1784, and
was buried in Friends’ Burying ground at Bainbridge the 21st of same, aged
about 54 years, a Minister, near 18 years.



Signed in and on behalf of Richmond Monthly Meeting, held at Aysgarth the 4
th of 3rd Month 1784 by



Mathew Middlebrook

Joseph Wetherald

Isabelle Wetherald

Joseph Wetherald Junr

Margaret Wetherald

George Wetherald

Elizabeth Thompson

John Wetherald

Martha Wetherald

John Heldon

Jane Wetherald

John Thompson

Mary Wetherald

Thomas Culworth

Sara Wetherald

Christopher Myers

Jane Carter

Thomas Lambert

Ann Lambert

James Scott

Agnes Thistlethwaite

John Hunter

Margery Horner

John Raw

Alice Culworth

John Beezon

Isabel Hesltine

Thomas Carter

Elizabeth Thwaite

William Middlebrook

Hannah Harrison

John Baynes

Ann Middlebrook

Osward [Oswald?] Baynes

Ann Baynes

Joseph Webster

Hannah Lambert

Simon Hunter

Mary Baynes

William Baynes



Daniel Harrison



Richard Carle

Read and Approved in our Quarterly Meeting held at York the 24th of the 3rd
Month 1784 by


Robert Grubb


Clerk to the Meeting this Quarter”

END OF TRANSCRIPTION

autosomal dna 3rd cousin matches

I watched a You Tube presentation last night by The Barefoot Genealogist



I have tested with all five of the large companies.  I went to Richmond in the fall to hear Blaine Bettinger speak at the GRIVA event.  When the tests went on sale just before Christmas, I decided that I wanted to know about the extra information that each site could give me and ordered kits from the three companies that I had not yet tested with.  But this blog post is specifically designed towards my Ancestry matches.

Crista said that Ancestry now gives as information that each of the participants who have tested with Ancestry now have about 20 third cousin matches.  She personally does not have quite that many.  I find that I personally have slightly more.  Blaine Bettinger had stressed the importance of our third cousin matches.  So between all of this late night information and the going to sleep with this on my mind, I felt as if I dreamed all night about getting in touch with my third cousins.

Before falling into bed last night, I used my Reunion (I work on a mac) software to make a very nice fan chart of all of my 3-gr-grandparents.  I had not thought about using circular and fan charts before I was in touch with an autosomal match last week who sent me a WONDERFUL fan chart of her ancestors.  I am missing a few that I will explain below.  The problem with Ancestry is that one can not e-mail each of our matches directly.  So I decided to put my fan chart on my blog site and send a URL.  I realize that only a small portion of my 3rd cousins will respond.  But I have hopes that there will be one among those who do respond who will turn out to be a genealogy buddy!





If I make this bigger on the site it is harder to manipulate.  However I think that I might cut it in half and present below.  If you want it via e-mail, please get in touch with me at mosesm@earthlink.net and ask for my third cousin chart.  Or ask for something else if you want more information.





I am missing four of my Alsace Lorraine 3-gr-grandparents....They are on my mother's mother's side. Most of the Sammons/Osborn/McNeely/Castle side are well documented.  It seems that more of my 3rd cousins fit into this niche and we seem to have had a lot of research on this side of the family. I give Ruth Sammons Nassar a lot of credit for some of my own information.  She is now deceased but did a lot of Sammons research back in the day when there was no internet!

On my dad's mother's side , I am missing some of his McGregor, Hair, ancestors as his earliest proven couple did not come to these shores until the famine time in Ireland. But on his mother's mother's side, I have had a lot of fun taking many of these people back into the early 1700s and even into the 1600s when they arrived in this country.  And on dad's father's side my biggest road block has been my maiden name:  Hawkins.  I have had a brick wall for 30 years on the Hawkins surname in Early Virginia.  It has only been in the past six months that I have found a very small crevice and have some hope that I may begin to find holes this coming year.  The rest of this family lived right here in Cabell County in what is now WV from very early.  They are well documented.

Some of the surnames that will appear in the next rings out are:  Farrar, Moore, Ross, Butler, Marshall, Scott, Lacey, Perrin, Baugh, Hensley, Morrison, Atkinson, Webb, Witcher, Burchett, Carter, Goode, Worsham, Rowland, Penix, all of the Nantucket names (e.g. Worth, Gardner, Coffin, ....), Clendenin, Holderby, Handley, Pendleton, Dannenburg, Konig, Botjer, Schultz, Lutjen, Botser. Some of these surnames are not documented and a few may even be iffy.  But many of them are well documented.  It would make this blog post too unwieldy to explain which are iffy and which are well documented.  Just ask.  I am happy to share information.

Silas Wooten and Thomas Lovelady

Silas P. Wooten was supported in his application for Revolutionary war pension by Thomas Lovelady and Anthony Hall.  In turn, Silas made deposition supporting the Revolutionary War Pension for Thomas Lovelady and Anthony Hall.  It is interesting to note that while many of the old soldiers make a mark when they sign....perhaps some because they are old....perhaps some because they do not read nor write.  But Silas P. Wooten signs his entire name with careful penmanship.  He was a school teacher all of his life and his penmanship shows his life calling.

Thomas Lovelady in his own deposition for pension, says that he was born and lived in Guilford County before the war.  After the war he seems to have moved to Washington or Russell County in Southwest Virginia.  In 1833 he appears in court in Russell County and is said to be a resident of that county.  Thomas Lovelady seems to have been an enthusiastic participant in the war....enlisting several times in different places.  He seems to have enlisted at Abingdon for the fight at Guilford County....not Halifax.  However, he does serve under Col Campbell as did Silas who had enlisted at Halifax.  So they did indeed serve together for this battle.

Zachariah Worley

Yesterday Harry sent me the following about Zachariah Worley:

I was messing around in Ancestry and ran across a Revolutionary War pension file on a 1st Cousin, 7x removed. I already had several pages linked in my off-line family tree but I was shocked at the size of the whole original file.  Anyway the file was for Zachariah Worley, son of William Worley, grandson of my John Worley. The interesting things about Zachariah:
1) He was born in Powhatan Co., VA
2) He enlisted in 1779 and served at Petersburg.
3) He enlisted again in 1780 and was in the Battle of Hanging Rock (near present-day Lancaster Co., SC).
4) After his second enlistment was finished he went to his fathers home in Bedford Co., VA
5) He enlisted a third time and was in the Battle of Guilford Courthouse.

Because I am only now meeting these people it took me a while to get my head around everything.  I was off and running thinking about Revolutionary War Pensions marriage records in Hinshaw and Silas P. Wooten and etc etc etc.  So this morning I am going to slow down and think about what Harry's information tells me.

First of all John Worley and his family and then the next generation which would be (insert Harry's ancestor) and William Worley lived in Powhatan County from the early 1700s (at least) until after 1779 when Zachariah enlisted.



Why do I think that they were still living there as the Revolution broke out?  Because Zachariah enlists in Petersburg and his first round of service is right there in Petersburg.  However, William Worley moves his family to Bedford County very soon after as Zachariah goes home to his father's home in Bedford County after his second enlistment which take him to the Battle of Hanging Rock In SC.  Did Harry's ancestor move, too?  Why did William move?

Then Zachariah enlists one more time and this time he almost certainly enlists in Halifax, Virginia as the troops gather to fight the British who are moving towards Virginia.  And this time Zachariah takes a part in the Battle at Guilford Courthouse.

James Hawkins and William Ross

I can not believe that I did not make a blog post about my biggest find of 2018!  This find was from Elaine!  She found on Binns a tax record in which James Hawkins is paying a tax for Wm. Ross in 1798.  This is a personal property tax.  

Jerilynn McGregor shared information with me after my visit to hear her speak at the Stafford County Historical/Genealogical Society's meeting the weekend that I went to Richmond.  It seems that from the land tax records, Wm Ross may have died around 1799-1800.

Ross paid taxes on 202 acres of Parke from 1797 through 1800.  From 1801 through 1803, it was listed under "William Ross estate."  Since it sometimes took a year or two for the Commissioner of the Revenue to find out that a tax payer had died, it's probably safe to say that William departed this life sometime between 1799 and 1800.  In 1804, Mary Ross commenced paying the taxes "for Wm. Ross Estate." 

And from these records, it is possible that Mary was William Ross's widow.

Revolutionary War Vouchers for Silas Wooten

Nancy Wooten sent me links to Revolutionary War Vouchers for Silas Wooten this morning.

It is somewhat hard to read, but here is what the reader at family research believed that it said:



and here is the link if you want to read it on the Family Search site for yourself:

https://www.familysearch.org/ark:/61903/1:1:Q2WT-P41J

Here are my questions....Silas was discharged from service in 1781 in Caswell County.  I do not know at this time if his entire unit was discharged there after their service in the battle of Guilford County.


Certainly the three counties of interest to us in this time period adjoined each other.  Guilford (Gu), Caswell (Was), and Orange (Or).  Orange is the County for which Hillsborough is the county seat.  I don't think that there is any doubt that Silas was "hanging out" in this area of NC.  Now where he was from before the war is a huge puzzle.  I think it more likely that Silas was not living in Hillsborough...but was probably in Guilford when he heard that there was money to be collected if he would ride to Hillsborough.  But this is certainly a guess.

Nancy says that there is an earlier pay voucher for Rowan County:

 One is 16 Aug 1782, Salisbury, Rowan, NC



again here is how the reader who indexed this document interpreted it:



and here is the link if you wish to visit the site on Family Search:

https://www.familysearch.org/ark:/61903/3:1:3QS7-L9WG-X63B?i=723&cc=1498361



I think that those of us who look at Silas, have a Nagging thought in the back of our mind that perhaps Silas could have been living in Surrey or Wilkes before the Revolution.

Information from Mr. Jude: 

Thomas Whootan, III b. abt. 1760 died bef. 1820 NC. He was married to Anne Unknown b. 1776 NC died after 1850 

Mr. Jude also guesses that his name might be Thomas because:

1810 Surry Co., NC census entry:

Thomas Wooton  2 males 10-15  1 male >45  1 female <10, 2 females  10-15, 1 female 26-44

According to this entry, Thomas Wooton was born before 1765 and his wife was born between 1766 and 1784 or about 1776. 

He also says:  Since this Thomas Wooten is not on the 1820 census, he may have died and his widow may be Ann who married John Stotts and then moved to the Tug Valley.  

Ann's Wooten children born in Surry County are the family that goes by the name Ooten in the Tug Valley.  They include a Silas Ooten.  Anne married John Stotts before her move to Kentucky with her children.  

My notes for Ann say:  

There were two seperate Wooten and/or Ooten families in the Tug River Valley in Eastern Kentucky and Southwestern Virginia in the early 1800's who have been misconstrued and/or misidentified. One family was headed by the Revolutionary War veteran Silas P. Wooten and his wife Phoebe Worth. The other family was headed by a woman whose first name was Anne and whose maiden name is unknown. Her husband's surname was Wooten and remains unidentified. He was possibly Thomas Whootan, III who was born in Surry Co., NC, where Anne married her second husband John Stotts before coming to the Tug River Valley.

After Anne's first husband died in Surry Co., NC, she later married John Stotts abt. 1810 in Surry Co., NC and moved to the Tug River Valley and had additional children with him also. Afterwards, Anne and her children including Levi, Nancy & Jordan were living in Indiana by 1840. Her son Silas P. was already deceased by then and his widow remarried and his children remained behind in the Tug River Valley. While Anne and her children were all in Indiana by 1840, the children of the Revolutionary War veteran Silas P. Wooten & Phoebe Worth remained in the Tug River Valley. This obviously suggests they were two seperate families since they both eventually lived so far apart.

There are researchers who say Silas's mother had maiden Jordan.  Is there reason to think of possibilities that Silas and Thomas Wooten were brothers?  Thomas may have named a child after his brother, Silas....or perhaps both our Silas P. and Ann's son Silas P. Ooten were named after someone in a generation or two earlier than our Silas P.

But the Pay voucher in Rowan could perhaps suggest Silas' return to Surry/Wilkes.  While the slightly later pay voucher could suggest his move to Guilford County.

Cornwallis was defeated at Yorktown Oct 1781.  So I would guess that Silas was discharged just after the defeat.  Silas was wounded at Eutaw Springs and left to be transported with the baggage back to wherever he was taken.  So perhaps he was recuperating when he received his first pay in Rowan County.  I am not sure why there would then be a second pay voucher after that date in Hillsborough since he had already been discharged.  Back pay?  Lots of questions. But I am very indebted to Nancy for having shared these documents.

I would add one more thing from my own Quaker research in NC.  Surry County Quakers were part of Westfield MM. 

Surry County records dated from the 1770s and 1780s cover parts of present-day Ashe, Alleghany, Forsyth, Stokes, Wilkes, and Yadkin Counties.

The Meeting dates back to the 1760's when pioneer Quakers from New Garden (now Guilford College) crossed Quaker Gap of the Sauratown mountains to plant a new community in the valleys of Big Creek and Tom's Creek. Early Quakers began holding meetings at Westfield by 1772 under the care of New Garden Quarterly Meeting and continued until the monthly meeting was established in 1786. Representatives from New Garden were sent to hold services for them. This is said to have lead to the name, "Westfield." The Quakers at New Garden regarded the work as a mission project and since it was located west of New Garden it was referred to as, "The Western Field." Thus comes the name, "Westfield."
The meeting was officially established November 13, 1786. The Westfield friends would send representatives all the way to New Garden, 67 miles, every month

 So there was a huge connection between the New Garden MM in Guilford County to which Phebe Worth's family had been connected and that of those living in the Westfield area.  This may not be a factor in connecting Silas P. Wooten to Surrey ....but it is something to think about.  

Wonder if there were any Worleys or Blankenships or Wards in Surry County?