Blog Some Genealogy

I have just finished the “Revised and Updated” Second Edition of my genealogy book of the PEYTON family of Virginia, - PEYTONs Along the Aquia Genealogy. It is now available as a “keepsake” edition in hardcover.

PEYTONs Along the Aquia Genealogy

Reverend Horace Edwin HAYDEN, continues to be the leading genealogist of the PEYTON family of Virginia. His celebrated book, “Virginia Genealogies,” published in 1891, included a chapter on the PEYTON family: “PEYTON, ‘of Iselham,’ Cambridgeshire, England, Gloucester, and Westmoreland Counties, Virginia.” The author closely followed the English PEYTON lines in the 1878 book “Genealogical Memoirs of the Extinct Family of Chester of Chicheley,” by Robert E. Chester WATERS.

One hundred seventeen years ago, when Reverend HAYDEN published the lineage and history of the PEYTON family of Virginia, his work was the most comprehensive and accurate in data, scope and material ever received. Since then, his extensive “Peyton” chapter in “Virginia Genealogies” has formed the basis of all succeeding published genealogies of the Peyton family. This scanned reprint will be a welcome and necessary resource for those studying the PEYTON family of Virginia. His acclaimed essay “Descent” is included.

Photograph from Flickr.

I published “So Obscure A Person,” today 13 March 2007. It is a story of a man who wanted too much, and his Virginia descendants, who were the beneficiaries of his quests. He was ALEXANDER STINSON Senior of Williamsburg and Buckingham County, Virginia and his lifetime spanned almost the entire eighteenth century of Colonial Virginia. He first appeared in the court records of Virginia as a bound servant boy, “a slave without shackles.” The title of this book comes from the reply of the Virginia Council at Williamsburg in May of 1741, when, as an overly ambitious young man, he made an official petition for land to fulfill his dream of becoming a Virginia planter. After years in bondage, his hopes must have seemed shattered when President JAMES BLAIR and the Council denied his plea, explaining that it was “too much land for so obscure a person.”

As his childhood had been passed being owned by tavern keepers along Williamsburg’s Duke of Gloucester Street, young SAWNEY seemed not easily discouraged. He allied himself with some of Virginia’s finest families, and went on to win his Virginia land and much, much more.

Eighteenth century Virginians muddled through life much as we do today. They lived each day, one at a time, the same as do we, but they did so much more during those one hundred years of history. Alexander STINSON moved upcountry from Tidewater Virginia to a place called Willis’s on the branches of Cattail, in what is now the center of Virginia, Buckingham County. He saw the land when it was a wilderness, and he settled it, and built a home for himself and his family. His dream of working the land he had won came true, as he became a Virginia planter. He cleared and built his own roadways, he taught his children, and he helped create a society where there had been no community at all. He and his children rebelled against a tyrannical government, fought a war, and created a brand new nation. While living through it all, he kept intact the faith of his fathers. After having accomplished all that he did, his children moved on to new places to pioneer as he had done.

Photo from Flickr.

The Prince William Historic Preservation Foundation and the Prince William County Future Commission Cordially Invite You to Attend the 2nd Annual Symposium on Historic Preservation in Prince William County on Thursday, June 7, 2007, 7 p.m.

Old Manassas Courthouse
9248 Lee Avenue
Manassas, Virginia

The Board of County Supervisors formed the Future Commission to develop a vision of the desired quality of life in our community in 2030. Join the Prince William Historic Preservation Foundation in shaping the future of historic preservation in Prince William County. This event is free to the public. For more information or reservations please call (703)792-5632.

From Moorman’s River

James W. WOOD and his wife Mildred are buried at White Hall, Virginia, in the foothills of the Blue Ridge Mountains.

The Wagener Family Memorial at Pohick Church, Virginia, including Revolutionary War patriot, Peter Wagener (1744-1798). “The remains from 29 graves were brought here from the Wagener family cemetery at Stisted, their plantation on the Occoquan River near Colchester. The Second Peter Wagener (1717-1774, Clerk of the Fairfax County Court (1752-1772), served as a Vestryman and Church Warden of Truro Parish.”

The image, Wagener Family Memorial at Pohick, was originally uploaded by barneykin. It is posted here from Neddy’s .

Was Amor VIA of Virginia a French Huguenot? Who says so?

I have been trying to find the original source of the family tradition that the VIA surname of Virginia is French and that the progenitor of the VIA family, Amor VIA, was a Huguenot. The earliest source of a French connection that I can locate is from George W. VIA’s “Partial Genealogy of the VIA, DeHART AND OTHER FAMILIES” which was published in 1926. The author was born in 1850, and descended from Robert VIA of Hanover County, Virginia. His publication starts out with “VIA FAMILY - FRENCH DESCENT”, then continues with a family history of the VIA and DeHart families, beginning with his grandparents, William VIA and Sallie INGRAM. That seems to be all that is said about a French connection, unless there is more to the book then I can see on-line at:
http://members.aol.com/SSprad25/ViaPages/PartialGenealogy.html

Many researchers seem to have decided that because there are so many place names in France that are similar to the VIA surname, that Amor VIA was undoubtedly French. I have found that when one is researching a name with only three letters and so many spelling variations, there are likely to be towns all over the world with one of those variations. The other day I met a man from India named “Vyas”.

The name that is found in Albemarle County, Virginia, where my family is from, is fairly standardized as VIA, however, even my great grandmother wrote a letter from Mount Fair where she signed her name as “Molly VIAR”. It is difficult researching the VIA name outside of Albemarle County, as one has to look for Viers, Veirs, Vear, Vears, Veare, Veares, Veres, Vere, Vire, Virer, Vires, Via, Vias, Ver, Veers, Veeres, Veer, Vare, Vore, Verre, Varr, Vye, Vyer, and then one has to look for all the same names replacing the beginning “V” with a “W”, and at times, even with a “U”, an “F” or even an “R”. I stumbled upon an old family history on the Turk family where the name of my ancestor, Thomas C. VIA, was written as “Thomas BIRE”.

It would be wonderful if we could find a record of our VIA ancestor, Amor VIA, in France, Holland, England or any other place name throughout the world, but so far, all we have to go on is that sometime before 1677, he was one of 14 persons transported into Virginia by John Webb and John Rea who received acreage in the “Up. Part of New Kent Co., on S. Side of land formerly taken up by Andrew Davis on Machumps Cr”.

Spelling was not standardized in the United States until the mid 1800s, yet Amor VIA, who was quite literate, did manage to keep his surname intact for a few generations. However, perhaps he had changed it a bit from what his father had used. In this same time period that Amor VIA was transported, “William VIER” was recorded relating to nearby Rappahannock County in 1675, where Major John WEIRE (Weir) had written his will in 1671. Job VEAR was imported into Maryland about the same time, 1677. Then a few years later Daniel VEARES was mentioned at Matadequin Creek (Amor’s homeplace) in New Kent County, imported by William Winston and John Engelbrecht.

So far, I am still looking for the French connection of Amor VIA. It seems that everybody talks about it, but nobody seems to know why.

The very first incarnation of the VIA surname in Virginia seems to have come from England with the first supply ship to Jamestown in 1608 (Jamestown Ancestors), with two laborers, Nicolas VEN and a VERE, on board. The following researcher gives a few of the other countries “seemingly” connected to the “VIERs” name: VIERS Roots.

Laurel Hill circa 1766, as it appears in 2006

The Lindsay family home, Laurel Hill, circa 1766, stands about 100 yards southeast of the Lindsay Family Cemetery in Lorton, Virginia near the old Washington DC prison.

The image, Laurel Hill circa 1766, was originally uploaded by barneykin. It is posted here from Neddy’s favorites.

Pohick Churchyard, Lorton, Virginia (PDF Explanation)

George West, lieutenant-colonel, was recorded amongst the militia officers appointed by the county Court for Loudoun County, Virginia, to serve from March, 1778, to December, 1782.

The remains of John West, son of the Hugh West who died in 1754, may be included here. He was bequeathed from his father “all that property on which I now live.” John West, who passed away in 1776, continued his father’s tradition of public service, and during the American Revolution he was a member of the Fairfax Committee of Safety.

DAR Ancestor # A123173
WEST, JOHN SR
Birth Date: CIRCA 1726
Birth County/Parish: PRINCE WILLIAM CO
Birth State/Country: VIRGINIA
Death Date: ANTE 18 Feb 1777
Death County/Parish: FAIRFAX CO
Death State/Country: VIRGINIA
Rank: PATRIOTIC SERVICE
Service State/Organization: VIRGINIA
Spouse(s): CATHERINE COLVILLE

Culpeper County, Virginia: 2 miles NE of Winston on Rt. #49; thence west of Rt. #49 about 300 yards.

This is not a very large cemetery. It contains besides the stone whose inscription is given below, several new graves and several with unmarked stone. The graveyard is nicely kept and is fenced in from stock.

The four inscriptions given below are all on one stone which is a comparatively new one. These inscriptions were probably obtained from the family Bible when the stone was erected.

Sarah Guinn
wife of John Guinn
Born 1824
Died 1848

Amanda Guinn
Born 1831
Died 1853

Benjamin Guinn
Born 1851
Died 1860

John Guinn
Born 1785
Died 1852

Source: Library of Virginia Digital Collection, LVA Titled Files: Survey Report, Guinn Cemetery: 12 March 1937, Research made by Margaret Jeffries.