Ancestral Possibilities for Peter Smith Several stories have filtered through the ages regarding the identity of the parents of Peter Smth of Westmoreland. When our Peter signed dcuments he frequently fashioned himself as ‘Peter of Yeocomico’ in an effort to distinguish himself from others of the same name. In the past four centuries a whole […]
The Settlement of Doeg’s Neck (Mason Neck) In previous discussions I have provided examples of the verbiage produced by those madcap guys in the Virginia Colony deed office. Frustrated screenwriters whose talents failed Shakespeare’s talent contests, the authors of Virginia deeds were often accused of creating descriptions of property lines that were foreign to even […]
JAMES SMITH 1708-1749 (ggf5) and ELIZABETH PRESLY TAYLOR 1700-1771 (ggm5) Mount Airy, pictured above, is the home of the Taylor (Tayloe) family, from which our great grandmother (ggm5) Elizabeth Taylor was born. The plantation home pictured here was constructed by her brother, Colonel John Tayloe II in 1764 near the village of Warsaw VA. Elizabeth was […]
The grandchildren of Peter Smith of Yeocomico, Westmoreland, Virginia were caught up in the dramatic growth of a colony on the road to becoming a republic. I can’t emphasize enough how often we gloss over the important bits and pieces of American history that fueled the American Revolutionary War. As a history teacher I thought […]
The Gordian Knot of Relations: A Who’s Who Among the Early Ancestors This is a picture of a Gordian Knot. Kind of looks like that ball of Christmas tree lights that Chevy Chase tries to unravel in the movie, Christmas Vacation. The knot is a metaphor for the family lineage that is found in any American […]
I use the term “Culture Clash” facetiously. It is too timid a term for the genocide, forced migration and savage internecine warfare that occurred and continued as the white guys pushed their agenda and boundary from the Atlantic shores inland. The migration ‘over hill’ was a colonial citizen decision, not that of the British Monarch or […]
WILLIAM BAILEY SMITH Every tree has to have a rock star in it; someone who defies reality; seems other worldly, Orwellian by nature; a regular sort of Forrest Gump, but literally living in the forest. Someone famous has to be living a little closer than the 6 degrees of separation allowed by Kevin Bacon. Let […]
The expansion westward, over the top of the Blue Ridge and into the Kentucky wilderness eventually raised hell with the Native population and eventually the environment. The eradication of the Native population to the east of the Mississippi was becoming evident to both tribal nations and white pioneers. Let’s not pretend the hate filled words, […]
THE SMITH HOMESTEAD in WISCONSIN (circa 1932) From Mt. Airy, VA to Clark County, WI How does this happen? In 150 years of time, over the course of four generations, Smiths migrated from the plantations of Westmoreland, Virginia to the backwoods setting in Clark County, Wisconsin (circa 1930). Three of the four Smith children can be […]
THE BURNT STATION MASSACRE SMITH FAMILY TREE: Kincheloe, Simpson, Davis, Bland, Cox, Wickliffe, Floyd, Rogers WHITTINGTON TREE: Polk The Kincheloe homestead was a collection of cabins within the palisade walls of what constituted a “fort.” It was called Kincheloe Fort (aka Kincheloe Station), and was established in Jefferson County (present day Nelson County), Kentucky. There were a number […]