Lines crossed

The relatives that I am meeting through Ancestry are helping to fill in some of the gaps in my knowledge.  I am communicating with two relatives, both named Matt, who did not know each other except through Ancestry.  One of these newfound relatives is the great grandson of Rebecca Abbott and William Bryant, my great grand aunt and uncle.  The other is a grandson of Rawley Martin Butler, my grand uncle. Common denominator = Ida Rene.

I had always heard that our family line were crossed between Bryants and Abbotts but could not find it in my research.  According to one of these newfound relatives, George Abbott's half sister Rebecca was married to Ida Rene Bryant's brother William.   I may have known this at one time but would never have been able to dredge it up on my own.  Amazing how discovering such a precious nugget of information can make my day.

William Thomas Bryant, brother of Ida Rene and son of Eley and Margaret Bryant, was born in March 1867 in Southhampton County, Va.

Rebecca Godfrey Curtis Abbott, half sister of George Wright Abbott and daughter of Whitfield Barrie and Gertrude Clayton Abbott, b. 28 Jul 1868 in Fort Lee, NJ.

William married Rebecca in 1900. They met when they were coworkers in a hat factory in Fort Lee, NJ. William had probably taken the train to NJ that had recently been extended to Norfolk, VA. William returned to his parents farm in Princess Anne County, but Rebecca (called Bonnie), finding herself pregnant, took the train to Norfolk where William met the train and they were married immediately in the nearest church parsonage. They lived with Eley and Margaret Bryant for about a year before returning to NJ. The baby died soon after childbirth. 

George Abbott married Ida Rene Butler (nee Bryant) in 1904 in Norfolk, VA. 

After Eley Bryant died, Margaret Bryant went to live in Richmond with Ida Rene and George Abbott. She died on a train trip back to Blackwater to visit Addie in 1908.