Significant events in American history that touched our family

1620 Mayflower

We are descended from at least six of the original Mayflower passengers. Through the Abbott-Whitfield-Godfrey families, we are descended from Stephen Hopkins and his daughter Constance. Through the Allen-Bosworth families, we are descended from John Howland who married Elizabeth Tilley, and Elizabeth's parents, John and Joan Tilley. There may also be an ancestral connection to William Brewster, but I haven't been able to confirm.

1624-1664 New Amsterdam established, founded by the Dutch West India Company-family stories prove to be exaggerated.

Dutch settlers establish a colony, purchasing Manhattan from the Indigenous people and determining the layout and identity of the region. A wall was built across lower Manhattan under Dutch Governor Stuyvesant, the last of the Dutch Governors before New Amsterdam was taken over by the British. Family lore says that the original Wandell settlers had a farm on the site of what is now Wall Street and helped to build the wall, but the dates are difficult to reconcile. Johannes Wandell didn't arrive in New York until the 1700s. Another family story boasts that when the pilgrims set foot on Plymouth Rock, the Stillwells were there to sell them hot dogs! (a reference to them settling in Gravesend which became Coney Island). This is impossible as Nicholas Stilwell wasn't even there until 1645, 25 years after the pilgrims came.

1628 Augustine Warner arrives in Virginia, brought by Adam Thoroughgood. 

Augustine and his wife Mary Townley were the grandparents of George Washington. They are also ancestors of Queen Elizabeth II, Meriwether Lewis, Robert E. Lee, and George Patton. Augustine was a prominent planter and politician. His grave is at Warner Hall in Gloucester, Virginia. Queen Elizabeth visited the home of her "American Cousins" when she came to America. We are direct descendants of him through his son Augustine II and Mildred Reade (whose father was Governor of Virginia) and their daughter Elizabeth, who married John Lewis. John and Elizabeth's son Colonel Charles Lilburn Lewis sold Chemokins plantation in Hanover County and moved to Goochland. Their offspring were connected to the Randolph and Jefferson families of Virginia. This is not a genealogical link, but a cool coincidence:  Herman Lukhard who married my great aunt Miriam Abbott worked at Chemokins as a teenager - 300 years later!

1636 Providence, Rhode Island founded by Roger Williams

Roger Williams came to America with his new wife Mary Barnard from London, England in 1631. The young clergyman was welcomed to the new colony in Boston by Governor Winthrop. He would not join the congregation at Boston because of their support of the Church of England. As a Separatist he joined the pilgrims at Plymouth. There he befriended the natives and wrote a book about their language. During heated controversary about the King giving away native lands, he fled in exile to the Narragansett country of what later became Rhode Island. He founded the first Baptist Church in America. We have a double descendancy from Roger Williams through his son Daniel and his daughter Mary.

1644 Indian uprising in Virginia; Opecancanough captured.

Nicholas Stillwell fled to Holland from England due to religious persecution and became a soldier for Queen Elizabeth (Queen of Bohemia, The Winter Queen). He married the Queen's lady in waiting, Abigail Hopton in 1630. By 1635, he owned a house and plantation on the "east side of West Creek" (now Felgate's Creek) on the York River in Virginia on the site of the current U. S. Naval Weapons Station. He served in the military in Virginia and aided Governor Claiborne in MD in conflicts with natives. He was instrumental in the defeat of Powhatan Chief Opecancanough in 1644. 

1645 Gravesend charter, Dutch Colony founded by Lady Deborah Moody

Nicholas Stillwell abandoned his plantation and moved to NY closer to the Dutch settlers. He obtained acreage in the Dutch Colony of Gravesend, near the present-day location of Coney Island. 

1659-1663 First and Second Esopas Wars - Indians vs Dutch, New Amsterdam

Nicholas Stillwell, an experienced Indian fighter, served as lieutenant and commander of the expedition again Indians for Governor Stuyvesant. 

1720 Hanover County established, breaking away from New Kent

Robert Allen was the last of the Allens to be born in Hanover before the family began to migrate from to Mecklenburg and Lunenburg Counties in Southside Virginia and to North Carolina. His wife was Elizabeth Young Stokes. Both died in Grandville, NC.

1737 Wall Street developing as a center of trade and commerce.

Johannes Wandell arrived from Holland in 1737. The Wandell family was instrumental in establishing and building New Amsterdam. They became wealthy and well-connected through their shipping business on the Hudson River. Our surnames Wandell, Haight, Stillwell, Hall, Allen, King, and Connable are among the notable names in early New York City. 

1772 Gaspee Affair, RI, Sons of Liberty

Capt. Samuel Godfrey met with the rest the Sons of Liberty at Joseph Sabin's tavern in Providence RI to plan a secret attack on the British ship, the Gaspee, at night. They successfully carried out the attack and set the ship afire. Note: this predated the 1773 Boston Tea Party.

1776 Revolutionary War

1777-78 Continental Army at Valley Forge

Johannes Wandell served as quartermaster under George Washington. According to family lore, he supplied a wagon load of shoes for the soldiers at Valley Forge from his plantation in NY, made by his slaves, from leather that he supplied. Washington personally signed his army discharge papers which are currently held in storage at Washington Headquarters museum in Newburgh NY.

1779 Loyalist Frederick Philipse III arrested for treason and vast land holdings seized. 

Our ancestor, William Haight, was one of many sharecroppers on the estate of Frederick Philipse. When Philipse was exiled back to England, William was able to purchase some of the land. This land is now part of Philipsburg, near Ossining NY. William's hospitality is mentioned in the journal of Deborah Sampson, who disguised herself as a man to fight in the Revolutionary War. 

1781 Jack Jouett’s ride; Jefferson warned. 

1780-1820 Post-War movement west (land)

1803 Louisiana Purchase

1804-1806 Lewis and Clark expedition

1813 War of 1812

1830 Book of Mormon published

1850 American Bible Union is established, breaking away from the American Bible Society and developing a new translation of the Bible. 

1862 Homestead Act

1861-1865 Civil War

1871 Railroad tracks across the Red River; Fargo

1874 Custer’s Expedition to the Black Hills; Gold discovered

1874 Grasshopper/Locust plague

1876 Battle of Little Bighorn

1877 U. S. violates the 1868 Fort Laramie agreement, seizing Lakota and Dakota lands

1883 Railroad connects Danville to Franklin to Norfolk

1885 Iowa State fair, Des Moines.

1888 Railroad extended to Jerusalem from Petersburg

1889 Ghost Dances

1890 Wounded Knee

1896-1916 Sisters Of Mercy establish hospital and nurses training school in Paris, Texas

1899 Railroad extended from Norfolk to Munden Point

1900 Land Rush in Kansas; TB outbreak in Wichita

1908 Old Fort Supply in Woodward, Oklahoma opens as a mental hospital

1912 Saint Joseph orphanage burns down in Wichita Kansas

1916 fire in Paris Texas; Saint Joseph Hospital is spared

1929 Stock Market Crash; Great Depression

1939-45 WWII

FINALLY FOUND THEM! …NOT.

I have just had the most astounding revelation…a major AHA! moment, right here in my bed in the wee hours of the morning! I’ve suddenly, unexpectedly discovered something that has solved one of the most intriguing mysteries of all my years of ancestry research. 

My insomniac self was just now scrolling through some previous posts on my “Teresa’s Family Tree” page on Facebook. I came across this MAP showing the Bryant family farm on Blackwater Road in Virginia Beach. In that particular post I had casually noted my curiosity about the number “11” at the corner of the Bryant property on Blackwater Road. I had even circled it in RED! Oh, Lordy. ELEVEN?!!! REALLY?!! Silly, silly me. Ridiculous, stupid, blind, silly me. What if that is NOT the number “11,” but is actually the markings for the long-sought, elusive GRAVE SITES for my great-great grandparents, the Bryant’s?!! 

Eureka! Bingo! Ding, ding, ding! I’ve been searching for so long and THERE IT WAS RIGHT IN FRONT OF MY FACE. I’ve had this map for years. YEARS! This is BIG news! HUGE! What an exciting discovery! How could I have missed that? Eley and Margaret have finally been FOUND! 

So… what now? Do I notify someone?

DISAPPOINTING UPDATE: And… disappointing to find out that I was wrong. It is the number 11 after all and not the grave markings. However, this has led to a potential resource for finally resolving this question. The Virginia Department of Historic Resources. Their mission is to preserve and protect landmarks and historic spots such as cemeteries and family burial grounds.

Family Artifacts - who will take them when I die?

I have a collection of documents and other artifacts from our family dating back in history to at the least the 1800s. Carpentry and lumberyard tools, Masonic pins, watches, jewelry, books, Homestead papers, and many other vintage items need to be identified and assessed, and most importantly decisions made as to who will take responsibility for them when I am gone. I've thought of creating a photobook of them all, which would be a fairly easy project. But who will take the actual artifacts themselves?

Then there is the awareness that my sister has an equal amount of such memorabilia in her possession. 

I'm getting close to corralling everything. I hope to catalog it all somehow and then educate my sons about the entire collection. Maybe attach a letter of instruction. If my sons don't wish to inherit the items, perhaps my niece and nephews would be interested.

As obsessive as my mother was, there is information she missed sharing with us about some things. She left us a whole bin of random memorabilia with an attached note that said, KEEP FOREVER. It was sad to go through the items in that bin and have no idea what they meant to her. 

This and That: random discoveries that I have yet to process.

 In no particular order:

New information! There was a Catholic orphanage in Wichita, established in the 1880s that burned down in 1912. It was possibly established to handle the number of orphans created by the tuberculosis pandemic.This is likely where my orphan grandmother was raised rather than an orphanage in Paris, Texas, as I have believed up to now. Evidence proves that she did go to boarding school and nurses training in Paris, Texas, but probably as a young adult, not as a child.

A birth announcement in a Kansas newspaper tells of a baby girl born to Mr. and Mrs. A.D. Allen of Wichita in 1911. Did my grandmother have a half sister that she never knew about? Note to self: there was another A. D. Allen in Wichita at that time who owned a shoe store.

Discovered a volume of the complete works of Shakespeare published in 1852 that traveled with my pioneer ancestors to the west in a covered wagon, according to family lore. An inscription says, “H. Wandell, Chicago, 1856.” I have not been able to identify H. Wandell. 

I ordered a large family photo of the Powell family of Henrico. Efforts to match ages and dates have not been entirely successful. Two persons, an old man, and a young man that could be my father’s twin, cannot be identified. My best guess is that they are a brother and nephew of my great great grandfather Jefferson Monroe Powell. Another family photo of a picnic at Afton Mountain has several people that cannot be identified. One older woman, sitting in the middle of the family group could possibly be Jefferson Powell‘s mother, Mary Ellen Stevens Powell. It will take some work to find proof.

Mary Ellen Stevens was married to George James Powell, a POW from the Civil War. His gravestone shows the name George Littleton Powell. Where did the Littleton name come from? Who are George’s parents? 

Burning questions:

The Bryant family used the name Fenton multiple times. Fenton is a common name in other southside Virginia families. Where did that name come from?

Of course, there’s the question of Eley and Margaret Bryant’s graves The graves were still being maintained according to a letter from Charlie Bryant to Bluke Fletcher in 1926, but the property in Blackwater was no longer owned by the family.

Elizabeth Judd… When did she die and where is she buried? Was she the acclaimed doctor from family lore? See her daughter Marie Louise Powell’s obituary.

Joining a genealogy group

A post showed up on my Facebook feed a few weeks ago promoting a genealogy event in my area hosted by a local genealogy group that I didn't even know existed. They appear to be a very organized and enthusiastic group. I attended the event online and it was so helpful. It was about how to organize and preserve ancestry records and materials for posterity. It was exactly the boost I needed to move forward with my research, as I had become paralyzed by the enormous amount of material I've gathered in my years of research.

I sent in my dues and registration and received so much information about resources available through the group. I'm excited to begin exploring. They requested a brief bio of me as a new member, and a description of my research goals for their quarterly newsletter. This may be a way to get further help with finally locating the graves of my great great grandparents.

So here goes:

Thank you for welcoming me to your group and for introducing me to so many new local ancestry resources. I'm excited to meet everyone, and hopeful that this will give me the boost I need to move forward in my research. I have questions springing from my local research that I'm hoping to resolve. If you enjoy solving mysteries, please read my story!

I grew up in the Kempsville area of Virginia Beach and have lived locally all of my life. My parents and grandparents lived in the area as well as many 1st cousins on both sides of my family. I was interested in our family tree when I was as young as twelve years old, and I created a beautiful family tree poster which I still have. My mother was a member of DAR and wrote many letters back and forth to distant cousins in her lifetime, but it wasn't until around 2012 - after my four sons were grown and on their own - that I started working on my own research. 

Prior to my research, I didn't think we had deep roots in Tidewater Virginia. We were aware of distant cousins here in Virginia Beach, but we were told that a long ago "rift" caused an estrangement in the family that affected subsequent generations. My father knew about The Rift, as we called it, but didn't know what caused it; neither did my grandmother. Extended family in Richmond also knew about it. As a child, I always wondered why we would travel to Richmond to visit family but never visited relatives in our own hometown. My sister and I, as adults, ultimately developed a close relationship with these hometown cousins. They were as mystified about The Rift as we were.

I finally had a breakthrough about three years ago. Since 2012, I have been writing a blog about my research journey (www.descenddance.blogspot.com). Through my blog, I connected with a distant cousin in New Jersey, Matt, who happened to be doing his professional genealogy certification project on our mutual g-g-grandmother, Margaret Bryant. He was using my blog as a resource for his project. We met in person in 2022 and began working together on our research. 

My newfound cousin Matt came across a thick file in the Library of Virginia's archives containing documents about a lawsuit brought against Margaret by her own daughter, Addie. He also found newspaper articles about Margaret's death from "apoplexy" (stroke) in 1908 which occurred on a train trip from Richmond to Norfolk, as the 70-year-old widow was on her way to Norfolk to respond to the lawsuit. It is reasonable to conclude that her stroke was indirectly caused by the court case. This would certainly be a plausible explanation for the major rift in the family between Addie and her three living siblings! Mystery solved! My formerly estranged Virginia Beach cousins are descended from Addie; I am descended from Addie's twin sister, Ida.

Of course, answers only lead to more questions. My great-great grandparents, Eley and Margaret Bryant, were from families who had lived in Southampton County since colonial times. For economic reasons, they moved to Princess Anne County around 1885 to what they called "Land of Promise Plantation" (not associated with the present farm by that name). A visit to the courthouse in Virginia Beach helped us to identify the location of this property - 40 acres at the intersection of Blackwater and Head of River Roads. Shortly afterward, their daughter Addie and her husband purchased land on both sides of Pungo Ferry Road where it intersected with Blackwater.  

When Eley unexpectedly died in 1895, Margaret did not report his death. If she had, she would have been legally required to sell the farm and divide the proceeds with her children. Instead, she moved to Richmond to live with her daughter Ida (Addie's twin) and continued to take in rent from the farm and income from the sale of lumber from the property. In 1908, Addie sued her mother Margaret for her rightful portion of her father's inheritance; after Margaret's death in 1908, the farm was sold. Addie received her share, 1/4 of $117.31. 

My first quest: The newspaper articles mention that Margaret's body was sent for burial to "Hickory Ground," a train station at the Norfolk County end of Head of River Road. My burning question is, where are Eley and Margaret buried? A 1926 letter from her son Charles indicates that their graves are together and were being cared for by family. Since Margaret buried Eley secretly, I am assuming they were both buried on the farm at Blackwater and Head of River Roads. However, I knocked on the door of the current owner of the property, and she stated that she had walked every inch of that land and there are no graves. I am thinking they have to be there somewhere under the soybeans. My next move will be to go to the courthouse to find the 1909 deed of sale and see if there are graves marked on the plat. 

My second quest: I discovered that my great grandmother, Ida Rene Bryant (Addie's twin) was married at least five times (big surprise, we only knew of two). On her marriage record to William Butler in 1895, she is named as "Ida Rena Williams, widow." I have been trying to find out the identity of her deceased husband by the last name Williams. This is important because Ida's son Earl Butler was born in 1892, but she didn't marry William Butler until 1895. Who was Earl's biological father, Williams or Butler?  The Bryant farm in Blackwater was close to the Williams family... was someone in that family married to Ida? I have not been able to find any record of that marriage or death. 

This is just one branch of my family tree, but it is the only branch with history in Virginia Beach. I hope someone reading this will have a brilliant idea for where to find the answers to my questions!

Putting it all together

My bucket list includes writing a book. In my mind, this could not be accomplished until my life was in order and stability achieved. Finally, in retirement, in my forever home, with all crises managed, I am able to start working on compiling our family stories into a book.

It's hard! Just determining the organization of information is a huge challenge. A chronological account is way too complex and daunting. Stand-alone stories seem disjointed and lack meaningful relationship connections. I've pondered this for a very long time - years in fact. And one day, it just came to me. I will organize all of our stories and information by categories, with interesting chapter titles and catchy opening lines. 

Here are the categories I've settled on so far. I will keep adding to this list as this concept congeals in my mind. It's a sorting game! I'll try to fit all of our best stories into the chapters where they fit best. It's amazing how my research seems to fit neatly into categories like this:

Cemeteries (final resting places): surprisingly, the source some of the most exciting revelations.

Immigrants: who were the first in our lines of descent to come to America?

Notables and other colorful characters: the well-known folks and standouts in our ancestry.

Emotional Moments: the research findings that brought tears and excitement over the past decade.

Slices of Time: capturing the big picture across all branches of our family tree at certain historically important times.

Family Connections to Virginia Beach History

My parents moved to Princess Anne County from Norfolk in 1959. In my early childhood, our address was Princess Anne County. Until 1963, the town of Virginia Beach existed only on a strip of land at the oceanfront - a quaint cottage village compared to today's bustling commercial tourist destination. When we went to the "beach" it was a pilgrimage from our home in "the county." We parked in the sand and ate picnic lunch from the trunk of our car. 

My father's parents resided in Norfolk, leaving their families and their home in Richmond during the Depression. My mother's parents had moved to Norfolk from "out west" in the 1940s. Though both sets of grandparents lived nearby, I always knew our family was not originally from the area. 

I was lucky to grow up in the "town" of Kempsville. As an early settler in one of the first suburban housing developments in Kempsville, there was a sense of belonging that still holds strong. Back then, there were still plenty of farms and undeveloped land all around us and miles of desolate country roads. We ate fresh produce from farm markets, much of which we picked ourselves. We had milk delivered from the nearby dairy farm. I share common memories with hundreds of neighbors and classmates who all stay connected to Kempsville in one way or another.

Dr. Fletcher was the only dentist in the area. His office in Kempsville was a small brick building behind the fire station in Kempsville. Dad said he was our cousin. Curious! I have written before about "the rift" between my great grandmother and her twin sister so I won't repeat, but I learned eventually about my distant relatives in Virginia Beach. It was surprising and satisfying to learn that my 2X great grandparents were once farmers in the Blackwater area of Virginia Beach. My dad never even knew about this connection. My grandmother never mentioned it.

I am completely invested in the history of Virginia Beach, having worked for the city all of my life. 

Then, I happened to marry into an old "county" family. I heard all the familiar names from the old Princess Anne County days... Waterfield, Flanagan, Whitehurst, Malbon, Mansfield, Henley, Cox, Kellam... these names are still active in Virginia Beach social and cultural life. In my quest to find the graves of my great great grandparents, I became immersed in the history of the area. I discovered that the old names from the county are intertwined with my own family. 

For years I've been drawn to the story of Grace Sherwood, the Witch of Pungo - Virginia Beach's cultural icon. She has become especially significant to me for several reasons:

• My uncle's parents lived at the very end of Witchduck Road at the presumed spot where Grace was ducked. For many years, our family celebrated Easter on the bank of the Lynnhaven River at that place. 
• Also, my father's parents lived in a house on Witchduck Road when I was 4 or 5 years old.
• Grace Sherwood's house and farm were on Muddy Creek Road in Pungo where my parents once considered purchasing land.
• As a teenager, I visited the home of Louisa Venable Kyle who wrote the children's book, The Witch of Pungo. 
• My ex-spouse's uncle drew the portrait on which the Grace Sherwood statue was based...the likeness was actually that of a family member. The statue stands at the corner of Witchduck Road and Independence Blvd. 

I just finished reading the newest, definitive work about The Witch of Pungo, by Scott Moore. So interesting to read about all the names and places that have been familiar to me all of my life.