Richmond: Ground Zero

My father's family has deep roots in the Richmond area of Virginia.

The Powells were living in Henrico County since before the Civil War. George James Powell and Mary Ellen Stevens married and lived in the Brookland area of Richmond, east of "Brook Turnpike." In February 1870, their property was listed for sale by auction in the Richmond Dispatch. After George passed away around 1870, Mary Ellen continued to live in Brookland (per 1870 and 1880 U.S. Census) with her young sons, including Jefferson Monroe Powell.

Marie Louise Judd married Jefferson Monroe Powell after moving to Richmond from New York City. They lived and raised their family in the Dumbarton area of Richmond. Marie Louise was active in the Bethlehem Baptist Church on Penick Road; there is a monument to her near the front of the church.

John Adam Zaun Sr. married Elizabeth Wellner and settled in the Dumbarton area of Richmond soon after arriving from Germany via Philadelphia. They had a daughter, Louise, and three sons, John Adam, Charlie Wellner, and Henry Phillip.

John Adam Zaun Jr. married Georgia Powell and lived for many years on Penick Road in Dumbarton. Their home was on the SE corner of Fernwood and Penick (left side of map below). Bethlehem Baptist Church is in the top right corner of the map; most of the family is buried in this church cemetery or in Forest Lawn Cemetery in Richmond. Three of their children Pauline, Jimmy, and Agnes raised their families in Richmond. (William moved to NJ, and Ernest to Norfolk).

George Abbott and Ida Rene Bryant, from New Jersey and Southhampton County, Virginia respectively, joining their lives in Richmond. Their daughter Jacqueline Delmar Abbott grew up in Dumbarton near Ernest Earl Zaun. They lived near their families in Dumbarton after they married until the Depression forced them to move to Norfolk to find work. Their daughter Miriam Edith Abbott married Herman Lukhard and lived in or near Richmond all her life, as did their youngest daughter, Audrey.

The next two generations of my family made regular pilgrimages from Norfolk/Va. Beach to Richmond to visit family, and some of us still do! 

Note: my mother's maternal family also originated in Virginia. Research is ongoing, but the Allen family also owned property near Richmond as far back as the early 1700's, ironically intertwining in later years with my father's family. One of my mother's paternal ancestors owned a plantation near Yorktown at the time of Jamestown, around 1634.