Breakthrough with the Allen family!

If you searched back through this blog you would find several posts lamenting the gaps in my research regarding the Allen family. Finally, finally, I found what I was looking for!

Buried deep in a publication by the DAR was a detailed genealogy of my great grandfather Augustus Allen. It confirmed his lineage back to the Allens of Mecklenburg Va. It also revealed that his middle name was Dozier and gave the date of his death. There was a lot more information that fleshed out his family tree. The link to the Dozier family adds an interesting twist to our family story...I knew we were connected to the Doziers of Lunenburg County by DNA, but until now, could not confirm the lineage. The Doziers were French Huguenots who became respected leaders in early Virginia history.

This is what I found at first...a mere snippet:

It took some digging in the DAR archives to find the actual article... so very exciting!

Here is the lineage denoted in the article... the DAR couldn't be wrong, could they?

Augustus Dozier Allen, b. 1859, Illinois, son of...
Robert Scott Allen, b. 1797, Lunenburg, Virginia, son of...
John Watson Allen, b. 1769, Lunenburg, Virginia, son of...
Turner Allen, b. 1751, Mecklenburg, Virginia, son of...
William Allen, b. 1725...

William's parentage gets a little muddy but there is evidence that his father was from New Kent County. I think a visit to the Library of Virginia is in order.

Full text of the article from DAR Magazine, May 1988, pp. 352-353:

http://services.dar.org/members/magazine_archive/download/?file=DARMAG_1988_05.pdf

Mayflower

Here is the line of descendancy from our Mayflower ancestors, John Howland and Elizabeth Tilley:

1. John Howland m. Elizabeth Tilley (1624, Plymouth)

2. Hannah Howland m. Jonathan Bosworth (1661)

3. Ichabod Bosworth m. Mary ________ (after 1710)

4. Benjamin Bosworth m. Anne Collins 

5. Benajah Bosworth m. _____________.

6. Joseph Bosworth m. Lucinda Hopkins

7. Orlando Marcus Bosworth m. Eliza Ann Applegate

8. Eva L Bosworth m. Augustus D. Allen (1883)

9. Ethelyn (Teresa) Allen m. Horace C. Crofford (1926)

10. Virginia Crofford m. John Zaun (1950)

11. Teresa Zaun m. Michael Austin (1976)

I would like to give a brief summary of each of these lives and follow their migration through the generations across our country. 

John Howland was born in Fenstanton, Huntingdonshire, England to Henry and Margaret (____) Howland. Elizabeth Tilley was born to John and Joan (Hurst) Tilley and baptized in 1607 at Henlow, Bedfordshore, England. Elizabeth sailed to Plymouth on the Mayflower with her parents when she was only 12 years old. Gov. Bradford wrote an account of the voyage, telling about John being thrown into the sea during a storm. John managed to hold onto a line and was pulled back on board with a boat hook. John Howland and Elizabeth Tilley married on March 25, 1624 at Plymouth. Their children were: John, Jabez, Isaac, Desiree, Hope, Elizabeth, Lydia, Hannah, and Ruth. John died at Plymouth in 1672/3. Elizabeth died at Swansea in 1687 at 79 years old.

Hannah Howland, born in Plymouth, married Jonathan Bosworth in 1661. They had 8 children: Mercy, Hannah, Elizabeth, Jonathan (died at age 10), David, John, Jabez, Ichabod, and Jonathan.

Ichabod Bosworth was born in March 18, 1676 at Swansea. He first married Sarah Stacey and had six children, the first three children dying in infancy. After Sarah died in 1710, apparently in childbirth, Ichabod married Mary ______ and had four more children: Sarah, Jonathan, Benjamin, and Joseph. Ichabod was a blacksmith in Rehoboth for a time, near the border of Bellingham, Mass and Cumberland, R.I.*

Benjamin Bosworth (Bozworth) was born in either Mendon or Bellingham ca. 1716.  He married Anne Collins at Providence, R.I. on October 23, 1743. Benjamin owned land in Scituate, R.I. He died on November 16, 1790. His son, Benajah, was his eldest and administrator of his estate.

Benajah Bosworth was born ca. 1744. He enlisted in the army in 1775 and joined Crary's troop from Rhode Island. His wife is unknown (perhaps Bucklin), but the 1800 census shows a wife, 5 sons, and 6 daughters.

Joseph Bucklin Bosworth was born in Providence, R.I. in 1790, the 3rd or 4th son of Benajah. He is by far the most interesting character in this family line! He served as a musician in the War of 1812. He migrated to Ohio and became a highly respected minister in the Mormon church, directly under Joseph Smith (see Joseph Smith's diaries). He married Lucinda Hopkins on May 17, 1815; they had eleven children: William, Elvira, Albert, Miles, Giles, Carlos, Orlando Marcus, Omer, Benejah, Malon, and Joseph Bucklin, Jr. Joseph and Lucinda lived most of their lives in Copley, Ohio. Joseph died in 1850 of cholera while visiting his son Miles in Peoria, Illinois.

Orlando Marcus Bosworth was born April 19, 1825 in Summit, Ohio. He joined the military and fought in the Mexican War. He married Eliza Ann Applegate on February 3, 1853 in Schuyler, Illinois. They had three children: James (died at infancy), Richard, and Eva. Orlando and Eliza resided in Littleton, Illinois. Orlando died on November 6, 1884.

Eva L. Bosworth (middle name Louise according to family lore) was born in June 1867 in Littleton, Illinois. Her story is perhaps the saddest. She married Augustus D. Allen of nearby Hancock County, Illinois on November 25, 1883 at age 16 (Augustus was 24). They moved across the river to Keokuk, Iowa, then to Wichita, Kansas in 1900. Their only child, Ethelyn was born in July 1893. Eva died in a mental institution at Old Fort Supply in Woodward, Oklahoma in 1911.

Ethelyn Allen (named later changed to Teresa Marie) was born in July 1893, location unknown. Family lore places her birth in Chicago, but that is unlikely. According to the timeline, she could have been born in Hancock County or Schuyler County, Illinois, or possibly in Keokuk, Iowa. Ethelyn lived with her parents in Wichita until around 1903. Sometime after that she was sent to an orphanage or boarding school in Paris, Texas. Her mother was living alone in Wichita in 1904; her father remarried in 1905. There is no further documentation of "Ethelyn" after 1903. The first mention of "Teresa" is in 1916 in Sherman, Texas, where she worked as a student nurse. She graduated from nursing school in 1919 at which time she attempted unsuccessfully to locate her father. She worked as a nurse in Oklahoma City according to the census in 1920. She moved to Chicago, Illinois, where she married Horace Calvin Crofford in 1926. They resided in Waukegan, Illinois where Teresa worked as a private secretary/assistant to an Ear, Nose, and Throat doctor. There they had two children, Horace Calvin, Jr. and Virginia Maude. The family moved to Virginia in search of employment in the early 1940's. Teresa died in 1966 of breast cancer. She never knew anything about her family history or what became of her parents. She never even knew her birthday or birth year.

Virginia Maude Crofford was born on March 3, 1932 in Waukegan, Illinois. She attended school there until 5th grade when her family moved to Norfolk, Virginia. She married John Beverly Zaun in 1952; they had two children, Teresa Jacqueline and Holly Diana.

From England to Plymouth to Ohio to Illinois and Iowa, to Kansas, then Oklahoma and Texas; back to Illinois and then to Virginia... almost full circle.

*Mayflower Families Through Five Generations, v. 23, pt. 1

Brick Walls

Research problems in genealogy are known as "brick walls." I have several brick walls, but the one that gets my goat the most is the Allen family. You may have gathered this from previous posts.

A new approach
I need to find valid and verifiable documentation of the parentage of Robert Scott Allen. I looked at my DNA matches and tried to find a descendant of Robert. Nada.

So I went into the Ancestry search feature and typed in the names of Robert Allen's children, hoping to find another family tree that had living descendants. The most fruitful search seemed to be Sarah Hilen Allen, who married George Wilson (for some reason there are many Wilsons among my DNA matches). I contacted someone who had these people in their tree.

She wrote back that Sarah was her 3rd great aunt (Sarah would be my 2nd great aunt), but that our DNA does not match. I wrote back with more questions, praying that her information does not add mortar to the brick wall.

Allens and Bacons of Kentucky and Virginia

A professional genealogist suggested that I trace my Allen ancestry back to Virginia by building on the Allen family known to have lived in Kentucky. I have exhausted all research on the Allens of Kentucky without finding the one I am looking for... that is, John Watson Allen.

Here is what I know:

1. Augustus D. Allen, born in 1859 in Hancock County, Illinois, is verified as my maternal great grandfather. 
2. Augustus' father is Robert Scott Allen, born 1797 in Virginia, also a verified fact.
3. In brief bio in The History of Hancock County, Rose Nash Spitler claims that "casual research" into her family history revealed that John Watson Allen was the father of Robert Scott Allen, her grandfather. Rose did not know much about her birth family - she was a foster child from a young age. In this biography, Rose claims that according to family lore, John Watson Allen was a childhood playmate to the famous Revolutionary War hero, Ethan Allen. Unverified.
4. Robert Scott Allen lived in Covington, Kenton County, Kentucky, before moving to Illinois. He married a Elizabeth Highlands from Ohio, just across the river. Kenton County is adjacent to Mason County.
5. There is a John Allen, Baptist clergyman, who lived in Mason County in 1850. He lived with a family named Bacon. He is the right age to be Robert Scott Allen's father.

One thing I have learned is that "family lore" is not always reliable. However, even if the stories are obviously wrong, the details are often merely a slight distortion of the facts. In other words, the truth is there, you just have to know how to interpret it.  I have come to the conclusion that the Revolutionary War hero who played with John Watson Allen as a child was actually probably John "Jack" Jouett, who also came from Virginia and lived near the Allens in Kentucky toward the end of his life.  

Today I have had a break-through of sorts. I still have not connected all the dots, but have made some promising discoveries. I started out by writing out a research question. (The quality of one's research is determined by how well the question is written): 

"Is John (Watson) Allen, the father of Robert Scott Allen, the same person as John Allen, Baptist clergyman, who lived in Mason County, KY in 1850 with the Bacon family?"

 In the 1850 U. S. Census for Mason County, KY, John Allen, age 81, lived with Elizabeth Collier Bacon, age 61 (widow of John Glenn Bacon), and two of her children:  John Glenn Bacon, Jr. age 23, and Tyree Lydall Bacon, age 19. Also living with them was a man named George Heft, who appears to be a farmhand. This was a puzzling discovery - there seemed to be no familial relationship between John Allen and the Bacons or to the Colliers. But the name "Lydall Bacon" hit me like a ton of bricks! Definitely an old Virginia family name.

The first step of my research strateby was to trace John Glenn Bacon back to Virginia and see if I could find an Allen connection. Bingo! Here is a partial tree showing the relationships (Roman numerals represent the generations):

I.  John Bacon (1675-1742) m. Susanna Parke (1688-1778) of New Kent County, Virginia
                                         
II. Lydall Bacon (1717-1775) m. Mary Ann Allen (1726-1816) of New Kent County
                                                                             
III. Lucy Bacon (1744-1826) m. Charles Allen (1744-1775) of Lunenburg County, Va.
      Sarah Bacon (1753-1796)  m. Col. John Glenn (1752-1799) of Charlotte County, Va.        
      Langston Bacon (1746-1831) m. Mary Anne Glenn (1749-1823) of Charlotte/Lunenburg

IV. John Glenn Bacon (1782-1846), son of Langston Bacon, m. Elizabeth Collier (1789-1870) of Charlotte County, Virginia; moved to Mason County, Kentucky before 1840.
   
John Allen, clergyman, lived with this last Generation IV family in Mason County, Kentucky. He would be of the same generation as III. above. I checked, and Charles Allen did not have a brother named John, so there must be another Allen-Bacon connection somewhere.

The coolest thing about these discoveries is the fact that I recently visited St. Peters Church in New Kent County and had taken a photo of a memorial gravestone for the Bacon family.

Generation I:  John Bacon and wife Susanna Parke.
This stone reveals two more generations before them.
George Bacon was the original immigrant who came over from London.

The next step in my research strategy was to find a connection to John "Jack" Jouett. Since the Glenn family had multiple connections with the Bacons, I started there. Here is the partial tree showing what I found:

I. James Glenn, Jr (1664-1747) m. Mourning Winn (1668-1750)

II. Tyree Glenn (1704-1763) (son of James) m. Mary Roe
     Mourning Glenn (1702-1755) (dau. of James) m. Col. Robert Harris

III. Mary Anne Glenn (1748-1823) (dau. of Tyree) m. Langston Bacon (1746-1831)
      Mourning Glenn Harris (1732-1805) (dau. of Robert) m. John "Jack" Jouett (1730-1802)

IV. John Glenn Bacon (1782-1846) (son of Langston) m. Elizabeth Collier
      Mary Anne Mourning Jouett (1765-1833) (dau. of Jack) m. Thomas Allin (another Allen connection!)

V. "Tyree Lydall Bacon", born 1830 in Mason County, KY, was a son of John Glenn Bacon and Elizabeth Collier, his name connecting both families' histories back to Virginia.
                                                                                             
Again, John Allen would be of Generation III, the same as Jack Jouett. The "family lore" that Rose related may hold some truth! Now if I can just find out how John Allen is related to all these folks, especially to Elizabeth Collier Bacon. I also need to verify that this John Allen is actually my 3X great grandfather.

Detective work: recent discoveries

My family tree is pretty solidly developed through my 2 X great grandparents on every branch, which is amazing! But on a couple of lines, I have hit a wall. I  started taking genealogy classes at the public library hoping to break through some of those walls. My new-found skills have actually turned up some enlightening nuggets of information.

While in class last week, I was browsing and half-listening while the instructor modeled a research example using census documents. The instructor explained an unusual feature of the 1930 census where the "age at first marriage" was given. I was in the back of the class, browsing my own family in the census when I came across an item for my great grandmother Ida Rene Bryant... in the 1930 Census, her "age at first marriage" was 16! I had only just recently discovered the shocking fact that she had been married at 19 to Lewellen Eley. Now I find that she had another marriage before that! That makes a possible fifth marriage for her. Her descendants only knew about two marriages.

Ida Rene Bryant's marriages
age 16 - ?? ??
age 19 - Lewellen Eley (divorced or annulled)
age ?? - ?? Williams (widowed)
age 26 - William Butler (widowed)
age 37 - George Abbott (my great grandfather)

Other dead ends that are driving me crazy:

Robert Scott Allen
Another brick wall is in the Allen line, my mother's maternal side. I have not been able to get past my 2 X great grandfather Robert Scott Allen. I believe his parents are John Allen and Rebecca Scott, but can't prove it with unimpeachable sources. I did find new information about Rebecca Scott, though, in her father's will.  Her parents are not who I thought they were. It was a case where two pairs of siblings married the same family. Her father and mother died when she was young and there is not much documentation about them.

John Dillingham and Calvin V. Crofford
The problem of John Dillingham's parentage is the subject of debate and speculation among his descendants on both sides of the ocean. My family lore says he was born in Wales and came to Indiana from Connecticut. Some say he was born in Providence, RI. His daughter Anna married Calvin Crofford (Crawford), but the Crawfords are a dead end as well.

George James Powell
My Nannie's grandfather. I believe he died after the war in 1865. I cannot find any documentation of his parents, though there are many connections with other Powells having the same unusual names, such as "Littleton" and "Bell". The Powells have a long history in Henrico and Accomack Counties.

These aren't the only brick walls in my research, but are the ones I am most anxious to resolve.

Day trip to Gloucester and New Kent County

Warner Hall and St. Peters Church were the #1 destinations on my ancestry bucket list. My friend Laura also wanted to visit Gloucester and discover the places where her ancestors lived and were buried. So we decided to combine our visits and take a day trip together. It was a great day! The weather was beautiful, and though we only had time to hit the highlights of such a broad tour in one day, we accomplished a lot toward our research.

Laura's ancestors go deep into Virginia history. Her father's family, the Seawells, are a well-known name in Gloucester.  We found Seawell's Ordinary (or Seawell's Publick House), Seawell Ave, and the town of Ordinary. Her ancestors certainly mingled socially with my ancestors, the Warners, of nearby Warner Hall.  George Washington stopped by Seawell's Ordinary when he visited his grandparents at Warner Hall.

Seawells Ordinary - it is said that
Geo. Washington and Lafayette planned
their attack on Cornwall here in the tavern room.

Next stop was Abingdon Church Cemetery, where we met a delightful lady who helped us with tips and directions. This lady was talking with a tall, skinny fellow named Jimmy (who looked just like my friend Jimmy Harris) who told us proudly that he was a two-time pancreas cancer survivor. Such characters added so much color to our travels!

Laura's direct ancestors were buried in the beautiful and very old Abingdon Church Cemetery.

Abingdon Church

A singe butterfly appeared to guide us
everywhere we went.

I had also read that some of Laura's ancestors were buried at Ware Church Cemetery just down the road. The church was beautiful and old, just like Abingdon Church, but the Cemetery was much larger. We split up and walked around the cemetery looking at names until we lost sight of each other. I finally got in the car and drove around looking at names on gravestones from the car window. After about 45 minutes or so, we were about to give up. We decided to go into the rectory to ask for assistance. The young assistant rector was at work at his desk, but he stopped what he was doing to help us. He copy/pasted a list of the Seawells, and then add a map of the churchyard showing where they were buried. Then he joined us in our search!

At Ware Church Cemetery

Off to Warner Hall... miles of country road into the middle of nowhere. We finally came upon the white rail fence and entrance gate. It was just breathtaking and so grand! No one else in sight.

Entering the drive up to Warner Hall.

The Inn at Warner Hall.

A girl at the desk said that we could look around wherever we wanted. We explored some of the rooms inside the house, and then went out through the sunroom to the graveyard. There in this quiet, peaceful place were the graves of George Washington's grandparents and my ancestors - Augustine and Mildred Reade Warner, and John and Elizabeth Warner Lewis.

Standing at the foot of Augustine Warner's grave. He is George Washington's grandfather,
and also the ancestor of Queen Elizabeth of England. She calls Warner Hall her American home.

Next stop St. Peter's Church in New Kent County.  I was hoping to find graves of my Allen and Lewis ancestors, but had made no appointment for an official tour. At the very least, I wanted to see the church in a new light, since finding out that my ancestors are on the church registry there.  We did not find Allen or Lewis graves, but did find a memorial to the Bacon and Lydal families who were later connected with the Allens.

I am standing in front of St. Peters Church, New Kent County

"This stone witnesseth to the lives of good upright people identified with St. Peter's Parish for more than 125 years from its foundation in 1684. Col. George Lydal died 1705, Capt. Edmund Bacon and his wife Ann Lydal, John Bacon and his wife Susanna Parke, Samuel Bugg and his wife Sarah Bacon, Sherwood Bugg born July 8, 1720."

St. Peters Church is still an active place of worship; however, the feeling of history is rich. It is said that George and Martha Washington were married here.

St Peters was used as a camp during the Civil War.

We ended our journey by visiting with actual LIVING relatives! My Old Church cousins were mostly all home, along with dogs and horse and goat.

Cousin Barry and Bully

Sooooo close!

Our family tree is completed back to my 2nd great grandparents. They are ALL accounted for and verified up to that point, and I am content with that.

However, I have become obsessed with tracing my grandmother 's Allen ancestry back to Virginia. I am learning a lot about Virginia history but I am drowning in Allens! I don't know how I will ever sort it all out.

An interesting note to my niece, Leah... I am very close to connecting our family to both Daniel Boone and Jack Jouett.  Our family definitely ran in the same circles with those two men, in Virginia and in Kentucky.

Jack Jouett's daughter married an Allen, possibly one of our distant cousins.

Backtracking

I have admitted temporary defeat.  After intense focus for months, I have not been able to definitively verify our connection with the Allens of New Kent.  The evidence is great, but it is all "soft" evidence... no hard proof.  So, this morning I removed from my family tree all of the Allens from Turner Allen on back.  Heartbreaking but necessary for the sanctity of the research process. When I find the proof I'm looking for, I will add them back.

There are more Allen families in Virginia than I first thought:

1. Allens came from Scotland to Augusta County, Virginia.  
2. Allens came from England to New Kent County.
3. Allens came from England to York County and Surry.  
4. Allens came from Ireland to Fredricksburg, Virginia. 
5. Allens migrated from New England to the mountains of Virginia.  

Then the Allen families of Virginia all dispersed to North Carolina, South Carolina, Georgia, Texas, Kentucky, Tennessee, Ohio, and Missouri.  It is a grand mess to sort out.

Hancock County

Many researchers are out there spreading all kinds of misinformation. Anyone can go on the genealogy website and start a tree.  People grab information from other people's trees, but don't do their own fact-checking.  As a result, false information spreads like an epidemic.

Even historical books and documents contain false information. Much of what is in history books comes from family lore.  My great grandmother, Ada, who was a teacher and avid historian, wrote stories about our family history and about her experiences as an early pioneer in the midwest. Some "facts" were obtained from family lore and are just plain not true.  However, her stories are close enough to reality that it is easy to see how they could have become distorted. For instance, she said that our ancestors were first settlers at Lands End... in truth, they were the first at Graves End (Gravesend).  Similar name, easy to get confused over time.

A History of Hancock County tells of a Miss Rose Spitler who was orphaned at a tender age.  She was the daughter of Mardicia Allen Nash, my 2nd great aunt, and John Nash (of the Nashville family).  Rose became a foster child of Dr. Adam and Mrs. Carrie Spitler and assumed their last name. Rose learned through investigation that Robert Scott Allen (my 2nd great grandfather) was Mardicia's father, and John Watson Allen was her grandfather. According to her family lore, John Watson Allen was a close childhood friend of his famous New England relative, Ethan Allen*. This make a nice story, but I have found no connection between the Virginia Allens and the New England Allens.

Yet.


*I did find a connection between the Allens of Kentucky and Jack Jouett of Revolutionary War fame.  Perhaps this was the origination of the story?

DNA results

Mom's DNA test results came in yesterday.  It was like Christmas!  I can't wait to dive into her DNA matches and Shared Ancestors.

At first look, there is perplexing information in her test results.  Her ethnicity estimate was much different from mine. Hers came in at 14% Italian or Greek... I had none of that ethnicity in my own results.  I had Iberian Peninsula (Spain) in my results, but she showed none at all.  She has ancestors in Eastern Europe; I have ancestors in Western Europe.  I have no Scandinavian ancestry in my DNA. Why is our ethnicity so different?  Our DNA results prove that we have a parent/child relationship.

I spent some time last night looking through her DNA matches to see what common ancestors popped up.  While examining the first 3 pages of 7 pages of matches, I found many Allen ancestors from Virginia, but there were also many Allen ancestors from New England (NY, CT, MA).  There were many Hickox matches (no surprise there). I will have to revise my findings after I review all 7 pages of DNA matches.

I may have to open my mind to going in a different direction with my research.  I thought I had it all neatly wrapped up with proper documentation, but I realize there may be some false assumptions.  Stay tuned.

Allens of Virginia

Still obsessed with the Allen family and trying to confirm some tentative conclusions about my grandmother's ancestry.  I am writing this without my notes in front of me but can share the gist of the story.

It seems that there are two distinct lines of Allens that settled in early Virginia, maybe three. There are the Allens that came over from England in the 1600's and settled in New Kent County.  There are Allens that settled in York County in the 1600's. Then there are the Allens that came over from Scotland and moved into western Virginia from the north.

These families converged in Southwest Virginia by the 1800's. Descendants migrated to Kentucky and West Virginia. These families used many of the same first names (i.e. Sarah, Rebecca, Robert, John), and they intermarried with some of the same families (i.e. Scott, Crawford, Watson).

No wonder I am having trouble figuring out who is whom!

UPDATE:  I contacted someone through the Lunenburg Historical Society Facebook page. They referred me to two genealogists who have done a lot of research about the Allens. We have been corresponding for a couple of days now, and I am excited to have such enthusiastic help with my research!  It turns out that I really need to get a yDNA test done on a male member of the Allen line to prove my connection to the New Kent Allens.  We have no direct Allen descendants - I'd have to find a proven descendant of one of Augustus Allen's siblings.

Allen Migration Westward and Back Again

Sometimes, in order to understand how and why things happened the way they did, you have to study a map.  You also need to have handy a timeline of evolutionary changes of the United States. The United States changed boundaries so many times, it gets confusing to identify locations.  For instance, Connecticut at one time encompassed what is now the state of Ohio. Lunenburg County once included almost all of southside Virginia but is now only a tiny portion of its original area.  By looking at a map, I wanted to make sense of the way my maternal grandmother's family moved across the United States and back.

The Allen family's movements seemed random and scattered until I mapped them. Family members could reside in three different states, yet on the map it can easily be seen that some of the locations are actually adjacent. The family's journey started in Virginia, moved westward in a logical pattern, and circled back again to Virginia.

Here is a brief summary of the Allen family migration using the places indicated on the map:

The Allens settled in New Kent County, Virginia in the 1600's. I've traced the family back to Robert Allen who was born in 1680.  His father was probably born in England. We are descended from Robert Allen's son Robert through his son William.**

William Allen (b. 1724) moved to Mecklenburg County. The Allens populated southside Virginia, spreading south and west from there.

William's grandson John Watson Allen (b. abt 1769) raised his family in Pittsylvania County, Virginia; later crossing the mountains and settling in Mason County, Kentucky.  John's brother James purchased land in Lawrenceville, Ohio across the river. *

Historical Note: the Cumberland Gap was discovered in 1750. Daniel Boone began exploring Kentucky in 1775. By 1790, the path of migration was established; the "Wilderness Road" was traveled by wagons. Kentucky was admitted to the Union in 1792 (15th State). A possible motivation for the move from Virginia to Kentucky was a widespread crop failure (tobacco?), 1800-1830. The main waterways were the Kentucky River and the Ohio River. Kenton County, KY, was located on the Ohio River across from present day Cincinnati, OH. 

John's son, Robert Scott Allen (b. 1797), lived nearby in Kenton County, Kentucky, moving westward from there to Hancock County, Illinois, where my great grandfather Augustus was born. Robert married Elizabeth Highland from Ohio, in present-day Cincinnati.

Augustus Allen (b. 1859) married Eva Bosworth from Littleton, Illinois.  They moved to Keokuk, Iowa in 1893 shortly after the birth of their daughter Ethelyn.

In 1900, he moved his family to Wichita, Kansas, perhaps because of the real estate boom.

Around 1905, Augustus abandoned his wife Eva, and she was sent to an insane asylum in Woodward Oklahoma. His 10 or 11 year old daughter Ethelyn was sent to a boarding school in Paris, Texas. It seems that Augustus remarried and eventually moved to Dallas, TX, finally disappearing about 1917.

Sometime between 1910 and 1916, my grandmother changed her name from Ethelyn to Teresa Marie Allen. After graduating from nursing school in 1919, she worked for a time in Oklahoma City.

Teresa Allen moved to Chicago, Illinois, where she met and married my grandfather, Horace Calvin Crofford in 1926. They lived in Waukegan near his family, and raised two children.

In search of employment, the family moved to Norfolk, Virginia in 1942, where their daughter Virginia met my father, John Beverly Zaun.

Norfolk is about an hour and a half drive from New Kent County where my grandmother's history began.

Full circle.

*Some of the Allen family settled in Montgomery County in NW Tennessee just outside of Nashville (not marked on the map).  John Watson Allen's mother, Sarah Neblett Allen, remarried and lived there with several Allens and members of the Neblett family.

**Postscript, May 2016:  Since this writing, I have found out that our link to the New Kent Allens is unverified. An Allen family genealogist looked at my DNA results and said that my DNA matches contain errors in their family trees. She found that my DNA results show links to Allen families originating in New England (which is true - the Wandell family married into the Allen family in New England).  She recommended that I begin my search by building a private Allen family tree for the Kentucky Allens, which is the last proven residence of my 2X great grandfather, Robert S. Allen. A History of Hancock County, in a biography of my grandmother's 1st cousin, Rose Spitler Scofield, says that family lore tells of John Watson Allen's childhood relationship with his cousin, Ethan Allen. The family lore could have mistakenly the "Revolutionary War Hero" with Jack Jouette, who was indeed connected to the Allens of Virginia. 

Lunenburg, Virginia

The main focus of my research lately has been on the Allens of Virginia.  I am determined to prove the link between my orphaned grandmother, Teresa (nee Ethelyn), and the Allens that have shown up in my DNA matches.

The Allens started out in New Kent County.  I have pinpointed the exact location of their homestead. The property is described as being on "Williamsburg Road." There are even photos online of the Allen home taken during the Civil War.

Historic map of New Kent landowners showing the Allen property.  There is also Allen property near West Point, Virginia.

The arrow points to the present day location of the Allen property shown on the historic map above.  It is on or near the current site of the New Kent airport.  The branch of the river that runs north toward Tallysville is called "Allen's Run."

The Allens moved to Lunenburg County from New Kent.  Historic Lunenburg County is known as the "Mother of Counties."  It included thirteen counties that were part of the "Hanover Counties," west and south of Richmond. The Allen home was the old "Brengle's Place" in Lewiston.

Our Allen ancestors were instrumental in the development of the road system on Lunenburg.

An act of the General Assembly passed March 21, 1853, authorized formation of the Lewiston Plank Road Company to construct a road from a point on the Richmond and Danville Railroad by way of Lewiston in Lunenburg County to some point on the Meherrin River or to the Lunenburg Plank Road. Capital stock was set at $30,000 with the Board of Public Works authorized to subscribe to 3/5 or $18,000. The construction was to begin within two years, with completion by five years. An increased in capital stock was authorized March 29, 1858 by $10,000 to complete the project.

From the guide to the Lewiston Plank Road Company Minute Book, 1853-1855, (The Library of Virginia)

From here, some of the Allens moved south into North and South Carolina, and some moved west into Kentucky and beyond. Our family was in the group that moved west.

William Allen and his wife, Mary Lewis, have shown up consistently in my DNA matches.  I believe their son Turner was my 4th great grandfather, but have yet to find conclusive evidence of this.

Research can be tedious

Sometimes, genealogy research means sifting page by page through many obscure documents, some of them faded or handwritten and very difficult to read; others more than a thousand pages long.  A rare nugget of priceless information makes it all worthwhile.

I am currently going through a 1277-page publication called, The Old Free State: a contribution to the history of Lunenburg County and Southside Virginia.  Sounds fascinating, right?  Not something I would have picked up for pleasure reading, but it is the most intimate account of the early history of Virginia that I have ever read, covering the time from Jamestown to the modern age.  Our ancestors consorted with the likes of Thomas Jefferson and Patrick Henry. The Allen name goes back to Jamestown. I am about halfway through this document after hours at the computer.  I can only endure about a half hour at a time, so it may take days to wade through.

On another browser page, I am downloading a publication called, "Historical and Genealogical Miscellany: Early Settlers of New Jersey and Their Descendants, Vol. III" by John E. Stillwell, M. D.  In a cursory preview, I almost immediately found a couple of priceless nuggets about one of our family founders, Thomas Applegate, who came to American from Norfolkshire, England.  Those Applegates seemed to have issues with fiery tempers and loose tongues!  For instance:

His wife, Elizabeth Applegate, seems to haye been one of the unfortunate persons who suffered from the ecclesiastical tyranny of that puritanical age, for she was "censured to stand with her tongue in a cleft stick for swearing, reviling and railing." 

 In another instance, Thomas Applegate, was sued for slander by another one of our ancestors, Nicholas Stillwell (from a completely different branch of the family tree):

Xicholas Stiilwell, of Grayesend, sued him for slander in saying that if his, (Stillwell's) debts were paid he would have but little left.

Sometimes I learn something that has nothing to do with our family, like the fact that John Randolph and Nathaniel Macon (for whom the Methodist college was named) were not professed Christians.  And that U. S. Grant was a slave owner who never released his slaves until forced to by the Emancipation Proclamation.  (You may have known this, but I did not).

So, this is what I am doing when I am not adding anything to our family tree.  Slogging through the mire.

Allen Family Dilemma

Sorry all for not posting in so long.  I am stumped by some of the DNA findings, and have been searching - so far in vain - for any information to solve some of the questions that have arisen.

The DNA tests have confirmed that we are descendants of the illustrious Allen - Lewis - Warner - Dozier families of Virginia, but there are some missing links, two to be exact.  I can trace the Allens back to Robert Scott Allen, my 2nd great grandfather, but the proven ancestry then skips back two generations.

In our family tree, I have established the two missing links, but have no documented proof other than other family trees (which also have no documented proof).

Here is the line of descent as I have it so far:

Teresa Zaun, b. 1954, Norfolk, full circle back to Virginia!
^
Virginia Crofford, b. 1932, Waukegan, Illinois
^
Teresa (nee Ethelyn) Allen, b. 1893, Illinois
^
Augustus Dozier Allen, b. 1859, Illinois
^
Robert Scott Allen, b. 1797, Lunenburg, Virginia (d. 1864 - Civil War?)
^
John Watson Allen**, b. ????, Lunenburg, Virginia
^
Turner Allen**, b. 1751, Lunenburg, Virginia
^
William Allen*, b. 1724, New Kent, Virginia - m. Mary Lewis, daughter of Col. Charles Lewis of The Byrd of Goochland County, whose mother was Elizabeth Warner of Gloucester, and whose father was John Lewis, both of whom are buried at Warner Hall.
^
Robert Allen, Jr.*, b. 1704, New Kent, Virginia
^
Robert Allen, Sr., b. 1680, New Kent, Virginia (records in St. Peter's Church registry)

                                                *proven by DNA **no documented proof

Here is the reasoning behind my conclusions about the two ancestors in doubt:

I believe that John Watson Allen is correct because he was married to Rebekah Scott, whose mother was a Dozier.  The Scott and Dozier links were confirmed by DNA and the names were carried on in the next generations.  I do not know where the Watson name came from and I'm not 100% sure that was his middle name.

I believe that Turner Allen is correct because he is the only son of William who stayed in Lunenburg County, Virginia, where Robert Scott Allen was eventually born.  I know that Turner had a son named John, but that name was pretty common in the Allen family. Sorting them all out is a challenge!

So, there you have it.  I believe I am correct, but as far a proof goes, I am stuck.  I may have to start using other resources than those that can be found online.

Family Names

Genealogy is so much easier when people give their children traditional family names.  I have been able to verify my research countless number of times by looking at the names of all the siblings of my ancestors.  One or more of the siblings will usually have a middle name that comes from a grandparent or great grandparent.  Many times at least one sibling will have a middle name that comes from a maternal ancestor, which is the only way the maternal name is carried on.

Here is an example of how this naming tradition helps me.  I am having difficulty finding information on John Watson Allen.  I believe he is my 3X great grandfather, but I can't find any documentation to support that.  However, I can make assumptions based on what I do know:

• John Watson Allen married Rebecca Scott of Lunenburg County, Va.   
• Rebecca Scott's mother was Ann Dozier.
• Robert Scott Allen is the father of Augustus Dozier Allen, my great grandfather.
• Robert Scott Allen was born in Lunenburg County, Va.
• One of Augustus' sisters is named Rebecca Scott Allen.  

Therefore, I can conclude that John Watson Allen and Rebecca Scott must be the parents of Robert Scott Allen.  This conclusion does not meet genealogical proof standards, but it is all I have to go on at the moment.

Mexico?

The oddest thing that has come out of my DNA matches is a link to several family trees that are almost entirely in Mexico.  And these are not distant cousins!  They are 4th cousins with a "very high" degree of confidence!

I cannot explain it.  One of those trees is also linked to the Allen ancestors, which is even more mystifying, though Augustus Allen lived closer to Mexico than anyone else in the family.

If you look at my DNA Ethnicity report, it shows that 10% of my genes come from the Iberian peninsula. That could explain any Spanish blood, but it would have been much further back than 4th cousins.  

Wondering... (I do a lot of wondering)....

Virginia and the Allens, Lewis's and Warners

Just some random thoughts on recent discoveries....

Me > Virginia Crofford > Teresa Allen > Augustus Allen > Robert Scott Allen > John Watson Allen > Turner Allen > William Carr Allen (m. Mary Lewis, dau. of Col. Charles Lewis).

Even though Augustus Dozier Allen was born in Illinois, his father, Robert Scott Allen, was from Virginia.  I love that my grandparents came back to Virginia almost a century later from "out West" not knowing that they were returning to the land of their ancestors. Full circle.

Augustus' middle name, Dozier, came from his paternal grandmother's mother, Ann Dozier, who married Robert Scott of Lunenburg, Va.  Source: The Georgia Frontier:  Revolutionary War Families to the mid-1800's.  (Google books)  This new branch on the family tree was immediately confirmed by DNA matches!

Could the name Augustus have come from his 5X great grandfather Augustine Warner?

I am still shaking my head over the fact that my grandmother's family came from New Kent County, which is a place that I have always loved.  When I drive to visit family in Old Church, I always take the back roads through New Kent.  Maybe my ancestors' spirits drew me there!  Col. Charles Lewis was born at "Chemokins," a plantation that, coincidentally, my Uncle Herman Lukhard (different side of the family) worked as a tenant farmer in the early 1900's.  The land was originally purchased from Col. John West (the old West store is still on Rt. 360 at Old Church Rd).  Col. Charles Lewis sold Chemokins in the late 1700's to George Webb, and it was in the Webb family for more than a hundred years.  It was sold to J.L.Slaughter and the Hampstead Land and Phosphate Company in 1889.  I have passed the Hampstead property many times and wondered what was beyond those brick entrances!  The Hampstead House, built in 1825, is on the register of historic homes in Virginia. It sits on a bluff with a view of the Pamunkey River. There are ruins of buildings on that land that were probably there when the Lewis' owned it.  It is owned by the Wallace family today.  I looked it up on Google maps, satellite view, and could see some very old gravestones there - I just may have to knock on their door one day!

UPDATE July 2023: On a recent drive through New Kent County, I saw that the Hampstead land is being cleared of forest, and the house can now be seen from the road. I learned that the property is being turned into a destination/wedding venue. That was good news. 

Warner Hall Plantation, est. 1642 - “Austin’s Desire”

One of my proven ancestors through the DNA test is Elizabeth Warner, 1672-1720. Elizabeth married John Taliaferro Lewis, my 7th great grandfather.

Here is the lineage from my maternal grandmother back (*proven through DNA):

Teresa/Ethelyn Allen, 1893-1966 (b. Illinois)

Augustus Allen, 1859- ? (b. Illinois)

Robert Scott Allen, 1797-1864 (b. Virginia)

?John Watson Allen, ? - ? (b. Virginia)

?Turner Allen, 1751 - 1800 (b. Virginia)

Mary Carr Lewis, 1725 - 1778 (b. Virginia; m. William Carr Allen)

*Charles Lilburne Lewis, 1696 - 1779 (b. Virginia)

*Elizabeth Warner, 1672 - 1720 (b. Virginia; m. *Col. John Taliaferro Lewis, 

"one of His Majesty's Honorable Council for this Colony")

Elizabeth inherited Warner Hall, at the head of the Severn River in Gloucester County, today recognized as one of the premier historic homes in Virginia:

Referred to as “Austin’s Desire” in the 1642-land patent, the original six hundred-acre plantation site was established by Augustine Warner as a “land grant” from the British Crown. Augustine Warner received the acreage in exchange for bringing twelve settlers across the Atlantic Ocean to the Jamestown Settlement, a colony desperately in need of manpower to survive in the New World.

"The Lewis family occupied Warner Hall for generations and members of the family immigrated to all parts of the United States."  (A Brief History of Warner Hall Plantation).  In 1740, the original part of the home burned down and was rebuilt on the same foundation.  The plantation remained in the Lewis family until the 1830's.  In 1849, the center part of the home was again destroyed by fire, and the owners built the current frame house on the same foundation with the same floor plan.

The Warners and the Lewis's were among the most prominent families in Virginia. Warner Hall played a significant part in Bacon's Rebellion.  Elizabeth Warner's sister Mildred married Lawrence Washington, and their son Augustine married Mary Ball, who became the mother of George Washington.

Some of the most recognized names in American history are direct descendants of Warner Hall’s founder, Augustine Warner – George Washington, the first president of the United States, Robert E. Lee, the most famous Civil War General and Captain Meriwether Lewis, renowned American explorer of the Lewis and Clark expedition. 

George Washington was a frequent visitor to his grandparent’s plantation. 

Queen Elizabeth II, the current monarch of England, is also a direct descendent of Augustine Warner. In England, Warner Hall is referred to as “the home of the Queen’s American ancestors.”  (A Brief History of Warner Hall Plantation)

Warner Hall and the Warner-Lewis family graveyard.  Elizabeth Warner's inscriptions reads:  "Here Lyeth Interr'd ye Body of Elizabeth Lewis the Daughter of Col Augustine Warner and Mildred his Wife and late wife of John Lewis Esq. She was Born at Chesake the 24th of November, 1672 Aged 47 years 2 Months and 12 Days, and was a Tender Mother of 14 Children. She Departed this Life the 5th Day of February 1719/20."

The Inn at Warner Hall is hosting a family reunion event this year through October 29:  "Descendants of the Warner, Lewis and Washington families are invited to visit Warner Hall to connect more deeply to their historical roots during this special family reunion promotion."  "Descendants are invited to the Inn at Warner Hall’s “All In The Family” reunion, a promotion to help get as many descendants to visit the property as possibly, likely uniting cousins who have never met."  The event will benefit the Warner Hall Graveyard preservation fund. 

Research Status Update

The ancestry DNA results will take some time to sort out - LOTS of time.  I have to click on each of the hundreds of "cousins" who share my DNA and look at the list of common surnames.  A cousin may share my DNA, but have no surnames in common with my tree (how could that be?).  And not every surname is the one that links us.  We may have ten surnames in common, but which is the one that connects us? Sometimes the results will show a specific ancestor that we share (not just the surname) and it will show the relationship of that cousin to me on the family tree.  That is the gold nugget that I search for in the results.

There have been several "gold nuggets" concerning the Allens of St. Peter's Parish, New Kent County, Virginia. The common ancestors in this case are Robert Allen, Sr. (1704-1784) and his wife, Elizabeth Young Stokes.  The problem is, I am having trouble determining from which one of their many children we are descended. Working backwards from my great-grandfather Augustus Dozier Allen (1859-1904), there was his father, Robert Scott Allen (1797-1864), and HIS father, John Watson Allen (abt 1770).  I just need to determine the missing generations between the original Allen and John Watson Allen.

Robert Allen, Sr. (1704-1784) m. Elizabeth Young Stokes (1702-1762)
Children:  Lt. Robert Samuel Allen, Jr., William Carr Allen, Drury, Reynolds, David, Young, James, Josiah, Ann, Judith, Sarah, Agnes, Elizabeth, Susannah, Richard.

Our most probable path is William Carr Allen (1724-1789) > Turner Allen (1751-1800) > John Watson Allen > Robert Scott Allen > Augustus Dozier Allen.  

Augustus Allen married Eva Bosworth, so I also hoped to prove the link to the Bosworths.  Sure enough, there are several DNA matches that share specific Bosworth ancestors with my tree.  This proves that their only child "Ethelyn," and my grandmother Teresa are one and the same.  The Bosworth link also confirms our Mayflower descendance from the Howland/Tilley families.

This fulfills my primary purpose in having the DNA test done.

I will eventually write about the illustrious Allen family of Virginia, who associated with the likes of George Washington and Thomas Jefferson, and who owned vast tracts of land in what is now Gloucester and New Kent County.  Stay tuned!