Posts Tagged Weir Genealogy
#52Ancestors: Week 3 – Elizabeth Oliver Brumley and her Colonial Resilience
Posted by Caroll in 52 Ancestors, Genealogy Blog on January 18, 2015
This is week three of the 2015 #52 Ancestors in 52 Weeks Challenge where a group of u
s blog about a different ancestor for each week of the year. To learn more about the 52 Ancestor Challenge visit Amy Johnson’s site at Amy’s website.
Born just before the eve of the American Revolution in Virginia, Elizabeth O. Brumley surely was quite educated for a woman of her time. Women of the gentry or well-to-do class acquired an education that included practical, literary, and ornamental skills. 1 Elizabeth instilled the importance of education into her children.
Her son, Oliver C. Vanlandingham, Sr.; ran a mercantile business while maintain a farm in Kentucky and eventually building a plantation in Louisiana. Her daughter, Elizabeth Vanlandingham, married Samuel Weir, a wealthy famer and brother to Oliver’s business partner, James Weir.
Elizabeth Brumley married Ezekiel Vanlandingham circa 1782. Ezekiel must have prospered well in Virginia, nonetheless, he sought new endeavors. Seeking rich farm lands and good hunting, the Vanlandingham’s set-off from Northumberland, VA to Muhlenberg County, Kentucky in the early 1790’s. Unfortunately, Ezekiel, died somewhere along the journey.
National Park Service Wilderness Road Map with Northumberland, VA and Muhlenberg Co, KY marked.
The options were to travel north to the Ohio River then follow the river down toward Kentucky. The Wilderness Road and Boone Trace led a pass through the Appalachian Mountains. A third longer route would be to sail around Florida to Louisiana and the Mississippi River north. My guess that the family traveled overland.
It is not known where or how Ezekiel died on this journey. He was young, having been born in June 1762 in VA. Oliver Vanlandingham recalled that he traveled to Kentucky as a young boy. Elizabeth Brumley made the decision to continue to Kentucky and not return to Virginia after her husband’s death.
Travelling to Kentucky at the turn of the 19th Century was treacherous. Pioneers who came over the Wilderness Road, endured severe hardships. The Wilderness Road was steep, rough, narrow, and it could only be traversed on foot or horseback. Because of the threat of Native American attacks, the road was so dangerous that most pioneers traveled well-armed. Robbers and criminals also could be found on the road, ready to pounce on weaker pioneers.2
Why was she so decisive in moving forward into the unknown? Why was it a better option then turning back to a more civilized and settled Virginia? She was indeed a strong, tough woman. That resilience continued when the family arrived in Muhlenberg County. Elizabeth bought her own land, farmed and reared her family there until her death in 1833.
Footnotes:
1) Women and Education in Eighteenth-Century Virginia by Linda Rowe, http://research.history.org/Historical_Research/Research_Themes/ThemeFamily/WomenEducation.cfm
2) Wilderness Road Wikipedia: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wilderness_Road
#52 Ancestors – No. 12 – The start of the Roll surname
This post is number 12 in the series of the 52 Ancestors in 52 Weeks Challenge where a group of us blog about a different ancestor for each week of the year. The learn more about the 52 Ancestor Challenge visit Amy’s website.
The extra “l” in my first name, Caroll, came from my grandmother’s “Roll” surname. It was my mother’s way of paying homage to the family name. I wrote about Oliver Cromwell Roll in in #52 Ancestors post #7. The Roll name is a variation of “Rol” and comes from my 8th great-grandfather is, Jan Mangelsen (Rol).
Jan Mangelsen came from the Netherlands (Holland) to New Amsterdam (New York) in the mid-1650’s. His name, Mangelsen, is a Dutch patronymic meaning, Jan, son of Mangels. It is alleged that Jan’s father or grandfather was a Burgomaster named Jan Mangels of Rol. Surnames were not common in the past, they became a necessity to distinguish who was who as populations grew. People of wealth or status were the first to start passing down last names to their children.
Jan Mangelsen children started to use a variant of “Rol” as their last names. Some of the variations include, Roll, Rol, Ral or Rall, Rool. Later descendents use Mangelrol as a last name. My branch settled on “Roll”.
My Roll Lineage
Jan MANGELSEN & Tryntje Pieters VAN WOGGELUM
→Mangel Jansen ROL & Annetje Hendriex VOLCX / VOLCK/ VOLKERTS
→→Jan Mangelse ROLL & Altje BAS
→→→Johannes ROLL & Mary NEVIS
→→→→Michael ROLL & Christina VOUGHT (VAUGHT)
→→→→→Isaac ROLL & Elizabeth Wier
→→→→→→David W. ROLL & Catherine Traylor GUY
→→→→→→→Oliver C. ROLL & Mabel PITTMAN
→→→→→→→→Olive ROLL & Hugh HOWES
My great-grandfather Oliver C. Roll did not have sons. My first name is the last remnant of the this twig.
#52 Ancestors – No. 11 – William Hammond
Posted by Caroll in Uncategorized on March 16, 2014
This post is number 11 in the series of the 52 Ancestors in 52 Weeks Challenge where a group of us blog about a different ancestor for each week of the year.
My first ancestor to arrive in North America was my 10th great grandfather, William Hammond (1575-1662). He left Bristol, England aboard the ship “Lyon” in 1631 for the Massachusetts Bay Colony. He made several trips back and forth to England to bring his family to the new world. His daughter, Elizabeth Hammond arrived a few months before her future husband, Samuel House (Howes), in 1634.
Disclaimer
I have not done a detail research on William Hammond. My search has been limited to the Pioneers of Massachusetts and/or The New England Historical and Genealogical Register.
I did come across a very interesting blog by Jeanie Roberts on William Hammond’s life history. Jeanie writes The Family Connection. Click on William Hammond to read her post on the Hammond family. Even back in the early 1600’s, people were fleeing bankruptcy, taking a risky chance for a new start. I need to check with Jeanie to see where we may be related or if there is a DNA match between us.
William died in 1662 at Watertown, Massachusetts. He and his wife, Elizabeth Paine, outlived most of their children. I am descended through his daughter Elizabeth Hammond.
Bits of Thread
William Hammond was from Lavenham, Suffolk, England. Lavenham was part of the wool trade that brought riches to England in the 15th & 16th centuries. Unfortunately, the linen and wool trade industry collapsed around 1600. Facing ruin, loss of jobs, many individuals and families to left Old England for “New England” in the early-mid 1600’s.
The manor of Lavenham existed before the Norman Conquest. The manor was once owned by Aubrey de Vere (the first) in 1086. Later in history, this de Vere family line became the Earls of Oxford. Allegedly, de Vere is the origin of the family name “Weir”. Bill Weir states in his article on the Weir Family name that a descendent of Aubrey de Vere pledged his allegiance to Scotland in the 1100’s.
I am also descended from a family of Scots-Irish Weir’s on my mother’s side. Could it be possible that my family tree intertwines in Lavenham? Maybe all these threads can be woven into a tapestry of my lineage.
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