{"id":66,"date":"2007-05-14T12:05:58","date_gmt":"2007-05-14T19:05:58","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.arleneeakle.com\/wordpress\/2007\/05\/14\/14-may-2007-genealogy-and-the-settlement-of-jamestown-va\/"},"modified":"2007-05-14T12:05:58","modified_gmt":"2007-05-14T19:05:58","slug":"14-may-2007-genealogy-and-the-settlement-of-jamestown-va","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.arleneeakle.com\/wordpress\/2007\/05\/14\/14-may-2007-genealogy-and-the-settlement-of-jamestown-va\/","title":{"rendered":"14 May 2007: Genealogy and the Settlement of Jamestown VA"},"content":{"rendered":"

Some years ago, I was researching several early Virginia settlers.\u00a0 Some were listed as Jamestown settlers–this is not easy proof!\u00a0 The “killing times” were often,\u00a0 so the total number of people who arrived and their surnames, even when the names are the same, are not consistent.\u00a0 Some early families are still not proven<\/em> across the ocean to their origins.\u00a0 However, it was a thrill for me to stand on the banks of the James River, where it empties into the bay, and ponder those early arrivals who came with so much hope and a continuing vision of the eternal promise of America.<\/p>\n

Queen Elizabeth II acknowledged their Englishness by coming to Virginia last week to celebrate this 400th anniversary.\u00a0 These settlers spoke English, they brought English law and customs, they sailed in English ships.\u00a0 And they fanned out along the rivers establishing a plantation society, patterned on their English life experience at home.<\/p>\n

“In the beginning, all was Virginia.”\u00a0<\/strong> This is the title of an article written by Dr. Donald J. Martin and published in February1979 in the Journal of Genealogy<\/em>.<\/strong>\u00a0 By permission, I reprinted the article in my Virginia Research Scrapbook<\/em><\/strong>, Vol.\u00a0 III. \u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 And I have referred to that important article numerous times for key titles\u00a0 that would give me better understanding of Virginia life and thus, greater success in genealogy research for the early settlers.\u00a0 And I recommend the article to all of you.\u00a0 Add it to your summer study list<\/em>.<\/p>\n

Dr. Martin summarizes the history of the commercial venture that was Virginia.\u00a0 The issuance of charters, the provision for land grants, and the persons who got them.\u00a0 He describes the convicts, and indentured servants, and slaves who worked the lands.\u00a0 He lists the principal genealogy sources and acknowledges the record losses.\u00a0 And he provides extensive bibliographies–many titles long forgotten and overlooked by today’s genealogists.<\/p>\n

Big Mistake!\u00a0 Huge!\u00a0 These older works were written by men and women who understood the English land system and the legalities that underlay the complex property records this system generated.\u00a0 Few modern genealogists understand the records they search.\u00a0 So at conferences and seminars, they tell you to “Relax, you don’t have to read all the words in the documents.”\u00a0 Not so.\u00a0 Their transcripts print double pp for the Old English S.\u00a0 They lump together Winna Daniels and Owen McDaniel as the same person.\u00a0 Not so.\u00a0 Or they create two distinct families of the Daniels and the McDaniels where they are siblings belonging\u00a0 to the same set of parents.\u00a0 They seek origins among the Irish and Scottish, when they come from Wales.
\nSince 1979, when Dr. Martin reviewed the printed stuff, most of the early Virginia county records have been transcribed and printed with every-name indexes and indexes to named land tracts and watercourses.\u00a0 Deeds, wills,\u00a0 marriage bonds and returns, court orders, tax rolls, militia papers, and many family Bibles can be searched quickly and at nominal expense.<\/p>\n

Ancestry.com includes some of these printed works, although not all, in their numerous\u00a0 databases for online access.\u00a0 So it is easy to forget that not all counties <\/strong>are transcribed, and not all records<\/strong> transcribed are available online.\u00a0 It is easy for you to draw incorrect conclusions because it is easy to assume that all the data are there.<\/p>\n

Dr. Martin concludes his 12 page article with these words:<\/p>\n

Research of any kind is painfully slow and laborious, and not infrequently expensive.\u00a0 Genealogical research is no exception.\u00a0 There is, alone, a tremendous amount of published information which must be meticulously studied before we at last find ourselves on the frontier of the unknown.\u00a0 In the case of Virginia, this means reviewing over 350 years of publications as if we were the first to read them.\u00a0 This may take years, but the documents of the past have an infinite number of messages and clues for us; we have no choice but to digest them.\u00a0 Not to use all available sources to determine the void in existing works is to defeat the goal of research:\u00a0 to add to existing knowledge.\u00a0<\/em><\/p>\n

No stone can be left unturned.\u00a0 To deprive ourselves of the highest standards of completeness is to ignore material which may actually lead us in another direction–the right direction<\/em>.\u00a0 Incomplete work reflecting premature and sometimes erroneous conclusions may actually be worse than useless because it may lead others astray.\u00a0 Inaccurate documentation sometimes goes undiscovered for generations.<\/p>\n

The payoff for this self-discipline is real progress, and that I believe, is what it’s all about.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

A new study of the original Virginia settlers is underway.\u00a0 William Thorndale, Salt Lake City, UT is carefully researching those who came to Virginia before 1625<\/strong>–their lives in America, their origins in the British Isles, their relationships among themselves and to those left behind.\u00a0 Watch this Genealogy News Sheet<\/em> for the heads up on his project.\u00a0 It is thorough, accurate to a fault, and carefully documented.<\/p>\n

As most of you know, I just completed the My Ancestors Found Research Retreat on American Land Records.\u00a0 And without exception, all of the researchers that I personally consulted with, wanted documentation for their conclusions.\u00a0 Some were beginners, some were seasoned researchers, and they wanted to document and prove each link in their genealogy.\u00a0 What fun it was to help them find their documents!\u00a0 And to share in the excitement of their own personal finds!<\/p>\n

You might consider signing on for the next Retreat, or a local seminar or Jamboree offered by My Ancestors Found.com.\u00a0 Your favorite genealogist of choice, Arlene Eakle<\/p>\n

P.S. “In the beginning, all was Virginia.” William Byrd.\u00a0 Even those who sailed for Plymouth were on their way to the northern section of Virginia.\u00a0 Keep that in mind as you near the water’s edge on your way to origins:\u00a0 Lest you be lead astray.\u00a0 More on Virginia coming this month.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Some years ago, I was researching several early Virginia settlers.\u00a0 Some were listed as Jamestown settlers–this is not easy proof!\u00a0 The “killing times” were often,\u00a0 so the total number of people who arrived and their surnames, even when the names … Continue reading →<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-66","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-blog"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.arleneeakle.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/66"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.arleneeakle.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.arleneeakle.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.arleneeakle.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.arleneeakle.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=66"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.arleneeakle.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/66\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.arleneeakle.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=66"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.arleneeakle.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=66"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.arleneeakle.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=66"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}