Swimming in Welsh Rabbit and Perfumed Doubts

By Bob Ferris

When I was young my mother would make us Welsh Rabbit or Rarebit (both are correct).  She poured the cheesy mixture on saltines rather than the traditional toasted bread and we liked it that way or did not know better.  I think about this concoction now as I am trying to sort though a chunk of my ancestors originally from Wales.  This process feels a lot like paddling through the aforementioned orange goo mainly because I cannot help but feel that I enter Google hell when trying to sort through those with two first names, particularly when those names are sometimes the same (And, yes, I am thinking about you, probable great-grandfather James James from Llanwrthwl.)  I suspect that it is all right there before me, but it is often covered by something that masks like this melted cheese with white sauce, sprinkled with paprika, and poured on crackers.

I am emotionally and intellectually supported in this by a newly discovered half-fifth cousin who I recently met online while trying to sort out our shared Randolph lines and false family myths about a supposed link to Edmund Randolph.  I say half-fifth cousins because we share a common ancestor in Frances "Frankie" Randolph but descend from Frankie's different husbands: she from Thompson Randolph and me from Samuel James.  But we are more than that too as our two lines from Frances, son Thompson Randolph (Jr?) and daughter Susannah James, married brother and sister Hannah and James Taylor.  This makes us 6th cousins as well.  Confused yet?  (For those of you keeping score that means our degree of theoretical relatedness is 1X2 ^-14 + 2X2 ^-16. This is more than just half-fifth cousins but still well less than half of one percent of relatedness.)

The Welsh preference for two first names and the calculation of the big toe-scale degree of relatedness with my cousin is only the start of the confusion and complications.  But let's digress some.  When my late brother Bill presented his first version of our family tree in 1993 he listed Samuel James' father as Moch James without any explanation.  Roughly six years later he revised the tree and named Samuel's parents as Evan James and Anne Foreman.  In this latter revision he cited work by my grandmother Edna Robb Settles who through most of her efforts was a very solid researcher and actually was able to interview relatives who interacted with those born in the late 18th century and early in the 19th.  My grandmother was a genealogical dynamo but this I only know second-hand because she had a stroke three years before I was born.  I never saw the brilliance and this probably colors my thinking, which in most cases it should not.

I have to admit that there are times when my lens of my grandmother creeps in.  For instance, while I was looking at Jacob and Mary Taylor in North Carolina, the parents of James and Hannah, memories of my grandmother intervened.   My confidence in her work disappeared in my recollection of the cloud of perfume she wore as her senses diminished and my time with her as she descended into the not knowing.  As I started to see several in the North Carolina counties of Onslow and Duplin with the last name James, the Evan and Anne connection felt a little twitchy at times and I got distracted by a James line in North Carolina that had a first name pattern very similar to the one used by Samuel and Frankie in naming their children (i.e., Samuel, Isaac, and Enoch).  But each well I dug seemed to come up dry.  None felt right or possible.  So back I went to Evan, Anne, and the lands around Fort Cumberland and headwaters of the Potomac.

Children of Evan James (1756-1810) and Anne Foreman (1756-1839)

Mary Jane James Deakins (?) b. 1774 (1)
Samuel James b. 1774-1775 (1,2)
Mary "Polly" James Lovitt or Lovett b. June 10, 1776 (1, 2, 3, 4, 5)
Thomas James b. 1778 (1)
John F. James b. 1779 (1, 2)
Grace James Sigler b. 1779 (1, 2, 3, 4)
Susan James b. 1784 (1)
Nancy Ann James Poland b. 1787 (1, 2, 3)
Isaac James b. 1786 (1)
Susannah James Sigler 1790 (1, 2, 3)
Evan B. James 1792 (1, 2, 3, 4)
William F. James b. 1795 (1)
Elizabeth "Eliza" James unk. (1)

Evan and Anne are listed on many websites and are variously credited with having from one to thirteen children with only a few pages showing a child named Samuel.  There is uncertainty.  But here is where history and geography collide with genealogy.  Records show that Samuel James was married in Allegany County, Maryland in 1793 and that Evan James was buried in Westernport, Maryland in 1810, also in Allegany.  So I am thinking: Great, we can go to the census or tax records for 1790 and before to sort this out.  Except we cannot exactly because of the near constant border wrangling between Maryland, Virginia, and eventually West Virginia as well as the War of 1812.  Due to the former Samuel James could have been born in Virginia and married in Maryland without moving an inch from where his crib was rocked.   This made determining which jurisdiction would have kept the family's records difficult to determine and the War of 1812 made them nearly impossible to find because the British put many of these records to the torch.

From here.

But records for Evan James and his family do exist.  For instance, Evan James is listed as someone who settled west of Fort Cumberland prior to 1788 in several publications.  The root source of this information comes from the records collected by Col. Francis Deakins who was tasked with surveying Maryland's western border and creating the so-called Deakins Line perpendicular to the much more famous Mason-Dixon Line.  According to Deakins and his crew Evan James held lots 3542 and 3544 (see page 29 bottom right in the link) and his designation as a settler means that he probably did not serve in the Revolutionary War.  In other publications these "settlers" are described as squatters which seems harsh for these were folks who staked out lands on the edge of civilization when the risks of that action were pretty high.  The lots were generally fifty acres in size so Evan and Anne seemed to have both land and a large family which generally indicates they were farmers which is verified by the piece on grandson Andrew Jackson James above. 

Allegany County Land Records

As time passed Evan's holdings increased as indicated by the typed transcript above.  It is unclear whether this indicates total holdings or recent purchases as neither of the parcels listed in 1787 are included.  Of note are the notations for a property known as "Good and Bad" which is important because Evan James was buried in the Poland Family Cemetery which was derived from these lands.  This knowledge with other clues gives some indication of how the estate of Evan James was divided, the Poland coming from his daughter Nancy Ann's marriage and the subsequent sale of the remainder of this land by John Deakins' who was married to "Margaret" (Margaret was more than likely Mary Jane James) show that other acreage went to another daughter.  Anne, after Evan's passing, went to live with Polly James Lovitt and her family in Ohio.  Additionally, there are Allegany census records from 1800 and 1810 after Evan's death.  The 1800 census shows a household of eleven including three children under ten years of age.  These three could be Evan Jr., William, and perhaps the mysterious and less documented Elizabeth.  In 1810 the household is reduced to four including Anne (Ann).  The three remaining under 26 could also be those three mentioned above.

From here 1998.  John Deakins married Margaret (possibly Mary Jane) on June 8, 1797 

All of this leads to thoughts and questions.  Westernport was once considered for an extension of the C&O Canal that would run upriver from the terminus at Cumberland some 20 miles away.  It never was built.  How much of this figured in Evan's plans?  Moreover, the canal only functioned for a time and then was largely supplanted by the railroad which did come to Westernport, but not in Evan's time.   Ironically, spoils from some subsequent railroad construction in the 1940s covered Evan's grave much like the cheese at the beginning of this piece pouring on the crackers.

Through much of my modest research I often speculate on connections as well as circumstances and motivations.  The how and why being nearly as important to me as the exchange of genetic material.  This brings me back to Samuel James and Frankie Randolph,  a farmer's son in a household filled to the brim with siblings coming together with a young widow with one or more children traveling west over what was originally Braddock Road (see above and Note 1 below).   Since records indicate that Samuel and Frances were married on the same day as her cousin Elizabeth Prudence Randolph wed Jesse Reno in the same county and Frances, Elizabeth, and Jesse were all from Manassas, I tend to believe that the three were all traveling together as part of a larger group.   This fits a pattern as Frankie's brother Thompson had traveled to Kentucky with other families from Manassas and Prince William County roughly a dozen years before.  Elizabeth and Jesse could have been childhood sweethearts or their romance blossomed on the road.  Who knows?

Samuel and Frankie are trickier and more caprice must have been involved.   It seems strange the probable quickness of it all but then I remember that my parents William and Mary Ferris did a soup-to-nut courtship in a week's time in the closing years of World War II.  I remembered too that sisters Grace and Susannah James married brothers William and Peter Sigler just as their step-nephew and niece married the Taylor brother and sister all indicating a challenging dating landscape.  It could also be that things were getting crowded and conflicted for the teen-aged Samuel rubbing shoulders with Evan.  Frankie was also likely sensitive to the fact that she had lost a sister-in-law and nephew in an Indian raid near their destination about dozen years before.  So we have two pre-loaded souls colliding in a land of few opportunities traveling to land with even fewer.   Bubbling cheddar cheese meeting white sauce.  I don't really know as all is supposition until truly proven like many or even most parts of this narrative.  Time may tell or not.

****

Note 1: This route beginning at Fort Cumberland rather than the more southern route through the Cumberland Gap which would have been the obvious choice for the Taylors in North Carolina, but not Randolphs setting out from Virginia is another reason to doubt the North Carolina Jameses.

But I Already Bought the Hat and T Shirt...

By Bob Ferris

My wife, mother, sister and I took a trip nearly two years ago to New Harmony, Indiana (see here) from my mother's home in Annapolis, Maryland.  Along the way we stopped by the Buffalo Trace Distillery and bought a hat and t-shirt because the establishment was founded by Taylors who we thought were our Taylors.  I even made the above Facebook/Instagram post that was "liked" by the Buffalo Trace folks.  Turns out we were wrong.  We were the unwitting victims of hopeful genealogy, coincidence, and assumption.  I am not pointing fingers here only trying to get the story straight.

Minerva Jane Taylor born 1816

It all started with James Taylor (father of Minerva Jane above) and mistakingly linking him to William Gibson Taylor or Big Foot Bill as he was known in those parts of Kentucky which brought us to the lineage that includes Zachary Taylor.  Solid, well-documented lines going forward and back from there.  Cool and exciting but not true.  The confounding problem being that this is the way it is listed in several sources except that was done with no evidence that this Taylor ever had a son named James.  Yet this was an easy assumption as James is a very common name in that line.   But nope not our folks or kin as they would say in Kentucky.  So onward we go.

John Prine has an iconic song called Paradise (above) where he sings about coal, Mr. Peabody, and Muhlenberg County in Kentucky.  I have used it as an anthem in my fights with the coal industry and it turns out that is where the answer was found.  Part of our challenge in finding our James Taylor, aside from his name being common and that Fire and Rain singer guy confusing things, is that we were looking in and around Bardstown in present-day Nelson County, Kentucky.  Here there were hints and wisps but nothing that absolutely supported or knocked this false lineage out of the running. So it lived on in the limbo of enough hope and mystery to keep it breathing.

We did know some information.  James Taylor was a name in a family Bible.  There was a story of him being a cultured gentleman from Virginia.  We knew that James married Susannah James (also making searches complicated) and that she was the daughter of Samuel James and Francis "Frankie" Randolph who was born in Manassas, Virginia.  This was a second marriage for Frankie who was married first to her cousin Thompson Randolph not to be confused with her brother Thompson or her son Thompson (all of which were frequently called Thomas).

 
All of this swirled in confusion until I found the kernel above.  I say "kernel" because much of the upstream and downstream from this is faulty or incomplete.  Once we had Jacob and Mary things started to fall in place.  What if Jacob was the gentleman from Virginia rather than James?  Gibson County is near to Posey County and New Harmony.  So I tracked Jacob from Virginia to North Carolina where he married Mary Wilkins, probably fought in the waning years of the Revolution, and by 1790 was the head of a household that had one male over 16 (him), four males under 16, and five females of all ages.  That meant James Taylor was born in North Carolina and was possibly a twin with Hannah.

But back to Muhlenburg.  An 1810 census of Muhlenberg County has James and Jacob Taylor as well as a John Taylor.  That is helpful but this population count also includes Samuel James, four Randolphs that match with Frankie's siblings, and five people named Wilkins (Mary Taylor's maiden name).  It also contains Jesse Reno and two others from his clan.  Why is Jesse important?  Mr. Reno is important because when Samuel married Frankie on May 30, 1793 in Allegany County, Maryland it was a double ceremony including Frankie's niece Elizabeth "Prudence" Randolph who married Jesse.  Bingo.

Muhlenberg County also has records that link all these names including the Kinchloes who come into play below.  These records include land sales from both Jacob Taylor and his son (see entries for McIlvain and James Taylor) which pegs their move north to Indiana sometime between 1810 and 1814.  All this takes us to Minerva Jane Taylor who married Thomas Robb and then we enter the land where we have gravestones, a rich history, and photographs for nearly the all of the players directly to my mother Mary Robb Settles Ferris.  All mysteries relatively solved except for a lingering set that are all named Thompson Randolph.

Where to start?  To begin with Virginia genealogy in the beginning of the 18th century is complicated because there were not a whole lot of surnames and they tended to use first names repeatedly often using them multiple times in the same family and generation.  And sometimes last names were used as first names.  Common names in this clump of Virginians were Randolph, Osborne, Bland, and Thompson.  In this somewhere is also a connection to the Kincheloe's who were related to the Randolphs and/or Osbornes either by blood or marriage and served as the guardians for some Randolph children, possibly Frances for a time.

Which takes us to Kincheloe Fort or Station (near Bardstown) in 1782 and Thompson Randolph (born 1746) the brother who is in Kentucky with the Kincheloes, his wife Ann Bayliss with their young child, and cousin Osborne Bland.    The fort was attacked by Indians and Ann was killed and so was Osborne but Thompson escaped with his young child William Bayliss Randolph (who was eventually active in the Underground Railroad).  Accounts of this vary but in all this Thompson and his son lived (1,2,3).  According to the above this Thompson later married Hannah Taylor sister of James Taylor in 1802.  This seems unlikely as she would have been around 17 at the time and this Thompson would have been 56.  The more likely candidate is Thompson Junior from the husband Thompson and Frances who would have been 16 or so.  This latter situation is the one favored by my grandmother Edna Robb Settles.  Phew.

But what about the husband Thompson?   This is where the Ancestry.com site provides help and confusion.  If we accept that the Thompson Randolph who married Hannah Taylor is the son of Frances' first husband Thompson Randolph (which works if son was born in 1786) then cutting out the obvious mistake with spouse Elizabeth Taylor who was born after the subject died so not his wife then we are left with the mystery of "Tuckahoe" as in Thomas Randolph of Tuckahoe Plantation and one-time home of a young Thomas Jefferson.  But Frances is related to the Manassas Randolphs and not those of Tuckahoe.  Which raises the issue of sorting out the various Randolphs of Virginia and many people much smarter than me have been trying to do that for centuries and I have to finish putting a new floor in my bathroom.