Tuesday 16 June 2015

Jessé de Forest 1570 ~ 1626



Having such deep Southern roots I was definitely interested to find an ancestor who is considered one of the founding father’s of New York, so much so there is a monument to him in Battery Park, New York City.

Jesse de Forest was born around 1576 in Avesnes, France to Jean de Forest and Anne Maillard.  He married Marie du Cloux on 23 September 1601. 
As was popular with many European Protestants at the time trying to escape persecution, Jesse wound up in Holland.

In Leiden, Holland, Jesse did pretty well for himself.  He was a very skilled dyer of fabric and as family history has it, especially black dye.  Evidently, dying fabric so that it actually stayed black after washing was a pretty specialized skill back in the day.  He served as lieutenant and Captain under Prince Maurice of Nassau who lead the Dutch rebellion against Spain.  Jesse was also thrown into the mix with many Pilgrim Fathers
(future passengers on the Mayflower).


Jesse wanted to bring a group of Walloon Huguenot families to the New World so he petitioned the English Ambassador at The Hague to establish a colony in Virginia.  The ambassador said, sure but wouldn’t allow Jesse’s group of Walloon families to settle together.

Not happy with that deal, Jesse petitioned and received permission from the Dutch East India Company to immigrate to the West Indies

Drawing of Jesse de Forest

In 1623 Jesse was off to the New World on a small ship called The Pigeon on a reconnaissance mission to the coast of Guyana mapping with his good friend, Johannes de la Montague some of the first maps of the Brazilian coast.  Things looked promising with vast lands good for tobacco plantations.  Unfortunately, Jesse died there, presumably of sun stroke while living with the Yaos Indians on the banks of the Oyapock River
 "our said Captain died, much regretted by the Christians and Indians who had taken a great liking to him."

The group of settlers Jesse had organized back in Holland arrived in New Amsterdam in 1624.  Jesse never made it to New Amsterdam himself but his daughter, Rachel, ended up marrying his old friend, Johannes de la Montague.  Rachel and Johannes, who arrived back in the new world on the ship called The Rennselaerswyck in 1637,  settled in New Amsterdam taking over her brother, Henry’s tobacco plantation, Vrendal (what is known today as the upper half of Central Park in New York City).

While Jesse de Forest may have never set foot in New York his efforts to grow the colony there grant him the Founding Father status.

Monument in Battery Park


Thursday 11 June 2015

Dr Rowland Taylor 1510~1555

Rowland Taylor (1510 - 1555)
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Rowland Taylor was Clara Forbes Batton’s  10x great grandfather.  He and I share a birthday give or take 500 years. 

Rowland was a scholar and Anglican parish priest.  He received the LLD from Cambridge the same year Martin Luther completed his German bible.  He was married to Margaret Tyndale whose uncle (some researchers say her brother but most say uncle), William Tyndale, was burned at the stake and denounced as a heretic for his New English Bible translation.

Rowland Taylor Memorial, Aldham Common, England

Rowland picked a rather bad time to preach a sermon against the Catholic Church, mainly against forced celibacy for the priesthood.  He, along with a lot of the Protestants thought priests should be able to marry.
Queen “Bloody” Mary had landed on the throne and she was a big fan of the Pope.  Rowland was arrested only 6 days after Bloody Mary came to power. 
Rowland refused to back down when it came to his beliefs and had the unfortunate honor of being third in over 280 auto-de-fé ordered by Bloody Mary.

Rowland was burned at the stake February 9, 1555.  Just as the fire was lit a guard named, Warwick, took pity on Rowland, hitting him in the head with a halberd and killing him instantly sparing Rowland pain.

Both Rowland Taylor and William Tyndale became Martyrs for their faith.

William Tyndale 1484-1536

Wednesday 10 June 2015

The Lamberson’s Mixed Bag

When Hansel and Samuel Batton married into the Lamberson family they certainly picked a family with a very interesting lineage.

The Lamberson girl’s great grandparents, Johannes Fite (originally Vogt but the immigrations officials spelled it phonetically) and Catherine Cunningham came from Germany to New Jersey via Philadelphia in 1749.  They left Germany for one reason, love.  Catherine was supposedly of noble Scottish birth on her father’s side and 14 years Johannes junior.  Her family wasn’t happy about the match.  They ran away and jumped on the cargo ship, Ann, leaving behind most of their possessions.  Johannes had learned to do well for himself in Germany, working hard as a millwright he built up multiple small businesses in New Jersey on hundreds of acres of land.  Catherine and Johannes were married until his death in 1784 and had nine children together.


Johannes Fite (1714 - 1784)
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If we go even farther back in the Lamberson line we find the two most fascinating (I think anyway) ancestors in this whole collection.  There will be more on those two in the coming posts.
I thought somewhere in the family history we had to have someone who was involved in the Revolutionary War as a Patriot. When I looked into Sarah and Amanda’s mother, Sarah “Sally” Taylor’s family I found my first Revolutionary War hero.

Machpelah Cemetery, Townsville, North Carolina

Lt Col William Taylor, Sally’s grandfather, was born 1737 in Virginia and died 1803 Granville, North Carolina.  He was Clara Forbes Batton’s 4x great grandfather.
William signed up to the 6th North Carolina Regiment 15 April, 1776 and served with this regiment and the North Carolina militia until 1 June 1781.
According to a marker by his grave he was also at Valley Forge the winter of 1777-1778.

(For more info on William Taylor's military service click HERE)

Machpelah Cemetery, Townsville, North Carolina

Lt Col William Taylor’s parents, Catherine Pendleton and John Powell Taylor married in King and Queen County Virginia in 1716.  They moved to North Carolina establishing Machpelah Plantation which still stands today.

Machpelah


John’s grandfather, also named John Taylor, emigrated from England to Virginia with his wife, Elizabeth in 1648.  It is through John the immigrant’s father, Captain Thomas Taylor b. 1574 and his wife Margaret Swinderly b. 1578 in Denmark that we are related to 4th President of the USA, James Madison, 9th President of the USA, William Henry Harrison, 12th President of the USA, Zachary Taylor, 16th President of the USA, Abraham Lincoln, and 23rd President of the USA, Benjamin Harrison.
Our common ancestors, Thomas and Margaret Taylor were Clara Forbes Batton’s 8x great grandparents.

If we keep going back through time we will meet Thomas Taylor’s grandfather,
Dr Rowland Taylor but he’s also pretty interesting so he’s going to get his own post too.

Keep going back through the Taylor line and you end up with John Taylor 1327-1377 and his wife Margaret Wellmote 1328-1410.  With these two ancestors we can add a few more presidential cousins to the list. We share these common ancestors with not only the 5 presidents listed earlier but also, Willard Fillmore, Calvin Coolidge, Franklin Delano Roosevelt and Richard Nixon. 
It makes research a lot easier when you are related to Presidents. A lot of the work had already been done.



The Battons

The farthest back I have found documented in our Batton family is Daniel Batton born 1795 in Isle of Wight, Virginia.  The general consensus among the research I have found is our ancestor Daniel is a descendent of Ashwell Batten.
Ashwell arrived in Isle of Wight sometime before 1644 and was a man of substance. He was given an English land grant developing Hockley Plantation on the north side of the York River.  He imported many indentured servants and the trials with them show up in the local court records.
He had at least four wives one who was quite possibly on one of the first three ships to enter Jamestown in 1607.  His third wife, Ursula, died in an unlucky accident.  A Mr Whaley was attempting to shoot and kill a “beast” (I assume a cow) in a pen but unfortunately for Ursula, who was standing right by the pen, the bullet bounced off the beast’s horn and into Ursula.
If we do in fact descend from Ashwell it is most likely also from Ursula or Ashwell’s fourth wife, Anne.

Celia Hall Batton 1795-1870

What I know for sure is our Daniel Batton married Celia Hall, 18 January, 1815 in Isle of Wight, Virginia.

Their son, Hansel Batton was born in Isle of Wight but shortly after his birth the family moved to Tennessee, where the rest of the children were born and Daniel and Celia lived out the rest of their days.

 Both Hansel and his brother Samuel Hall Batton married into the Lamberson family. Hansel married Amanda and Samuel married her sister, Sarah. 

By 1850 Hansel Batton and his family were living in Alabama. At first they were in Marengo County but according to the history of Wilsonville they were well settled in Shelby County by the time of the Civil War.

Hansel Batton 1819-1890

“During the Civil War, forts at the Yellowleaf Creek and Coosa River bridges were overrun by the Yankees. As they passed through the area, Yankee soldiers camped at the Fourmile Creek bridge site at the foot of Batton Hill. A family of Battons lived near from which the hill received its name.”

There are records of a Hansel Batton from Alabama serving in the war but I haven’t been able to determine if it is our Hansel.
His brother, Samuel’s service is much better recorded.
Enlistment Date: Dec 10 1861 Age 42, Smithville (near Nashville) 
Taken prisoner and placed at Camp Morten, Indiana
Discharged on the 8th of October 1862 by order of Brigadier General Williamson due to injury.

Samuel Hall Batton 1821-1911

Hansel did leave a different trail of records…the legal kind.  In the 1850 census Hansel lists his occupation as grocer with a total estate value of $5000.  In the 1860 census total estate value was $10,000.  The war obviously took a toll on the family.  In the 1870 census Hansel’s occupation is listed as farmer with a total estate value of $725. There are at least 6 different court cases in Shelby County between 1861-1880. Three cases were brought against Hansel by a Mr Densler who owned the general store in Wilsonville.  Two more were brought by the merchants, Duran & Nelson and one by a Mr Gurrant all over debts.
Hansel was in good company, of the 1000’s of court cases listed in Shelby County for that time, the vast majority of the complaints are about debts, no doubt a direct result of the devastation caused by the war.

Old Chapel Cemetery, Wilsonville, Shelby CO, Alabama



“Carolina Crazy” The Migration of our Swiss-German Ancestors to Orangeburg, South Carolina and Autuaga, Alabama

Example of a pamphlet distributed in Europe to encourage immigration


In the early – mid 1700’s there was a big marketing campaign launched in Switzerland and Germany trying to attract settlers to townships set up in inland South Carolina. Pamphlets were sent out extolling the economic value of the land and escape from religious persecution. These pamphlets helped start a craze called “Rabies Carolinae” in Switzerland (aka Carolina Madness).

Our ancestors, the Shaumloffel family from Rheinland-Pfalz, Germany came in 1716 (settled in Charleston but the daughter, Lovisia, married into the Horger family of Orangeburg), the Horgers from Guttannen, Switzerland came on The Samuel in 1735, the Whetstones from Zurich, Switzerland came in 1737 and the Stoudenmires from Germany came in 1750.

Jacob Horger (Clara Forbes Batton’s 5x Great Grandfather ) was in the first group of settlers who came through Charleston and were escorted to what would become the township of Orangeburg on the Edisto River in July 1735. According to a Stoudenmire/Whetstone researcher, Mrs Gokey, the Stoudenmire family landed at Cape Fear and had to walk the 150 mile trip to Charleston before heading to Orangeburg.

Another fun fact from Mrs Gokey, there was an attempt to tie our Stoudenmire family to a noble German estate in the late 1800s.  The technology didn’t exist to prove the family’s connection (the noble ancestor was supposedly in the female line) so the claim to the estate in Germany couldn’t go forward. 


Elizabeth Houser 1786-1853

Just after the Creek Wars, around 1819, another trend nicknamed “Alabama Fever” broke out in South Carolina.  With promise of good land, mild climate, and abundance of waterways a number of the families decided to head west.  Sixty-nine wagons formed a train and headed through Georgia to Alabama.  Our ancestors in the group were John George Stoudenmire and his wife, Mary Magdelene Whetstone along with her brother, Reverend Henry Whetstone and his wife, Elizabeth Houser.  Members of the Debardeleben family also made up part of the wagon train.


Rev Henry Whetstone 1784-1834

They settled in the Dutch Bend area of Autauga, Alabama on a bluff overlooking the Alabama River.


For a more extensive list of the families who made the migration from South Carolina to Alabama
click HERE


The Keeners


Casper Keener (1660 - 1702)
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Both William Seth’s mother and Benjamin Averiett’s mother were Keeners.  In fact William Seth Stoudenmire and Dora Averiett shared the same great grandparents, William Keener Sr and Rachel.  If we trace this line back to immigration we meet Casper Keener (Kuher) and his son, Abraham. 
Casper was a Palatine from the Black Forest area which had traditionally been a wealthy part of Germany.  The French kept invading causing widespread devastation and famine which lead to mass emigration.  Casper left in 1738 on a ship called The Thistle.  Abraham followed in 1741 on board The Lydia.


They both swore allegiance to the King of England upon disembarking in PhiladelphiaCasper followed the Great Philadelphia Wagon Road down to North Carolina where he settled his family. 
When the Revolution started Abraham upheld his oath to the king and became a proper Tory.  Even though he was in his 60s he fought in the Battle of Ramsour’s Mill in 1780.  It is said that Abraham captured one of his close personal friends, Capt Kimik, who was fighting on the Whig side.  By making Captain Kimik his prisoner, Abraham saved his friend’s life.  There are a large number of researches who believe after this, Abraham flipped sides and became a Loyal Patriot.


Benjamin Averiett 1806-1879 Who’s Who in Alabama

Part of this excerpt was read to Anna, Matt and I by Mr Travis Wesson on the porch of Benjamin Averiett’s home while Buddy chased chickens, 2013.
(written as read except made a little more p.c. in terms of racist reference to the “servant”)

Benjamin Averiett was one of the first settlers in what is now Talladega County.
He made his way from Autauga to the farm which he settled through canebreaks and unbroken forest.  When he came upon a slough he would have to cut trees, roll them on top of logs, slide the wagon over by hand and then swim the team through the slough.  The woods at the time were full of Indians and wild game. 
One time when Mrs Averiett was left at home with an old servant, her husband being out in the field at work, a bear came near the house, caught a pet pig and carried it off. When Mrs Averiett saw the bear carrying off her last pig she, with true pioneer courage, seized a gun, followed the bear to the swamp and when near enough took deadly aim and laid the bruin low.  This was 3 days before her son, William, was born. 
When Mr Averiett came home and heard all that had happened he said to his wife,
“Sarah, what in the hell do you mean? One of these days I shall come to the house and find you killed.”
Benjamin was one of the early traders with the Indians, keeping a store for the purpose.  Over the years his farm grew to over 10,000 acres.  He owned two ferry systems and was instrumental in bringing the railroad to the Talladega area.
Too old to go to war in 1861 he served in the Home Guard sharing substantial amounts of money and supplies with soldier’s families.
He was a man of great determination. It was said of him he never undertook anything he failed to carry through.

Benjamin and Sarah Averiett's headstones
Fort Williams Baptist Church Cemetery

The Stoudenmire Connection




I have dragged my sister, Anna, on many an ancestor hunt in Alabama mostly chasing the Stoudenmire and Batton family.  We approached one lady’s home who felt the need to keep repeating that her husband was a lawyer in town (Anna and I must have looked menacing).  We’ve traipsed through another lady’s backyard that was both a blueberry farm and a graveyard.  We have ridden down the back, back dirt roads of Autaugaville. It was “suggested” we pull over by a man in a pickup truck.  Why this day I chose to wear tight leopard print pants and high platform heels, I don’t know.  He wanted to know what we thought we were doing. 

“Looking for the Stoudenmire Cemetery.”
“The white one or the colored one?” He asked.
“Umm, the white one today, thanks.”
(I hadn't heard the word "colored" used in a long time so this threw me a bit.)

He gave us directions and off we went to the “white” Stoudenmire Cemetery.  As we started to explore, the clouds rolled over the sun and a light mist fell.  I, still being a bit of a goth girl at heart was loving this.  Anna, not so much.  As I am frolicking from one grave to another taking photos of the Stoudenmire family headstones Anna was looking a tad nervous.  As the rain started to fatten up a low “Maaaaaaooooooooo” sound arose from the headstone behind my sister.  Anna has never been a particularly tan person but at that moment there wasn’t a stitch of pigment left in her face. She was White (not pinky skin color either) White!  Her eyes were so round, I’d ever seen anything like it.  For one split second I truly believe she thought an ancestral ghost was rising up to say, hello. 
Back in reality, a cow had just wondered over to see what we were doing. 
She stood behind Anna just chewing some grass. It was time to go home after that.

The visit to the cemetery was great but I was trying to make a connection between Willie Anna Stoudenmire’s father, William Seth and the rest of the Stoudenmire family.  I wasn’t sure if the people I had dragged Anna out to see were actually our relatives or not.

Last year I again recruited Anna along with Matt and Buddy for some more ancestor hunting.  Off we went to Sylacauga trying to find the home of some Averiett cousins.  William Seth Stoudenmire married Dora Ann Averiett in 1851 which is the link between the two families. 
We followed the little driving directions computer thing to a house that was having a garage sale.  Anna popped in and was told
“You’re looking for Uncle Travis.”

Painting of Benjamin Averiett's house

 We went down the road a bit to Fayetteville and found Mr Travis Wesson on the Averiett/Branch Farm. 
He was absolutely delightful.  He and his wife, Averiett Wesson, live in the house that was originally Benjamin Averiett’s (Willie Anna Stoudenmire’s grandfather) home.
He showed us the house, read us some family history while we sat on the front porch and showed us the family cemetery where William Seth Stoudenmire is buried. Buddy got to ride on the back of the pick up out to the cemetery.  He liked that. Mr Wesson was telling us some family members get together for a cemetery clean up once a year.  They like to eat brownies and drink beer which he says go together better than champagne and gingerbread. 

Willie Anna Stoudenmire (far left) on the steps of the Averiett House

 He also mentioned there is a spoken family history that Sarah Moore Grubbs, wife of Benjamin Averiett was part Native American.  I have yet to find any proof but there is substantial research linking the Grubbs family of Mississippi and Alabama to the Choctaw Nation, so it’s possible.

Buddy and me on the steps of the Averiett House, 2013

 I still hadn’t found any link between William Seth Stoudenmire and the rest of the family in Alabama but I was convinced he had to be related somehow.  I posted some photos of the headstones on the Averiett/Branch farm to a Stoudenmire Genealogy group on line and explained to the moderator the trouble I was having linking my ancestor to the rest of the family.  Larry (the moderator) did some digging and came up with a theory based on the 1840 census.  He gave me clues and I started putting the pieces together. 

William Seth Stoudenmire's Headstone

The clincher was the copy of a photo of Sarah “Aunt Todie” DeBardeleben from Willie Anna Stoudenmire’s photo album that Uncle Lionel had made notes on years ago.  He noted that Sarah was the sister of Dora Averiett and she helped bring up Willie Anna and her brother, Benjamin after their father died.  Just as a side note I had always heard that Dora had died young as well but she didn’t.  There were a few more marriages (at least 2) and a few more children, but I digress.  Back to Sarah.... Dora did in fact have a sister named Sarah but she married a Mr Dempsey Oden.  When I did a little more digging I found that Sarah Stoudenmire married Frank Debardeleben and Voila!  Sarah was William Seth’s sister.  All the pieces fell into place. The cemetery that I made Anna drive to just to scare her half to death was in fact the final resting place of our Stoudenmire ancestors.

Sarah Stoudenmire Debardeleben (middle)
For more information on the early Stoudenmires
click HERE




A Collection of Fascinating Individuals from the Ancestral Tree of Clara Forbes Batton Rice

Clara Forbes Batton Rice
1888-1987

About a year ago my Mom asked me one little question about something she saw on Ancestry.com.
A few months later there was a book delivered to her door,
A Collection of Fascinating Individuals from the Ancestral Tree of Clara Forbes Batton Rice.
I started looking up one thing and got obsessed.

I am a genealogy junkie.
I spent a lot of time in my 20s in Newberry Library in Chicago watching microfiche whiz by until it made me feel queasy. I've tromped around cemeteries from Autaugaville, Alabama to Leighlinbridge, Ireland.

My childhood love of the Shirley Temple movie, The Bluebird, is what really started my longing to know more about my family history. When Mytyl (Temple's character) is on her journey to find the bluebird of happiness she goes to the Land of Memory to visit her grandparents who had passed away. They "wake-up" and are so happy she remembered them because a loved one thinking is what keeps them alive. 

I thought I would share the information I put in the book for my Mom on a blog so it would be easier to share.  I have tried my best to be as accurate as possible but I am sure I have probably made mistakes along the way. Genealogy is an ever evolving mystery to solve.  I have paraphrased my findings on some ancestors but will add links to further information. 

Many years ago my Mom asked Mommie (what we all called Clara Forbes Batton Rice) where her family came from.  Her answer went something like Alabama, and before that, Tennessee and before that, Virginia.  For a long time I thought this answer was just a brush off answer but I was wrong.  Her family has been in America for a very long time.