Family History

There are many things that prompt a family history project—a school assignment, a desire to see if you are related to anyone famous or infamous as the case may be, and simply wanting to know your family roots. Perhaps you want to know where your family first settled in the United States or maybe you want to be sure about the country your family originated from. Perhaps you simply want to identify the first one in a long line of folks similar to you.

My father began his quest in 1985 after the birth of Dear Son. My parents made the trek from Canton, Georgia to Virginia Beach, Virginia to see their newest grandchild and stayed a few days. While Papa Buddy, as his grandchildren call him, was thrilled to hold the newest member of our family he was distracted a bit by a local Virginia Beach attraction called The Francis Land House (pictured here).

I had already wondered if Francis Land could be an ancestor as I passed by the home weekly going here and there. We discussed how the family line of Francis Land would probably have been researched already all the way back to relations in England. If we could get our line back far enough perhaps we could find the link that would connect the two families.

Papa Buddy made sure he visited the property before heading home, and once back in Georgia he became more than interested in his family line. He made sure he let the docents at the Francis Land House know that he was a Land, and my mother stated he was treated really well while there. Today my father has a lovely picture of the home framed along with a nice handwritten note from the director of the property hanging in his home. Through his research we discovered that Charles Lindburgh was part of a Land family branch on his mother’s side, and we found this interesting person as well.

Today because of my father’s hardwork we know for certain who is who from my children back eight generations. I can say with certainty that I know the name of the sixth great-grandfather of my children dating to the birth of Isaac Land, Sr. in 1750. Fortunately a relative has posted the line including some of the other sibling lines as well. Unfortunately it was at the year 1750 that my father reached a brick wall in the paper trail which so often defeats a family researcher.

My earliest known relative, Isaac Land, Sr., is in the militia records and they indicate he fought during the fall of Charleston because in 1785 he collected his pension. His son was named Jeremiah and his wife, Catherine, was born in Fannin County, Georgia. I know that my family was in a group of many settlers that began to move from North Carolina over the mountains into Tennessee and later Georgia. The first relative that did this was Isaac Land, Jr. He’s buried in Pickens County, Georgia and I have been to his grave. He was minister of the gospel for sixty years. It is at this point that my part of the Land family finally settled in and around Cherokee County where my father lives today.

The question remained, however, who came before Isaac, Sr.?

Many family groups are bridging the paper gap in family lines by using DNA testing. When paper proof cannot be located DNA can at least provide information that one group is related to another. Will we ever find a missing link that joins our family group to the group for Francis Land? I don’t know, but I do know that through the process you do find out little details you wouldn’t have known earlier. This is the webpage announcing the details for a DNA project with several Land family lines, and this is the page that proclaims:

We now have results from eleven (11) previously unrelated participants that indicate that they are related to a common Land ancestor. These results show that James Land, NC, 1793; Joseph Land, VA, 1724; William Land, SC, 1795; Jacob Land,1809, SC; Isaac Land, NC, 1750 (my relative); Thomas James Land c. 1727-1734 VA; and Samuel Land, Delaware are all from the same family!

Now we just need to figure out how!

Occasionally as I do a new search under the family name I discover pictures of relatives others have posted. At this link I discovered a great uncle many times removed in the first picture. In the fifth set of pictures my great grandfather is featured with a great uncle and his son and grandson, and in the final photo I discovered a family grouping of my great grandparents and all of their children taken at the homeplace that used to be on my father’s property. My father has the same photo. My great-grandparents are sitting on the second row in the middle and along the bench with them are their children. My grandfather is on the left at the very end with my grandmother standing immediately behind her. Their daughter Rachel is next to her while the other daughter, Ruth is on the row with only four girls. She is the first one on the left. The note with this picture indicates it was taken in 1927, so it was two years before my father was born.

This post was actually prompted by Dr. Blaine Bettinger at The Genetic Genealogist who posted his own thoughts about the genetics of the blogging meme, The Thinking Blogger.

When I discovered Dr. Bettinger had linked to me I clicked over and read his post. As I read it I couldn’t help but think about my father’s family line. Once we go two steps away from my grandfather, our family, like many others, have no pictures, no letters, and no journals to indicate to us who these names on our family tree represent. These ancestors while they are very important to my family are merely inked names in dusty record books across time. We will never know what they actually looked like or sounded like. I know that certain members of my family fought in the Revolution, in the War of 1812, and in the Civil War. We have papers that track their movements, but I don’t know why they fought or how they felt about their service.

I was able to reach across the Internet last week and introduce myself to Dr. Bettinger as his blog meme great-grandmother many times over. Unfortunately my oldest ancestors cannot do that except by exisiting as a name on a list.

The optimist in me, however, would like to think that nine generations or so in the future as another member of the Land family may be searching for relatives they will find more than simply names and certificates in heavy books. They will be able to locate weblogs like this one, websites, and MySpace pages of relatives and discover much more behind a name with a simply click of a mouse.

Just Another Indentured Servant?

During most of the time I lived in Virginia Beach, Virginia many moons ago I was either hugely pregnant or I was toting a baby around. The ongoing situation was not very condusive to sightseeing in and around my temporary home while Dear Hubby was in the Navy.

There I was in a veritable hotbed of history---one location even bore my maiden name---and I, historical freak that I am, was stymied by motherhood.

Now before you get the wrong idea let me state Dear Son was welcomed with open arms and ample lap. I simply look back on those two years spent in and around the sights of Virginia Beach, Norfolk, and Jamestown, and can’t believe I allowed so many historical gems to slip through my fingers.

I did manage to make it to Williamsburg, but another place I toured was the Adam Thoroughgood House the subject of my wordless entry this week.

Frumteacher correctly identified the location while The Tour Marm finally linked the house and my hints to a news story concerning the height of Americans. When I heard the story I began to wonder how it could be used with students. Then I remembered my visit to the Thoroughgood house. I was the tourist that asked the stupid question regarding how small the furniture in the house was. I think my question was, “Did ya’ll cut this stuff down? It looks like doll furniture?”

It did. I’m only slightly over five feet and I towered over the table and chairs. The docent informed us that during the early colonial period people were much shorter and the furniture would have been normal to people living in the 17th Century.

Now let’s take a look at the news story from Good Morning America yesterday.

A study completed by the University of Munich and Princeton University found the U.S. had the shortest population in the industrialized world and the reason may have to do with way people live.

From the Daily Kent Stater back in March:

In the United States, the current average height of an adult man is 5 feet, 9 inches, and for an adult woman, it is 5 feet, 3 inches, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.

In the Netherlands, though, men average 6 feet tall while the average woman is 5 feet, 7 inches, according to the Leiden University Medical Centre in the Netherlands.

What’s that you say? So what? Well…….

What if I shared pictures of colonial furniture from the 17th century and discussed why things appear so low to the ground?

What if I then shared the news story?

This could possibly be an interesting way to pose an ongoing mystery for students to work on for several weeks. Why were early colonists so short? How did Americans get the distinction of being the tallest? All year long we could refer back to the story and analyze new information in relation to the growing height of Americans. Finally….how did America loose their title? Again, another mystery would be posed.

Ok….if that doesn’t float your instructional boat Adam Thoroughgood is a great early colonist for students to learn about. Many of my students tend to think about indentured servants as no better than slaves themselves. Thoroughgood’s story was common of many young men in England during the late 1600s and early 1700s. Since he was the seventh son of an Anglican vicar he was not the first born son and had no hope of an inheritance even though his family was very prominent in Kings Lyn, Norfolk, England, so at age 18 he sailed for the colonies as an indentured servant.

Once he worked his contract he was able to own land and he became very involved by serving in the House of Burgesses, Governor’s Council, and Justice of the Court. Records indicate he was also a captain in the milita. After Virginia became a royal colony many places were renamed or named for the first time. Thoroughgood is given credit for naming New Norfolk County (later the city of Norfolk) in 1624 after his home in England.

Thoroughgood increased his land holdings when he returned to England and persuaded 105 new colonists to sail back to Virginia with him. For his trouble he received 5,000 acreas and his actions insured George Washingon would be born as one of the new colonists was Augustine Warner, Washington’s early ancestor. The ancestor of George Mason, another important Patriot, was also in that colonist group.

Thoroughgood died at an early age (36). The Adam Thoroughgood House…though it bears his name…was not a place where he ever lived. It is believed it belonged to his son. Unfortunately Thoroughgood’s grave along with others from the time period is now submerged in the water and mud of the Lynnhaven River. Some unconfirmed stories state swimmers in the early 1800s could still feel the tombstones with their toes.

The house itself is a symbol of upward mobility in early American society and shows how architecture did change over time. While there were some alterations to the structure during restoration in 1957 the brick is a common building material used in Virginia at the time the house was built. The chimney on the north side is set within the wall in order to warm the house again north winds while the chimney on the south end of the house is on the exterior.

So, I'm going to print out those articles about Americans getting shorter and I'm going to head to the basement and stuff the copies in my Early Colonization unit book. You never know....they might come in handy.