Exciting Beadles DNA News

For a very long time, descendants of Lewis Yancey Beadles of Graves County, Kentucky and descendants of Basset Beadles who settled just south of Graves County in Weakley County, Tennessee have been searching for their origins. Karen Frazer who descends from Basset has been working with her own family members and descendants of other Beatles families to encourage male family members with the Beadles surname to participate in Y-DNA testing at Family Tree DNA. In the last week Karen has shared the matching Y-DNA results of a descendant of Basset Beadles to a descendant of James Beadles of Louisa County, Virginia who was the uncle of our ancestor Lewis Yancey Beadles of the Jackson Purchase. To add to these great results, there was also a descendant of Edmond Beadles whose DNA matched. Edmond Beadles was initially from Louisa County and also migrated to Kentucky.

Both Lewis Yancey Beadles and Basset Beadles were born in Virginia and migrated to the Jackson Purchase area shortly after it was opened for settlement arriving in May and June of 1830. Lewis Yancey Beadles received his first land grant from the Bureau of Land Management on the 31st of May 1830. Less than a month later on the 17th of June 1830, Bassett Beadles and his son William both received grants all of which are recorded in Kentucky's grants west of the Tennessee River.

The map of the Jackson Purchase area above points out Wingo, Kentucky where Lewis Yancey Beadles received six (6) sections of land adjoining the section granted to his son-in-law Jerman Jeduthan Wingo for whom the town derived it's name.

Basset's first land grant in 1830 was in the area of Cuba, Kentucky to the southeast of the town of Wingo where Lewis Yancey Beadles had settled. Within the next few years Basset moved further south and is recorded in Weakley County, Tennessee in 1840. The town of Dukedom in Weakley County is credited with having been named for Basset's son Duke.

During the 1850's Basset's son William was also a resident of Graves County, Kentucky where he was the County Clerk. William's two sons, Alfred and Marshal, became physicians and Dr. Alfred Beadles practiced in Wingo, Kentucky.

It has been speculated that these Beadles' families may have been related but until Karen received the Y-DNA results, there was nothing more than proximity to connect the two families of the Jackson Purchase. Since he was listed on the tax lists of Louisa County, proximity is also the only thing to connect the third matching Y-DNA tester's probable ancestor Edmund Beadles to brothers James and William Beadles.

There were two Edmund Beadles of the same era, one living in King William County who was a Revolutionary War soldier and brother to Joel Beadles. That Edmund does not appear to have ever left the Tidewater area for his Revolutionary War pension statement given in 1834 states that he was at that time a resident of King William County and had always been. I had initially believed that a small scrap with Edmund Beadles' signature as a witness in the file of a Louisa County chancery suit involving William and his brother James Beadles was the Edmund Beadles who migrated to Pittsylvania County and subsequently to Kentucky, but recently discovered that he signed with an X on several deeds in Pittsylvania which indicates that the signature is not his. This second Edmund Beadles who is believed to be the ancestor of the third Y-DNA tester is recorded on the tax lists of Louisa County along with brothers William and James Beadles. In 1782, Edmund or Edmond was listed on the tax lists there but by 1795 he was apparently living in Pittsylvania County for he is listed on their tax lists of that year. In 1788 he was joined by Rice and Seaton Beadles on those Pittsylvania tax lists. Two deeds dated 1797 that name him along with wife Unity indicate that they were selling their property in Virginia prior to migrating to Kentucky. By August 16, 1800 Edmond and Rice Beadles were listed on the tax lists of Lincoln County, Kentucky. The third DNA tester descends from John Beadles who married Priscilla Harralson in Person County, North Carolina around 1792 and is believed to be a son of Edmond. Person County is just below Pittsylvania County on the Virginia-North Carolina border. John was still recorded in Person County in the 1800 census but within a few years, he had settled in Mercer County, Kentucky adjoining Lincoln County.

This by no means solves all of the mysteries of the Beadles of Virginia's Tidewater region, but these Y-DNA results are an important discovery in regard to the research of the Beadles families of Virginia and has proven that they were very closely related. All three of the Beadles' descendants whose Y-DNA matched are extremely close genetically, matching on 109 of 111 SNP markers.

If you are a male Beadles' descendant with the Beadles surname, please consider participating in the Y-DNA project at Family Tree DNA and further adding to our knowledge of these families.

Uncle Harley Reeves

Jesse Harley Reeves was my grandfather's younger brother, born 30 March 1890 in Blandville, Ballard County, Kentucky. Their father, Sidney Preston Reeves, died in 1905 at the young age of 46 and a few years later, Harley left Kentucky and began working in Yellowstone National Park. Harley's desire to visit this area may have been inspired by his older half brother Burley Douthit's military posting to Wyoming in 1909. Whatever the reason, Harley left Kentucky as soon as he became an adult and headed for the northwest.

Naomi Harriett Davis

In 1913 at Eagle Creek in the park, he married Naomi Harriett Davis. For the next sixteen years, Harley and Naomi with their children lived in Yellowstone. It always amazes me to think of what a brave girl Naomi was living in the wilderness and raising her small children with such incredible wildlife. But it was also a fantastic experience for the whole family.

Over the next sixteen years, Harley and Naomi had Sylvia, Jessie Harlene, Burley, Clyde and Bud. One of their granddaughters told me that they would spend the summers camped in the areas of the park where Harley was working. In the summer of 1925 they camped in the Upper Geyser Basin near Old Faithful, the summer of 1928 they were in the Norris Geyser Basin and in other summers at various other locations.

The map of the park below has notations where several of their summers were spent:

They returned to Kentucky to visit family around 1918 when the country was experiencing the terrible flu epidemic of 1918. Both Harley and Naomi along with some of the children contracted the flu but survived and returned to Montana and Yellowstone Park.

By 1930 the family had left Yellowstone for Yakima, Washington. There Harley was farming on the Yakima Indian Reservation in Washington State and the children were all attending school.

During the 1960's, Harley, Naomi and their granddaughter Doreen made several trips back to Kentucky. They even managed to visit Texas where Harley and my grandfather enjoyed several wonderful visits.

Harley and Naomi remained in Washington the rest of their lives. In Paulsbo, Kitsap, Harley died in 1960 and Naomi in Yakima in 1964 after living what I consider the great adventure of their family's time in the Yellowstone.

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Special thanks to my cousin Carole Davey, granddaughter of Harley Reeves, for sharing these wonderful pictures and the map of Yellowstone.

Reeves-Hall Family Bible

Yesterday, I received a wonderful surprise in the form of an email from my Kentucky cousin Donald J. Stewart.  I had asked him some months ago if he knew who currently had possession of the family bible kept by Perlina Hall Reeves, wife of Sidney Preston Reeves of Ballard County.  I knew the bible existed because many years ago, before the availability of copy machines and scanners, my mother had seen it and transcribed some of the information.  At that time the bible was in the possession of Donald's aunt Bonita Reeves Hutcherson.

The bible had descended through Donald's family because the terms of Sidney Preston Reeves' 1881 Ballard County will left the home place and all household goods to his youngest son, David Walter Reeves, Donald's ancestor.  What a benefit to family genealogy that those household goods included the bible and were left to a family member who continued to live in Ballard County.

Perlina Hall Reeves & Sidney Preston Reeves

The bequest to David Walter Reeves is as follows "provided my youngest son David Walter Reeves lives with me during my natural life then at my death I give to him all of my personal property after my just debts all paid provided further that if I should die before my wife Pollina Ann Reeves if my son David Walter Reeves lives with and takes care of his mother Pollina Ann Reeves during her natural life then at her death in addition to the personal property heretofore given him I give him the said David Walter Reeves the homestead containing one hundred & twenty five acres of land heretofore devised to my wife Pollina Ann Reeves during her natural life."  

Dates of birth for Perlina Hall Reeves' siblings are also recorded in the bible in addition to Reeves' family members.  Ballard County's Charles Morgan Hall was a brother to Perlina and is named.

Although the birth dates of Perlina and Sidney Preston Reeves are recorded in the bible, the birthdates of the members of their family begin with their oldest son George Adam Reeves, born February 1, 1840.  

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Thanks so much to my cousin Donald for searching for the bible and scanning its pages to share with me.

Col. Harry Ripley Melton, Jr.

U.S. Military Academy at
West Point - 1936 Yearbook

Harry Ripley Melton, Jr. was the son of Col. Harry Ripley Melton, M.D. a native of Ballard County, Kentucky.  Harry Melton, Sr. was the son of Nannette "Nettie" Hall and French Montcalm Melton. His maternal grandparents were Charles Morgan Hall and Mary Elizabeth Wingo and his paternal grandparents were Henry P. Melton and Mary Ann Sams, all of Ballard County. 

Harry R. Melton, Sr. married Anne Given Rothroth in McCracken County on July 17th, 1909 and their son Harry Ripley Melton, Jr. was born in Ballard County in 1911.

Harry, Jr. was a cadet at the U.S. Military Academy at West Point, graduating in 1936. He initially entered the cavalry but later took pilots' training at Randolph and Kelly Fields in San Antonio, Texas and transferred to the Army Air Corps. While living in San Antonio, he met and married Lavonia Smith and had a daughter, Anne, born October 2, 1938. The couple later divorced and Harry took custody of his daughter Anne. On June 23, 1941 he married Natalie Jean Wilson of St. Petersburg, FL.

During World War II, Col. Harry R. Melton, Jr. was the Commanding Officer of the 311th Fighter-Bomber Group (311th FBG). During his service, he flew the A-36 Apache and later the P-51A Mustang on dive bombing and escort missions over Burma.  On the 25th of November 1943, Harry took off, piloting a P-51A Mustang on a mission to escort bombers over Rangoon in Burma.

Col. Melton fired on and scored three hits on a Ki-43 Oscar piloted by Lt. Yohei Hinoki then performed a split-s maneuver, exposing his belly to Hinoki who opened fire damaging his aircraft. Afterwards, Hinoki broke off his attack to aid his comrades. When leaving the target area, Harry's aircraft began trailing black smoke and lost air speed. Another P-51A piloted by 2nd Lt. Everett Briggs observed him bailing out at 1,000 ft. above the ground then disappeared roughly 100 miles northwest of Rangoon and twenty miles east of the Bay of Bengal. When he failed to return, Col. Melton was officially declared Missing In Action (MIA).

Missing Air Crew Report

He was immediately captured by the Japanese and became a Prisoner Of War (POW). After he was captured, Lt. Hinoki received a telephone call, telling him that they caught a colonel, and asked if he was interested in meeting him, but Hinoki declined although he remembered the name “Melton” and wrote the story in his postwar memoir.

Harry was detained at Burma #5, Moulmein & Rangoon Jail. Later, he was moved to Singapore to be transported aboard a ship to Japan. He was one of 2,200 British and Australian prisoners loaded aboard the Rakuyo Maru departing Singapore on September 6, 1944 bound for Japan. On September 12, 1944 while in the South China Sea off Hainan Island, the ship was torpedoed by the USS Sealion (SS-315) after which she became unable to make way and began to sink. On September 14, 1944, he was in a lifeboat with other POWs when a Japanese destroyer machine gunned everyone in the life boat, including Harry Melton, Jr..

Japanese author and researcher Henry Sakaida who was in contact with Lt. Hinoki recalled that "Hinoki-san was truly saddened by the way Melton died, and politely asked me to see if I could locate the widow. I thought it was a worthy challenge and I accepted. He composed a letter of sympathy and asked that I deliver it. Hinoki-san died in January 1991 of cancer, but I continued my search for 30 years until I located her daughter, Kip, to whom I delivered his letter."

The citation accompanying the posthumous award of the Distinguished Flying Cross to Colonel Melton read as follows:

For extraordinary achievement in aerial flight between 16 October 1943 and 23 November 1943. During this period, Colonel Melton, Commanding Officer of the 311th Fighter Bomber Group, distinguished himself by participating, as pilot, in numerous combat missions over enemy occupied Burma. These flights, consisting of bombing, offensive reconnaissance, ground strafing and escort far over enemy territory, have resulted in the destruction of such enemy material and installations. On one of a series of important missions over Rangoon, the enemy succeeded in destroying Colonel Melton's plane, but it was only when the plane started to burn that he abandoned it deep in enemy territory. That Colonel Melton ordered his wing pilot to join the main formation, instead of following the parachute down, is indicative of the spirit that distinguished him as a flier and as a leader. His activities have constituted an outstanding example of leadership to the pilots and personnel under his command and reflect great credit upon himself and the entire military service.

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Col. Harry R. Melton, Sr. was my grandfather's "double cousin". They were related through both the Wingo and the Hall families and grew up together in Ballard County. Col. Melton and Aunt Annie retired in San Antonio and we took my grandfather to see them whenever he visited here. They were lovely and I have very special memories of them.

Pryor Family & Friends, Part 3

Census records list James Brock Pryor's occupation as barber. The "X" appears to indicate that the second barber in this picture is James. The barber shop was in Memphis.


Alberta Cullins Lawrence

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Alberta was James' granddaughter and is shown in Part 2 at younger ages. This photograph isn't marked well, having only the word Cullins written on the reverse but since it appears to have been taken around the late 1920's or early 30's, it is most likely Alberta.

Alberta

Opie Lawrence

Miss Donald
Opie's 1st Grade Teacher

Opie was the son and only child of Alberta Cullins and Marion Lawrence of Memphis, Shelby County, Tennessee. The reverse of the photo above names the lady pictured as Opie's first grade teacher, Miss Donald.


Other Family & Friends

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Harper Sisters

I believe the ladies above are the sisters of James Brock Pryor's wife Nancy Margaret Harper. "For Aunt Nan" is written on the reverse along with the names - Aunt Susan, Mamma (Nancy Harper Pryor) and Aunt Mat. Graves County census records list both a Susan and a Martha "Mattie" among the children of James Byrd Harper and Margaret Minerva Cargill, siblings of Nancy Harper Pryor.

Lola Allison

Unknown Child

Lola Allison was the daughter of Louanna Pryor and Henry Clay Allison of Graves County, Kentucky. Louanna was the first cousin of James Brock Pryor, daughter of John S. Pryor and Susan Cargill.

Rube Dosset

The writing on the photo materials says "Rube Dossett, Mayfield, Kentucky". After a little research, I find that Rube was Rupert O. Dossett, Jr., son of R. O. Dossett, Sr. and Anna Mae Harper. Rube's mother Anna Mae Harper was the daughter of Thomas Harper and a niece of Nancy Margaret Harper Pryor. Additionally, Anna Mae's mother was Arramissa Pryor, daughter of Jeremiah Pryor and first cousin to James Brock Pryor. In the brief time I spent doing this research, I found numerous connections between the Pryor and Harper families.

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Once again, I would like to extend my thanks to Diane Walker who so graciously went out of her way to see that these photos made their way home to their Pryor relatives.

Thanks also to Vanessa Wood of the Tennessee Pryors website for all of her help and for sharing information about these photos on their Facebook page.

The Family of James Brock Pryor

Recently I was contacted by someone who purchased a quantity of photographs that appeared to have come from a family album for Pryor individuals who descend from the Graves County family. She had purchased the pictures at a flea market in Hardy, Arkansas and was anxious to return them to some member of their family. The individuals in the pictures all appear to belong to the family of James Brock Pryor who was the son of William Pryor and Carolyn Lochridge originally of Graves County. William was the youngest son of Jonathan Pryor for whom Pryorsburg was named and one of the earliest settlers to the Jackson Purchase area.

This lovely lady just wanted to get the pictures back to a Pryor relative. Since it wasn't my direct line, I was hesitant to accept them. William Pryor was the brother of my third great grandmother Eustacia "Stacy" Pryor, so after some discussion, I agreed to accept the pictures and share them here.

James Brock Pryor and Nancy Margret Harper Pryor had five children - Robert E. Lee Pryor, (Effa) Myrtle Pryor, John B. Pryor, James L. Pryor and Esther Lillian Pryor born between 1869 and 1884. These photos appear to have come from an album containing family photos belonging to Esther Pryor Cullins or her daughter Alberta.

James Brock Pryor

Nancy Margaret Harper

Lady with cow is probably Nancy Harper Pryor

The Family Car

Esther, Thomas Douglas and
 Mrs. Nancy Pryor

Aunt Maggie

Esther Lillian Pryor

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Esther Pryor
baby picture

Esther Pryor

Esther Pryor

Parents of James Brock Pryor

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William Pryor & Carolyn Lockridge

This is only the first of several posts showcasing these great photographs of James Brock Pryor's family. The families of Esther Pryor Cullins and her sister Myrtle Pryor Wahl are next to come.

Many thanks to Diane Walker for these photos and her desire for them to be shared by Pryor family members.

Pryors of Bourbon County, Kentucky

Joseph Pryor, Sr., son of Samuel Pryor and Prudence Thornton, settled in Bourbon County, Kentucky by 1810 when he was recorded in the census of that year. He had previously lived for some years in Botetourt County, Virginia where he is listed each year as a taxpayer from 1771 (corrected from 1783) until 1792. By 1800 he is found on the tax lists in Woodford County, Kentucky before his move to Bourbon. Woodford County was formed from Fayette County in 1788 as was Bourbon in 1786. By 1810 Joseph was recorded in the census of Bourbon County. He wrote his will there on the 30th of December, 1812 and by February Court of 1813 he was deceased when his will was presented for probate.

There is much speculation on possible family connections between the various Pryor families who settled in Kentucky and Tennessee after the American Revolution although at present nothing has been found to document a connection. Joseph Pryor used some of the same given names that are common in our Pryor family of the Jackson Purchase descending from Richard and Mourning Thomson Pryor such as William, Joseph, John and Richard but we have no documented proof to connect the families. My two first cousins and I have numerous autosomal DNA matches to descendants of Joseph in Ancestry's DNA system but it is not as reliable as Y Chromosome DNA tests. The participation of Pryor individuals who descend from our Richard Pryor who died in Logan County, Kentucky in 1797 is needed to truly confirm the relationship.

Recently in the course of searching the wonderful collections of original documents at Family Search, I found scans of several original documents by Joseph Pryor and his sons which include their signatures. Original signatures are a great benefit to genealogical researchers especially since early American colonial families favored ancestral names and used the same given names repeatedly. It's wonderful to have scans of these signatures that help identify various individuals.

This 1810 consent to the marriage of his daughter Prudence to Robert Hall was signed by an elderly Joseph Pryor just two to three years before his death in early 1813. The consent also includes the original signatures of his sons John, Richard and Edward Pryor as witnesses.

Another interesting document found at Family Search is the following bond executed by Joseph Pryor (Jr.) and his brother John in November of 1815 to the Commonwealth of Kentucky when requesting a license to allow Joseph to keep a tavern in his house in Bourbon County.

If you're a male descendant of Richard Pryor and Mourning Thomson with the Pryor surname, please consider participating in the Pryor Y-DNA Project.

JP Ancestors in the Court of Henry VIII

As unbelievable as this sounds, I have recently discovered that the documented ancestors of Sarah Loy who married John Isaac Clapp and Sarah M. Rozzell, wife of Lewis Yancey Beadles, Jr., the daughter of Thomas Rozzell and Nancy Abernathy, were in fact descended from Sir Thomas Boleyn through his daughter Mary Boleyn. Several years ago a movie The Other Boleyn Sister was made about Mary, but her sister Anne, second wife of Henry VIII and mother of Queen Elizabeth I, is the most famous of the two sisters.

Mary Boleyn

Both of these Graves County families descend from Christopher Tilghman and Ruth Blount who are documented as coming to the American colonies in 1638. Sarah Loy, the daughter of George Loy and Mary Catherine Tillman (Tilghman) descends from Christopher's son Gideon while Sarah M. Rozzell descends from his son Roger Tilghman.

The great granddaughter of Mary Boleyn and William Carey of Aldenham, and mother of Ruth Blount was Penelope Devereux. The history of this family is filled with the intrigues of the courts of both Henry VIII and his daughter Queen Elizabeth I. Mary Boleyn is recorded as having had an affair with the king before her sister Anne became his second wife and the mother of Elizabeth.

Lady Penelope Devereux, although married to Robert Rich (3rd Baron Rich), had an affair with Charles Blount, Baron Mountjoy. Lady Penelope and Charles Blount are documented as having had four children, one of whom was Ruth. Penelope's brother Robert Devereax, the Earl of Essex, a favorite of Queen Elizabeth was eventually tried and sent to the Tower of London where he was executed. After Devereux fell from favor with the Queen, Lord Rich divorced Penelope in 1605. Prior to the divorce, Lord Rich threw Penelope and her Blount children out of the house. She then began living in his house and having a very public affair with Mountjoy. After Queen Elizabeth's death when James I became King of England, he created Mountjoy the 1st Earl of Devonshire.

Once divorced, Penelope and Mountjoy requested to be married in order to legitimize the children but King James I refused. They did marry in a private ceremony performed by Mountjoy's chaplain but afterward were banished from court by King James.

The above photos of paintings depicting Penelope's parents, Walter Devereux, 1st Earl of Essex and her mother Lettice Knollys make the disparity of their lives and that of their descendants, our Jackson Purchase ancestors, extremely apparent.

It was not uncommon for young men from well to do families like Christopher Tilghman to leave England and settle in the new colonies. The English practice of primogeniture which is the right of the firstborn child to inherit the family estate was the law or custom at the time of the settlement of the American colonies. Many younger sons who were left to make their own way chose to seek their fortunes in the New World. Here they could own vast tracts of land and become affluent as they never could have in England.

I love genealogy but it has never been my aim to find titled or famous ancestors, this information came to me recently from another researcher who called to my attention the identity of the parents of Ruth Blount (sometimes called Devonshire). It is still amazing to me that these are my ancestors and not just the subjects of history books and PBS series.

My 5th Great Grandmother Sarah

Sarah was the grandmother of Jerman J. Wingo who settled the town of Wingo, in Graves County, Kentucky. She married Thomas Wingo, Jr. around 1757 and by 1765 she was a young widow with four small children. There are no clues to Sarah's surname and the identity of her family although they were surely neighbors of the Wingo family in Amelia County, Virginia living among the families between Flatt Creek and the Appomatox River.

Various family trees online, particularly on Ancestry.com list Sarah as Sarah Rucker, but that is incorrect as Sarah Rucker was the wife of Thomas Wingo's brother John. This is substantiated by a court case following Sarah Rucker Wingo's death around 1780. In 1791 her father, William Rucker, executed a deed of gift to the heirs of his deceased daughter. The disputed slaves Milly and her children Sam, Ben, Nan, Charles, Becky, Lewis, Rueben, Edy and Moses were still in the possession of John Wingo, Sarah's husband, as late as 1797. A settlement was finally negotiated between John Wingo and his children wherein they received the slaves given by their grandfather and agreed not to make any claims or demands against the estate of John Wingo. (Amelia Co., VA; Book 9; Page 275; Probate records; 22 Nov 1821)

Sarah is also listed as Sarah Foster in many online family trees which is probably the result of some confusion because she married John Foster the son of William Foster of the Stock's Creek area in Amelia County after Thomas Wingo, Jr.'s death. In 1779, Sarah's son Obediah was listed as a tithe of John Foster and in 1782, Thomas Wingo was. This indicates that it was Sarah and John Foster who raised Thomas Wingo, Jr.'s children, not his brother John W. Wingo as some speculate. It is not impossible that Sarah was the daughter of one of the other Foster families in the area but much research has failed to identify a family with a daughter Sarah who was of the right age and available to have been the wife of Thomas Wingo and William Foster's son John.

Over the last 30 years, I have researched many of the Amelia County neighbors of the Wingo family searching for a family that might have been Sarah's. Richard Borum's 1785 Amelia County will named a daughter Sara Foster, but no records can be found that definitely identify Sarah Borum and the Foster family she married into. Colonial Amelia County is filled with countless families like Meador, Burton, Worsham and Seay which are all names I see repeatedly in autosomal DNA matches but have no documentation of any family connection. For now I'll just keep researching each of the neighboring families as I find a DNA match and maybe someday I'll find Sarah.

Wyatt Wilkerson

Wyatt Wilkerson was the maternal grandfather of Sidney Preston Reeves and his brother William Harrison Reeves who settled in the Jackson Purchase around 1840 in the area that became Ballard County. Wyatt was born about 1740 in Virginia and his marriage to Mary Britt on 26 Dec 1765 is recorded in the Douglas Register of St. James Northam Parish, Goochland County. Mary was the daughter of William Britt and Hannah Connelly of Goochland County and is named as Mary Wilkerson in his 1787 will.

Based upon information from the 1807 will of Wyatt's brother, Joel Wilkerson, recorded in Logan County, Kentucky, Wyatt was originally from the southside of Virginia since he was described as being "of Prince George County, Virginia". Wyatt was named as the executor and primary heir in Joel's will which also mentioned possible legacies left by their father Frederick Wilkerson of Prince George County. 

Frederick Wilkerson was probably born around 1720 in Prince George County and died sometime before the 19th of November in 1803 based upon a notation on page 98 of Prince George County Surveyor's Book 1794-1824 in regard to a survey of "Frederick Wilkinson, decd., 486 A. in 2 tracts".

A Prince George County deed of 9 Jun 1789 identifies Frederick's wife as Sarah:

Frederick Wilkerson and Sarah his wife of Prince George County to William Edwards, Sr. of same, land where John Chambless's buildings formerly stood, 1 acres, bounded by the old line of John Chambless, Sr. No witnesses. Recorded June 9, 1789.

The birth of Wyatt and Mary's first child, Sally, on the 25th of October 1766 is recorded in the Douglas Register as well as the births of Hannah in 1769 and Lucy in 1771. Sometime after 1771, Wyatt and his family left Goochland County and returned to the southside of the James River where he is listed on the rent rolls of Brunswick County in 1779. It appears that in 1779, Wyatt moved just south of the state boundary line between Virginia and North Carolina. There is a deed recorded in Granville County, North Carolina from Isaac Williams and Jesse Williams administrators of James Moore of Southhampton County, Virginia to Wiatt Wilkerson of Granville County on 3 Aug 1779 (Deed Book M, Page 174-175).

Wyatt and his family moved into the Granville County area and during the next 20 years, several other Wilkerson families settled there as well. There are numerous Wilkerson deeds recorded there in those years but no known family connection between them. In 1786, Wyatt purchased a tract of land on the north side of the Neuse River at the mouth of Knap of Reeds Creek. Knap of Reeds Creek would have flowed from the north into the Neuse almost directly across the river from William Reeves' land where Ellerbe Creek joins the Neuse River on the south side. Living in such close proximity it's possible that Betsy Wilkerson became acquainted with George Reeves prior to their arrivals in Madison County, Kentucky.


Wyatt left Granville in the late 1790's and is recorded in the 1800 census of Madison County, Kentucky and is also recorded as having been a resident at Fort Boonesborough. In Madison county sometime after the 1st of January in 1802 when the marriage bond was issued, Elizabeth Wilkerson and George Reeves were married.

In the course of the next ten years, Wyatt is also recorded on the tax lists of Wilson County, Tennessee circa 1804-1809. Additionally there is an 1809 suit "Harmon Hays, Plaintiff vs Wyatt Wilkerson, Defendant" in Tennessee that is over a land transaction. Harmon Hays was a land speculator in the Sumner/Robertson County area. It appears that Wyatt may have become involved in a land deal that went wrong. The names of numerous other Madison County settlers are also listed in those Tennessee tax lists. By 1810, Wyatt is once again listed in the census of Madison County, Kentucky which may indicate that he never actually lived in Tennessee, just purchased land there.

Before 1820 Wyatt and Mary Britt Wilkerson joined their daughters and their families - George and Elizabeth Wilkerson Reeves and John and Polly Wilkerson Thompson in migrating further west to Warren County, Kentucky where they are all listed in the 1820 census. Wyatt died in Warren County in 1821 and his will recorded there names his children as Elizabeth Reeves, Polly Thompson, William Wilkerson, John Wilkerson (deceased), Sally Searcy and Jesse Wilkerson (deceased) in addition to grandson Jonathan Parker, son of deceased daughter Lucy Wilkerson Parker.

The Other Beadles - Bassett Beadles

At around the same time that Lewis Yancey Beadles arrived in the Jackson Purchase, another Beadles family came to the area. Lewis Yancey Beadles received his first land grant from the Bureau of Land Management on the 31st of May 1830. Less than a month later on the 17th of June 1830, Bassett Beadles and his son William both received grants. Many years of research has failed to reveal whether Lewis Yancey Beadles and Bassett were related or had even been acquainted in Virginia or North Carolina.



Bassett Beadles was reportedly born in Richmond, Virginia around 1775 and had married Elizabeth Cashion sometime before 1800 for they were recorded in the 1800 census of Iredell County, North Carolina. In that census Bassett and his wife were both 16-25 years old, they had one male child and one female child each under 10 years old. By the 1810 census they were living in Mecklenburg County, North Carolina and had six children. They were next recorded in the 1820 census of White County, Tennessee with 7 sons and 2 daughters, before moving to the Jackson Purchase.

Bassett's first land grant in 1830 was in the area of Cuba, Kentucky to the southwest of the town of Wingo where Lewis Yancey Beadles had settled. Within the next few years he had moved further south and is recorded in Weakley County, Tennessee in 1840. The town of Dukedom in Weakley County is credited with having been named for Bassett's son Duke who served as the postmaster there from 1833 to 1846. This community is located on the state line between Kentucky and Tennessee.

Bassett Beadles is believed to have died around 1846 and in the 1850 census, Elizabeth Beadles is a 74 year old widow living in a Weakley County, Tennessee community in the midst of her children. According to the best available information, the children of Bassett and Elizabeth Beadles were Lucinda, Alfred, Duke A., William A., Franklin G. Joseph, Bassett Jr. Malinda and James.

Bassett's son William was the County Clerk in Graves County, Kentucky during the 1850's. William's two sons, Alfred and Marshal, became physicians and Dr. Alfred Beadles practiced in Wingo, Kentucky until his death in 1875.

Because Bassett named his son Duke, I have always been curious as to whether he may have been a son of Harmon Duke Beadles of Hanover County, Virginia. Hanover County is just north of the city of Richmond where Bassett is believed to have been born. Harmon Duke Beadles was a taxpayer in St. Paul's Parish of Hanover in 1786 and 1788. Few details are known of his life and there is no known record of his children. He had served as a private in an infantry regiment during the Revolution. After his death in 1813, his wife Ann received a pension on his service.

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See update with current news about Beadles' Y-DNA matches to descendants of Basset Beadles at the following post - Exciting Beadles DNA News.

Tombstone Tuesday - Mittie A. Grace

Arminta "Mittie Ann" Grace was the daughter of Richard Grace and Lorenna Antonette Wingo of Graves County, Kentucky. She died at the age of seventeen and is buried in the Camp Beauregard Cemetery outside of Water Valley, Kentucky.

Camp Beauregard was originally a Confederate training camp during the civil war. During the six months that it was an active military installation it was decimated by diseases such as pneumonia, typhoid fever and meningitis. By the time the camp was evacuated on March 1, 1862, 1000 confederate soldiers who had never engaged in battle were dead. The United Daughters of the Confederacy placed a large memorial there at the site of a mass grave of those soldiers.

In subsequent years, it has been a public cemetery and used by the families of the community. There are local legends that the site is haunted, but I have personally never encountered any malevolent spirits there. It's a lovely quiet hilltop with a view of the surrounding countryside.

Pryor Ancestor - Mourning Thomson

James and Jonathan Pryor who settled in Graves County, Kentucky shortly after the area was opened for settlement were the children of Richard Pryor and Mourning Thomson originally from Virginia. Mourning Pryor was named as a daughter in the will of Thomas Thomson of Trinity Parish, Louisa County, Virginia written on 24 April 1774. Thomas Thomson died sometime before the 10th of October 1774 when the will was recorded.



Fanny Pryor,
daughter of Richard Pryor
grandson of Mourning

There has been much confusion regarding the identity of Mourning's mother who was previously listed in numerous online sources as Hannah McAllister. Based upon Thomas Thomson's will her name was Hannah but it appears that it was a Thomas Thomasson of Louisa County who was married to Hannah McAllister daughter of William McAllister (Mackalester) and Elizabeth Garland. Thomas Thomasson was the son of George Thomasson of Hanover County, Virginia. Thomas and several of his brothers moved to Granville County, North Carolina around 1777 where he died testate in 1818.

The identity of Mourning's grandfather, father of Thomas Thomson, previously believed to be Samuel Thomson who died in Louisa County in 1753 has recently also come into question based upon the name of slaves distributed to legatees of that will. This is an area that needs much research into the records of Louisa County to resolve.

Soon after the Revolutionary War ended, the Pryor family settled in the Greene/Cocke County, Tennessee area where Mourning Prier is recorded as being one fo the charter members of the Big Pigeon Primitive Baptist Church when it was constituted on the 6th of December 1787. In February of 1794, Mourning Prier made application for a letter of dismissal which was apparently in preparation for the family's move to Logan County, Kentucky.

Grave of Capt. A. J. Pryor

After their arrival in Logan County, Richard Pryor died in 1797 and Mourning is recorded as the administratrix of his estate. In Logan County on the 19th of June 1800, Mourning Pryor married widower Thomas White whose daughter Elizabeth was the future wife of Jonathan Pryor. When Thomas White died in 1806, Mourning was the executrix of his will.

As Mourning White, she was recorded in the census and tax records of Logan County, Kentucky until after 1810. There are unsubstantiated reports that Mourning, along with Jobe family relatives, attended the Old Mulkey Meeting House (Baptist) near Tompkinsville, Kentucky in Monroe County and that she lived to be past 100 years. There are no historical records that confirm these assertions. I have made several trips to Logan County searching the records as well as local cemeteries there, but was unable to find any further record of Mourning Thomson Pryor White. It seems far more likely that she died sometime before 1820 when her youngest children, James, Jonathan and Jeremiah left Logan County.

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Update on Mourning Pryor Thomson White - Mourning Pryor in Callaway County

Picture of Fannie Pryor from the Pryor-Hogue Family Album courtesy of Don Howell of West Kentucky Genealogy.

Wingo Ancestor - Mary Holt

The mother of Jerman Jeduthan Wingo of Graves County, Kentucky was Mary Holt, daughter of Shadrack Holt and Judith Foster of Nottoway County, Virginia. Mary married Thomas Wingo sometime before September of 1800 when they executed a deed for land on Flat Creek in Nottoway County to her parents. Thomas Wingo had been associated with Shadrack Holt in Nottoway County deeds since 1796 when Shadrack and his son John had conveyed this same fifty-three acre tract to Thomas. Sadly all of the early marriage records of Nottoway County were either vandalized or burned by union forces during the civil war so there is no record of their marriage.

For many years there was great confusion because two Mary Holts married into the Wingo family. On the 23rd of November, 1783, Thomas Wingo's older brother William married Mary Holt. Obviously the Mary Holt born in 1778 was too young to have been the individual who married William in 1783 but this duplication of names confused many Wingo researchers for a very long time. The mystery was finally resolved by researching the Holt family. The Mary who married William in Amelia County in 1783 was found to be the younger sister of Shadrack Holt. When they married in 1783, her mother Mary Holt, widow of Richard Holt, gave consent for the marriage indicating that she was underage and born after about 1765. William Wingo's step-father John Foster signed the bond for the marriage.

As the county designations changed in the Amelia County area, William Wingo was found in the tax records of Prince Edward County in 1783 and after Nottoway County was formed in 1788, he was recorded in the tax records there in 1791. Sometime before May of 1792, Mary Holt Wingo, wife of William, died, for he married Fanny Shepherd in Prince Edward County on the 8th of May 1792. Shortly after their marriage, William, Fanny and the three young children born to he and Mary Holt Wingo, left Virginia migrating to Spartanburg County, South Carolina as his brother Obediah had done a few years earlier.

It is unlikely that any of these families actually moved from Amelia County. The area that became Nottoway County was originally Nottoway Parish of Amelia County. After the formation of Nottoway, Shadrack Holt is no longer found in the records of Amelia County and all historical records until his death in 1801 are in Nottoway County.

To add to the confusion caused by two Marys of the Amelia County Holt family marrying two Wingo sons, Ancestry.com's system has repeatedly listed "hints" suggesting a Mary Holt, daughter of a Samuel Holt and Mary Rowe of New Haven, Connecticut as a wife to Thomas Wingo. I just found that of 34 individuals in Ancestry with Thomas Wingo in their family trees, 15 of those 34 list Mary Holt of New Haven, Connecticut as his wife with one other listing her birth in Tennessee. For anyone interested in genealogy, an understanding of United States geography is a must.

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There is a wealth of information regarding our Holt family who came to St. Mary's, Maryland by 1646 and from there spread into Virginia and other southern states at the Holt Family site - A Journey to Christmasville.
UPDATE - I'm sorry but that wonderful Holt site has disappeared from the internet. If anyone is interested in more information on the Holt family, please email me.

Beadles Descendant - James Luther Slayden

James Luther Slayden was born on the 1st of June 1853, the son of Thomas Allison Slayden and Letitia Ellison Beadles of Graves County, Kentucky. Both the Slayden and Beadles families had migrated from the area of Halifax and Pittsylvania counties in Virginia to the Jackson Purchase shortly after it was opened for settlement.

James was the youngest of their children and growing up in the Jackson Purchase, his early life would have been greatly affected by the Civil War. His oldest brother, Lewis Saunders Slayden, was a Capt. in the First Kentucky Brigade, known as the "Orphan Brigade" of the CSA, but became ill with what was then described as consumption from the constant exposure. He resigned his commission in October of 1862 and returned to Graves County where he died in 1864. The majority of the residents of the Purchase were southerners and their sympathies were primarily with the Confederacy which made the occupation of the area by Union forces for much of the war a distressing and difficult era.

Thomas Slayden died in 1869 after which Letitia took her younger children to New Orleans where they lived in the home of her brother James Nicholas Beadles who was a merchant there. In New Orleans James worked and attended school prior to attending Washington & Lee University in Lexington, Virginia.

In 1876, he moved to San Antonio, Texas where he became a cotton merchant and rancher. On the 12th of June 1883, James Luther Slayden married Ellen McGregor Maury of Charlottesville, Virginia.

He was elected as a Democrat to represent Texas in Congress in 1896. In October of 1910, philanthropist Andrew Carnegie appointed him as one of the original trustees of the Carnegie Endowment for International Peace and for several years he was president of the American Peace Society.

He continued to be reelected for ten succeeding congresses. Future Fleet Admiral Chester Nimitz had originally wished to attend West Point but there were no appointments available. James L. Slayden, his congressman, told him that he had one appointment available for the Naval Academy and that he would award it to the best qualified candidate and the rest is history.

In 1918, he declined renomination to congress after receiving a telegram from President Wilson accusing him of not supporting the administration in regard to the war. The records do not reveal that Slayden actively opposed Wilson or the war effort. He did keep his head in the midst of war hysteria which was very strong at that time.

After his retirement, he divided his interests between an orchard in Virginia, a mine in Mexico and his ranch in Texas.

James Luther Slayden died on the 24th of February 1924 and is buried in the Mission Park South Cemetery in San Antonio, Texas. His gravestone is inscribed - "Member of Congress 1897-1919, One who loved his fellow men and labored for universal peace". I always wonder if it wasn't his childhood in the turbulence of the Jackson Purchase during the Civil War that inspired his dedication to the cause of peace.


For more indepth information regarding the Telegram from President Wilson see Tales of the New World.

The Mystery of Sarah D. Beadles

Recently I received an email from the husband of a descendant of Sarah D. Beadles suggesting the possibility that she was another daughter of Lewis Yancey Beadles and Martha C. Vaughan. The fact that this family might have included another child that had never been identified hadn't occurred to me before.




Lettisha Wilson Webb
daughter of Sarah D. Beadles Wilson 

After the idea was suggested to me, I looked back over census records of Lewis Yancey Beadles, and in the 1830 census of Pittsylvania County, Virginia, there is a daughter that is never listed in family group sheets or pedigrees. Lewis Y. Beadles' household in 1830 is shown with 3 females still living at home. Daughter Ann had married Jerman J. Wingo in 1826 and was no longer listed in her parents' household, so, based upon previous beliefs regarding the children of Lewis Y. Beadles and Martha C. Vaughan, there should only have been two daughters living at home in 1830. But that was not the case, there was 1 female 15-19 - Letitia, 1 female 10-14 - Mary Elizabeth and 1 more female 5-9. Was this Sarah, born in 1821?

Sarah D. Beadles married Benjamin Franklin Wilson in 1839. The 18th of November 1839 is listed on numerous internet family trees as their wedding date but none cite any source for that date. They apparently married in Kentucky for their first son was born there in 1842. By the birth of their next child, Laura Priscilla, in 1846, the family was living in Tennessee where they're found in the Dukedom community of Weakley County in the 1850 census.

Based solely upon the fact that the family was living in Dukedom, my initial thought was that Sarah must surely have been a descendant of Bassett Beadles, but after some research of that family it doesn't appear so. Bassett Beadles was living in North Carolina until after 1820 when he was recorded in the 1820 Mecklenburg County census. Bassett's children all give North Caroina as their place of birth in later census unlike Sarah whose birthplace is generally recorded as Virginia. In the 1850 census, her birthplace has been transcribed as VT for Vermont, but that is apparently because VA for Virginia was not written clearly. Other census and death records of her children give her birthplace as Virginia.



1870 Census of Cuba District, Graves County

Sarah and Benjamin F. Wilson named their first son, James Yancey Wilson. The name Yancey is used extensively in the Lewis Yancey Beadles family. His mother was Ann Yancey and her surname was given to numerous descendants as a given name. After James Yancey Wilson married Julia Quisenberry around 1866, they were recorded in the 1870 census living in the Cuba District of Graves County three households from the residence of Jerman J. and Ann Y. Beadles Wingo who was very probably his aunt.

The name of Sarah's daughter, Lettisha, born in 1858, was also used consistently in the Beadles and Vaughan families. The use of the name Letitia seems to have originated in the family of Martha C. Vaughan and dates back at least to the family of her grandfather, Phillip Williams of Gloucester County, Virginia.

The loss of all the records of Graves County prior to 1886 when the courthouse burned may make proving Sarah was another child of Lewis Yancey Beadles difficult, if not impossible, but I believe she is very probably a member of that family. Hopefully some source of documentation that she was the daughter of Lewis Yancey Beadles and Martha C. Vaughan can eventually be found.



(Gravestone photo by Paul R. Wilcox for FindaGrave)