SALUTATIONS
Last week, I put out the word that I would like for someone to take over the compilation of TT, and very quickly had a response from a volunteer who will keep this effort going. I'm so appreciative of receiving this kind of support. Deciding to turn over TT to someone else at this time seems to be the best thing I can do for all of us Taliaferros. The transfer will not diminish my interest in Taliaferros and TT one iota.
This comes about because of events taking place with my first netletteer,
MOORE NEWS. As my knowledge of the Moore family grew, it became apparent
that there were numerous early Chesapeake Moores and that: 1) they
appear to be closely aligned, 2) they have never been defined and separated
into groups, 3) their descendants are found in eight of the original thirteen
colonies, and 4) they appear to be related in England to the early New
England Moores. Therefore, the direction of MOORE NEWS has been modified
to the extent that subscribers are now financially supporting the vast
amount of research that needs to be done if we are to be able to find our
way back to the immigrants of our families. This will be an intense
period for me, and it seemed best to turn over TT to an energetic and creative
Editor who was not distracted. More later about this change of the bearer
of the Taliaferro banner. We are both descended from Dr. John of
Surry Co NC - must run in the family.
NEW MEMBERS
CAROL JOPLIN CLAPSHAW (spri@accessone.com) *****I guess summer is the time for the new members to step forward. I have been thinking about doing this for the last few weeks and have almost procrastinated too long.
I am leaving my computer on July 25, 1997 to take a genealogy trip to Amherst, Virginia. This is the first of such trips for me so I am not sure what I will find in court houses and museums but I am excited by the prospect.
My eyes lit up when I read in the July 16, 1997 newsletter that James Govan Taliaferro was born in Amherst.
I came to the Taliaferro link while researching my father's ancestors. His he is from the Thomas Jopling clan of Amherst, Virginia. Thomas' Jopling's son James S. Jopling was my great grandfather. He was born in Kanawha county WV in 1777. I have made an assumption (which is always dangerous to do in genealogy) that he was James Stevens Jopling the son of Thomas Jopling and Sarah Stevens. Her parents were James Stevens and "Madame" Behethland Taliaferro born August 20, 1738. She died 1829. I know that "Madame" Behethland Taliaferro was the daughter of Richard Taliaferro and Rose Berryman.
I hope this is all making sense. The main thing that I want to accomplish on my trip to Kanawha WV and Amherst VA is to verify the parentage of James S. Jopling. I am hoping that the well recorded history of the Taliaferro family will help me in this pursuit.
If members have information on the Amherst Taliaferro's I would appreciate their sharing that information with me. I will also be happy to report back to the newsletter any findings.
Curiously. I will be staying at a Bed and Breakfast in the home of the late Nathan Taliaferro.
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CAROL BURNETT COOK (CarBurCo@aol.com) is responding to a discussion
about
Colonial Spellingthat took place in another context - see
'Miscellany' for a reprint of the monograph she refers to. She believes
she might be a Taliaferro and we hope someone can give her some help with
her questions. *****I thoroughly enjoyed your discussion of colonial spelling.
I am sure it was the Scottish accent that had my Jordans called "Jerd'ns"
as many southern Jordans still are.
But this is why I'm writing. I read that you publish a TALIAFERRO something or other for the Dalton descendants. Well I am neither a Dalton nor a Taliaferro (pronounced Toliver, of course) but my 4th great grandfather was TALIAFERRO BURNETT b. 1767 in Dinwiddie County, or Essex Co Va. to RICHARD BURNETT and wife, MARY BOUGHAN of Essex County. I am trying to find out if there is a relational tie to the TALIAFERROS since the BURNETTS and many of their connections were in Virginia from the very beginning. TALIAFERRO BURNETT'S wife was MARY BAUGH, granddaughter of BOLLING CLARK...two more names from the beginning. Do you know of any BURNETT/TALIAFERRO connection?MARY BOUGHAN'S (Taliaferro's mother, since I thought the name could be from her family) parents were married abt 1760-1765 in King and Queen County Va. JOHN BOUGHAN and wife CARY (do not know whether that is the first or last name...if the first, perhaps she WAS a Taliaferro?) Do you know ?
Thanks even if you can't help. I know it's a longshot.
QUERIES
HERMAN C. WHITE (hermlouwhite@juno.com)
***** I would like to know who was the Father of Richard Taliaferro
born about 1700 and married to Rose Berryman.
Was Richard Taliaferro who married Elizabeth Eggleton the son of Francis Taliaferro & Elizabeth Callett, or was he the son of John Taliaferro who married Sarah Smith? Would like confirmation. Thanks
Also:
My sister went through some of the TTs and had some questions and statements
she would like to address in the next T.T.
1- Query: In issue 4 for Ann Hamlin: Would like to know source of proof that Rose Tucker Gerrard Newton's maiden name was Struman?.
2 - Issue #5: Under Descendants of Richard Taliaferro
who married Rose
Berryman children: Mary Harvie married Peach(e)y Ridgeway Gilmer and
Martha Harvie married Dr. Thornton Gilmer according to my information.
3- Issue #6: Query from Jean references children of Harvey & Sally Taliaferro: Book: First Settlers of Upper Ga by George R Gilmer states that Francis was their daughter.
4- Query : Would like any information on Mary Braxton Boutwell who married Zachariah Taliaferro 1749.
We'll appreciate any help subscribers can give us on the above questions.
RESPONSES
DON GHOLSTON ( DGholston@aol.com) found a cousin! Congratulations
to both of you!
****Notice from previous TT: My family connects to the Taliaferros
two ways: 1st . John Taliaferro b.1656, m. Sarah Smith and dau Mary
Taliaferro m. Francis Thornton. Their dau Elizabeth Thornton m. Thomas
Meriwether their son Francis m. Martha Jamison. Their dau Lucy Meriwether
m Grover Howard, and their son, Robert Howard, m. Sarah Harvie
Gilmer.
Dear Herman,
Well, greetings, Cuz. I found the above in Taliaferro Times, no. 33. Groves (you have it Grover) Howard was my GGG grandfather. I am descended from his daughter, Nancy. I have a fair amount of material on my Howard line that I would like to compare with your sister's information. I also have fairly complete information on Nancy's descendants that your sister might like to have if doesn't have it already. I could send you the material by e-mail and you could pass it on. Nancy was the first wife of my GG grandfather, Leonard Henley Gholston.
COLONIAL TALLIAFERROS
Source: Old Houses of King and Queen County, Virginia. Virginia D. Cox and Willie T. Weathers. 1973 Chapter: Gwynnsville
*****Seen from the highway across its broad fields, Gwynnsville appears tobe one of the few dormer-roof, story-and-a-half houses in King and Queen that stands today as it was built. Closer inspection, however, reveals changes both old and recent, including such things as asbestos shingles and a modern front porch. The tax records tell the story.
Gwynnsville was originally Taliaferro property, but the colonial home of this prominent and wealthy old family must have burned. The small hall and parlor house on the five-hundred-acre estate of Philip Taliaferro divided between his heirs in 1823, the first unit of the present Gwynnsville, could not have been the home of so important a man as the William Taliaferro made a vestryman of Stratton Major Parish in 1735, an later with his family moved to a seat next the communion table. The Taliaferros were still vestrymen in the last recorded meeting of the vestry in 1783. In the first tax records of the county William Taliaferro owned a thousand acres, Philip nine hundred, and Richard three hundred. Philip was sheriff in 1791; but in the 1810 census Richard and Sarah are the only Taliaferros listed. Sarah may have been the widow of the Philip whose five hundred acres were divided in 1823 between George B. and Anna M. Taliaferro, apparently his children.
In this division George received two hundred acres with buildings assessed at $333, Ann three hundred with buildings assessed at $100. After her marriage in 1839 to James Gwynn, her property is listed in her husband's name and is called Gwynnsville. When she inherited her brother's share of the estate the following year, Gwynnsville came to include the house assessed at $333. This assessment was unchanged until 1848, when it was increased to $1,000 with the explanation that $700 was :added for new improvements." By these improvements, the little house if 823 became the Gwynnsvill of today, with dormers not quite evenly spaced, a front door not exactly centered, and a chimney on the left smaller than the original one at the opposite end.
A half a century later this house, then owned by Robert E. Gressitt, was the site of a gruesome tragedy. On the morning of 18 October 1905 a neighbor named Coker, a North Carolinian who had met Robbie Roy of King and Queen when she was teaching in his state and had come to the county as a result of their marriage, hid under the high front porch at Gwynnsville and fatally shot Robert Gressitt as he left the house for work. The assailant then went home and cut the throats of his two small daughters and his pregnant wife, whom he had previously threatened to kill should she ever have another baby. He is said to have been very drunk at the time of the murders, and one theory for his motive in killing Robert Gressitt is that he had a confused notion he could eliminate the big bill he owned at Gressitt's store by eliminating the creditor. When he saw that he was about to be taken prisoner, Coker shot himself. The Gressitt family continued to live at Gwynnsville, and it was inherited by Virginia Gressitt Sears. About 1960 she sold it to Walton L. Bristow, the present owner.
(Somehow, we keep running into gruesome stories related to Taliaferro homesites. Sorry. There's yet another in this source; but I'll spare us the details as the Taliaferros were only involved around the fringes.)
MISCELLANY
The statement was made that: ". . . . until the mid to late 19th
century, there was no such thing as standard spelling."
This statement is completely accurate, but there's more to interpreting
a colonial record. As a researcher and as a transcriber of early
court orders for a county in Virginia beginning in 1684, I hope the following
information will be a helpful guide for those who seek out colonial American
records.
Both the content and spelling of virtually all written records are
dependent upon the oral exchange between the creator of the record and
the recorder. Rarely was a colonial legal instrument written by the persons
to whom it related. Written records were penned by a 'recorder' hired
by the county, or by a literate person who had knowledge of the legal requirements.
Provision of a written record, then, involved at least two people:
the creator of the record told the recorder what he needed, and the recorder
prepared the appropriate document for signature. In fact the written
was no more than that - a written record. The important record
was what transpired between the people of the community. . . . .
Everybody knew that old John Jamysin had sold part of his home lot to Tom
Taliver, who was about to marry Ben Tomises girl.
Think a moment about the rich variety of accents that exists even today
in the Britain. Think again about the plight of the German immigrant
for whom English was a second language.
Now, picture a man who grew up in a London suburb in the 1650s to parents
who were raised in Herefordshire, and who immigrated to America when he
was 17 years old. He has made arrangements to sell some of his property
to a new immigrant who was born in the north of Ireland or in a Germanic
province in 1700.
Did the seller correctly comprehend the name of the buyer of the property?
Probably not. Did he pronounce the letters as though they were English
letters and not German or Irish letters? Probably not. Did
he know how to spell the grantee's name. Probably not. Did
the recorder know how the grantor spelled his name? Probably not.
Thus, Smith became Smyth; Calvert became Colvard; Muir became Moore or
Moor or More or Moir. The spelling as recorded in the document was
what the recorder thought it should be, not what it had been for the last
three centuries.
The variations, given the different pronunciations of the purchaser,
the seller, and the recorder, played havoc with the spelling of names.
If your name is O'Sullivan, would you ever think to scan the index for
references to someone named Swilivant? Of course, you wouldn't.
If you happened to ran across the name Swilivant in a record, would you
think the record involved your O'Sullivan ancestor? Of course, you
wouldn't. Sometimes, the same name or the same word, is found in
different spellings within the same short document.
Think about how many combinations of sounds might be created in a number
of different records which involved a number of different speakers and
a number of different recorders, all of whom were born in different parts
of Europe. How many different ways can you pronounce the name; how many
different ways can you spell the name? How many angels can stand
on the head of a pin?
Think also about colonial court script. Reading it is like reading
a foreign language. In the first place, court script was a highly
developed art, its expression dependent upon the artist. Each recorder
developed his own style of penmanship, just as you and I develop a distinctive
signature. It's not only that the spelling is irregular, they tacked
little loops onto the end of some words, they used the double-f for
's." They used 'ye' for 'the,' and 'yt' for 'that.' Sometimes
they didn't. A lowercase "o" looks like an "e," or a lower case "e"
looks like a lowercase "o." There were many abbreviations.
Some are standard, but many are peculiar to the recorder. If a new recorder
was employed by the county court, the distinctive script becomes a new
'foreign language' to learn before you can translate the peculiarities
of his penmanship.
Let's take this another step. Consider the modern transcriber
of old court records. As he (or she) transcribes, he becomes more
attuned to the peculiarities of the recorder's handwriting; but his attention
is riveted on the letter or the word he's translating, not the meaning
of the whole. Does he take the liberty of respelling obviously misspelled
words to assist his readers, or does he make a pure transcript? If
he translates, does he do it accurately? If he doesn't translate,
will his reader grasp the meaning of the transcribed record? Many
of the peculiar little symbols found in colonial court writing cannot be
transcribed by a computer. So right away, the transcript is 'corrupted.'
Does the transcriber's perception of the meaning of peculiar little symbols
change as he becomes more familiar with the penmanship? Probably.
Does the transcriber remember at the end that at the beginning he thought
the peculiar little symbol meant something else? Probably not.
One more time now: Picture a man lying on his deathbed gathering
his fading thoughts to tell the local scribe how he wants his property
distributed among his heirs. Listen to his voice fading in and out
as he dictates his bequests. Picture a scene taut with distress and grief
as the dying man gathers the last of his strength to tell the recorder
what to write, family and witnesses leaning close to hear his fading words.
Then someone lifts his hand and makes a mark which is identified by the
witnesses as the dying man's mark. There's no time to read it back,
this is not the place to discuss how you spell the second son's name, or
the oldest daughter's married name. Someone might remind him that he left
out Little Nell, and he would indicate the change he wanted to make.
When you read the will of your ancestor, never forget the circumstances
that may have affected the making of the written record of his last will
and testament.
This is a brief description of the thought processes a researcher needs
to bring with him or her when interpreting colonial records. What
we perceive in 1997 is many stages away from the immigrant merchant, born
in Yorkshire, who spoke to the recorder, who was born in Devonshire, so
that a legal record could be made in colonial Virginia of a transaction
that occurred with a third party, born in Londonderry, in 1725.
JBrowning
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TALIAFERRO TIMES is compiled from email contributions and other sources.
Information distributed by this newsletter is the sole responsibility of
each contributor. Any questions regarding items contained herein
should be sent to the individual submitter. The editor reserves the
right to edit for brevity and clarity.
Distributed by Joyce Browning
cJBrown7169@AOL.com
28 February 1998
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