Thomas Davis - Davis famiies of colonial Virginia

John Davis, of Overwharton Parish, Virginia

Susannah Davis

John Davis, of Varina Parish

To summarize: There were at least three Davis families that were confused. (1) descendants of John Davis and Mary Burton of Henrico County, Virgina; (2) descendants of Thomas Davis and Anne Turner of Isle of Wight County, who settled in Overwharton Parish, Stafford County, Virginia; (3) a Davis family of Essex County, Virginia.

I have not finished reviewing all the second and third generations after undoing some bad merges, so if you are an expert in Southern Maryland and Virginia genealogy or a descendant and want to help clean up these families, you are welcome to join the discussion.

In case anyone is reading this who is not familiar with this era and this geography, here are some pointers.

(1) Do not trust Internet trees for colonial Virginia and Southern Maryland.

(2) Look for primary sources, either those cited in the best Internet tree or materials, or actual documents from the localities

(3) This era / this geography is difficult even for those who are experienced with the sources, the geography, and the families, so if you are not one of those people, proceed with caution and do not merge profiles unless you are 150% certain and have done your own research to verify that the profiles are identical

(4) Do work in profile view versus in tree view and read the Overview and the Curator's Notes. If the profile is curated (a Master Profile), consult with the curator.

(5) Attach sources and add notes in the Overview that back up the children, spouses, and parents.

(6) Be careful about geography. Stafford County is not Henrico County is not Essex County. Look at a map. Remember that travel was difficult. Use common sense.

(7) if you are editing other people's work -- say deleting married names of women or detaching or attaching spouse or parents, make sure that you provide primary sources for your edits / attachments / detachments. It's not acceptable to simply edit other people's work on a whim.

Erica Howton and others will have more pointers. I don't often work in Virginia and Maryland, even though I have a lot of experience with Colonial New England and
have been a curator for 7 or 8 years. So I proceed slowly and look for the best sources available.

Private User is an expert in this era / geography. So hopefully she'll provide additional pointers to help us all improve the Geni tree for this area.

Dan Cornett may also have pointers to add.

The core issue to remember is that unlike Colonial New England, there are few vital records extant for birth and death. Some exceptions have survived, parish based, published in books you can find on Archive.org

So the source of family relationships and chronology are wills and land transactions, and indentures (contracts), often paid in tobacco.

http://www.colonial-settlers-md-va.us/getperson.php?personID=I02820... is definitely my first stop for the Northern Neck but you will find some disputed relationships, particularly on wives (aren't there always).

Bob Baird's Filing Cabinet has a series of articles that explain terms, especially legal terms, in use in Southern genealogy. http://www.genfiles.com

The prominent families have had their pedigrees published in periodicals such as the College of Women and Mary and www.vahistorical.org/collections-and-resources/virginia-magazine-hi.... Look for resources that cite from them.

Land records are viewable through the Library of the University of Virginia

Geography is critical, and also very useful for understanding migration patterns in the westward expansion, there are many online resources that describe how and when counties split off from each other.

I'm more of an expert on the lower Eastern Shore specifically, but will see what I can find out.

Maryland is a little better than colonial Virginia

http://aomol.msa.maryland.gov/html/index.html

And a plea.

Geni has been going over 10 years now. If your Colonial American ancestor was born around 1600, he's on Geni already. He's probably a Master Profile and If he isn't, he should be. (request to be made a Master Proflle).

There is no need to duplicate him. Work UP the tree until you hit the existing Geni profile. Merge in. You're all done except for improving the tree.

Here's another Davis who was involved in the Davis mess I have been cleaning up. I don't know where he belongs.

Edward Davis, of King and Queen County, VA

Thanks Maven and Erica.

Good additional point, Erica.

Well, that's interesting - Susannah's father George was (probably) a bonafide son of Rev. Haute Wyatt. And we just finished having another tizzy about *Nicholas* Wyatt, who *wasn't* a bonafide son. (Probably not a son at all - some circumstantial evidence points toward Dorset as place of origin.)

Yes, I forgot about land records even though my own ancestors were in Rockbridge County and Botetort County near Lexington, Virginia and my cousin shared mostly legal and land records with me as the only source beyond a few marriage records.

Very interesting about the Wyatts. I saw your discussion on Nicholas Wyatt and was wondering what, if any, connection there was.

(Or was it Devon? I really need to brush up again....)

Yes, marriage records have survived better, and also can be surmised from land records.

The only connection is that Nicholas is widely (and erroneously) believed to be a son of Rev. Haute Wyatt. But he wasn't listed among the children that the Rev's mother requested reimbursement for caring for back in England in 1639.

He *could* possibly have been the result of a casual encounter between the Rev. and a local Jamestown woman, but it doesn't seem very likely.

There's a rather stronger possibility that Nicholas was related in some way to Anthony Wyatt, his exact contemporary, who just pops up in Virginia some time after 1625 (neither of them are on any of the early lists). Anthony had a son named Nicholas, who sometimes gets confused with Nicholas Wyatt of Anne Arundel even though he's a generation later.

The interesting thing here is that the name "Nicholas" does not occur in Rev. Wyatt's family. But it *is* found with some frequency in a group of West Country families that may be related to each other.

Other families I ran across in the mix that probably need work are:

Reade (related to George Washington): Francis Reade, of King and Queen County father of Mary Reade, the wife of the mystery Edward Davis above.

Bartlett: Thomas Bartlett His son Francis Bartlett was the father-in-law of Susannah Davis Bartlett. I ended up doing some merging in the Bartlett tree.

Metheny: Susannah Metheny Davis, wife of John Davis, of Overwharton Parish, Stafford County above, was the daughter of Daniel Matheny, Sr

Virgett: Job Virgett was the second husband of Susannah Wyatt who married William Davis as her FOURTH husband

Brooks: Thomas Brooks was the first husband of Susannah Wyatt

Meador: John Meadoes or Meador was the THIRD husband of Susannah Wyatt

I just double-checked - it's Devon, not Dorset, that's got a lot of Nicholas Wyatts.

Probably fortunate that the Eastern Shore Davises generally *don't* get mixed up with all the others. :-)

(Yes, there's a bunch of 'em, some of whom probably migrated over from mainside Virginia but the majority are Eastern Shore locals.)

The Miles Files have a line stemming from Capt. James Davis (c. 1580-4 Feb 1624/5) and wife Rachell NN. Son Maj. Thomas Davis settled in at Nansemond County, wife unknown, four sons and a daughter - the sons all shoved off to Somerset County, MD for reasons unknown.

As for the daughter, she married someone named Sanders or Saunders, stayed in Nansemond County, and her children got lost in the crowd.

Considering that I lived in Alexandria, Virginia from 1986 until this year and traveled around that area a bit, I should get more involved in the history and genealogy of various nearby areas.

Maybe others can suggest additional sources for this area / era?

Private User

Private User

Anne Brannen

Linda Kathleen Thompson, (c)

A lot of records were lost in St. Mary's County Maryland. Linda Reno has done a lot of work to assist in this area. These families reuse the same names over and over.
http://aomol.msa.maryland.gov/000001/000546/html/am546--157.html

This is the resourse I use a lot when working on Southern Maryland. There are some Davis' included.
http://www.rootsweb.ancestry.com/~mdstmary/migrations/N.htm

A lot of these families migrated to Kentucky after the Revolutionary War so to help me keep straight which sections of the families migrated there I set up a project. Like I said they kept using the same names.
https://www.geni.com/projects/The-Kentucky-Migration-1780-1820/15097

It looks like the site I like to use for Southern Maryland no longer has a home page and isn't what it used to be. That's a shame. Here is the marriage section.
http://teachertech.rice.edu/Participants/dawsonm/genealogy/mrgs/mrg...

Here's the Last Will and Testament section.
http://www.mdgenweb.org/stmarys/wills/wills_t.htm

There are some Davis' in the Last Will and Testament section.

Thanks Linda Kathleen Thompson, (c)!

Would anyone have any information on a Burnham Davis 1814-1892, he married Matilda Elizabeth Viglini (1825-?)? My fathers tree ends there. His census records show he lived in King and Queen, VA until about 1870 and then he is found in Hanover, VA and our family has been in Hanover, VA since. His census states he is from New Hampshire so I am not sure how to follow the other Davis from this time. My mother also has Davis in her tree but from Southwest, VA and Kentucky. Would anyone have any info or leads that may help my search?

Thanks! Please email me at gofishing2011@aol.com

Karen~

I can't find a thing on Edward Davis, only his wife, Mary Reade.

https://captainjamesdavisgenealogy.wordpress.com/category/readeread...