Category: Bertie County, NC
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What I Discovered About my Family Tree from my DNA
Photo: Receiving my DNA way back in 2016 / DNA: a decade later In July 2016, I wrote a blog post after receiving my first AncestryDNA results. At the time, the company’s DNA database had just passed 2 million samples, and my results consisted largely of broad ethnicity estimates and a list of possible cousins.…
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Following my Williams Line Back to Bertie County, North Carolina
Photo of four generations: From left: Will, Scott, Bo and Bob Williams For years, I have been able to trace many of my ancestral lines back 10 or more generations. But my Williams line, the one that gave me my last name, has stopped at my fourth great-grandfather, George S. “Brother George” Williams (1797–1852). George…
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Will the Real John Dawson Please Stand up?
Researching the Castellaw family has always been entertaining, but one ancestor in that branch has remained elusive. And to tell you the truth, I am about to ready to let this one go. My fourth great-grandfather, John Dawson Castellaw (1780-1859), left Bertie County, North Carolina, for Haywood County, Tennessee, in the early 1830s. Family tradition…
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Where was the Home of Richard Nixon, the First Haywood County Settler?
I have driven along Poplar Corner Road east of Brownsville many more times than I can count. Until I began researching the earliest history of Haywood County, I never paid much attention to the narrow stream passing beneath the road near the house of my late grandparents Guy and Virginia Lovelace. View of Nixon Creek…
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From a Haywood County Stew Pot to Grocery Shelves Across America
Photo: Jars with stew from Kirk Baptist Church in Piperton, Tennessee / I have always wondered why someone in Haywood County, Tennessee, did not package and distribute the stew local cooks prepare in enormous black pots. As it turns out, someone did, sort of. My wife and I attended a stew at Holly Grove Baptist…
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James: The First Castellaw
Photo: The Bertie County Courthouse in Windsor, photographed in the early 20th century. Built in 1889, the courthouse stands about two miles downstream from the earlier colonial courthouse site established on or near James Castellaw’s Cashie River plantation. / Some ancestors leave behind nothing more than a name, a marriage date and a line in…
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More About Rev. George Williams of Madison and Haywood Counties
I received an email from my cousin Betsy, who had received an email from Deb Kueter, a genealogy researcher studying her Montgomery family line. Deb had located more records in FamilySearch.com concerning the daughter of my ancestor, the Rev. George Williams (c. 1797-1852). Mariah Williams Montgomery (unknown-before 1848) married Hugh A. Montgomery (1810-1868) on Dec.…
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Who was Margaret Dawson Castellaw?
Photo: Edward Moseley 1733 Map of North Carolina featuring Bertie Precinct, including notation of “J. Castellaw” on the Cashie River. This was a notation to James Castellaw. Historically, “I” and “J” were treated as the exact same letter. The letter “J” originated as a decorative flourish for the letter “I.” Source / I began this…
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John Yelverton and Elizabeth Blount Yelverton
Photo: My second great-grandparents Charlie B. Lovelace and Nancy Jane Yelverton Lovelace My Yelverton family line offers a fascinating look at colonial North Carolina. That branch, as I currently understand it, runs from John Yelverton Sr. (ca. 1685-1750) the father of John Yelverton Jr. (by 1716-1795); the father of Hardy Yelverton (ca. 1755-1828); the father…