Day 108

Just a few quick notes tonight.



It was another long day. No exciting finds just lots of dotting "i"s and crossing "t"s. A few tidbits.



1. I finally finished the relevant Perkins/Hughes/Letcher files. There are tons more but I think I got most of the most critical details. I did find that Mr. William Robertson Perkins (author of all this paperwork) was a NY lawyer in the 20s and 30s with an office on 5th Ave. He hired a researcher for at least 12-24 months to track down every deed, will and court record in the relevant VA counties. In addition, Mr. Perkins benefit ted from decades of research by Ms. Lucie Perkins Stone, a college professor who had worked on the Perkins family genealogy. We are lucky to have so much leg work done.



2. I have a copy of Edward Cunningham's will. His 3 sons each received $40,000 plus slaves and property after he passed away in 1836. Within 4 years, all the boys plus Edward's brother Richard had to effectively declare bankruptcy. Changes in the tobacco market and excessive spending did them all in. Businesses were sold, partnerships dissolved and plantations broken up.



3. The inventory valuation from Richard Cunningham's will was a great look at daily items. Here are a few - values in pounds and shillings: 23 double bolted pad locks (= 7/6); 4 pair money scales (5/6); 2 damaged ink stands (5 cents); 1 pound of glue (2); 146 pounds of chewing tobacco (9 pounds).



4. No luck on finding information on Robertsons, Robinsons, Haynes', Stephens - hopefully I can make some progress on Saturday.



5. Finally, we have a copy of Edward Cunningham's Oath of Allegiance. This was a declaration immigrants had to make to the new country, America. It effectively was their naturalization record.

Tomorrow - off to Goochland County!

Day 107

It was a long, great day but I am exhausted tonight.





The morning started with a workout and laundry. Then I was off to the Virginia Historical Society. Located on Richmond's north side, the neighborhoods are full of lovely, large town houses, well maintained and shaded by lots of trees. A nice contrast to my airport location.





The Historical Society librarians had the pictures of Howard's Neck (Edward Cunningham's home) ready for me. The house was designed by the same architect used on his home in Richmond and who designed Monticello for Jefferson and the Washington Monument. Edward purchased the property (848 acres) in 1807 for $15,333 and then had the house constructed about 1817.



I requested several other books and files, looking for potential family threads. I found 6-8 letters - 200 year old correspondence from Edward Cunningham and John Randolph (Roanoke and Washington, DC). They are difficult to read but I photographed them anyway. These two individuals were obviously involved in many trade deals and politics as well as being good friends.

I then went looking for the Letchers. There is actually very little information at the Historical Society on the early Letchers - most of it focuses on John Letcher, Gov of VA during the Civil War. However, I found a file called the William Robertson Perkins papers with references to Letcher and Perkins genealogy. After 15 or so minutes, the librarians started hauling in large boxes - 8 of them. The contain 100+ files each stuffed with letters and deeds and genealogy from 150-250 years old. The head librarian apologized because only about 25% of the material is sorted and organized into cross-referenced categories. I told her I was looking for the connection between Letchers and Perkins (Stephen Giles Letcher married Elizabeth Perkins - 5g grandparents on the Atkinson side). She picked a couple of boxes and a couple of additional files that she thought would be the best bet. And so I started.

Thank goodness most of the material was typed and not hand written. What I had to read focused on the Perkins family which emigrated to the US in 1640. Reading page by page, I finally found Elizabeth Perkins married to _________ Letcher. Right time frame but the dates were a bit screwy and she only had one child with him before marrying a second time. Hummmm. That didn't fit what we know and there was no reference to KY. So, more files. Finally I discovered that Elizabeth married Col. William Letcher - Stephen Giles Letcher's brother. So how could both boys marry Elizabeth Perkins (and no, her second marriage was to a Mr. Ellis)? More files, more reading, more sorting through family lines all over Virginia and into Tennessee. I wondered if I was wasting my time and thought about moving to other manuscripts. However, the Perkins information was compelling and I figured at least the oldest data would probably apply to us. Finally - gold. The right Elizabeth Perkins married to Stephen Giles Letcher. Confirmed by her father's will where he gives her a "negro" and SGL, his son-in-law, is an executor of the estate. It turns out that the 2 Elizabeth's were cousins and both did indeed marry the two Letcher brothers.

Now I must quote from some other material in the Perkins file - it is oddly appropriate: "The Perkins family is supposed to be Russian in its origin. This seems highly probably as the names Nicholas, Peter and Constantine frequently appear in its genealogical records [I got very excited here - new, non-English blood!]. The American branch however is said to have come immediately from Wales, their ancestors having emigrated from Russia to that country." Oh well. Another quote "The members of the family have intermarried a great deal. Each generation following the custom already established by their ancestors." Oi!

One other interesting item. The Cunninghams at Howard's Neck resided in Goochland County, VA. Also in Goochland were the Letchers, Perkins, and Hughes (from whom we derive the James Hughes Letcher middle name and who married into the Perkins family). Also of note - Howard's Neck was originally the property of the Hughes family who built a home there in the 1760s (which still stands). The files I read also confirm that Benjamin Thomas Letcher married Margaret Robertson (not Robinson) and that her parents were Alexander Robertson and Margaret Robinson (yes - now you know why I am having trouble sorting out that group!).

Back to the Historical Society tomorrow. I have more files to read.

Day 106

I'm tired tonight. I don't know if I can write a very coherent blog but here are a few highlights.

1. Found great information on the Starling-Holloway family. The individual who wrote the research (in 1874) was born in 1809. Suzanne Lyne and William Starling (our 6G grandparents) were his grandparents and he knew, met and interacted with most of the people who populate that strand of the Atkinson line. What was wonderful was that the Starling information I found yesterday actually came from this book. So I now have additional information on Holloways and Lynes. Besides filling in blanks and pushing lines back to where and how people came to the new world, I recognized the Holloway family chart that Maggie and Gramps had given me originally came from this book. However, instead of 1 page it is 3- John Holloway and Anne Starling had six children, not four. I just had never seen the rest of the chart!

All of these families were agrarians and merchants. Many well-to-do in VA before going to Kentucky. William Starling's parents died when he was young. Col. William Lyne (Suzanne's brother) was the parents' physician. He took on the guardianship of William and his brother and sister, raising them to adulthood. When William was 18, he married Suzanne (age 17). This angered her father (old William Lyne Sr.) so William and Suzanne moved to Mechlenburg Co, VA and then Kentucky. They never reconciled with old William but seemed to correspond regularly with her siblings. BTW - for my boys - William Starling (b. 1756) was 6'3". His sons Lyne and Edmund were 6'6". Guess we know where some of the tall genes come from.

2. We are clarifying the Holt line. It looks like two groups came - one from England and one from Germany. We are from the German line (I now have several generations with dates and places in Germany.) A group of Germans (the Germanna) came in three waves to VA - they were recruited as experienced iron workers. Michael Holt, his mother and stepfather were part of the group that arrived in 1717. They were suppose to go to Philadelphia but instead many perished on the trip and the remaining 100 were sold into indenture for 8 years to the Gov of VA - Spotswood. Michael worked off the indenture, married and acquired several hundred acres of land in what is now Madison County, VA. He and his wife Elizabeth Scheible then moved with their children to North Carolina (~1767-69).

Michael Jr. married Margaret O'Neill, from a well-to-do Irish family. Their son Joseph S. Holt (b. 1755) moved to KY and I believe was the father of John W. Holt and grandfather of Joseph Holt (Advocate General on Lincoln's cabinet) and Elizabeth Holt, our ggg grandmother on the Bowmer side. I probably can't prove this until I get to KY and find the probate records. The lineage is confirmed through wills and deeds down through Joseph Holt Sr. as is his move to KY and the fact that he is an ancestor of Judge Joseph Holt. Now I just need to link the KY residents.

To bed.

Day 105

It was a long day at the library. Seven solid hours of looking through manuscripts and files. The goal was to see if I could pick up some threads on some of our lines that just list a name, a date, and a location but few details. Because many areas did not keep vital statistics it is frustrating trying to move the Atkinson and Bowmer lines backwards - with confirming details - no just guesses.



I did have one lucky break. I found several generations of of the Starling family. Anne Starling married John Holloway. Their daughter Lucy married George Atkinson. I knew that Anne's parents were William Starling and Suzanne Lyne and a few dates but no location other than Virginia and no other generations. I found that William's father was William Starling of King William County, VA. They were a well known Virginia family. His father was Roderic, his grandfather William, and his gg grandfather was Sir William Starling - knighted in 1661 and served as mayor of London in 1670. Now that I have a lineage and location, I will look for probate records for confirmation/connectivity between the generations.

Tomorrow - back to look at microfilm and do more research. Wednesday I will head to the VA Historical Society. They are holding photos from the Howard's neck Plantation for me plus some other manuscripts.

Day 104

Just a short blog tonight. I set off to find Howard's Neck, Edward Cunningham's plantation. The route northwest was convoluted and time consuming. It quickly became obvious that our ancestors must have come up river by boat - not overland. Howard's Neck sits above a large switchback on the James River and must have a gorgeous view. The residence is a Federal house, 2-story with four chimneys. The property also contains a one-story frame house from the colonial times, and three log slave quarters. Although this sounds like I saw the plantation, I found the location but was unable to get very close. The best I could do was drive across country along some abandoned railroad tracks but was unable to see up hill through the vegetation. I chickened out on trespassing. I guess I needed a co-conspirator. Maybe the Historical Society will have photos.

I then made my way south of Richmond to the city of Petersburg. This is the original immigration point for Edward and his brothers. The city was a key hub for commerce in the 1700s - much bigger than Richmond - and is situated near the confluence of the James and Appomattox Rivers. During the Civil War, 5 railroads met at the city which made it a prime target for Grant's northern armies. They city suffered a huge fire in 1815 so most of the buildings are from that era but it provided an overall view of what our raw businessman must have seen as they sailed into port. I have attached a historical marker which has some interesting information relating to the use of slaves.

I took an hour to tour the Blandford Church and Cemetery. This church was established in the early 1700s and became the site for 30,000 Civil War burials after the end of the war. It took 15 years to recover all the bodies in the area. The church has 15 Tiffany windows commemorating the southern states and the men who gave their lives during the long fight. The windows are glorious. Tiffany made them from flat and rolled/twisted glass. The pieces vary in thickness from 1/4" to 1.5". The cemetery is the 2nd largest in Virginia - after Arlington.

Back to the library tomorrow. Hope I find good leads.

Day 103

I spent the morning getting my records organized for the Richmond experience. It is always interesting going to a large, regional library. You never know what you will find or whether it will be available. Taking back streets, I was in downtown Richmond in 15 minutes and - gloriously - there is a free parking garage for the Library of Virginia.

Combing through the online catalog, I found microfilm of some of Edward Cunningham's accounts and letters. Edward Cunningham and his brothers emigrated from Ireland in the last quarter of the 1700s. They established a variety of businesses that dealt with the raising, growing and exporting of tobacco, wool, and cotton. They were highly successful and moved from rural Virginia to Richmond and later established plantations along the James River. Edward's sister Sarah married John Atkinson in Ireland. Their son George was born in 1793. By 1803, George was orphaned. He came to America on his own and was taken in by his uncle Edward. Edward treated George like a son, sending him to the best schools and giving him practical experience in the family's import-export business. As importantly, he connected George with key movers and shakers - e.g., James Madison, Chief Justice Marshall, and John Randolf of Roanoke.

Back to today - the letters on microfilm. The letters were written by Edward on visits to London, Dublin and Church Hill, County Down, Ireland. Church Hill was the Cunningham family homestead and several of the letters reference the estate of John Atkinson, George's father. I haven't had time to read through all the letters but am excited to learn more about the relationship between the Irish and American parts of the family. The rest of the afternoon was spent compiling references on other manuscripts to read - a To Do list for Monday. I am also requesting some manuscripts and photos pertaining to Howard's Neck, Edward Cunningham's plantation on the James River. I am heading that way tomorrow but I don't have much confidence that I will get close to the property since it is privately held. Unfortunately, the family cemetery is also on the property.

At the end of the day I made my way to the site of the old Tredegar Iron Works. A former flour mill was purchased by Edward and John Cunningham in the 1820s and called the Virginia Foundry Company. The foundry combined with rolling mills to create Tredegar which eventually became the largest iron works in the south and the 3rd largest in the US. After some faltering in the 1840s and 50s, Tredegar made cannons for the south during the Civil War and was key to Richmond's choice as the Confederate capital. After the war, Tredegar changed to railway components, switching back to munitions for the two world wars. The picture below is what I could take, staying outside the "no trespassing" signs.

Day 102

Up and out this morning I headed south again hoping to find more information on Robertsons and Robinsons in the New River area. I stopped at the Wilderness Road Historical Museum in Polaski County and the Wyeth County Historical Society but no luck either place. By early afternoon, I decided I was spending too much time chasing small leads and needed to just head to the major source for information - the Library of Virginia in Richmond.

I took the backroads enjoying the countryside and listening to a book on tape. I stopped somewhere and in a parking lot pulled out my computer and portable internet access card to find a hotel room. It makes a huge difference in cost (often nearly 50%) to make an advance reservation rather than just pulling into cold. I ended up with a 10 day reservation at a very nice hotel in Richmond for an average of $60 per night because I got 3 nights free. I am going to enjoy the luxury!

Since the VA Library is open tomorrow, I will make my first foray into downtown. Hopefully, there will be less traffic on Saturday so I can get my bearings. Then Sunday - some sightseeing or go north of the city to find the plantation home of Edward Cunningham. We shall see.