November 9, 2009
November 6, 2009
New Blog: “Cherokee Cousins”
I have thought long and hard about whether I should begin another blog related to my family tree research.After months of trying to place bits of Native American genealogy data in my other WordPress blogs, I decided the time was right to begin this one. I and many of the people I know who have grown up in the south eastern US have family ‘oral traditions’ which say one or more of our ancestors were Native Americans who “remained behind” despite the massive Indian removal during the 1850’s.(…)
November 5, 2009
Genealogy perspective, ancestor’s influence
RootsWeb’s WorldConnect Project: Bruce Cooley Pusch
WHAT IS THE POSSIBLE INFLUENCE OF OUR EARLIEST ANCESTORS ON US TODAY?One thing that’s important to keep in mind when going back down a family tree is that each generation doubles the number of your ancestors.
What you are dealing here with are exponential numbers.
As you double the number of grandparents with each generation, you quickly see how fast the numbers are getting very large:
For example, when you get to the 64th generation, with my ancestors like Odin Woden or Woutan of Saxony King of Scandinavia born in 215 and Clodomir IV King of the Franks born in 251 you have had 9,230,372,036,854,775,808 grandparents at the various generational levels between each of them and me.
This number spelled out is: 9 quintillion, 223 quadrillion, 372 trillion, 36 billion, 854 million, 775 thousand, 8 hundred and 8.
Just to give you an idea of how big this number is:
If you had 9,23,372,036,854,775,808 grains of rice, it would be enough rice to cover all of India knee deep.
If you had that many pennies, those pennies would fill about 4,800,000 Empire State buildings.
You can see that there would probably be little bloodline influence on what any of us might be like today because of our relationship to any one ancestor that lived that far back in time. It’s difficult to imagine that any talents or faults that existed in one ancestor living far back in time could, so diluted, could influence us in any meaningful way today.
In other words, I don’t think I share many attributes with my distant ancestors Odin Woden or Woutan of Saxony King of Scandinavia born in 215 and Clodomir IV King of the Franks born in 251.
If you go back many generations more than the 64 discussed above, the numbers of our ancestors approach the numbers of stars in the sky or grains of sand on the beach.
Another view of these huge numbers of ancestors, is that some research would probably show the total number of people who ever lived is probably less than a trillion,
If that is so, the answer to this dilemma is that everybody’s tree eventually stops forking at various places (i.e., at some point, cousins married cousins, thus reducing the number of potential grandparents).
I myself am descended from two Cooley siblings
Nevertheless, no matter the exact huge number of our ancestors, a million, a trillion or a quintillion, it’s interesting to explore back through time, discover these ancestors, think about them and learn history through them.
For example, a, to me, very interesting ancestor from my own ancestral searches, is Queen Medb
According to the “Cooley Genealogy”, “One of the earliest references to the name Cooley is spelled Cualnge and appears in the 7th century when the great Celtic epic, “Tain Bo Cualnge, or “The Cattle Raid of Cooley” (County Louth) was first committed to writing. The name Cualnge may, of course, have been a place-name, not a patronymic, but many family names are derived from place names. This great epic is described as the chief and lengthiest romance of the Ulster cycle of literature, and has to do with heroes who Irish annalists and synchronists agree in placing about the beginning of the Christian era. During this primitive Celtic civilization no native coins were in circulation. The land in a pastoral country belonged to the tribe. A man’s property consisted of cattle and cattle-raids were frequent. Hence the greatest Irish epic is of a cattle-raid, the object being for Queen Medb to gain possession of an extraordinary animal known as the Brown Bull of Cualnge.”
November 4, 2009
October 30, 2009
Joshua Kennerly Speer – NC
Joshua Kennerly Speer was born in 1794, in Yadkin County, North Carolina. He was the son of Aaron Speer; his mother’s name was “Elizabeth.” He was reared in the Baptist faith. His parents were what they then called “Old Baptists,” or Primitive Baptists. Joshua K. Speer accepted the teaching of his father, but could not understand the theories concerning predestination and election. He searched for light from all whom he thought were able to give him help. He held long and interested interviews with the prominent Baptist preachers of his faith. They tried to satisfy his mind, but were unable to do so. He doubted the whole system of the Baptist faith. Some of his preachers told him that his “doubts” were strong evidence that he was one of the elect. However, this did not remove the difficulty from his mind.
Speer – Georgia, South Carolina – Land Documents
1815 Laurens?Estate Partitions in the Washington District Court of Equity, 1803-1826
Pages 63-71a. Petition of Margarett Speirs sheweth that David Speirs, on the – day of September, 1815, died intestate, owning the following tracts of land:
1. Tract whereon he lived at the time of his death, containing 100 acres, on the waters of Little River, conveyed to David Speirs by Elijah Taylor & wife 9 and 10 Nov. 1791.
2. Tract containing 139 acres adjoining David Speirs, William Rodgers, and Thomas Word, granted to the said David Speirs 7 Apr. 1794. (Note: there is a Thomas Word in the 1830 Dale County, Alabama census near James Speer)
3. Tract containing 142 acres adjoining Robert Hunter, Elijah Taylor, Thos. Word, and Alexr McNary, granted to the said David Speirs 5 Dec. 1791.
4. Tract containing 31 acres adjoining Wm Taylor, John Workman, and John Waldrop, granted to Michael Waldrop, Junr, and by him conveyed to the said David Speirs 24 Jan. 1809.
5. Tract containing 170 acres, being part of a tract of 376 acres, conveyed by George Montgomery & John Workman 14 Mar. 1808.
6. Tract containing 150 acres, bounded on Wm Prather, James Starks, John McKelvy, and Francis Stewart, sold as the property of George Dalrymple & conveyed to the said David Speirs by Robert Word, Sheriff of Laurens District 2 Dec. 1805.
7. Tract containing 200 acres in Spartanburgh District, conveyed by Thos. Leatherwood & wife to David Speirs, and which he recovered in an action commenced by him against John Ferry in Spartanburgh Court to Try Titles.
8. One undivided moiety of a tract containing 1000 acres granted to James Smith 4 Mar. 1811 & sold by the sheriff of Laurens District to David Speirs & John Black.
Speer – Georgia, South Carolina – Land Documents
1815 Laurens?Estate Partitions in the Washington District Court of Equity, 1803-1826
Pages 63-71a. Petition of Margarett Speirs sheweth that David Speirs, on the – day of September, 1815, died intestate, owning the following tracts of land:
1. Tract whereon he lived at the time of his death, containing 100 acres, on the waters of Little River, conveyed to David Speirs by Elijah Taylor & wife 9 and 10 Nov. 1791.
2. Tract containing 139 acres adjoining David Speirs, William Rodgers, and Thomas Word, granted to the said David Speirs 7 Apr. 1794. (Note: there is a Thomas Word in the 1830 Dale County, Alabama census near James Speer)
3. Tract containing 142 acres adjoining Robert Hunter, Elijah Taylor, Thos. Word, and Alexr McNary, granted to the said David Speirs 5 Dec. 1791.
4. Tract containing 31 acres adjoining Wm Taylor, John Workman, and John Waldrop, granted to Michael Waldrop, Junr, and by him conveyed to the said David Speirs 24 Jan. 1809.
5. Tract containing 170 acres, being part of a tract of 376 acres, conveyed by George Montgomery & John Workman 14 Mar. 1808.
6. Tract containing 150 acres, bounded on Wm Prather, James Starks, John McKelvy, and Francis Stewart, sold as the property of George Dalrymple & conveyed to the said David Speirs by Robert Word, Sheriff of Laurens District 2 Dec. 1805.
7. Tract containing 200 acres in Spartanburgh District, conveyed by Thos. Leatherwood & wife to David Speirs, and which he recovered in an action commenced by him against John Ferry in Spartanburgh Court to Try Titles.
8. One undivided moiety of a tract containing 1000 acres granted to James Smith 4 Mar. 1811 & sold by the sheriff of Laurens District to David Speirs & John Black.
Speer/Speed family in texas
The family of Mary America Speed-Speer lived in Hopkins County, Texas. She was the sister of William Gaston Speed. He was the recently deceased husband of Mariah Ann Durham- Speed and the father of James Monroe Speed. Both parents of his nephews “Johnnie and “Willie” were recently deceased.In 1867 James Monroe Speed, as an ex-confederate soldier, migrated from Coosa County, Alabama to Hopkins County, Texas. He was accompanied by his wife Jenni, his eldest child Cora Lee Speed, his mother Mariah Ann Durham-Speed, and his nephews “Johnnie” John Gaston Speed and “Willie” William Montgomery Speed, the sons of William Michael Speed.
William Speer – Revolutionary War
CHAPTER 3WILLIAM SPEER, SR.
IN THE
REVOLUTIONARY WAR
Imagine yourself, if you can, recently immigrated to a new county and almost immediately becoming embroiled in a bitter revolution against the most powerful nation on earth! Young William Speer1 found himself in just such a situation when, at the age of 25, he left his home in Northern Ireland and immigrated to America. He arrived on the third of September 1772, surely full of enthusiasm and eager to begin his new life. He lived in Pennsylvania for a few years, perhaps with relatives or friends, and moved to Charleston, South Carolina in 1774 just as the American Revolution was beginning. Due to the war, it would be nine more years before William would settle down, get married and begin a family. This chapter attempts to relate what we know about his Revolutionary War service with the political and military history of South CarolinaA. See CHAPTER 2 for the family history of William Speer.
Speer Family – Letters
Family Letter of 1869 William Speer, Jr.2 (William1) of Monterey, Abbeville County, South Carolina sent the following historic letter concerning his father’s family to John Andrew Speer4 (William1, John2, William3) of LaGrange, Troup County, Georgia in 1869. John was a great grandson of William Speer, Sr1. and was a Georgia State Senator at the time. Although the location of the original hand-written letter is unknown, typed versions of the letter have been published several times and data from the letter has been quoted in many publications. The copy of the letter given below was taken from published transcripts in the LaGrange Reporter (Troupe County, Georgia) and the Gaffney Ledger (Cherokee County, South Carolina). An original copy of the LaGrange Reporter article was provided by George William Whitmire6 of Jacksonville, Florida. Alexander Speer2 (William1) was an editor of the LaGrange Reporter in 1833 (CHAPTER 6).Monterey P.O., Abbeville District, S. C., Dec 9, 1869.
John A. Speer, Esq.:
Dear John:
I received your letter of August last, and, for several reasons, have not answered until now. You ask me to give you some particulars of my Father’s (your Great Grand Father’s) history, which you mention in several interrogatories, and which I will do, but altogether from recollection.
My Father was born in Ireland in 1747, in the county Antrim, near the town of Stebaul; his name was William. His mother died at his birth; she was the daughter of William Houston, and her name, Margaret; his Grand Father, William Houston, took him and raised him; his Father married again and had four sons, named, Joseph, John, James and Alexander. At about twenty-five years of age he came to America; landed at Christian Bridge, Delaware River, on the 3rd of September, 1772. He lived in the State of Pennsylvania in the year of 1773; he came to Charleston, S.C., in the year 1774. In the year 1775 the Revolutionary war began.
