This message is being put on the lists but is in answer to a question from Adam Gregory, a student at West Virginia Wesleyan and an acquaintance and relative of mine. (I am dispensing with much attribution here because of the complexity of this material but I will provide what I have to anyone who asks for it. That is, I will furnish my sources). I cannot state factually that I know that you are descended from Gen. Andrew Lewis, a commander in the French and Indian War and in the Battle of Point Pleasant also known as "Dunmore's War." There was an erroneous report posted earlier from some numbskull that he was in the Revolutionary War. But if the accounts of others are correct, you are related by marriage. Gen. Lewis married Elizabeth Given, daughter of Samuel and Sarah Cathay Given, according to the book "General Andrew Lewis of Roanoke and Greenbrier." According to some Hamrick researchers, you are descended from Samuel and Sarah Cathay Given. In that event your connection would be by marriage. The ancestors of nearly all Webster and Randolph Gregorys are descended from Col. Isaac and Sarah Hannah Given Gregory. Sarah Hannah Given descended from William Given and Nancy Agnes Bratton; William Given from John Given and Mary Margaret Sitlington; and John Given from Samuel Given and Sarah Cathay Given. This is how Autumn Kruer has them, although she said she cannot authenticate them. I have them the same way until it gets to Samuel Given and Sarah Cathay Given, where I had nothing. Marie Hamric Stoneman of Eldon, MO, who has researched the family for nearly 50 years, says the latter connection of John Given as the son of Samuel and Sarah is incorrect. You are connected through Nancy Agness Gregory, first wife of my great-grandfather Peter Hamrick. They had nine children including Lee Andrew "Lee A." Hamrick who married Amanda Hannah. Lee A. and Amanda were the parents of six children including a number of very beautiful women including your great grandmother, Lucy, and the twins, Mertie and Gertie. Peter's wife, Nancy, also was the daughter of Adam Given Gregory and Rebecca Dodrill, and he in turn was the son of Col. Isaac and Sarah Hannah Given Gregory. The other connection is through your great-grandfather Frank Gregory, who was related to Lucy before the marriage. If this is shocking, you can join a very large club in West Virginia. Frank was the son of John Wesley Gregory and Jane Hamrick Dodrill. As I've mentioned that made her Jane Hamrick Dodrill Gregory. What's in a name: Intermarriage, again and again. In any event, John Wesley Gregory's parents were Currence Gregory and Harriet Payne. And guess who Currence Gregory's parents were: Adam Given Gregory and Rebecca Dodrill. So one of Lucy's grandmothers was Nancy Agness Gregory, the daughter of Adam Gregory and Rebecca Dodrill . And her husband, Frank Edmiston, your great-grandfather, was the great grandson of the same couple. Now, although I am sorry to visit this grief-laden message on a relatively innocent young man, I must deliver the bad news too: You and I are closely related because my great-grandfather, Peter Hamrick, was Lucy's grandfather. He was your father's great-great grandfather. Autumn Kruer, I think, can connect you to Capt. Robert Bratton, a member of the Lewis and Clark expedition. Because my great-great grandfather was David Hamrick, Peter's father, I always have been able to deny that I had Gregory or Dodrill blood. But I must confess now that I am related to many of them. David had married Elizabeth Miller, while William and Benjamin married sisters who were daughters of Isaac and Sarah Gregory. I would invite your participation in the quest for family history. You have thousands of relatives in West Virginia and throughout the United States. The first thing you should do is become a member of the Gregory email list. Lisa Gregory <wvgregory@erols.com> can help you with that if you have not already become a member. You should know too that the pioneer history of the families (Gregory, Dodrill, Hamrick) is closely intertwined with that of the early days of the Methodist Church. And the Wesleyan Library is reputed to be a great repository of the material. A great contribution to family history could be made if someone could compile the early history of the Hamrick Barn and the Pleasant Grove Methodist Church. I swear that I once saw minutes of early meetings in which some members were expelled from the church for one reason or another. If the early information is correct, you would have more than one connection to the parents of Gen. Andrew Lewis. The reason is that Lucy Gregory's paternal grandmother was Nancy Agness Gregory and her father was Frank Gregory. dhamrick@neo.rr.com Dan Hamrick 402 23rd Street NW Canton OH 44709 Phone and fax: 330-454-2376 ---------- From: "adam gregory" <gregory_ad@wvwc.edu> To: <dhamrick@neo.rr.com> Subject: Date: Tue, Nov 30, 1999, 9:47 PM dan, how do i trace back to this Andrew Lewis? Adam