I'm busily moving all my genealogy stuff from one home to another & trying to get it into some retrievable order. In the process, some interesting things pop up. Some of you may recall that 2 yrs ago, on 1/13/04, Maynard posted a quote from Dick Eastman's free genealogy column about "Surprises in the Family Tree" in which Eastman reported that Paul Heinegg's then newly-published books (Free African Americans of North Carolina, South Carolina and Virginia; and Free African Americans of Maryland and Delaware) alerted him that his (Heinegg's) conclusion was that most free African-American and biracial families resulted not from a master and his slave, like Thomas Jefferson and Sally Hemings, but from a white woman and an African man, whether slave, freed slave or indentured servant. Eastman said that in describing Heinegg's book, Dr. Ira B. Berlin, a professor of American history at the University of Maryland and the founding director of the Freedmen and Southern Society Project there, stated, "If any branch of your family has been in America since the 17th or 18th centuries, it's highly likely you will find an African and an American Indian." Maynard also gave us Eastman's listed then-link to the New York Times story about the January 8, 2004 article regarding Heinegg's good work ("Surprises in the Family Tree" by Mitchell Owen), and a link to where one can read more about Paul Heinegg's books at http://www.freeafricanamericans.com/. This link still works, and the site includes a lot of information about free Africans in the United States as well as many pictures. What popped up for me today, was copies of a message I shortly after that sent to Paul Heinegg & his response to me. I don't think I ever shared this info with our List, and I want to do so now: I explained to Mr. Heinegg that after reading the Owen article (mentioned above), I had an even greater appreciation for his work, which I had consulted during the previous year, and I wrote: "I have a question for you, and hope that you might have time to respon to it, though I can certainly understand if you do not have time for questions such as this. In your 1992 volume, Free African Americans of NC & VA, listed were not only - Odam Poythress (b. about 1755) and - Hardimon Poythress (b. about 1757), and their probable children and other descendants, but also information about - William Poythress of Bertie Co, NC, which mentioned that perhaps his children were the above-mentioned Odam and Hardimon." I noted "Since your more recent 4th Edition for VA, NC & SC, 2001 volumes (and the listing at your website of www.freeafricanamericans.com) no longer list William Poythress of Bertie Co, but still list Odam and Hardimon, I am curious as to why William is no longer listed?" His response was a good lesson for all of us. He wrote that he didn't recall when he had realized that the William Poythress of Bertie County and his descendants were white, but that was why he had removed William from later editions. He further noted that in the late 1980s he met an elderly gentleman who had spent his entire life researching his family but was waiting to publish since he was constantly finding new information. His house burned down and he lost it all. So the moral was to publish what you have and update it later whenever you get new information. He told me he had been doing so since 1991; thus the change re William Poythress. We should all do our best to publish, at *least* to our Poythress-List (where the messages are archived & searchable), our findings and our efforts to unravel our Poythress puzzles. And then update it when we learn more. Michael Tutor has been doing us a huge favor by trying to compile what is known about many of the early Poythress men. We should all do our best to help seek out info we have found, that Michael doesn't have, and share it here so that info can be added to those life stories. I intend to do better on this, and I hope each of you will, too. We'll all benefit, folks. Barbara

After my posting last night "Publish & update it when new info is found" mentioning Paul Heinegg's books, one of our List subscribers asked me: "When Heinegg said that he realized that William Poythress, of Bertie County, was white, did he happen to mention what became of William or who William's children were?" Heinegg didn't address any of that with me, but I'll recap here what I can glean about William Poythress from Heinegg's excellent books that I've seen. I'm sure there are more references to William Poythress of Bertie Co, NC than the this covers. In his book, Free African Americans of NC & VA Including the family histories of more than 80% of those counted as "all other free persons" in the 1790 & 1800 census (Baltimore: Clearfield Company, 1992) is the only place I found William (logically, since as Heinegg told me later, he later realized William was white, & he removed him from subsequent books). In that book, the info on William Poythress was as shown in the next paragraph. All counties Heinegg's paragraph mentions are NC counties; I'm using abbreviations for months and for "county" & I'll insert his source citations in brackets along with any comments I have. The parenthesis about Outlaw is Heinegg's parenthetical note. At the conclusion of his paragraph on William, Heinegg then indicated that "Perhaps his children were Rachel Outlaw; Odam, born about 1755; and Hardimon, born about 1757." Please note that this is the info corrected by Heinegg in his later volumes; later he indicated NO parent's name for Odam or Hardimon, and he had NO "Outlaw" listed. It seems to me that Rachel Outlaw was likely the daughter of his neighbor; perhaps she helped care for him at some point. Heinegg wrote: William Poythress of Bertie County purchased 100 acres on Jumping Run adjacent to John Harrell on 8 Sep 1753 [Bertie Co, NC DB H, p.42], and he and his wife, Sarah, sold this land three years later on 21 Oct 1756 [Bertie Co, NC DB H, p.387]. He was called William Poythress of Hertford Co on 9 Oct 1764 when he sold 140 acres in Bertie Co between the lines of William and Thomas Outlaw [Bertie Co, NC DB K, p.481]. He was ordered by the Feb 1764 Bertie Court to serve on the grand jury [Bertie Co, NC County Court Minutes Bk III, p.647], and the same court allowed him to keep a tavern at his dwelling house [Bertie Co, NC County Court Minutes Bk III, p.648]. He won a judgment for 6 pounds 5 shillings against William Bryan in the June 1765 Bertie Court [Bertie Co, NC County Court Minutes Bk III, p.710]. In Dec 1768 he made a Northampton Co deed of gift of household goods to Richard Outlaw for affection he had for (his daughter?) Rachel Outlaw [4:196 -- this probably indicates Heinegg was citing Northampton Co, NC Co DB 4, p.196, though I'm not sure since I neglected to get the full citation for this one]. He was taxed on 150 acres in Hertford Co in 1779 [GA 30.1 -- this is Heinegg's citation for the NC Archives holding for this 1779 tax list -- see below for more] = = = 1779 Hertford Co, NC tax list: this is the earliest preserved tax list for Hertford Co, which was formed in 759 from parts of Bertie, Chowan, & Northampton counties. An in NC Genealogy, Summer 1967 issue (Vol. XIII, No.2) listed only the names, with the caution that the original tax list showed additional info: # acres of land; # slaves; money on hand; # horses & cattle; and total amt of taxable property. In that abstract, the name "Wm Poythress" is in Hertford County's 4th District on p.71 of the tax list.

In the "life stories," I have mentioned that William Poythress, of Bertie County, was probably the youngest son of John Poythress, Jr., as he is shown with an Abington. An Abington married John Poythress, Junior's wife after his death.........Mike ----- Original Message ----- From: "Barbara P. Neal" <bp_neal@earthlink.net> To: <POYTHRESS-L@rootsweb.com> Sent: Thursday, January 26, 2006 4:06 PM Subject: Follow-up re William Poythress of Bertie Co, NC from Heinegg's info > After my posting last night "Publish & update it when new info is found" > mentioning Paul Heinegg's books, one of our List subscribers asked me: > "When Heinegg said that he realized that William Poythress, of Bertie > County, was white, did he happen to mention what became of William or who > William's children were?" > > Heinegg didn't address any of that with me, but I'll recap here what I can > glean about William Poythress from Heinegg's excellent books that I've > seen. I'm sure there are more references to William Poythress of Bertie > Co, NC than the this covers. > > In his book, Free African Americans of NC & VA Including the family > histories of more than 80% of those counted as "all other free persons" > in the 1790 & 1800 census (Baltimore: Clearfield Company, 1992) is the > only place I found William (logically, since as Heinegg told me later, > he later realized William was white, & he removed him from subsequent > books). > > In that book, the info on William Poythress was as shown in the next > paragraph. All counties Heinegg's paragraph mentions are NC counties; > I'm using abbreviations for months and for "county" & I'll insert his > source citations in brackets along with any comments I have. The > parenthesis about Outlaw is Heinegg's parenthetical note. At the > conclusion of his paragraph on William, Heinegg then indicated that > "Perhaps his children were Rachel Outlaw; Odam, born about 1755; and > Hardimon, born about 1757." Please note that this is the info corrected > by Heinegg in his later volumes; later he indicated NO parent's name for > Odam or Hardimon, and he had NO "Outlaw" listed. It seems to me that > Rachel Outlaw was likely the daughter of his neighbor; perhaps she > helped care for him at some point. > > Heinegg wrote: William Poythress of Bertie County purchased 100 acres on > Jumping Run adjacent to John Harrell on 8 Sep 1753 [Bertie Co, NC DB H, > p.42], and he and his wife, Sarah, sold this land three years later on > 21 Oct 1756 [Bertie Co, NC DB H, p.387]. He was called William Poythress > of Hertford Co on 9 Oct 1764 when he sold 140 acres in Bertie Co between > the lines of William and Thomas Outlaw [Bertie Co, NC DB K, p.481]. He > was ordered by the Feb 1764 Bertie Court to serve on the grand jury > [Bertie Co, NC County Court Minutes Bk III, p.647], and the same court > allowed him to keep a tavern at his dwelling house [Bertie Co, NC County > Court Minutes Bk III, p.648]. He won a judgment for 6 pounds 5 shillings > against William Bryan in the June 1765 Bertie Court [Bertie Co, NC > County Court Minutes Bk III, p.710]. In Dec 1768 he made a Northampton > Co deed of gift of household goods to Richard Outlaw for affection he > had for (his daughter?) Rachel Outlaw [4:196 -- this probably indicates > Heinegg was citing Northampton Co, NC Co DB 4, p.196, though I'm not > sure since I neglected to get the full citation for this one]. He was > taxed on 150 acres in Hertford Co in 1779 [GA 30.1 -- this is Heinegg's > citation for the NC Archives holding for this 1779 tax list -- see below > for more] > > = = = > 1779 Hertford Co, NC tax list: this is the earliest preserved tax list > for Hertford Co, which was formed in 759 from parts of Bertie, Chowan, & > Northampton counties. An in NC Genealogy, Summer 1967 issue (Vol. XIII, > No.2) listed only the names, with the caution that the original tax list > showed additional info: # acres of land; # slaves; money on hand; # > horses & cattle; and total amt of taxable property. In that abstract, > the name "Wm Poythress" is in Hertford County's 4th District on p.71 of > the tax list. > > > ==== POYTHRESS Mailing List ==== > Poythress Genealogy Research Web > www.poythress.net > >