ATTENTION: Johnnie D. Hysler <[email protected]> This morning I was searching on the Internet for informaton about a William Taylor Strong and located such a person on your three web sites. However, it was not the William Taylor Strong for whom I was searching. While searching on your web site I noted two glaring errors in the information you have posted about my Strong ancestry. First, you continue to show that my earliest proven ancestor was William Strong of James City County, VA, who died there about 1677. Prior to August 1997, I posted all the information known about this William Strong in several messages to the Strong Mail List. There is absolutely no proof that William Strong was the father of my ancestor, John Strong, Sr., of St. Peter's Parish, probably New Kent County, VA, despite the fact that these two lived in fairly close proximity geographically, but not at the same time. It was 21 years after the last record of William Strong before the first indisputable record of John Strong in 1698. I am disappointed that in the past year or more since I presented these records of William Strong you continue to show him as my ancestor on your web sites. I have previously pointed out that there was a land grant to Robert Hughes in New Kent Co., VA, in 1682 in which John Strong was claimed as a headright. A headright was a person who either transported themself or was transported by another person to the Virginia Colony. That is, they migrated to Virginia from some unknown place outside of the Virginia Colony. Most came from England or elesewhere in the Great Britain. But some were probably transported from other colonies. A 50 acre grant was made to each person who paid for their own or another person's transportation. Robert Hughes did in fact reside in New Kent County. Some of the other headrights he claimed in the same grant, such as Reese Hughes, did in fact settle in New Kent County. There are even documentated records proving that Robert Hughes and my ancestor, Thomas Stanley, were affiliated, at least in the 1790s and early 1800s. Thomas Stanley was the grandfather of Ann Stanley Strong. Are we willing to accept sheer speculation about a connection between William Strong of James City County and John Strong of St. Peter's Parish, probably New Kent County, over the documentation that proves that John Strong was transported to Virginia in 1682 or earlier by Robert Hughes? Second, one generation has been omitted from my ancestry: Mrs. Ann Strong, who was probably the widow of Martin Strong. Martin Strong was born probably before 1730 in Hanover County, VA, and died about 1780 in Hanover County, VA. By 1781, the widow Ann Stanley Strong was residing in Goochland County, VA. She was the daughter of John Stanley, 1st ("the eldest") of Cedar Creek, western Hanover County. Martin Strong was a landowner in western Hanover County in 1763, per the only real estate tax list of that area that was preserved for the pre-1782 period. All other Strongs who could possibly have been the husband of Ann Stanley Strong have been ruled out. All but Sherwood Strong, 1st, had wives by other names. Sherwood Strong's military land grant right, for service in the French and Indian Wars, was inherited by his brother, Martin Strong, in 1779, proving that Sherwood had no children in 1779, whereas Ann Stanley Strong did have children in 1779. Ann Stanley Strong could thus not have been the widow of Sherwood Strong, 1st. To recap about the other probable sons of John Strong, Jr.: William Strong had a wife named Francis Johnson; John Strong, III, had a wife named Elizabeth; Nathan Strong had a wife named Catherine "Callichan" (Callahan). Besides Martin Strong, 1st, and Shewood Strong, 1st, no other probable sons of John Strong, Jr., have been demonstrated. There was another, possibly related, family of Strongs who arrived in Hanover County in the mid-1760s. The sons in this family (John, Martin, William, George) were born after Ann Stanley of Hanover County was married to Mr. Strong. Of course, your own ancestor, William Strong. Sr., and his family were in eastern Hanover County probably through the 1750s but the men in that family migrated to Lunenburg / Halifax / Pittsylvania / Henry County, VA, area beginning in 1762 or earlier. The estate of William Strong, Jr., son of William Strong, Sr., was being settled in Hanover County in 1770, with his brother, John Strong, of Pittsylvania County, inheriting his property, proving that William Strong, Jr., also had no children in 1770. James, John, and Thomas Strong, sons of William Strong, Sr., and William Strong, Sr., himself, are all accounted for in south central Virginia at some time during the period 1762 to 1777. Ann Stanley Strong apparently married without parental consent, about late 1753 or early 1754, as she was excommunicated in 1754 for marrying a non-Quaker. So she was of legal age and thus born 1733 or earlier. Her last legal record in Goochland County, VA, was in 1803, but she may have been the elderly woman residing with her son, John Strong, in Buckingham County at the time of the 1810 census. We can say for certain that she died 1803 or later; she probably died in either Goochland or Buckingham County, VA. So my descent is thus: John Strong, Sr. > John Strong, Jr. > Martin Strong, 1st > Sherwood Strong, 3rd > Isham S. Strong > G. Wyatt Strong > George W. Strong (Jr.) > Robert T. ("R.T.") Strong > Robert T. ("Bob") Strong, Jr. Martin Strong m. Ann Stanley is the generation that was omitted. The correction of these errors on your web sites will be greatly appreciated. Robert T. Strong, Jr. 119 Mystic Way Madison, AL 35757-8801 E-Mail: [email protected] =============================================================== On 29 JUL 1997, Johnnie Hysler wrote: > Robert T. (Bob) Strong, Jr. > Hey Bob, Thanks for the information on William Strong. I have been > trying to obtain a copy of Jim Rolfs book, but havent had any luck. I > wrote Jim a letter trying to find a copy a couple years ago, but got no > response, and then sent him an e-mail a couple weeks ago. I got an > opportunity to look at a copy for about 15 minuets 4 years ago. > I think you blew a hole in our family connection with William. > OOPS!!! > JD Hysler =================================================================