Although I might ruffle some feathers, I feel duty bound as a Wade genealogist to provide a word of caution to those on this list who are researching the Wades of Virginia. Family trees for Virginia Wade family trees are available on almost every commercial genealogy web site, private individual web sites, the archives of this mailing list, as well as those that are freely distributed. Some of these trees connect many of these Virginia Wade families to Edward Wade I of York Co., VA, or James Wade of New Kent Co., VA. THERE IS NO PROOF FOR THE VAST MAJORITY OF THESE CONNECTIONS TO EDWARD I OR JAMES !!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! I have e-mailed all of the people who have posted this data and requested proof. Those that responded to my e-mail could not provide any proof whatsoever, only stating that they either didn't remember where the data came from, the data came from another Internet source, or William Scroggin's paper, or one of the gigantic Edward Wade files distributed by June Nevar. >From what I have been able to determine the origin of the connections to Edward I of York Co., VA is Jim Farmer's web site, http://ourworld.compuserve.com/homepages/jotajota/ Mr. Farmer has included two research documents in this web site, both dated February 1998. One is titled "Wade Records of Tidewater Virginia," which contain his Wade research notes and the other "Wade Descendants of York Co., VA" which contain a descendant chart for Edward Wade I. Both of the documents clearly state the following warning: "These are my working records! I try to show as much as I can from various sources, good and bad. Since there is no way to show what is "penciled in" or what is "in concrete," you need to make those judgments yourself from the notes I have included. my comments are normally in square braces [ ]. I confess to using some "best guesses" and "good assumptions," but I am always ready to reconsider when there is new information, if you will let me know." Unfortunately, people have taking Farmer's records as FACT and posted them on the web as such. Farmer includes Edward Wade I's will in his notes which shows that he has two sons, Edward II and William Wade, and a grandson, Edward Wade. There is no information in this will regarding who is the father of this grandson, either Edward or William, and Farmer states this. Although there are several subsequent York County records for both Edward and William, no records have been located, other than Edward I's will, which provide the names of any of Edward II or William's children. Farmer's notes include a Mary Hampton who first married a Mr. Duke and then, sometime after November 1670 married a Mr. Wade. He argues that since Edward I owned land next to Francis Burwell who owned land next to Thomas Hampton, that "it would be easy to imagine that one of Edward's son married Thomas Hampton's daughter." With no records detailing the children of Edward II and William, Farmer decided that it was Edward II who married Mary Hampton Duke Wade and that almost every male Wade, Waid, and Ward in James City, New Kent, and York counties who were on the 1704 Rent Role were their sons. This is a great leap of faith. I can only assume that this was one of Farmer's "best guesses." These sons are as follows: Edward Ward/Waid - 100 acres in James City Co. in 1704 Rent Role James Waid - 150 acres in New Kent Co. in 1704 Rent Role Thomas Wade - 375 acres in York Co. in 1704 Rent Role Henry Ward/Waid - 100 acres in James City Co. in 1704 Rent Role John Wade - Received 34 acres in James City Co. on 21 Apr 1690 but is not in the 1704 Rent Role so Farmer assumed he was dead. There is also a Thomas Ward (100 acres in James City Co. in 1704 Rent Role) and a Robert Ward (800 acres in James City Co. in 1704 Rent Role) which Farmer did not include among Edward II's children. Notice there is no Andrew Wade in this list. Farmer argued that "Wards" could be "Waids" because the "i" could be misinterpreted for an "r." He stated that one of the reasons for this was that the quill pen could not change directions easily and offered several suggestions to separate the two surnames. However, the normal way this problem is solved is by looking at the original record or a copy of it and comparing the scribe's letter making with known words in the document. This may have been a difficult task when Farmer authored this document, but since the Library of Virginia has now digitized all these old land patents and made them available on the web, the task is simplified greatly. I downloaded Thomas Hampton's 19 May 1637 patent for 700 acres (file 001_0424.tif), 50 acres of which was for a William Ward. Farmer argued that his name could have been "Waid" but the patent is very clear and the name is "Ward." Farmer then took another leap of faith in assuming that many of the Virginia Wade males who were born about 1690 -1700 were grandsons of Edward Wade II. Again, there is no proof for any of this and I assume these are his "best guesses." He lists these as follows: "Children of (unknown?) Wade, (which brother is father?): John Wade, born about 1690. Joseph Wade, born about 1690 in James City Co., VA Richard Wade, born about 1700 James Wade, born about 1700 Robert Wade, born about 1700 in James City Co., VA Andrew Wade, Senior, born about 1700 I'm the 5th great grandson of the Robert Wade in the list above and there is no record that he was born in James City Co., VA. I've seen an exact birth date for him in the archives of this mailing list as well as on several family trees. An exact birth date for a person born at this time means that someone has discovered a previously undiscovered register, an old gravestone, or Bible. No one has! Farmer's notes include many Wades, Wards, and others of similar spellings, who immigrated to Virginia during the 1600s. Unfortunately, he does not attempt to tie any of these immigrant Wades to the Wade families that spread through Virginia. He ties almost all of these families for which he found records to Edward Wade I of York Co. In his notes he states, ". . many of the other Wades must have died from the hard lifestyle of the adventurers. Their names are seldom mentioned in the records." I believe this is a case of lost records or that Farmer did not find all the extant Virginia records. My count is that at least 26 male Wades, Wards, etc., immigrated to Virginia from 1635 - 1680. Surely some of these Wades survived and they and their descendants are our ancestors. As an example of one such case, I refer to James Wade of New Kent Co. As will be shown later, there is proof that he is in New Kent Co. as early as 20 Oct 1685 when Will., son of James Wite was baptized, or 30 Jan 1689/1690, when Henry, son of James Wade was baptized in St. Peter's Parish, New Kent Co., VA. However, on 21 Oct 1684, Mr. Richard Littlepage received 871 acres in New Kent Co. for the transportation of 18 persons including James Wade. It appears more feasible to me that the James Wade of New Kent Co. is this immigrant and not the son of Edward Wade, II. Also, no consideration was given to Wades who immigrated to Virginia from other colonies. Maud Carter Clement in her well respected book, "The History of Pittsylvania Co., VA," 1929, researched the origins of the first gentlemen justices of Halifax Co., VA and concluded that Andrew Wade, Sr. probably came from Pennsylvania. Farmer has him as one of Edward Wade, II's grandsons. Besides Farmer's web site, another prime source for Wade ancestors is a paper written by William G. Scroggins, 21 Aug 1987. This paper was previously unpublished but it has been included under "Wade Notes" on the web site: http://members.tripod.com/wadehome/wade1.htm Scroggins work is not identified on this web site, but it starts on the second page at the paragraph beginning with "Circumstances suggest that James Wade . . ." and continues to the end of the document. The family trees in Scroggins original document have been removed in this posting. In his document Scroggins attempted to develop evidence to connect a lot of Virginia Wade families to the James Wade of New Kent Co., VA. He is the same James Wade who Farmer identifies as a son of Edward Wade, II. On the first page of his document, Scroggins states that James' known children are: Henry Wade, b. 30 Jun 1689 New Kent County, VA Margaret Wade, b. 01 May 1694 New Kent County, VA James Wade, Jr., b probably 1697 Although not stated on the first page, on a subsequent page Scroggins also states that other known children for James Wade were Anthony Wade, and daughters Mary Wade and Sarah Wade. Scroggins does not state his proof for these "known" children, but the proof for Henry, Anthony, Margaret, Mary, and Sarah is as follows. As far as I know, there is no known proof for James, Jr. being the child of James Wade of New Kent Co. On 28 Apr 2000, Bill Wade posted a message on the WADE-L mailing list which identified a Bible owned by Mrs. Florence Wade Becker of Bluefield, WV. The Bible had evidently been the property of Henry Wade, born in Hanover Co., VA in 1740, who was the son of Henry Wade, the son of James Wade of New Kent Co., VA. The Bible record stated that James Wade of New Kent Co., VA had sons Henry and Anthony, and daughters Margaret, Mary, and Sarah. Some of this Bible record is backed up by the St. Peter's Parish Register which has the following baptism records: 1. Will sone of James Wite & ____ his wife bapt ye 20 day of octobr, 1685. [NOTE: Only Wite in this register] 2. Henry son to James Wade bapt ye 30 day of January, 1689-0. 3. Mary Daut of James Wade baptis. the 17 October, 1697. 4. Sarah Daughter of James Wade baptiz. the 24 Nov., 1700 5. Mary Daught of Antho. Wade Baptised May 4th, 1711. An examination of the St. Peter's Parish Register reveals that there is a scarcity of records in the register between the years 1692 and 1696, indicating that either record keeping wasn't diligent during this time or these records did not make it to this register, which is jumbled. Margaret and Anthony could have been born during this time and their baptisms not recorded. Since, Henry didn't identify William as being one of James' son, perhaps he was really a Wite and not a Wade or more likely, he either died young or was just forgotten. The St. Peter's Parish Register is very complete for several years after 1696 and so it is unlikely that James had more children in that parish which were not recorded. There are no marriages or deaths recorded for him and his family in the St. Peter Parish Register. However, I suspect that James lived in an area of New Kent Co. which became St. Paul's Parish in 1704. The register for St. Paul's Parish does not exist but it's Vestry does and a James Wade is listed among some of the early processioning records for that parish. As I stated before, Scroggins attempts to attach several other Virginia Wade families to James. On page 1 of his report he identifies the following people as possible children of James Wade. Several pages of his document is devoted to developing circumstantial evidence (some of which contains errors) aimed at proving these possibilities. Unfortunately, several people have converted his possibilities to FACT and put it on the Internet. These possible children are as follows: Edward Wade, b. probably c1690 Andrew Wade, d. 1766 Halifax Co., VA Richard Wade, b. c1700, d. 1757 Goochland Co., VA Robert Wade, b. c1700, d. c1770 Halifax Co., VA John Wade William Wade That's it. I'm presently working on the Robert Wade, Sr. of Halifax, VA line and am exploring the early Virginia records in much more detail than was done in either of the aforementioned documents. Some of my research will be involved with taking the detailed descriptions of land patents and deeds and plotting maps of land holdings for the Wades and their neighbors and in tracking sales of land once owned by the Robert Wades. Bruce Baird