WAMSLEY~WEB NEWSLETTER #4 Once again, thanks again for your contributions! I could not possibly do this by myself with the information that I have alone. Please feel free to send anything no matter how big or how small. ******* Wanda, I'm interested; include me on the distribution. FYI, I have the Channell Family History document in Word format now but it does take up about 10meg of disk (pictures). Charles ******* Wansa: The Wamsley database on the ARFHS web site, mentioned in your last newsletter, is out of date and will probably be updated soon. Much data has been added since this was posted, including that of your own line. I will be glad to answer queries on the Wamsley and related families if I can. I have a lot of data on descendants of Jonathan Wamsley and Elizabeth Light that I haven't had time to record and hope to get most of it into the next update. Regards Dick Dick Phares-Huntsville, AL ******* Dear Ms. Balducci, Greetings! I got your email address from another Wamsley family member. It seems that many of us are on the 'Net. My name is Kathy Williams and I am a direct descendent of Isaac Wamsley, Sr. I heard that you are starting a Wamsleyweb newsletter and I would love to receive it. I began researching the Wamsley family history about a year ago. I would greatly appreciate any information you, or any other Wamsleys, might have on our family history. I am in the process of putting together a family history book for my siblings which includes family histories, recipes, tall tales, etc. I'm eager to hear about all of my other Wamsley kin. I am an English and composition instructor at Berea College in Berea, Kentucky. I was born in Adams County, Ohio. My parents and a brother live only three miles away from Wamsleyville, Ohio -- the old family homestead! Anyway, I am very eager to hear from you. Please respond to this note when you receive it so that I will know you got it. Our campus email system is susceptible to great glitches. Eagerly looking forward to "meeting" you and receiving the newsletter. Kathy Riley Williams 101 Morningside Drive Berea, KY 40403 606-986-9412 (my address and phone number may be printed in any newsletters, etc.) ******* The interesting items in the first two newsletters piqued my curiosity on several points: CROUCH 1. What is the source for the name "Mary" as wife of the earliest John Crouch? This is the first time I have seen a wife's name for him. 2. Does anyone know for sure the wife of the second John Crouch (Major John)? Maxwell's "History of Randolph County" says he married Judy WESTFALL. "William Currence the Pioneer," says it was Mary NELSON. Don Norman's "Westfall" report says Judith WESTFALL married <<either>> John or Andrew CROUCH. DORCUS What is the source for the name "Matthew" as the father of Judith DORCUS? This is also new information to me. KENTUCKY WAMSLEYS Jim Hamilton asked about some specific Wamsleys in Kentucky. I do not have any of those names in my database, but my notes show that we do have at least one family who migrated to KY: Thomas (1752-1866), s/o John WAMSLEY and Judith DORCUS, m. Margaret "Comfort" Ingram 1776. Children: Thomas m. Rebecca STEWART in Montgomery Co., KY; Elizabeth m. James ELLEDGE; John b. 1787 m. Sarah ______ in Montgomery Co., KY; and (daughter) WAMSLEY m. ______ RIGGS. Could there be a connection? JONATHAN WAMSLEY Thanks to Dick Phares for clearing up the confusion between the Jonathan Wamsleys. I had even seen a source claiming that Jonathan (husb. of Eliz. Light) was the s/o Matthew's brother, John Jr. ( I note that Dick's online database lists Wes Cochran's "Randolph Co. Marriages 1787-1923" as the source on Jonathan as s/o Matthew and Sally Currence Wamsley.) I have a followup question on the "black sheep" anecdote that Dick passed along about Jonathan s/o William and Susannah Watson Wamsley -- which of Jonathan's brothers-in-law was his "partner in crime"? I don't even have husbands listed for all of Jonathan's sisters. Or was it a brother of his wife, Hannah Newton? Apparently, Jonathan sought pensions for both his father, William, and his uncle James Wamsley. I don't know what happened about William's pension, but my notes say that James' was later suspended. ROBINSON Hal McCawley asks about the Robinson line (parents of John Wamsley Jr.'s wife Mary "Polly"). I recently found a source with several more generations of that line, plus some other WAMSLEY/ROBINSON marriages. It's at Sue Moore's web site (Sue is a member of the Hackers Creek Pioneer Descendants). Address is: http://dttwv01.org/sue/index.sht Just click on "Robinson" in the surname list and you will get a report. I downloaded a report titled "Cunninghams in 1992" which is where I found the Robinson information as a subset, but I assume the same names would be in the Robinson section. Thanks, everybody! Mary Ann Wamsley Arlington, VA Note: Mary Ann was one of the first Wamsleys I corresponded with online regarding Wamsley ancestry. Because of her, I have been able to find out a lot about my Wamsley relatives. Thank you! Wanda ******* I would like to receive the Wamsley~Web Newsletter. My name is Martha Snyder Valentine and I am related to the Wamsleys through Jacob Snyder and Sarah F. Wamsley. They were my great-great grandparents. John chandler Snyder was my great-grandfather and my grandfather was Andrew Floyd Snyder. I am a third cousin to Dick Phares. Dick has sent me the first two newsletters. By the way, I was born and raised and spent most of my life in West Virginia. I am now living in Athens, Ohio. Thanking you in advance. Martha Snyder Valentine I saw a picture of Sarah F. Wamsley on the Alleghany Family History Society site that someone has placed there. I believe that I found it under "search - Wamsley". You can try http://www.swcp.com/~dhickman/pictures/wamsley; however when I tried to get to the picture that way, I was not able to. -Wanda ******* Hi Wanda, Sorry to be late but just returned from 2 weeks vacation. I would be pleased to be listed on your mailing list. I note that you did not list the surname SEE. Best, Hal McCawley I have been searching for how the SEE family is connected to the WAMSLEY family in West Virginia. I feel like there must be some connection; Captain Jacob See Wamsley mentioned in the last newsletter may have been named after a member of the SEE family, but I have not been able to find the connection or why his parents, Samuel B. Wamsley and Elizabeth Crouch, would have named him SEE. -Wanda ******* Hi Wanda - As a Wamsley descendant I would be most interested in your proposed newsletter. I have very little data on my Wamsley ancestor however. Good Luck. Hoyt Harmon Hoyt, send us what you have and we will try to fill in and expand on what you have. (I started out with very little - the name of my grandfather and his parents, some of his brothers and sisters, and the fact that he was from Randolph, West Virginia.) -Wanda ******* Wanda: John N. Wamsley m. Eliza Yokum and son of Jonathan Wamsley and Elizabeth Light also served in the Civil War as a Union soldier. Martin Yokum had a picture of him in uniform mounted on his horse. Dick Phares Dick Phares-Huntsville, AL ******* Help Wanda, I accidentally deleted my copy of the WamsleyWeb Newsletter #1. Could you please send me another copy? Your newsletters are great. I have been in touch with a few Wamsley researchers by snail mail & I plan on sending them copies, too. Have you added your WamsleyWeb to Cyndi Howell's list of Family Newsletters? Cyndi's List of Genealogy Sites on the Intern... http://www.oz.net/~cyndihow/surn-w.htm I've gotten a lot of new info on Isaac Wamsley's line that I'll send you as soon as I get it organized. Keep up the good work! Mary Jane ******* To: Wamsleyweb Dear Wanda, I got an email from Mary Ann Wamsley and would like to be on your mailing list. I believe we are relatives. Thank you, Sally Wamsley Burkholder Sally, when you get a chance, let us know who your Wamsley ancestors are! ********* Wanda -- I received this item from Debbie Malec and she has given me permission to forward it to you for use in the newsletter: I am looking for WAMSLEYs in PA around 1762. Here is what I have found thus far: FIRST GENERATION 1. Mary WAMSLEY. She was married to George PARSONS (son of William Jr. PARSONS and Martha HUGHES) on 28 Dec 1762 in PA. Mary WAMSLEY and George PARSONS had the following children: Charles Sr., Joseph & George PARSONS. Each of these sons named their son Charles. There is a Thomas WAMSLEY who shows up in some of the PARSONS documents there & other WAMSLEYS that I am looking at. ******* With the onset of the Civil War, 50 of Virginia's western counties voted to stay in the Union. West Virginia became a state in 1863. The West Virginia counties that were once a part of Virginia include: Barbour, Berkeley, Boone, Braxton, Brooke, Cabell, Calhoun, Clay, Doddridge, Fayette, Gilmer, Greenbrier, Hampshire, Hancock, Hardy, Harrison, Jackson, Jefferson, Kanawha, Lewis, Logan, McDowell, Marion, Marshall, Mason, Mercer, Monongalia, Monroe, Morgan, Nicholas, Ohio, Pendleton, Pleasants, Pocahontas, Preston, Putnam, Raleigh, Randolph, Ritchie, Roane, Taylor, Tucker, Tyler, Upshur, Wayne, Webster, Wetzel, Wirt, Wood, Wyoming ******* Internet: http://www.kalglo.com/germname.htm Date: Written 18 August 1995 Updated 6 June 1997 From: Charles F. Kerchner, Jr. 5507 Louise Lane Northampton PA 18067-9076 E-mail: kerchner@compuserve.com 18th Century Pennsylvania German Naming Customs 1. At baptism, if two given names were given to the child, the first given name was a spiritual, saint's name, originally developed from Roman Catholic tradition and continued by the Protestants in their baptismal naming customs. The second given name was the secular or call name, which is the name the person was known by, both within the family and to this rest of the world. The spiritual name, usually to honor a favorite saint, was usually repeatedly given to all the children of that family of the same sex. Thus the boys would be Johan Adam Kerchner, Johan George Kerchner, etc., or Philip Peter Kerchner, Philip Jacob Kerchner, etc. Girls would be named Anna Barbara Kerchner, Anna Margaret Kerchner, etc., or Maria Elizabeth Kerchner, Maria Catherine Kerchner, etc. But after baptism, these people would not be known as John, Philip, Anna, or Maria, respectively. They would instead be known by what we would think of now as their middle name, which was their secular name. Thus these people would be known respectively as Adam, George, Peter, Jacob, Barbara, Margaret, Elizabeth, and Catherine in legal and secular records. For males, the saint's name Johan or John was particularly heavily used by many German families. The child's secular name was really John, if and only if, at baptism he was named only John, usually Johannes, with no second given name. Many researchers, new to German names, who find a baptism of an individual with a name such as Johan Adam Kerchner, thus mistakenly spend a lot of time looking for a John Kerchner, in legal and census records, when he was known after baptism, to the secular world, as Adam Kerchner. Also when reading county histories, etc., especially those written by individuals in the 20th century, and the author is referring to someone as John Kerchner, and you are not looking for a John Kerchner, but the history sounds otherwise familiar, further research may turn up that this person was really not a John Kerchner, but instead was someone else such as a Johan George Kerchner. You would thus find all his 18th century records recorded under the name George Kerchner and not John Kerchner and therefore after checking the data and correlating the facts you may find this is really a story about your missing George Kerchner. 2. The term "Senior" and "Junior" following a name did not necessarily imply a father and son relationship, as it does now. It could have been an uncle and nephew who had the same name and lived near each other. It could be a grandfather and a grandchild living together, where the father has died. It could even be two unrelated individuals with the same name but of different ages who lived near each other. So to help friends and business associates keep track of who-was-who in their discussions and records, they added on the "Sr." or "Jr." which merely meant the older and the younger, respectively. 3. The term cousin was widely used to mean an extended family, not the specific legal definition we understand it to be today. 4. It was a common practice in some German families to name the first born son after the child's paternal grandfather and the second born son after the maternal grandfather. Here are several more detailed naming patterns practiced by some families. Pattern A 1st son after the father's father 2nd son after the mother's father 3rd son after the father 4th son after the husband's father's father 5th son after the wife's father's father 6th son after the husband's mother's father 7th son after the wife's mother's father 1st daughter after the wife's mother 2nd daughter after the husband's mother 3rd daughter after the mother 4th daughter after the father's father's mother 5th daughter after the mother's father's mother 6th daughter after the father's mother's mother 7th daughter after the mother's mother's mother Pattern B The pattern B for the sons is the same as the above but this pattern for daughters was different 1st daughter after the father's mother 2nd daughter after the mother's mother 3rd daughter after the mother 4th daughter after the mother's father's mother 5th daughter after the father's father's mother Pattern C 1st son after the father's father 2nd son after the mother's father 3rd son after the father's oldest brother 4th son after the father 1st daughter after the father's mother 2nd daughter after the mother's mother 3rd daughter after the mother's oldest sister 4th daughter after the mother Whenever a duplicate name occurred in these patterns, the next name in the series was used. If a child died in infancy the name was often reused for the next child of the same gender. If you are lucky enough to find a family with a lot of children, who strictly followed one of these naming patterns, then it may give you useful clues to determining the possible names of family members in earlier generations. 5. An "in" or "en", added to the end of a name, such as Anna Maria Kerchnerin, is a Germanic language name ending suffix denoting that the person is female. Thus the correct spelling of the last name in the example would be Kerchner, not Kerchnerin. The family of Mary Harper, wife of Andrew Marcellus Harper, came from Germany. Their last name was originally Herber. Some of the Harper families loosely followed the German naming pattern. Good-bye and thanks! Till next time, Wanda