Robinson Crusoe

I was watching the Olympics on TV last night when I saw an advertisement for Crusoe, a new series that will begin airing Fridays on NBC in the fall. Apparently the series will be based on the classic novel by Daniel Defoe, Robinson Crusoe, about a young man who sets sail on a sea voyage and ends up facing a variety of challenges, from being captured by pirates, to being shipwrecked and stranded on a deserted island for years, and finally making his way back home to tell the tale.

I'm happy to see they've produced this series, and I hope it doesn't wander too far from Defoe's book. (I especially hope it's a clean, family program.) Just a week ago I bought a $1.00 children's abridged version of Robinson Crusoe from our local Rose's store to read to my son, Isaac, as soon as we're done reading Jules Vernes' 20,000 Leagues Under the Sea. The show will be fun for him after we've read the book.

Seeing that television commercial last night made me think of something genealogical, too: One of my g-g-g-grandfathers, William Morris, recorded his family births, marriages and other such information in his copy of Robinson Crusoe. He didn't record that precious data in a Holy Bible, he recorded it in Robinson Crusoe.

I suppose I'll never know the real answer until I have a chance to ask G-g-g-granddaddy William myself one day, but I have thought long and hard about it and decided that it's possibly because William was married more than once, and though his first wife had passed away, it's possible his next wife didn't want him to record information about children from his earlier marriage in the family Bible.

Whatever the reason, I'm glad he cared enough to write the records down somewhere.

I'd be interested in knowing if anyone else had an ancestor record family data in an unusual place. If they did, comment this story and tell us about it.

Neuse-Pamlico Peninsula Families

I have to admit...

Since virtually my entire family has lived within a 30 mile radius of Vanceboro or Caton (or Cayton, if your with the NCDOT) for the last 300 years, it shouldn't be surprising that my genealogical research tends to be rather focused.

One area from which I've had a bounty of ancestors is the peninsula -- if you could call it that -- that juts out between the Pamlico and Neuse Rivers.

For curious genealogists, the families on that peninsula I'm most connected to are:

WHITFORD, GASKINS, ANDERSON, WITHERINGTON, TOLER, SQUIRES, CARRUTHERS, PRESCOTT, MACKELROY, TUTEN and JONES.

That doesn't mean I'm an expert on any of those families, mind you, but I've certainly dug quite a bit into them, at least as it relates to solving my own family mysteries.

Now, after close to two decades of genealogical research, I'm only just realizing I may have roots among the early Palatine settlers of Craven County, as well!

This clue I stumbled on entirely by accident last year in one of those serendipity moments as a genealogist when while searching for data on one surname in my family, quite by happenstance, I stumbled on a missing piece of the puzzle for another surname in my family. I followed that rabbit trail for a while until I became frustrated with a lack of time and opportunity to do the research as thoroughly as I wanted to at the time. (After all, I have a five year old son who is 110% boy!)

But I digress...

The Squires family play a role in many families with roots on the Neuse-Pamlico Peninsula, although many researchers will never realize it (or concern themselves with pursuing it.)

"How do they play a role?" you say.

I'm so glad you asked! The Squires can be found deep in the branches of many Craven and Pitt County families through their connections to the Gaskins.

The Gaskins family, you see, has widespread roots throughout Craven and Pitt Counties (and who knows where else!), and there were a number of Gaskins who intermarried with Squires in the 1700s and into the early 1800s. The Squires they intermarried with all descend from one family on this peninsula. Here are some pertinent details:

The Patriarch:

Roger SQUIRES (b. abt 1705, d. 1772) married to "Jean" (as named in his will), although I'm unsure if "Jean" is also the mother of his children.

The Next Generation:

• Amos SQUIRES (I descend from his daughter, Elizabeth Squires who married Harmon Gaskins. I actually descend from them three different ways, but no need to get into those details right now.)
• Boaz SQUIRES (Not sure of his wife's name, but I know he had one child named Sidney SQUIRES.)
• Lydia "Liddey" SQUIRES
• Tamar SQUIRES
• Ruth SQUIRES married a Herrington
• Aliff/Alice SQUIRES married a Cuthrell

I happen to descend from Amos SQUIRES (b. abt 1730, d. abt 1801).

For the longest time I was unsure who the mother of Amos Squires' children were, as there are a number of marriage bonds for different Amos Squires (all related) in the Craven County Records, but unfortunately, they were all for the late 18th century-- far too late to be the mother of any of his children.

Then that special moment happened when I stumbled on the clue I had been looking for for years.

In a book of record transcriptions on the Carruthers family (from which I also descend) compiled by the brilliant Elizabeth Moore, I found an otherwise inconsequential court record:

Amos Squires vs. John Riggs (Biggs), 25 July 1801: Plot of Bay River

Mentions witnesses: Thomas Beasley, Caleb Bell, David Beasley, Levi Dawson, James Easter, Henry Tillman, Isaac Tingle, Shadrack Riggs, Luke Linton, Beaufort County; Hody Jackson, William Jones, Samuel Harrison, Mark Provoux, Jones County.

Refers to: William Carruthers' grant of 200 acres; Henry Lamberson's grant of 770 acres; Smith Creek; Barrett's Gut.

On Jan. 2, 1797 in Beaufort County, AMOS SQUIRES and wife SEVIL had devised to John Den, etc., land on north side of Bay River, west side of Smith Creek and Fisher's Creek. Sarah Bryan also devised to John Den.

So there it was -- in plain English -- Amos SQUIRES' wife's name was SEVIL. And Sevil was a name I had only ever seen in two Palatine households in Craven County: the MUELLER (MILLER) family and the Franck family.

Considering I had never known myself to have any Palatine ancestors at all, I had never spent any time researching that particular settler group very much.

I knew very little about where they lived or with what families they intermarried. I had heard that many of them made their homes over on the Trent River out towards Pollocksville or Trenton, but beyond that, and the fact that they had come here thanks to Christoph von Graffenried bringing them, I didn't know much.

I was able to find some information on the two German families with Sevils in them, and as it turned out (making things much simpler for me), the two families were connected.

Jacob MUELLER (MILLER) had a wife named Katherine. They had at least three natural children, and then they took in George KOONCE as a child after his parents were killed in the Indian massacre of September 22, 1711. Their daughter, Sevilla or Sevil, was married three times (to my knowledge, although I encourage anyone who knows more about this family than I do to write to me and fill me in!). One of her marriages was to another German named John Martin FRANCK. This was FRANCK's second marriage, and it may have been Sevil's second marriage, as well.

They had several children, but one of them was a daughter -- also named Sevil. She is the only one of the children of John Martin and Sevil FRANCK who has not had a spouse identified yet.

I believe she was the wife of Amos SQUIRES. She was the right age, and I've only just determined she was living in the right area. (Again, by complete happenstance, thanks to reading a new biographical investigation about Black Beard the pirate which happens to mention John Martin FRANCK and a large landholding he had. The land actually connects to Black Beard, but I won't give that away now. Stay tuned for an article in the future that talks more about the book, though.)

Well, my fellow genealogists know that we may leave our passion for weeks, or even months at a time when we hit a brick wall, but it doesn't take but one tiny piece of information to set our hearts on fire to renew our investigations again.

I'm so there.

I've spent nights this week up until nearly 4:00am doing genealogical research -- obsessively. I've found out all sorts of new information that has me hopping down lots of new rabbit trails. For instance, it appears there may be a family connection between the SQUIRES family who lived on that Neuse-Pamlico Peninsula and the DELAMAR family from whom they obtain a good bit of land.

Let me back up for a moment.

I believe the father of Roger SQUIRES is either John SQUIRE(S) of Bath, or he is somehow connected to the SQUIRES of the Mattamuskeet Indian reservation. (And actually, I belive the John SQUIRE(S) of Bath is the father of King SQUIRES of the Mattamuskeet, but that's another article for another day.)

Well, I found an obscure entry in a Massachusetts genealogical resource that said the following:

Id. p. 95. — Will of John Peach Senior of Marblehead

Names:

• John Squire my sister's son in Barbadoes
• brother Thomas's widow
• To sister Margaret's children land in England, rents etc in hands of my cousin John Minson of Simeborough
• cousin William Peach's sons John and Thomas
• cousin John Legg
• cousin William Hines and his wife Abigail,
• gives to Margaret Dalliwar daughter of my cousin Peter Dalliwar cousin Joseph Dalliwar
• John Hine the only child at present of my cousin William Hine dated 2 Oct 1682 30 Sept 1684 probated. (Click here to see book on Google for free.)

DALLIWAR sure sounded an awful lot like DELAMAR. And the majority of the early SQUIRES land transactions on the Neuse-Pamlico peninsula involve the DELAMAR family, particularly Francis DELAMAR.

Then I found in the book North Carolina Headrights by Caroline B. Whitley entries for Francis DELAMAR and family listed as both DELAMAR and DELLAWARE.

Very, very interesting, indeed. It certainly would make more sense for all those common land transactions between the SQUIRES and the DELAMARS on the peninsula if there was some family connection. And perhaps the connection is laid out in the will of John PEACH of Marblehead, Massachusetts.

Well, I've done more searching and was astonished to find another family that appears connected to the PEACH family in Barbados, and that is the GASKINS family. I've always only heard that the GASKINS came into North Carolina from Virginia, and that may very well be true, but who's to say that they didn't come to Virginia or North Carolina from Britain via the Caribbean?

If anyone has ancestors from the Neuse-Pamlico Peninsula and would be interested in helping me research the possible Barbados or other Caribbean connections of many of the families from this region, please contact me via e-mail, or just comment this message.

Thanks!