Yet Another Intersection!

One thing leads to another. Today I looked at an blog site containing photographs of Marc Chagall's art. I was captivated by the 'flying' in his paintings. Then I looked at the blogger's "About Me" information and discovered she was interested in Gardens of History and 1600s Women and 1700s Women and so forth. Well, for one who is an artist, has always loved clothing (hey, I designed my own paper dolls and their clothing when I was ten years old), this site was worth looking in to. And what DID I find?!

1600s women leads me to Jamestown
and for those who prefer to click on the direct link:
http://b-womeninamericanhistory17.blogspot.com/2012/01/timeline-of-events-leading-to-jamestown.html

I think I'd like meeting this woman!
http://www.blogger.com/profile/15277378178650355645

Anyway, as I am reading down the events leading to Jamestown, I realize that I have two lines that go waaaay back to Jamestown! My maternal grandmother Agnes Morgan's line goes back to Samuel Argall, whose sister was my ancestor Susanna Argall Bathurst. Samuel was the pesky man who kidnapped Pocohontas. I'm sort of related to Pocohontas because there was a Bolling (my ancestor) who married Pocohontas's daughter. She died and my Bolling ancestor remarried and so I descend from the "white" Bollings as they call them. I wish I descended from the "red" Bollings, but I don't. I must've known something was up with all of that as young as eight because Pocohontas was my favorite history lesson. At age eight, I found a kitten which my parents allowed me to adopt. I named her Pocohontas. You see, I just "knew" something even way back then.  And the Bathurst connection? Unbelieveable, but true. As an Air Force officer, I was stationed in the very area where the Bathursts lived, RAF Fairford, lived in Cirencester where Bathurst relatives are buried in the church. I attended that Church, not even realizing cousins were right beside me! I traveled to and from work along the same roads my ancestors had lived 400 years earlier.

But wait, I am not finished! My paternal grandfather's ancestor, Nathaniel Tatum lived in Jamestown. He'd been an orphan in London, England. He managed to find his way over to America. He married and had several children, including Samuel who married a Mary Elizabeth Moore. Their daughter Ann married a Hugh Lee b 1750 and rest is history (for my Lee side anyway).

It's hard to fathom that yet again, the lines of my American ancestry reach so far back that my grandparents' lines lived alongside each other so frequently. I used to wish I had relatives who'd come over recently from more exotic places (Italy, Romania, Greece, Spain). But I guess I'll just have to be satisfied with far reaching American roots.

BOLLING Ancestors

Robert BOLLING (photograph, left) was the son of John and Mary (Carrie) Bolling. He was born at Tower Street, All Hallows, Barking Parish, in London on December 26, 1646. Robert arrived in the Virginia colony on 2 Oct 1660 at the age of fourteen. His father John, was one of the Bollings of Bolling Hall, near Bradford, England (see photograph and more information below).

Robert's ancestry can be traced to Robert Bolling, Esquire, who died in 1485 and was buried in the family vault in the church of Bradford. According to Bolling family oral tradition, the original deBolling family was Norman French, and came to Barking Parish with William the Conqueror. Below is a photograph of Bolling Hall, near Bradford, England.

When I was a child, my favorite history story about America was Pocohontas. I named a precious kitten Pocohontas. While I don't descend from Pocohontas, my ancestor's first wife was married to a granddaughter of Pocohontas whose descendants are named the Red Bollings. I descend instead from the White Bollings (when he married Anne Stith, below).

First Marriage

In 1674, he married Jane Rolfe, the daughter of Thomas and Jane (Poythress) Rolfe; granddaughter of Pocahontas. Jane died just a year after their marriage.
Their only child was:

1. John Bolling (January 26, 1676-April 20, 1729), married Mary Kennon. According to wikipedia, John Bolling the ancestor to Edith Bolling Wilson, Nancy Reagan, and John McCain.

Second Marriage
In 1681, Col. Bolling married his second wife Anne Stith*, daughter of John Drury and Jane (Gregory) Stith. They had the following nine children together:
i. Jane Bolling (b. 1682), died young.
ii. Robert Bolling Jr. (1682-1749), married Anne Mary Cocke. Ancestors of Presidents George H. W. Bush and George W. Bush; Mary Anna Randolph Custis, wife of Robert E. Lee; and possibly American President Lyndon Baines Johnson.
iii. Stith Bolling (1686-1727), married Elizabeth Hartwell.
iv. Edward Bolling (1687-1720), married Ms. Slaughter.
v. Anne Bolling (1690-1750), married Robert Wynne.
vi. Drury Bolling (1695-1726), married Elizabeth Meriwether.
vii. Thomas Bolling (1697-1734).
viii. Agnes Bolling (1700-1762), married Richard Kennon.
vix. Molly Mary Bolling (b. 1702), died young.

The descendents of Robert Bolling's first marriage are termed "Red Bollings" and the descendents of his second marriage are termed the "White Bollings". His grandson Robert Bolling was one of the most prolific poets in colonial Virginia. As a merchant and planter, Bolling acquired a large estate. He was colonel of the militia and was a member of the House of Burgesses from Charles City County in 1702.

Robert Bolling died on July 17, 1709, and was buried on his plantation Kippax, in Prince George Co., Virginia, where his tomb still stands. However, in 1858, his remains were removed from Kippax to the Bolling mausoleum at Blandford Cemetery in Petersburg, Virginia erected by his great grandson.

Much of this information I excerpted from wikipedia.org, Robert Bolling.

Sources listed at wikipedia:
1. The Virginia Magazine of History and Biography, Volume 7, 1899, pages 352-353.
2. Some prominent Virginia families, Louise Pecquet du Bellet, Edward Jaquelin, Martha Cary Jaquelin, page 305.
3. The Virginia Magazine of History and Biography, Volume 7, 1899, pages 352-353.
4. The Virginia Magazine of History and Biography, Volume 7, 1899, pages 352-353.
5. A Memoir of a Portion of the Bolling Family in England and Virginia, Robert Bolling, John Robertson, Thomas Hicks Wynne, Chesapeake Book Co., 1868, page 19.
6. The Virginia Magazine of History and Biography, Volume 7, 1899, pages 352-353.

Link to a BBC 360 degree view of the interior of Bolling Hall, Bradford, Yorkshire, England:

http://www.bbc.co.uk/bradford/360/version2_bolling_hall_1.shtml

Relating Links

It's all about relationships. What I find most fascinating about genealogy are the links I discover.

One of my goals is to determine which ancestors were Colonial settlers. Then I'd like to map this out. I might discover that branches (i.e., Newell ancestors lived near Higdon ancestors) lived in the same colony! I'd also like to create a file of Revolutionary War ancestors.

Here's an example of how interwoven history can become: In a deed dated 1718, ancestors from my maternal grandmother Agnes Morgan (Bolling) are listed alongside my paternal grandfather Paul Lee's Tatum ancestors.

"11 Aug 1718. Drury Bolling of Prince George County to Stith Bolling of Surry Co., 80 acres, being part of 500 acres granted to Nathaniel Tatum, Sr., dec'd. lying in Prince George County, on the south side of the Appomatox Rivero, for L10 joining Henry Mitchell, Sr.'s line, and is that tract which Samuel Tatum Sr. and Mary his wife sold Col Robert Bolling, dec'd. signed: Drury Bolling."

Col Robert Bolling married Jane Rolfe (descendant of Pocohontas) and had one child, John b 1676. Jane died and then Robert married Anne Stith. Robert and Anne had nine children including my ancestor Robert b 1682, and his younger brothers Stith b 1686 and Drury b 1695 (which were mentioned in this deed).

Samuel and Mary Tatum's children were Ann, Nathaniel, Rebecca, Mary, and Samuel, Jr.

Ann Tatum married Hugh Lee, my father Robert Lee's colonial ancestor. So my mother's colonial ancestors and my father's colonial ancestors sold property to each other!! Who would have thought?

I've discovered I'm related to the former President Bushes (8th cousin to "W") through TWO lines! My maternal grandmother Agnes Morgan's line goes back through Stith then Hall then Bolling to Anne Cocke.

Former President George "W" Bush and I have two common grandmothers: Anne Cocke (7th for both of us) and Mary Bridge (8th for both of us). My maternal grandmother's line goes from Morgan to Stith, to Hall, Bolling and then Anne Cocke. My maternal grandfather Arthur Newell's line goes through Grow, then Sanger, then Roth and on up to Lyon. Mary Bridge, our common 8th grandmother, had two daughters Eunice (my line) and Mary ("W"s line) Lyon.

I'm also related to Laura Welch Bush, 9th cousins, through my maternal grandmother Agnes Morgan. Our common 9th great grandmother is Elizabeth Warren, 1644-1728, children Joel and Sarah Walker. Joel is my line, down through Elizabeth, then Wm Richard Jones, on down to Morgan.

How many other links might I discover as I 'put it all together?" Certainly other surprises await me!