On Oct 29, 1977, we took our last trip for research on our "Roots" for that year. We were planning on leaving for Florida in about a week Our first stop was at Woodstock, Va., the county seat of Shenandoah Co. Here me found one little item of interest, it was that Benjamin Row married Sarah Rinehart, March 4, 1830. Page 343 in the marriage Register for the years of 1772 to 1853. (These are great-great-great-grandparents of Marion and Howard Brady, and of Adriel Brady Thrash and Sharon Thrash Schaible.)

We finished our work in Woodstock and went on to Winchester, the county seat of Frederick County, Va. Here we found the following bit of information:

John Knaggs married Susan Odell, Sept. 22, 1842. The minister was Joseph Barker and the bondsman Henry Hosey. In the body of the bond "Knaggs" was spelled twice with a double "g" but was signed "John Knags."

We stayed that night with friends in Martinsburg, W. Va., which is the county seat of Berkeley County. The next morning we went to the court house there where we worked until noon. Here we found two deeds of trust which concerned Troy's ancestors. One was from John Knaggs (I), another John Knaggs and a George Knaggs. We assumed that the last two named were the sons of John, (1) (At any rate the first John was the great-great-great-grandfather of our sons, Marion and Howard.) The first deed of trust was dated OCT 18, 1842, and given to a man by the name of Chambers (Deed Book 46, page 446) It listed personal property used to settle a debt of $352.00 to Chambers. The personal property was on Dry Run Farm. In Book 47, Page 194, is recorded a Deed of Trust from the two John Knaggses to a Mr. Waite. This one was dated May 26, 1843, and gave their interest in grain crops to Waite to settle a debt of $127.00. It appears that this early Knaggs family was hard pressed financially.

In the Berkeley County Census report of 1860 Troy found the family of his great-grandfather Knaggs' family listed. In the report the name was spelled "Nags," but Troy knew enough about the older members of the family to be convinced that this family was his ancestors. They were listed thus:

John Nags            35 years, laborer, Personal Estate Worth $30.00
Susan Nags          36 years
William                 16 years
Joseph                  13 years
John                     10 years
Sarah                     7 years
Rachel                   5 years
Mary                     2 years

Joseph and John were the only two who were listed as having attended school in the last two years.

The following information on the Knaggs family was received in a letter from Mary E. Knaggs, of Martinsburg, W. Va. The letter was dated July 24, 1953. Mary was an old lady at that time, and the information was hard to decipher because of the lack of divisions between generations. She listed the children by sex, rather than by age.

John Knaggs (I) and his wife immigrated to America from England, and settled in Page County, Virginia. They had two sons, George and John II. Troy's line are descendants of the son, John. Both sons were born in England.

Tradition has it that George owned a plantation in, or near, Winchester, which he soldbefore the Civil War, after liberating his slaves. He moved to Illinois where he bought a farm. He wrote back to his brother giving him his address. The letter was placed in the sewing machine drawer, and mice obliterated the address. He never wrote again so the two families were lost to each other.

We had a long conversation with a lady who worked in the court house in Martinsburg. Her mother was a granddaughter of John Knaggs, (II) through Joseph Odell Knaggs. Mary Knaggs who gave us the above information was her aunt. She said she had never heard of any of the Knaggs family ever owning land in that section of W. Va. or Virginia. We have been unable to find any indication that they owned land around Winchester, so probably that story concerning George owning land and slaves is not true.

KNAGGS -- BRADY -- GENEALOGY

I.     John Knaggs (I) was born in England. The name of his wife is not known, but tradition holds that the two of them emigrated with their two sons, John (II) and George, and settled in Virginia, in a section of what later became West Virginia. George later moved to the west and became lost to the family.

II.     John (II) was born in 1822 in England and died in 1897 in West Virginia. He married Susan Odell, who was born in 1819 and died in West Virginia. They were married on September 22, 1842. This is recorded in the first Marriage Register Book of Frederick County, Va., on page 97; John was a soldier during the Civil War, on the side of the Confederacy, as was one son. Another son was a Union soldier and Troy’s grandfather, John (III) was used at least once by the Union forces as a messenger boy.

John (II) and Susan Odell Knaggs' children were: Alma (Maxwell), who settled in Ohio; Sarah Turner, who had at least two children, Will and Daisy; Kathryn and Ella, who married brothers by the name of Martin; and three sons, William M. (died 9-15-1918), Joseph Odell, and John Robert who became the ancestor of the Walter and Bergia Knaggs clan. His wife was Mary Jane Matthews.

III.     John Robert Knaggs, b. 9-29-1850 d. 9-30-1927
            Mary Jane Matthews, b. 7-9-1856 d. 4-10-1939
        IV.     Sarah Bergia Knaggs, b. 4-2-1883 d. 3-29-1921
                    Walter Parley Brady, b. 2-1-1880 d 9-1-1959
                V.     Troy Robert Brady, b. 9-30-1906 d. 6-25-1999 m.
                           Virginia Elizabeth Thrash b. 9-7-1907 d 12-16-2002
                        VI.     Granville Marion Brady b. 5-24-1927
                                VII.     (Children) Marion Landis, Sylvia Lee, Sunny
                                                Heather, Brian Drew, Jonathon Brooks.
                        VI.     Howard Landis Brady b. 10-24-1935
                                VII.     (Children) Robert Martin, Londa Beth, Mark Travis.

                V.     Lula Blossom Brady, b. 10-13-1912
                            Theodore Frank Thrash, b. 12-3-1904 d. 7-31-1985
                        VI.     Adriel Brady Thrash, b. 9-19-1938
                                VII.     (Children) Wendy Christine, Todd Matthew

                        VI.     Sharon Bea Schaible, b. 10-13-1912
                                VII.     (Children) Julie, Marc, Stephen, Leigh Amt

III.     5.     William (Settled in Springfield, Ohio; had at least 4 sons
          6.     Joseph Odell-Married Sarah Rebecah Rankin.
        IV.     1.     William E. (Children- Homer and Lucille)
                  2.     John Nelson (A son-Nelson)
                  3.     Joseph Odell (11)(Children-Lester, Odell, Ruth)
                  4.     Howard, b. 2-1-1889 (Died 3-23-1962 in Berkeley, CA
                  5.     Samuel, 1892 to 1958
                  6.     Philip, (a son Phillip Howard, who had a son, Douglas)
                  7.     Mary E., 2-1-1879 to 9-29-1963. (Mary was a nurse, never married
                            (It was from her that we secured most of the information on this family.)
                  8.     Anna Belle (Mercer) (Children-Albert and Mary Eileen     (Myers).

III.     7.     John Robert Knaggs, 9-29-1850 to 9-30-1927 b. Winchester, Va.
                    Mary Jane Matthews, 7-9-1856 to 4-10-1939 b. Philippi, W.Va.
                        (John and Mary Matthews Knaggs are the great-grandparents of Marion
                        and Howard Brady and also of Adriel Brady Thrash
                        and Sharon Bea Thrash Schaible.)

4-25-2003 - Barbour Co. Marriage records at: http://www.rootsweb.com/~wvbarbou/barmark.htm

Shows John and Mary listed as: Kneggs, John B. & Mary Jane Mathew on 4-8-1877. RmB

        IV.     1.     George M. (Recorded as John Hanson; later changed,
                                        b. 1-23-1878 d. 7-6-1944.) m.
                            Hester Ann Moore, 3-9-1873 to 9-15-1940
                                        (Hester was a sister of Charles Benjamin Brady's wife, Rachel.)

(WV Marriage records at Ancestry.com show her as "Heather", m. 12-27-1899 in Barbour Co., WV. RmB 5-5-2003)

                    V.     1.     Harry (Died in childhood of diphtheria)
                             2.     Ernest, (Died in 1980)
                             3.     Vincent, (Deceased in the'80s)
                             4.     Hugh R. b. 5-13-1906 d. 11-29-1981
                             5.     Joseph, d. 9-9-1971
                             6.     Dorsey, b. 8-13-1910 d. 10-2-1966
                             7.     Flossie, (A twin to Dorsey; died in infancy)
                             8.     Mary (Buried Oct. 29, 1973)

        IV.     2.     Benjamin Franklin, b. 3-24-1879 in Ironton, W. Va.
                                    d. 4-10-1955 in Elkins, W. Va. m.
                            Bessie Newton, b. 12-13-1884 d. 11-26-1962 (m. 6-27-1906)
                    V.     1.     Hazel, b. 5-1-1906 d. 3-17-1953
                                        Alva Willis
                            VI.     1.     Patricia
                                      2.     Jean

                    V.     2.     Owlan d. 9-20-1973 m.
                                       Winnie Adams
                             3.     Mildred m.
                                        Joe Berzito (Several children)
                             4.     Howard Robert Knaggs, b. 9.11-1922, d. 1-6-1993 m. (1944)
                                        Betty Jane Adamson, First wife. Divorced 1947.
                                            They had one son.
                                        Lois Ann Hadfield, (2nd wife) m. 7-9-1949
                            VI.     1.     Robert Michael Knaggs, son of Howard, married
                                                Cynthia Jill Dougal, 6-4-1973. They had a son,
                                        VII.    Galen Robert, b. 5-21-1980. They were divorced in 1983.

                                    Howard Robert Knaggs had two daughters by his second wife, Lois.

                           VI.     2.     Melissa Rae, b. 5-I8-1952 m.
                                                Richard Donald Becker 12-29-79
                                     3.     Melanie Sue, b. 8-19-1954, m.10-8-1983 to
                                                R. E. Rankin

The following three pictures of Sarah Bergia Knaggs were in the home she established with Walter Parley Brady, after their marriage, November 30, 1904, in Junior, W. Va. She was twelve years old when the childhood one was taken and probably in her late teens at the time of the second. The third one was shortly before her marriage. This reproduction was given to Troy by his brother, Bland, who had two copies made from the large, oval framed one, which had hung in the home while the children were growing up. Sarah was the mother of Troy Robert, Zylpha Mary, Granville Bland, Lulu Blossom, and Elizabeth Rosalyn Brady. She was born April 2, 1883 and passed away on March 29, 1921.