Some Descendants of Robert Coleman of Nansemond County Virginia 1684-1930

Revision 1 Notes - Sept 12, 2002

Since July 28, 2002 until this, there had been almost no update as I was working to get the next revision quite well organized in a somewhat permanent chapter layout and get the direct descendants layed out in a logical order so they could be numbered sequentially.  The result is that, today, there are a total of 594 members of the family recorded here.  If the marriage of Sarah Coleman, born about 1650 in Ireland who married Francis Roundtree and lived in Nansemond County Virginia is any indication, then a birthplace or origin is now suggested for Robert Coleman of Nansemond County.  Since they were contemporaries (born about 1650), they could have been brother and sister.  Thus, if Sarah Coleman Roundtree is the brother of Robert Coleman of Nansemond County Virginia, then Robert Coleman likely came from, or was born in (at least), the country of Ireland.  This in contrast to the legend recorded by Jennie I. Coleman of Fairfield County, South Carolina in the 1800s that the family originated from Wales.

Additions since the last release include:

1. More families from north Hamilton County into the outline in Chapter 15.
2. New chapters, 16-21, for each of the children of Charles Coleman of North Hamilton County, Tennessee.
3. New chapter, 22, on the inhabitants of Bibb and Greene County Alabama who are thought to be descended from Robert Coleman of Nansemond County Virginia.  This group descends from a pair of sons of Charles Coleman and Mary Roundtree, who left North Carolina, arrived in Bibb County Alabama, planting son Wiley there, then arrived in Greene County Alabama, planting son John there.  Charles and his wife Mary both died in 1824, a year after arriving there.
4. New chapters, 23-30, for each of the grandchildren of Charles Coleman, born to his son, Wash, (George Washington Coleman).
5. New chapters, 31-40, for each of the grandchildren of Charles Coleman, born to his son, Frank, (Benjamin Franklin Coleman).
6. Research notes of interest in the early chapters covering the earliest known descendants and collateral families with whom they married and migrated.  These notes are pieces of related information found in searching Rootsweb email list archives and the State Archives Search Engine.  Email lists for both surnames and county lists have been combed for information that ties families together by any bits of fact from deeds, wills, or family researcher's queries.  Other resources include the family forums of GenForum, U.S. Census and Census indexes, and cemetery transcription projects posted to the Internet.
7. A number of appendices for background data tables, U.S. Census data of a given location, or a deed timeline for a given location.  Truly, a lot of the research notes added in the early chapters should have been, and should one day become, appendices in this project.

Revision 2 Notes - Sept 15, 2002

1. Added links on each page back to the home page or "Site Map"
2. Revised App A concerning the appearance of Edgecombe County Colemans in the Halifax County U.S. Census of 1790 rather than Edgecombe County.  Still needs verification.
3. Fixed the Table of Contents entry for the title of Chapter 3. Robert Coleman, III, not the second (II).

Revision 3 Notes - Sept 23, 2002

1. Indexed more of the Fair Bluff, Columbus County, NC descendants from Census and Cemetery records.

Revision 4 Notes - Sept 27, 2002

1. Indexed descendants of Chapter 31.
2. Added descendants from Chapter 31 into Chapter 15 outline of North Hamilton County, TN Colemans.
3. Total descendants of Robert Coleman of Nansemond County now indexed is 700 (2 through 701).
4. Chapters 32 through 40 need descendants indexed and Chapter 22 on Greene County Alabama descendants needs lots of analysis and indexing.

Revision 5 Notes - Sept 29, 2002

1. Indexed descendants of Chapter 32.
2. Corrected index numbers in Chapter 25 to match correct numbers in Chapter 15 outlining Colemans of North Hamilton County, TN.
3. Fixed ommission of Chapter 25 from the merged single HTML file version of the book.
4. Chapter 14, on Colemans of Fair Bluff, NC updated to remove Anna J. Enzor who married a Coleman from the index of numbered descendants, and to correct Mary K. Coleman's number where she had been assigned a second number.
5. Total descendants of Robert Coleman of Nansemond County now indexed is 761 (2 through 762).
6. Chapters 34 through 40 need descendants indexed and Chapter 22 on Greene County Alabama descendants needs lots of analysis and indexing.

Revision 6 Notes - Oct 10, 2002

1. Finished indexing the last offspring of Lute Coleman in Chapter 33 adding them to the outline in Chapter 15 of Colemans of North Hamilton County Tennessee.
2. Indexed the offspring of Millie America Coleman in Chapter 34 adding them to the outline in Chapter 15 of Colemans of North Hamilton County Tennessee.
3. Indexed the offspring of Nancy Easter Coleman in Chapter 35 adding them to the outline in Chapter 15 of Colemans of North Hamilton County Tennessee.
4. Added the name index of Numbered descendants to the book for the first time.   This index was generated automatically using a perl script to process the HTML files that make up the book.
5. Total descendants of Robert Coleman of Nansemond County now indexed is 804 (2 through 805).

Revision 7 Notes - Oct 12, 2002

1. Changed Indexing to show only the alphabetical list.
2. Added links from the index to the first occurence of each person as a:
   1. Child,
   2. Adult, and
   3. Parent.
   These links are shown with one single letter (C, A, or P) when available.
3. Added links from the person's name to the occurence of that name in the index.
4. Numerical Index could return if useful in the future.

Revision 8 Notes - Nov 04, 2002

1. Added offspring of William Louis Coleman in Chapter 20 on Rachel Coleman adding them to the outline in Chapter 15 of Colemans of North Hamilton County Tennessee.
2. Indexed the offspring of Benjamin Franklin Coleman in Chapter 36 adding them to the outline in Chapter 15 of Colemans of North Hamilton County Tennessee.
3. Added the numerically sequenced index of Numbered descendants to the table of contents for the first time.   This index was generated automatically using a perl script to process the HTML files that make up the book.
4. Total descendants of Robert Coleman of Nansemond County now indexed is 881 (2 through 822).

Revision 9 Notes - Nov 11, 2002

1. Finished indexing descendants from chapters 38 through 40.

Revision 10 Notes - Jan 12, 2003

After an intense two and a half weeks of incorporating known information into Chapter 22 on the descendants of Charles Coleman and Mary Roundtree in Greene County and Bibb County Alabama and before I was quite ready to move it all online, my hard disk went out Thanksgiving day with my last backup 3 months old.  After much effort and a busy holiday/birthday season, the work picks up were last I had it here online.  Robert Hook's data from Family Tree Maker Online and personal correspondence has been mostly integrated into the standard format and index numbering system.

Revision 11 Notes - Feb 12, 2003

Completed the incorporation of known information about Chapter 22, the descendants of Charles Coleman and Mary Roundtree in Bibb and Greene Counties of Alabama.  Reached the 1000 milestone in indexing descendants of Robert Coleman of Nansemond County Virginia.  Added spouses to the name index at the end using "S" numbers separate from the descendants numbering sequence.

Revision 12 Notes - Mar 06, 2004

Updated Chapter 27, Descendants of Zachariah Taylor Coleman of Putnam County TN and Woodruff County, AR.  Building on information I received via emails from Paul W. Patterson, I then researched Zach's family in the 1900, 1910, and the 1920 U.S. Census.  I then found posts on GenForum's Coleman family forum by Carolyn Pfaus, learned more, and then contacted her.  She confirmed my suspicion that her Mildred and the child known as Lucy were the same person.

Revision 13 Notes - Mar 08, 2004

Chapter 15. The Colemans of North Hamilton County, TN no longer outlines all known descendants of that area.  This caused great difficulty indexing those detailed paragraphs about those descendants.  Therefore, a table showing what chapters follow containing information on each of Charles S. Coleman's children, and several of his grandchildren is shown with hyperlinks to take the reader directly to those chapters.

Revision 14 Notes - Jun 10, 2004

Chapter 14. The Colemans of Columbus County, NC was updated to show the family of Harris Coleman and wife Rebecca based on three sources. Lot Caswell Coleman was included in this family based on a posting on Coleman Family Forum by James Lawson stating that Lot was the son of Harris Coleman, b. 1811 and on the fact the two are both living in Tatoms District of Columbus County in the 1880 U.S. Census.

Revision 15 Notes - Apr 29, 2005

1. Chapter 14. The Colemans of Columbus County, NC was updated incorporating will of Alpha Jane Coleman Faulk where she lists heir of brothers Bethel V. Coleman, Amos W. Coleman, Daniel J. Coleman, and sister Tabitha (Bitha) Coleman Godwin. Alpha's will also lists her other sisters as Sarah M. Bigby, W. E. Tart, and Mary C. Coleman. Descendants listed in the will of Warren Jackson Coleman were also incorporated.
2. Chapters 8 and 9 on the brothers, Samuel and Sampson Coleman were updated to give abstracts of the deeds and reference the exact page of the deed books where is found the fact they are selling land owned previously by William Coleman and that they are now planters of a particular location in South Carolina.
3. Created a merged HTML file of the entire book, a Zip file of same, and an MS Word file of the entire book. This last took a very long time to convert and is currently missing the maps and other images of the original. It also needs to be formatted to show page numbers in the Table of Contents, rather than just the hyperlinks from its HTML predecessor. But this is the first time in about three years or more that the book has been available in Word format!
4. The Site Map, index.html, was updated to include the link to the Word file and give the new sizes of the three (HTML, ZIP, and WORD files).
5. Added Phil Coleman to list of References and added links to his listing in the references file from Chapter 24 on Thomas Coleman of Hamilton County, TN
6. Integrated information about William Louis Coleman and wife Della Clementine Taylor which had been at the bottom of Chapter 20, up into the proper locations where they appear in proper order.
7. Fixed Chapter Numbers listed for children of Robert Coleman, II in Chapter 2.

Next Priorities

On the priority list are these items yet left to be done:

1. Evaluation and incorporation of any data YOU SEND TO ME.
2. Obtain more online U.S. Census data from 1880 for folks in Alabama, as recorded in Chapter 22.
3. Obtain more online U.S. Census data from 1880 for folks in Tennessee.
4. Obtain more online U.S. Census data from 1880 for folks in NC and SC.
5. Obtain U.S. Census data for Colemans in 1900, 1920, and 1930 U.S. Census records in the library.
6. Make a thorough study of Colemans in Marion County, SC and related lines through Bertie, Robeson and Columbus Counties of North Carolina.
7. Make a thorough study of Stephen Coleman in Fairfield County, SC to determine whether a link to Robert Coleman of Nansemond County, VA can be established.

Revision 16 Notes - May 9, 2007

1. Revised indexing method to facilitate extraction of a GEDCOM file showing spouses of descendants with their family. The spouse hyperlinks to/from the index files are broken until I can rework the index files to conform.
2. Provided updated descendants report in XML format. Clicking on any person's name should close up all descendants and simplify viewing of one or two branches or comparing a few branches while hiding the rest. Many of the descendants are not included due to incomplete markup of the work with indexing tags, a work in progress.
3. Provided new photos of those in the branch from Hamilton County, TN, courtesy of Cy Yarborough, original author of the chapters for those from that location.

Revision 17 Notes - February 20, 2008

1. Added Chapter 41 on Daniel V. Coleman of Tattnall and Toombs County, Georgia. Daniel originated from Columbus County, SC. This information developed from a tip by Kim Coleman, Coleman Family DNA project coordinator.
2. Updated References file and table of contents

Revision 18 Notes - April 2, 2008

1. Added a list of Internet Tools for genealogy researchers.

Revision 19 Notes - April 20, 2008

1. Updated Chapter 23 on Elizabeth Coleman of Hamilton County, TN.
2. Updated Chapter 19 on Mary Polly Coleman of Hamilton County, TN.
3. Updated References file

Revision 20 Notes - May 6, 2008

1. Updated sitemap.html to use a new graphic and all new imagemap of hyperlinks. Added link for Varners of Hamilton County, TN and link for Tattnall County, Georgia. Also added links for the Internet Tools page and The Coleman Family by the American Genealogical Research Institute. Used the U.S. Census Bureau's Tigerline Map Server to create images for each state on the sitemap showing county lines, population centers, and bodies of water. Patched together images to complete a mosaic for each state, thickened the state border, reduced the image size and then thickened the state borders again.
2. Added U.S. Census data for Colemans in Georgia
3. Cleaned up errors in the cascading style sheet (CSS).
4. Brought back the information on Stephen Coleman's line through Fairfield, SC and Lincoln County, TN. In January 2003, this information had been misplaced in Chapter 5, where Doris Ragan had suggested it might fit. Later, she said it was likely her Stephen Coleman was from the Halifax Coleman line. I moved it out of Chapter 5 some time later. Now, it is back as Appendix G, Colemans of Lincoln County, Tennessee. Updated the table of contents, numberic and name index files to correspond with this addition of Appendix G.
5. Updated this preface file with Rev 17, 18, 19 and 20 notes
6. Updated Merge script adding Chapter 41 Colemans of Tattnall County, GA and Appendix G, Colemans of Lincoln County, TN.
7. Updated allnanse.htm and allnanse.doc, this complete work in one file, one in HTML, the other in MS Word 97-2003 format.

Revision 21 Notes - May 10, 2008

1. Provided U.S. Census records for Colemans in Georgia in 1820, 1850, 1860, 1870, and 1880. Read the Census pages for 1850 and 60 as indicated by Ancestry or print indexes of Coleman heads of households and recorded names of all relatives in the household.
2. The prior update of the sitemap anticipated this delivery, so did not need an update.

Revision 22 Notes - May 15, 2008

1. Added names of Bestor Wynne Coleman line as indicated by Kim Coleman, and researched myself.
2. Updated Fairbluff Colemans.

Revision 23 Notes - May 21 through 27, 2008

1. After giving up on incorporating an XML style sheet with a library of Javascript routines written to do a descendants chart for each chapter, I elected to abandon the XML solution and generate Javascript addendums for each chapter. I implemented a text-searchable descendants chart at the start of each chapter based on my library of Javascript routines and an addendum listing the members of the chapter and their parent index number.
2. Made corrections in Chapters 31 and 32 until descendancy chart was correct. Fixed index numbers for those marked as 973 (4 individuals now indexed as 1209-1211 and 973).
3. Added descendants of Susan Coleman Starnes in Chapter 30 based on information shared by Opal Starnes Wood, found on a website of Starnes marriages in Tennessee, and found in the U.S. Census.
4. Noted that a letter mentioned on COLEMAN-L states Ridgeway, Fairfield Co., SC Colemans moved to Princeton, Dallas County, Arkansas by 1904. I already had Putnam County Colemans moving their from Zach T. Coleman's line.

Revision 24 Notes - June 10, 2008

1. Corrected Chapter 6 Moses Coleman of Edgecombe County, NC
2. Corrected Chapter 14 Colemans of Fair Bluff, Columbus County, NC.
3. Minor editorial corrections around U.S. Census references in Chapter 30 Susan Coleman Starnes
4. Added wife and children of James William Harvey who married Minnie Darinda Standefer to Chapter 25 Descendants of Barbara Coleman Harvey of Tennessee

Revision 25 Notes - June 17, 2008

1. Added more to Chapter 3 on the Hardy and Aval Coleman Family.
2. Added Chapter 42 on descendants of Zilpha Coleman who married Henry Pitt and relocated to Sumner County, Tennessee. Information provided by Joyce Powell, confirmed and expanded via U.S. Census records.
3. Total descendants raised from 1232 to 1294 with families with surnames of Pitt, Buzby and English.

Revision 26 Notes - Dec 17, 2008

1. Added Chapter 43 about descendants of Mary Coleman, youngest daughter of Charles Washington 'Wash' Coleman, of Bledsoe & Hamilton County, TN and later of Putnam Co, TN. Mary married Noah Martin and began a family in Putnam County, but between 1900 and 1910, the family relocated to Stallard Springs, in Warren County, Kentucky. Information provided by LeAnne von Neumeyer Hull Shanahan, confirmed and expanded via U.S. Census Records and quotes from others online.
2. Added Martins raising the total descendants from 1300 to 1350.

Revision 27 Notes - Dec 30, 2008

Revision 28 Notes - Jan 26, 2009

1. Updated Chapter 2 Second Generation of Nansemond Colemans
2. Updated Chapter 22 Descendants of Charles Coleman (1744-1824) and Mary Roundtree of Edgecombe County, North Carolina, and later, Greene County, Alabama

Revision 29 Notes - Jan 31, 2009

Revision 30 Notes - Feb 2, 2009

1. Updated Chapter 4 Charles Coleman of Edgecombe County, NC
2. Updated Appendix A: Collateral Information: Analysis of Colemans in the 1790 U.S. Census, Marriages, and Deeds in Edgecombe and Halifax Counties of North Carolina

Revision 31 Notes - Feb 11, 2009

Revision 32 Notes - Feb 18, 2009

Revision 33 Notes - Mar 02, 2009

Also added Chapter 44 on the Colemans of Bibb, Sumter and Choctaw Counties of Alabama after a descendant of this family contacted me about trying to understand his fit into the family after having his DNA tested. This person is probably the first person to have no known connection prior to DNA testing and then to make a connection to my work after getting the DNA test results.

Revision 34 Notes - Mar 05, 2009

Revision 35 Notes - Jan 02, 2010

1. Added in birth and death years, spouse's name, and children for Mary Polly Coleman, daughter of Moses Coleman per personal correspondence from Michael Blackwell.
2. Corrected the list of children of Vivian Coleman and Francis Floyd per personal correspondence from Michael Blackwell.

Revision 36 Notes - Mar 28, 2010

1. Updated link in references list to the D.V. Coleman Bio previously found in the USGenWeb State Archives Search engine for Georgia, but now only found in the usgwarchives ftp site. This site apparently is not indexed by the major search engines.
2. Fixed links in Chapter 14 on Colemans in Fairbluff and Columbus County, NC to properly point to the references list for the D.V. Coleman Bio.

Revision 37 Notes - July 09, 2010

1. Updated Chapter 14 on Colemans of Fairbluff, Columbus County, NC who removed to Smith County, Mississippi. Dempsey Coleman offspring went and Zilpha Coleman married Alfred Yelverton of Fairbluff and they went. A large number of Yelverton's were found in the U.S. Census for Smith Co, MS from 1840 to 1920 or beyond. Numerous references to them are found online.

Revision 38 Notes - May 11, 2012

1. Updated Appendix F, Varners of Hamilton County, TN. Added children of George Varner, born 1835, who married Caroline Brock. Also added their grandchildren born to son, James Walter Varner, b. 05/31/1883 and wife, Buelah May Eustice, daughter of Alma Coleman and husband, Lafayette Eustice.
2. Updated Chapter 38 on family of Alma Coleman and husband, Lafayette Eustice, of Hamilton County, TN. Added children of James Walter Varner, b. 05/31/1883 and wife, Buelah May Eustice.

Revision 39 Notes - Oct 14, 2012

1. Updated the graphics charting to show a fourth generation. The chart in Chapter 15 Colemans of Hamilton County, Tennessee does not reflect this due to a limit of the data excerpted from the subsequent chapters, but in most cases, when the data is known, it is now included in the graphs of descendants of the subject person of each chapter.

Revision 40 Notes - Apr 03, 2015

1. Chapter 2: Added fourth generation to the chart for Robert Coleman's descendants.
2. Chapter 4: Confirmed suspected marriage and added children of Jonathan Coleman and Keziah Price in North Carolina. Added his grandchildren through son Jacob and his wife Amelia Millicent Pittman. This line was provided by email correspondence of Clint Robinson.
3. Chapter 44: Added family of Wiley Coleman, Jr.

PREFACE

This book online is a project to document information I have gathered or received for my line from my first ancestor to arrive in the British Colony known as Virginia Territory, or what would become the United States.  The issue of information sources is one which gained importance to me some years ago, though I've known it was important to record my sources in a permanent fashion even from the first.  It is important to keep a log book of your efforts since it is difficult to recall the source of information read or heard many days ago, let alone longer periods.   However, while I recorded sources when gathering information, I did not take the time to enter that information in my database initially.  In this work, I am starting much earlier in the timeline than ever before.  I am considerably further in the process of maturing my information (16+ years), and am thinking more in terms of publishing information to others, rather than just indexing it online for myself or, coincidentally, for others.

So, this work should contain square brackets around a surname for every item of information I record here so that the reader and I will know where I got each item.  Had it all been fiction, I would never have written so many people of the same name.

I do not kid myself that recording sources assures me or the reader that any of the information recorded here is correct or accurate.  We can not know what history failed to record, we can only fail to uncover all the obscure records that may be found from history.  Even primary records such as court documents, church registries, and family bibles are not necessarily accurate, especially when it comes to spelling names.  With low literacy rates in the 1600s and 1700s, meaning few could even write their own names, it is not surprising that officials of the day had to do their best when attempting to record the spellings of the names they were given orally.   Thus, Cader Coleman has been recorded as a member of a jury many times over a one-week period, often several times per day, and every occurence of his name is generally spelled differently than the previous one.  So consistency was not a requirement of the court recorder that week!

If a researcher were to trust or accept the accuracy of the primary records, and were to stipulate a requirement of three independent primary sources in order to prove authenticity of a family relationship, such a researcher would find it difficult to ever publish any line extending back much before 1850.  Finding even one primary source is problematic due to the number of fires, accidental or in times of war, which destroyed court houses and all the records stored there.

Suffice to say that my work published here does not bar any source, though I rely most on transcriptions of primary sources which I believe and hope to be more accurate than if I were to try to read the manuscript of the period, even as late as the early 1800s.  Worse, some of the relationships or existence of persons listed has not been corroborated by any reputable source, but has been given to me word of mouth or email by someone who "saw it on the Internet" without even a URL for a source.  While such information is highly in doubt until verified by more reputable sources; it does provide a starting point for your effort, should you take up the cause.  When and if you do find reliable evidence in support or denial of information shown here, I hope you will immediately send me the reference and the information, as this is a work in progress that will never be finished.

Therefore, consider the work here as a collection of obscure facts and a possible line, though quite unproven, which is wholy unreliable, at least in some points, but is meant as a starting point for your work and my further efforts.  I hope you will join me in a collaborative effort to work this big puzzle by helping me turn over all the pieces.

I am interested in collecting any family descendants of the line from Robert Coleman of Nansemond County Virginia and I believe there are several lines out there which could be connected if those doing the work become interested in pooling resources. This work is quite incomplete in so many areas it hardly bears mentioning a few. However, I'm especially interested in filling in gaps such as:

1. descendants of Cader's son, Charles Coleman, Sr.   
2. descendants of Charles Coleman, Jr., who I believe is the same as the earliest settler of the name Coleman to North Hamilton County Tennessee.  There is an exhaustive account of the people in this family written by Cleveland (Cy) Yarborough [Yarborough] based on interviews and on court records of that area.  This group is more completely documented in that work.  With permission, I have updated that work and made it available to those sharing their lines with me.
3. lines through Greene County, Alabama.   J.P. Coleman, once governor of Mississippi and author of the work, The Robert Coleman Family from Virginia to Texas, 1652-1965, recorded a great deal about this family and had access to a great deal more saying the sum of it all would fill a book.  There are a number of articles and family records to be rediscovered by the present generation which should add considerably to this branch of the family.
4. your line, if you are connected to those recorded here.

--- Wes Coleman    April 2002, updated June 2005