RELEASE DATE: JULY 6, 2014
KINSEARCHING
by
Marleta Childs
P. O. Box 6825
LUBBOCK, TX 79493-6825
[email protected]
Descendants of Andrew STRAIN (born about 1750-1755 and died in 1826 in Haywood County, North Carolina) and his wife, Mary REED, will celebrate eighty-one years of continuous family reunions on 20 July 2014 at the Sugar Valley Baptist Church in Sugar Valley, Georgia. Since church services will be in session until a little after noon, the reunion lunch will begin at 12:30 p. m. (In 2013, the oldest attendee was ninety-four years old and the youngest was three months; the individual traveling the farthest distance—630 miles--to attend was from Tampa, Florida.) For more details about the 2014 gathering, write to the Strain Family Association, 766 Henry Owen Road, Dalton, Georgia 30720 or go to the association’s website at www.strain-family.org.
If you descend from a WRIGHT family in the Old Dominion State, you may have a reason to celebrate. Several new books concerning various lines of the surname may contain the information you need to fill in your ancestral gaps.
SOUTHSIDE VIRGINIA WRIGHT FAMILIES, 1755-1820 by Lucius F. Wright began as a simple search for the forebears of John WRIGHT, died in 1832 in Clarke County, Georgia, who married (1) Sarah FOX, and (2) Lucy ANDREW. Although evidence pointed to John’s origin being in Southside Virginia (Brunswick, Lunenburg, and Mecklenburg counties), eight different men with the name appeared on the first personal property tax list in 1782 in that area. Since the author’s main interest is in the John Wrights living in 1810 or earlier, he presents his efforts to sort the men out in this well-documented publication.
In addition to locating the Virginia origin of John Wright of Clarke County, Georgia, the author explains the man’s probable pedigree, based on DNA analysis. He also traces the ancestry of John’s first wife, Sarah, daughter of Richard FOX and wife, Mary (DAVIS) RAINEY, and furnishes detailed data about Sarah’s FOX-KENDRICK kin and the RAINEY family. Then he provides a study of John and Sarah Wright’s five children: Richard W. of Decatur County, Georgia, who married Mary Ann HARRISON; Isham B. of Putnam County, Georgia, who married Emily BARKSDALE; Puritha of Putnam County, Georgia, who married Boykin BASS; Frances of Muscogee County, Georgia, who married William BARKSDALE; and Mary of Fort Bend County, Texas, who married John GOSSETT/GOSWICK.
Because the changing boundaries of Brunswick, Lunenburg, and Mecklenburg counties complicate genealogical research in the area and three different groups of Wrights appear in the records, the author supplies valuable information on the various families. He also includes a chapter on Henry Summerfield Wright, born in Arkansas, who moved to Georgia and became a prominent physician. As a result, researchers seeking Wright data in Virginia or Georgia may hit “pay dirt” in SOUTHSIDE VIRGINIA WRIGHT FAMILIES, 1755-1820.
The 374-page publication has a preface; footnotes, some of which are annotated; appendices; and a full-name index. It is priced at $32.50.
If you do not find data about your Wright line in that publication, do not despair. Perhaps you will discover useful information in the latest books by Robert N. Grant: WRIGHT FAMILY BIRTH, MARRIAGE, AND PERSONAL PROPERTY TAX RECORDS, MONTGOMERY COUNTY, VIRGINIA (306 pages, index, $38.50) and WRIGHT FAMILY CENSUS, LAND GRANTS, LAND TAX, DEED, DEATH, AND PROBATE RECORDS, MONTGOMERY COUNTY, VIRGINIA (187 pages, index, $33.50).
Continuing to amass a bounty of additional data concerning the Wright family in the Old Dominion State, Grant shares in these two volumes numerous appendices to a larger work, Sorting Some of the Wrights of Southern Virginia. Dealing with a wide variety of documents, the appendices provide Montgomery County source materials for all persons named Wright by type of record. The resources pertain to births, 1853-1896; marriages, 1776-1900; property tax lists, 1782-1850; censuses, 1810-1900; land grants, 1776-1900; deeds, 1776-1900; land tax lists, 1782-1850; deaths, 1853-1896; and probates, 1776-1902. In addition, the author furnishes information about the individual’s Wright ancestry as far back as it is known.
All three of these soft-cover books may be purchased by check, money order, Visa, MasterCard, Discover, or American Express from Heritage Books, Inc., 5810 Ruatan Street, Berwyn Heights, Maryland 20740. For phone orders, call toll free 1-800-876-6103; fax 410-558-6574; [email protected]; website www.HeritageBooks.com). To the price of each book, buyers should add the cost for shipping charges. For U. S. postal mail, the cost is $7.00 for one book and $2.50 for each additional copy.