No, I have not forgotten or stopped on my quest of writing my ancestor’s stories. Actually, I have spread myself a little thin with all the branches of my tree that need attention. I have many irons in the fire as you will see below.
Let’s start with John Loggan of 1699. Many a researcher, those who have been doing this a lot longer than me are still stymied by this line. DNA is proving to help some, but no one has been able to prove his father. However, my theory and many others who have the same thought believe that Restalrig is the key. My sister Cathy has told me that Dad and his dad named their ranch in Kettle Falls, Washington the “Restalrig Ranch”. So there must be something that kept that place-name in our family. The latest I received from a DNA cousin is this,
“It seems John had enough wealth to purchase a farm. I think the funds came from his inheritance or possibly sale of a land grant in the Ulster Plantation. DNA indicates that we are related to some Logan’s from Ayrshire, Scotland. I found a Walter Logan who left Ayrshire about 1610 for the Ulster Plantation and obtained a land grant in 1617. I think Walter may be John’s great-grandfather.
So, yes indeed, we are related to the Scottish Logan’s — and most probably to the Logan’s of Restalrig, as some of this family moved to Ayrshire after the last Baron of Restalrig (the 7th Baron) was deprived of his title and land holdings by a huge miscarriage of justice. But that’s another long story.” I think I’ve told this story on a blog, about the the Gowrie Conspiracy.
Azubah Royce’s family comes from England.
an English courtier and diplomat during the reign of King Henry VIII
14th great-grandfather
Thomas Carew ( – 1431)
son of Nicholas Carew
Joane Carew (1420 – 1470)
daughter of Thomas Carew
Thomas Saunders ( – 1609)
son of Joane Carew
Elizabeth Saunders (1584 – 1675)
daughter of Thomas Saunders
Anna Wolcott (1621 – 1704)
daughter of Elizabeth Saunders
Elizabeth Griswold (1653 – 1737)
daughter of Anna Wolcott
Ruth Beckwith (1680 – 1747)
daughter of Elizabeth Griswold
John Royce (1712 – 1760)
son of Ruth Beckwith
Azubah Royce (1737 – 1796)
daughter of John Royce
Daniel Logan (1762 – 1810)
son of Azubah Royce
Lemuel H. Logan (1797 – 1869)
son of Daniel Logan
Silas H. Logan (1833 – 1917)
son of Lemuel H. Logan
James Lemuel Logan (1860 – 1952)
son of Silas H. Logan
Glenn Henry Logan (1899 – 1982)
son of James Lemuel Logan
Arthur Lee Logan Sr. (1924 – 1973)
son of Glenn Henry Logan
Marguerite Lenore Logan
You are the daughter of Arthur Lee Logan Sr.
Nicholas Carew’s daughter was Anne Carew. Their daughter was Lady Elizabeth Throckmorton, “Bess”. Sir Walter Raleigh’s wife, and a Lady of the Privy Chamber to Queen Elizabeth I of England. She dressed the Queen! Ring any bells?
Dad’s mother’s family leads to Germany. They are the Kunkle/Gunkel’s and the Kepple/Schaeffer’s. I can only get so far on my own, but another cousin I “met” long ago researching the same line was kind enough to share his research with me. However, I have to re-do mine as I got off track years ago when entering the information. I just haven’t been back to it as it’s painstakingly slow to enter. I can tell you that the Gunkel’s were glass makers in Germany in the 15th and 16th centuries.
I have been able to trace Dad’s great-grandmother’s people (Rowan, Porterfield, McMahan and Hargrove) on his father’s side to Ireland, but try getting records from there! His great-grandmother’s mother’s side is not much better. Their names are Galbraith, Appleby, Alters, Case, Lane, Devlin, and Stitt, most from Pennsylvania.
Then we have the Cofer and Davis families, Ruby Chapman Wescott’s (my MeMa) mother’s family. They were big and evidently are still prolific in the Norfolk and Isle of Wight, VA area. I recently wrote the City of Norfolk Bureau of Cemeteries and found a little goldmine. The woman there was very helpful, I received more than I imagined I would. See below:
“…regarding Charles William Davis’ burial, we have on file his interment card and a plot map card which indicates his burial site. …the east two-thirds of the lot is owned by W. Davis.”
On this card were other family members buried in this lot. They each showed year of birth and year of death. He evidently owned the east part of lot 11 which has 10 plots, 5 of which are still empty. I have written her to see what happens with those other five.
The Cofer’s were plantation owners, and according to Ruby and cousins (from letters and notes Aunt Sharon sent me), Martha Cofer went to a finishing girls private school for music and had her own carriage and two horses.
Martha Ann Davis told her granddaughter, Elizabeth Cofer Reed, that she had not dressed herself until she was grown. She also told her that the slaves did not want to leave when they were freed.
I am still researching trying to find information on the plantation and the family.
Mathias J. Chapman was Ruby’s grandfather. I recently wrote to the John Wesley United Methodist Church in Hagerstown, MD as the church used to be St. Paul’s Methodist Episcopal Church from 1825-1910 and where Mathias and Isadore Burns were married. She was able to locate the register. “I don’t have too much information for you, but I am attaching a copy of a page out of our records book that was compiled in 1971. It confirms that your ancestors were married here by Rev. George W. Heyde on 11/14/1864.”
She also gave me two other places that I might want to research. She was very helpful. When I asked if I could pay her for her research and time, she said “You don’t owe us a thing. Glad to help! Genealogy is one of my hobbies, so I understand how exciting it is to find documentation. Have fun with the search!!”
Ten days ago, I received an email from a DNA Match I reached out to. It was Mary Rogers, aka Mary Virginia Martin, Albert Wescott, Jr.’s First Cousin! She is Mabel Agassiz Wescott’s 76-year-old daughter. She’s been a wonderful source of oral history and lives “part of her time” right here in Florida. The other part she stays in Kentucky. She still has the 50th wedding anniversary ring that John Thomas gave Martha!
A few days later another DNA match reached out to me. We are 3rd cousins. She is adopted. We think we have narrowed to the Logan side of the family, more specifically, Art’s mother’s side since it is X-Match DNA. She knows the names of her biological parents, but now thinks her dad was also adopted. Until she can find out, we’re stumped. None of her names are in my tree, but they are German names which makes sense for that side of the tree.
As I was reading some Facebook genealogical posts in one of my Outer Banks pages, a name popped out at me in the conversation that I recognized from newspaper articles that MeMa (Ruby) had saved. He responded to my picture I posted about John Thomas being the keeper on the land that the Currituck Shooting Club owned. He wrote:
“Mary and her son, Skip, had it colorized at a Photoshop in Los Angeles. Thank you for including it in this thread. Mary and the Poyner family were close to and very fond of the Wescott family, and Mary stayed in contact with them as long as they lived. My grandmother, Gladys Forbes Sawyer (dau of John W. Poyner’s sister) told a story about the Wescott son (who was a paraplegic), being in the party with the John W. Poyner family and my grandmother and her sister on a steamboat trip to Elizabeth City. They went via THE GUIDE, which on the return trip floundered in a squall off from Camden Point on its way to the North River ports of Powells Point, Jarvisburg, and Barnett’s Creek at Grandy. The passengers waded to shore and spent the night in a fishing camp on Camden Point before being rescued the next day. My grandmother said that John W. Poyner held the Wescott boy in his arms and got him safely to shore. They were all terrified. I remember Mary telling me that he later lived in Florida and that one of the girls was a dietician at the University of Georgia. I believe the Wescotts lived in Durham after Capt. Wescott died.”
I don’t recall ever hearing this story. Mr. Sawyer also helped me put names to some pictures Ruby had.
In another Facebook forum, I ran into another DNA cousin. We’re 5th cousin 2x removed or something like that. She’s from the Midgett/Pugh side. Her dad was what she calls an “outside child”. He was born out-of-wedlock and didn’t know the family. I helped her figure out her relations and how to read her DNA. I am by no means an expert, but was able to help her maneuver around her DNA results as well as the Facebook pages to find her cousins. She had to tell one cousin, gently, tell how they were connected. Now these cousins are sharing stories and pictures with her of a grandfather she never knew. She also has “traces” of American Indian in her DNA.
Married to Matthew Midyett is Judith White. I’ve written about them. Supposedly, her family is from the Jamestown Colony of White’s. Another line I have yet to investigate.
I am still waiting on John Thomas Wescott’s official military personnel file from his Life Saving Service. Another “patiently waiting” moment. I applied month’s ago!
Now to the Stephanz/Stefanc side. I have one DNA cousin who is big on DNA and triangulation, chromosomes, etc. So much, she makes my head spin. I told her I needed a “DNA For Dummies” version, but she cannot seem to explain it in layman’s terms. I am by no means a stupid person, but wow, it gets deep.
I have not gotten any farther than 1818 with Matijas Stefanc in Slovenia, but there is another Matijas Stefanc out there born 1777 that I am sure I am related to, I just cannot get the connection. I am related, DNA says, to people descended from this Matijas, but alas the connection eludes me. Maybe the DNA whiz kid above can help unravel the mystery. The same can be said for the Swegel/Sveglj’s of the same are.
I am also at a standstill with the Schwittkowski’s and Hennig’s as to further my exploration with them, I need to get records and to get records that are online, I need to get my butt to the local Family History Center. There is one here on Blanding, I just haven’t gone to check them out. They do have odd hours, I just have to decide on a time and date and just go!
Then we have the Reikowski’s. I have paid the research fee and sent away for documentation from the State Archives of Gdansk, Poland (Archiwum Państwowe w Gdańsku) and am hoping that opens a few more doors of exploration for me. I located an online database with christenings, marriages, and deaths with some of our ancestor’s names and have requested the documents of these events. It takes a long while, but is usually well worth the wait. Talk about patience! My original request was early December.
I also received the Naturalization papers of our Augusta Reikowski’s brother, Johann Michael, who went by John. It didn’t really give me much more that I knew, other than he left Germany under Wilhem II’s rule. Wilhelm II was the last German Emperor and King of Prussia, ruling the German Empire and the Kingdom of Prussia from 15 June 1888 to 9 November 1918. His petition was approved in June 1906. He had applied in Wisconsin in March of 1900.
So, as you can see, I have not been twiddling my thumbs. If anything, I am buried in ancestors. I even dream about them. I need a system. A month on one branch and alternate or something like that.
As Gram always said, “It’s in the genes!”. It certainly is. We have a lot in our genes and I am proud of every single cell I have researched.
As always, let me know if you see any errors in my writing or my research.
Loganalogy- The Family Historian 