Sunday, March 3, 2013

Interesting New Developments

In the earliest days of this blog, I added a post regarding the Reaves family of Wayne County, North Carolina whose origins prior to their arrival in Old Dobbs County have been a mystery. Thanks to DNA, that mystery may finally be solved. Two participants in the Reeves DNA Project who descend from William Reaves of Wayne County have now matched DNA Group 3. DNA Group 3 includes the descendants of William Reeves who died in Granville County, North Carolina in 1751.

Wayne County, North Carolina Area
The fact that their origins have previously been unknown probably stems from the 1878 courthouse fire at Kinston in Lenoir County which destroyed all the records housed there. Dobbs County had been formed from the eastern portion of Johnston County in 1758 and in 1791, Wayne County from the western portion of Dobbs. The records of early Johnston and other counties formed from Johnston - Wayne, Greene and Lenoir Counties, were placed at the courthouse there and all were lost in that fire. The only exception was the original grantee deed index from Old Dobbs County.

With this new DNA evidence, we are presented with the question of how the Reaves of Wayne County are related to the family of William Reeves who died in Granville County in 1751. Previously William Reeves, Jr. of that family was believed to have been the individual by that name who died in 1821 in York County, South Carolina. However, the William Reeves who died in South Carolina would have been well past 100 years old if that were the case since he must have been born about 1710. It is far more likely that a generation has been missed and the William Reeves with wife Elizabeth who died in York, South Carolina was the son or nephew of William Reeves, Jr. Recent research of the probate, tax and deed records of Granville County has established that the William Reeves who was present in the records of Granville County from around 1755 as a tithe of Malachi Reeves was undoubtedly Malachi's son. From 1755 when he is first listed, until November of 1796 when he is recorded in a deed transaction wherein he sold 257 acres on Tabbs Creek to John Hall (Deed Book P, p.342) before leaving for South Carolina, he is the only William Reeves in the records of Granville County.

William Reeves, Jr. along with his wife Hardy was often recorded in the deed records of Edgecombe County from at least 1740 and continued to be found in deeds there until the 1750's. As William Reeves of Edgecombe County, he was last found in the records of Granville County in May of 1753 when he sold 525 acres on Fishing Creek (Deed Book B, p.243-244) to his brother Malachi. His absence in the Granville and Edgecombe County records coincides with the appearance of William Reaves in the records of Old Dobbs County around 1758 based upon the extant deed indexes of Old Dobbs.

1790 Will of William Reaves of Wayne County

 These recent DNA results may indicate that some of the Reaves' individuals found in Old Dobbs and later in Wayne County were descendants of William Reeves, Jr., previously of Edgecombe County and that William Reaves may even have been his son. Hopefully records in the surrounding counties that were not destroyed in the Lenoir courthouse fire can be found to provide more documentation for this family.

3 comments:

  1. HI Beverly

    So excited to read this post, as I am directly paternally descended from this line of Reeves.

    I hope you still keep this blog active and receive this comment. Please feel free to contact me at cwreeves@gmail.com

    I have a document titled "The Reaves in Wayne and Duplin Counties, North Carolina" written by one Charley E. Reaves in 1986. I'd love to forward a copy to you if you don't already have one.

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  2. I found this very interesting as I have traced my Reaves family to the same William Reaves of Wayne County North Carolina. His son Stephen was the only child to change or carry the EE spelling, however his children carried the EA spelling of the name. If my calculations are correct, William Reaves is my GGGG Grandfather. I have traced all of Stephen's children and his son Samuel Jesse Reaves is my GG Grandfather. His son Samuel Jesse, Jr was my Great Grandfather and buried at Gilmer, TX. Some of his brothers are buried in Camp County Texas at Reeves Cemetery. I did hit a roadblock and used the LDS site to find that I am one of those "related" to Lord John Robert Ryves. There are so many duplicate names for children and siblings from that point on that it is hard to distinguish who begot who. I am satisfied to end at William Reaves of Wayne County North Carolina.

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    1. In regard to the information you found at the LDS site connecting your line to the Ryves family of Robert Ryves, please take all those lineage pedigrees "with a grain of salt". A book published twenty years or so ago ascribed numerous different Reeves families now known to be completely different families per DNA testing to the Ryves lineage of Dorset, England.

      Your Reeves/Reaves family's Y-DNA connects it to William Reeves who died in Granville County, North Carolina in 1751. Sadly, we really have no idea who his ancestors were. My Reeves line is similarly a mystery. My Reeves ancestor appeared in North Carolina in 1746 and I have been unable to find any link to his origins after 40 years of searching.

      Thank goodness Y-DNA testing is now available so that we know all these completely separate Reeves' families are unrelated. Maybe in time, we'll find ways to discover more about them.

      Beverly

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