Wednesday, November 15, 2017

Another Episode of the Epps Wife Fantasy

Over the course of the last few years several sources have been promoting a cockamamie theory that the wife of George Reeves (Reves) of Grayson County, Virginia was not from the Burton family, but instead a daughter of Joshua Epps of Halifax County, Virginia. Without proper research, the fact that there is a 1793 deed involving the heirs of John Epps, father of Joshua, and in that deed a George Reaves of Wilkes County, North Carolina is named among the legatees, the wife of George Reeves of Grayson County is now purported to be this Epps granddaughter. Out of this one lone deed an entire alternate theory of George Reeves of Grayson County's family has been disseminated across the internet.

George Rives (Reaves) Warrant No. 638
Wilkes County, North Carolina
A post to this blog in May of 2014 concerning this family details the research of several Reeves family researchers and lists all of the known facts concerning George Reaves who married Martha "Patty" Epps. Since Family Search has been adding more documents to their online offerings which include Virginia data, new information has recently come to light so it seemed a good time to share them and add to the accurate information regarding George and Martha Epps Reaves.

It was previously known that in October of 1778 George Reaves purchased a 100 acre tract on Court House Branch in Halifax County, Virginia from Luke Williams, but a recently found deed from October of 1779 finds the same 100 acres being sold back to Luke Williams by George Reaves and Martha, his wife. This transaction coincides with the issuance in 1780 of Warrant No. 638 for 200 acres on Little Cub Creek in Wilkes County, North Carolina.

It is noteworthy that the survey below of this 200 acres on Little Cub Creek shows that Moses Epps, son of Joshua Epps and brother of Martha Epps Reeves was listed as a chain carrier.


Hopefully at some point this premise will no longer be promoted as a viable family connection to the Reeves family of Grayson, Virginia and Ashe, North Carolina.

Other posts in this blog on the Epps wife theory:
The rest of the story...( of the Epps wife theory)
Wilkes County's George Reeves Mystery
New Data on George Reeves of Grayson