Just Supposin'

Lately I've been working on background stories for some of the different DNA Groups in The Reeves Project. DNA Group 9 is made up up five individuals, three of whom are descendants of Henry Reeves of Essex County, Virginia with documented paper trails while the two other participants descend from John Reeves of Taylor County, Kentucky who was born circa 1770 in North Carolina. John Reeves doesn't appear to have any link to Essex County or Henry Reeves, Sr., but his descendants' Y-DNA says he does!

Over the course of the last six months I've spent time weekly at my local Family History Center searching Virginia records to find more information in the extant records of Essex and Spotsylvania counties in Virginia to fill in all the gaps in the family of Henry Reeves. I've found that some of Henry's descendants did migrate to Kentucky, but not to Taylor County nor did any of them appear to have made a detour through North Carolina on their way west.

After a thorough search of all the available records in Essex County, it is clear that there are only a very few male descendants with the Reeves' surname who could be the ancestor of John Reeves of North Carolina and Taylor, Kentucky. By 1800 there were no male Reeves' individuals left in either Essex or Spotsylvania so we have to widen the search.

Jackson Reeves born around 1690-1700 was a son of Joseph Reeves, son of Henry Reeves, Sr. He has never been located after he left Essex County. He left no trail and there are no records of a Jackson Reeves of that generation who could be the son of Joseph Reeves of Essex. He was also probably too old to be the father of a child born circa 1770 although it would not have been impossible. The next possibility is Henry Reeves, son of the third Henry Reeves and probably born before 1740. When his father died in 1745 he didn't require a guardian so he may have been an adult by that time. He may have died young or simply migrated elsewhere, but he has currently not been located. Finally, Thomas Reeves, grandson of Thomas Reeves, Sr., born in 1753, was serving an apprenticeship in Spotsylvania County that began in 1768 and was only about 15 years old at the time. He was obviously not married or living in North Carolina by 1770.

That leaves only one Reeves' male outstanding from the Essex Reeves' family and he brings us full circle back to George, the son of Thomas Reeves, Sr. who was named as a legatee in the will of his uncle George Reeves in 1754. For many years Reeves' family researchers believed that this George Reeves was the individual of that name who arrived in the New River area along the border of Grayson County, Virginia and Ashe County, North Carolina in 1767, until the theory was proven incorrect by Y-DNA. Three descendants of George Reeves of Grayson, Virginia have matching Y-DNA to descendants of William Reeves of Wake County, North Carolina in addition to an abundance of documentation of their connections in the Neuse River basin before George Reeves migrated to the New River area. These descendants of George Reeves and William Reeves of Wake County are participants in DNA Group 6A of the Reeves DNA Project. Two other descendants of George Reeves of Grayson County do not match these six individuals, but neither do they match DNA Group 9 where the documented descendants of Henry Reeves are located.

Oddly, I recently realized that there is one more George Reeves who is a possibility as the father of John Reeves of Taylor County, Kentucky. When I initially became aware of this George Reeves, based upon proximity and the fact that the individuals his children were apprenticed to, Woodson Daniel and Reuben Allen, were both close associates of William Reeves, I assumed he was a member of that family of Wake County.

September 1778 Court
[213]-75
Ordered that Mary Reeves orphan of George Reeves deced. be bound unto Reuben Allen unto She come to age at this time being Eight Years of Age.
Ordered that John Reeves orphan of George Reeves deced. be bound an Apprentice unto Woodson Daniel untill he come to the Age of twenty one Years being about this time the Age of three Years.

The only other information to be found in this area of the Neuse basin is from the records of the 1778 Granville County Militia. A George Reaves served in Captain James Langston's Company No. 7. He was described as 29 years old (born circa 1749), 6 feet high, thick made; of a ruddy complexion & dark hair; a Planter.

Although at the time it did seem strange that these children would have been apprenticed to neighbors rather than cared for by family members and that no tidbits of information linking John and Mary Reeves, orphans of this George, to the family of William Reeves of Wake County had ever been found. It also became increasingly more apparent that it was George Reeves of Grayson County, due to both genetic and documentary evidence in Orange and Johnston counties who was a member of the William Reeves' family, not the George Reeves who died in 1778.

Once the theory that this individual could possibly have been George Reeves, son of Thomas Reeves, Sr. of Essex and Spotsylvania counties began to develop, the one major obstacle to this line of thinking was why. I was plagued by the question of what would prompt George Reeves to leave the Rappahannock area and migrate to North Carolina when his siblings had all settled in the Shenandoah Valley's Augusta and Rockingham counties until I recalled that his Gatewood cousins had settled in Pittsylvania County, Virginia along the border just north of this area of North Carolina. Peter and Elizabeth Gatewood Copeland are said to have even settled in North Carolina for a brief time and Peter is listed on the 1767 tax lists of Cumberland County. This was apparently the same year they returned to Virginia where they are found in Pittsylvania County by 1767 and Peter Copeland is documented as one of the first justices of the county. Elizabeth's sisters Sarah Gatewood Dunn and Patience Gatewood Farguson with their families also settled in Pittsylvania County around this time. Elizabeth Copeland, like George, was also named as a legatee in the 1754 will of their uncle George Reeves. These Gatewood daughters were first cousins to George and have helped to resolve doubts as to whether George might have found his way to this locale.

Obviously, this theory still needs much more research before John Reeves of Taylor County, Kentucky could be declared a child of George Reeves, son of Thomas Reeves, Sr. of Essex and Spotsylvania counties in Virginia. For now, it's just something to ponder while we dig deeper into the historical records to solve this puzzle.

The most current listing of the descendants of Henry Reeves of Essex County, Virginia can be found at The Reeves Project.

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See recent post Just Supposin' Again with some newly discovered information regarding this theory.

Reeves/Reaves Research Project

In the past, a fellow Reeves’ researcher, Richard Reeves, and I have consolidated our efforts in searching the records of York County, South Carolina for Reeves information and were able to resolve many mysteries in addition to identifying several misconceptions and fallacies in the previously held theories of the Reeves family who migrated there from Granville County, North Carolina. We’ve also searched all of the available records of Granville County for more information on that family.

There actually are many original documents that contain previously undiscovered information in the tax records, deed and will books when a detailed search of the available records is conducted. And if there are also estate files such as we found to be available in the York, South Carolina files now online at www.familysearch.org, they are a goldmine.

We are now planning to start systematically reviewing and researching the extant records of the southeastern portion of North Carolina, primarily Wayne, Green and Duplin counties as well as any surviving records from Old Dobbs County in an attempt to learn more about the Reaves family who settled there around 1750. That Reaves family’s origins are a mystery that we would like to attempt to resolve. We may not find all the answers but you never know what great new discoveries are hiding in the reels of microfilm. Once we learn more about the Reaves of the Wayne County area, we plan to move on to those in Brunswick County who are similarly a puzzle.

Family Search hasn’t been able to upload all of the copies of original records to their site as yet, but they microfilmed them in the past and those films can be rented for a small fee and viewed at their LDS Family History Centers.

Richard has developed a list of the documents available on microfilm and online from Family Search, such as:

Dobbs County, crown patents, 1759-1775 – Microfiche 1997. 3 microfiche.

Duplin County, Court 1Minutes 1784-1793 FHL US/CAN Film 18804

Wayne County, Minutes, 1787-1868, (1 unlabeled volume) 1787-1794 FHL US/CAN Film 1730559

Wayne County, Wills, accounts, inventories, and sales of estates, 1807-1957; indexes, 1782-1965, 1782-1965

We’re going to upload the list of microfilm reels and share it on Google Documents while we work together to rent the films, then copy and transcribe any and all Reeves documents we find. Any other Reeves/Reaves/Rives/Reavis researchers who would like to participate as we search the surviving records of North Carolina for more Reeves’ information may contact Richard or Beverly and we can share the file with you on Google or make other arrangements to share it if you don’t have a Google account.