I confirmed with Linda that her family thought they were from Wales. I went to the Rootweb site and selected Surname search. Searching Thomas is a pita because there are so many people with that name. When I research for Philemon Thomas, I am glad the General has such a unique name. However there are still some problems; for example Ruth Burnett Hutchins' DAR application spelled the General as Philemen.
The surname search screen on Rootsweb let me specify Thomas and Wales. I got about 20 hits but none looked promising. So I deleted the Wales enry, knowing I would get many hits. On the second pages, I found this one:
Thomas 1585 1755 WLS>EssexCo,VA>OrangeCo,VA,USA pck
Well, the Orange Co caught my eye because that is the home of General Philemon. So I clicked on the pck link and got this: pck Patricia krugerw53@gmail.com. Now my first two years blogs show I have had many emails that never got a reply. When I got replies, often they would not lead to anything. But email is cheap so Sep 14 I sent Patricia an email summarizing what I had about General Philemon Thomas, his father (Richard Thomas II) and his grandfather (Richard Thomas.) Below is the response.
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Weldon Kruger to me Sep 19, 2011
Frank,
Here is what I have -
William ap Thomas b. ca. 1587 to Thomas ap ? in Wales. He married Elizabeth about 1612 in Wales.
In 1635, William and family emigrated to Virginia. William patented 3400 acres of land from Elizabeth City County to Essex County 1637 to 1665.
William and Elizabeth had at least five children - John, Robert, William, Mary and Anne.
William died 1679 in Elizabeth City County, Virginia.
His son, William b. ca. 1613 m. Rebecca and d. 1665, Virginia.
His son John b. ca. 1648, m. Elizabeth Mins and d. bef 2 Oct 1695, Middlesex Co. VA.
Joihn and Elizabeth had at least seven children, one of whom was Richard b. ca. 1674, Northumberland Co. VA, m. Isabella Pendleton.
Sources:
Sparacio, PAMUNKEY NEIGHBORS, 1985
Paul B. Phelps <
pbphelps@cpcug.org> 1996
Green, GEN & HIST NOTES ON CULPEPER CO. VA, 1900 (Paul Phelps' source)
Lisa Chaffin <
chaffin@comteck.com> 1997
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Names like John, Robert, Richard are very common so often you are not sure if you have the right one. So I looked up what I had on Philemon's grandfather. He was Richard b. ca. 1674, Northumberland Co. VA, m. Isabella Pendleton! Wow! We have a match back to Wales.
I replied to Weldon telling hm we had a match and thanking him. I also tried to contact the two source people but their emails were no good.
Based on the info in the email and some other stuff, I constructed the following family tree from Wales to General Philemon.
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Descendants of William Ap Thomas
--------------------------------
1-William Ap Thomas b. 1567, Llangdock, Rmarth, South Wales, Wales, d. 1679, ,
Elizabeth City, Virginia
+Elizabeth b. Abt 1589, , Wales
|---2-William Thomas b. Abt 1613, , , , Wales, d. 1665, , , Virginia
| +Rebecca
| |---3-John Thomas b. 1648, d. Bef 2 Oct 1695, , Middlesex, Virginia
| +Elizabeth Mins
| |---4-Richard Thomas b. 1680, , Northumberland, Virginia, d. 1748, ,
| | King and Queen, Virginia
| +Isabella Pendleton b. 1687, , King and Queen, Virginia, d. 1748,
| , King and Queen, Virginia
| |---5-Richard Thomas II b. 1731, Drysdale Parish, King & Queen,
| | Virginia, d. 1798, Minerva, Mason, Kentucky
| +Francis Hawkins b. 1730, , Orange, Virginia, d. 1786,
| Minerva, Spotsylvania, Virginia
| |---6-Richard Thomas b. 19 Oct 1758, , Orange, Virginia, d. 6
| | Nov 1843, , Bracken, Kentucky
| |---6-General Philemon Thomas b. 9 Feb 1763, , Orange,
| | Virginia, d. 18 Nov 1847, Baton Rouge, East Baton Rouge,
| | Louisiana
|---2-Robert Thomas b. Abt 1613, , , , Wales
|---2-John Thomas b. Abt 1616, , , , Wales
|---2-Mary Thomas b. Abt 1620, , , , Wales
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Going back to the email from Weldon, I saw two sources. I googled GEN & HIST NOTES ON CULPEPER CO VA and found it is a Google Book. The copyright (1900) is expired and the entire text is online. The Table of Contents shows the Thomas Family is on Page 152,
This book was scanned to create images of each page and then converted to text using Optical Character Recognition. This process is less than perfect; there are a lot of errors in the resulting text. I copied the Thomas pages into a Word document and then cleaned up the text as much as I could. I also obtained a scan of the orginal from the book. Some areas are still noise. The resulting text is below.
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from GEN & HIST NOTES ON CULPEPER CO. VA. 1900 Page 155
THE THOMAS FAMILY.
[By Mrs. Mary Duunica Micou)
Without doubt the Thomas family of Orange County, and also that of Culpeper county, are descended from the earliest emigrant of that name, who came to Essex county, or rather the one who patented land from Elizabeth county, to Essex, from 1537 to 1665, in all, about 3,400 acres. He is mentioned first as William Ap Thomas, and most of his grants are given to him for bringing to this country, William Thomas and als, presumably his sons, as William Thomas, aged 22, and Robert Thomas, aged 20, came to Virginia, in June 1685, and John, aged 19, in July 1685.
The ways in which land patents are taken out by these young men indicate that they
were sons of William Ap Thomas, all being granted to them in the same neighborhood.
Robert m. a Miss Massie, and settled in Essex, having a son, Edward, m. Catherine Williamson, (dau. of Henry Williamson). He established the Essex county family, and lived at Thomas Neck, on the Rappahannock River; was Justice of Peace in 1695 and High Sheriff in 1696; died in 1699.
William Thomas, aged 22, in 1635, took out land in Northumberland county, and is called **William of Yeocomooo." He was Justice of Northumberland County in 1656, and Burgess of Surry County in 1652; he had land patents in every county from Surry to Essex County. He probably brought his wife from England, as he is granted land in Lancaster County, for transporting William Thomas and wife from England. Her name was Rebecca, and she survived him, as she takes out letters of administration in 1635. His son, John, was then 17 years of age, showing that he was born in 1648. He died in 1710, leaving wife, Elizabeth, ch.: Richard, William, Peter, John, Elizabeth, Jane.
Richard, who is mentioned as son and heir of John Thomas, is undoubtedly the Richard Thomas who m. Isabella Pendleton, dau. of Philip Pendleton, the emigrant. Richard and Isabella Thomas both took out land in King and Queen and Spotsylvania counties in 1728. Richard Thomas died in 1748, and his widow, Isabella, went to live in Drysdale Parish, Caroline county. Their children are uncertain as to number and name. There is a Rowland Thomas and a Joseph Thomas mentioned with her in deeds of land, but the relationship is not defined. It
156
is certain that their daughter, Mary, m. Col. Thomas Barbour, and another, Catherine, m. Ambrose Barbour. Her son, Richard, m. in 175S Mildred Taylor, of Orange county; their children were: Richard, George, James, Sarah, and Mildred, m. John Piper. James Thomas m.in 1781 Eliabeth, da. of Henry Pendleton.
John Thomas, youngest son of (John, William, William Ap Thomas.) and Brother of Richard was born about 1600; he bought land in King William, Spotsylvania, Hanover, Orange and King George counties, between 1725 and 1789. In 1776 he was living m Bromfield Parish, Culpepper county. He died in 1782, a very old man, having survived two of his sons, and having several great grandchildren. He mentions in his will the following children: Benjamin, John, Massey, William, Margaret MeKey, Sarah Powell, and Ann Kirk. His son, Benjamin, succeeded to his property in King George County and in 1783, His son, William, made his will in 1778 in Maryland. His son, Massey Thomas, died in 1776, leaving wife, Elisabeth, children: Reuben, John, William, Massey, Jesse, and Susannah.
Massey Thomas Jr. served in the Revolutionary Army from 1776 to 1779 in the l0th,Va. Regiment, Col. John Green. He m.1st. Elizabeth Barlow, 2nd Martha Pendleton, dau. of Philip. 3nd. bod of Henry and Mary (Taylor) Pendleton. Thus, the great nephew of William Thomas m. the great niece of Isabella Pendleton, his wife. The children of Massey Thomas and Martha Pendleton were: 1. Frances Taylor, b. 1788m._____ Lewis 2. Philadelphia Pendleton, b. 1789, m. James Dunnioa; 3. Sallie Minor, b. 1791, m. Wm. H. Dunuica; 4. Granville Pendleton, b. 17__; 5. Virginia Curtis, b. 1794, m. ____ Norwood; 6. John Price, b. 1796; 7. Martha Curtis, b. 1798, m. ____ Ramsey. Massey Thomas moved to Woodford county, Ky.. before 1813 and died there. His son, Granville Pendleton Thomas fought in the war of 1812 to 1315, in the 2nd. Kentucky regiment. The mother, Martha (Pendleton) Thomas, moved, after her husband's death, to Uiri with her two sons-in-law, James and William H. Dunnioft, and died there; 1824.
The Thomas family of Culpepper county goes back to the emigrant in the following order : Massey (6), Massey (5), John (4), John (3), William (2), William Ap Thomas.
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Armed with the information William Ap Thomas b. ca 1587 in Wales, I went back to Rootsweb and searched family trees. Here is the result.
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Rootsweb Family Tree Search for William Ap Thomas
· ID: P1286141752
· Death: 1678 in Hampton, Elizabeth, Virginia, United States, · Name: William Ap Thomas
· Birth: 1587 in Llangdock, , , Wales · Note:
William AP Thomas Immigration Story
http://trees.ancestry.com/rd?f=document&guid=910ac926-bc3d-4aba-a6c9-0ee01cb5285d&tid=20467805&pid=1286141752
- Married: 1611 in Wales, , , England
Children
- Anne Thomas b: 1609 in , , , Wales
- Mary Thomas b: 1611 in , , , Wales
- Robert Thomas b: 1613 in , , , Wales
- William Ap Thomas b: 1613 in Wales, , , England
- Robert Thomas b: 1615 in Pwllyrach, , Glamorganshire, Wales
- Female Thomas b: 1620
- Anne Ap THOMAS b: 1622 in , , , Wales
- Ann Thomas b: 1622
Sources:
- Repository: Title: Ancestry Family Trees Publication: Online publication - Provo, UT, USA: Ancestry.com. Original data: Family Tree files submitted by Ancestry members. Note: This information comes from 1 or more individual Ancestry Family Tree files
. This source citation points you to a current version of those files. Note: The owners of these tree files
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This provides a lot more information including his place of birth, mother and father. And there links for
each person to provide even more information. This research will continue.
