52 Ancestors in 52 Weeks - Strong Woman

This post is part of Amy Johnson Crow's 52 Ancestors in 52 Weeks for 2018. The prompt for the week of March 5, 2018, is Strong Woman.

For every female ancestor I considered for this prompt, Strong Woman, I discovered I’d already written about her in previous posts, so I had a hard time coming up with someone unless I went even further back in the generations. And the further back I go, the less information I have and the harder the women are to research. 

Any of my female ancestors who survived long enough to give birth to a healthy child who became my ancestor was a strong woman indeed. Otherwise, I wouldn’t be here. In fact, any woman who survives to adulthood is a Strong Woman, whether she leaves behind children or not. 

So as I perused my family tree and looked up a few ladies, I settled on my maternal 6th great grandmother, Amy Goodwyn/Goodwin, for no other reason than I haven’t written about her before nor have I done any research. As soon as I began researching, I found that she’d been married twice and had children by each husband.

I don’t know if the dates of birth and death that I have for Amy are correct. I don’t even remember where I got them, probably from someone’s family tree on ancestry.com before I knew better than to just copy trees. She may have been born on August 31, 1732. A findagrave memorial says she married my 6th great grandfather, Thomas Mitchell, in 1747 and they had seven children: John, Henry, Thomas Goodwin (my 5th great grandfather), Tabitha, Winifred, James, and Richard. Amy’s first husband, Thomas, died about 1762 or maybe before, as she married her second husband, John Raines, that same year, on October 5, 1762. After marrying John, she gave birth to four more children: Thomas, Robert, Cadwallader, and Amy. 

Amy died February 14, 1773, in Sussex County, Virginia. 

Here’s my descent from Amy:

Amy Goodwyn/Goodwin and Thomas Mitchell (my 6th great grandparents)
Thomas Goodwin Mitchell and Ann Raines (my 5th great grandparents)
Susannah Mitchell and Littleton Wyche (my 4th great grandparents)
Thomas Clark Wyche and Catharine MacIntyre (my 3rd great grandparents)
Mary Barry Wyche and Remer Young (my 2nd great grandparents)
Catherine Young and John T. Roberts (my great grandparents)
Leona Roberts and William Redles (my grandparents)
Leona Redles and Albert Pendleton (my parents)

I also didn't find much online about Amy's first husband Thomas. Maybe one day I'll get back to this research.

Catherine

52 Ancestors in 52 Weeks - #34 Susannah Parham

Susannah Parham was my maternal 6th great grandmother and the mother of my 5th great grandmother Ann Raines. Susannah was married to Nathaniel Raines, my 6th great grandfather.

I've found two different marriage years for Susannah and Nathaniel on ancestry.com. One is 1766 and the other is 1796 (see below). One of the marriage years could be an indexing typo or there are two men named Nathaniel Raines married to two women named Susannah Parham. Or possibly the names were indexed incorrectly. I haven't seen an original marriage record for them. On the website Descendants of William Raines, their marriage year is given as 1755 in Brunswick County, Virginia. Besides Ann, their children are listed as Hartwell, Frances, Mary, Nathaniel, and Susannah. This website indicates that Nathaniel served as a Captain in the Revolutionary War and gives his death year as 1789 in Virginia.

Virginia, Marriages, 1660-1800 about Nathaniel Raines

Name: Nathaniel Raines Spouse: Susan Parham Marriage Date: 18 May 1796 Marriage Location: Brunswick County, Virginia

Family Data Collection - Individual Records about Nathaniel Raines

Name: Nathaniel Raines Spouse: Susannah Parham Parents: William Raines, Angelica Wynne Birth Place: Surry, Albemarle Parish, VA Birth Date: 3 May 1748 Marriage Place: Brunswick Marriage Date: 1766

I didn't find a record for a Captain Nathaniel Raines on fold3.com, but I found a Nathaniel Raine (without the 's'). One service record says "Nathaniel Raines" and that it is "filed with Nathaniel Raine." The pension record for Nathaniel Raine notes that he has a wife but doesn't give her name. This Nathaniel Raine served as a Corporal with the Virginia Regiment during the war and was living in Kentucky at the time he filed for a pension in 1819. I don't think this is the same person as my Nathaniel Raines.

As with many of my ancestors, I need to do more research to find out more about Susannah.

Catherine

This post is part of the 52 Ancestors in 52 Weeks challenge by genealogist Amy Crow at No Story Too Small.

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52 Ancestors in 52 Weeks - #7 Ann Raines

My maternal 5th great grandmother Ann Raines was born on September 3, 1762, in Sussex County, Virginia, to Nathaniel Raines and Susannah Parham. Nathaniel was a Revolutionary War soldier in Virginia. Ann married Thomas Goodwin Mitchell, who also fought in the Revolution. Ann and Thomas had 11 or 12 children. As I noted in my post about their daughter Susannah (my 4th great grandmother), besides Susannah, according to Huxford, their children were Amy Goodwin, Hartwell, Nathaniel Raines, Richard, Thomas G., Tobitha, Nancy Green, Taylor, John, and Robert.[1] I have Edward listed as a child of theirs in my tree but I don't have Tobitha listed as a daughter. While researching for this post, I found a genealogy website about the Raines family that notes "Tabitha" died in infancy. Edward is listed as a child and died in Jasper County, Georgia, in 1824, but Robert isn't listed as a child of theirs. See Descendants of William Raines http://zdraines.homestead.com/files/w_raines.htm. Looking at this website, I see many connections between the Raines family and several of my surnames: Goodwin/Goodwyn, Wyche, and Mitchell. Apparently these relationships go way back.

Ann and Thomas moved to Hancock County Georgia after the Revolutionary War and then moved to the portion of Montgomery County that was later included in Telfair County. Thomas may be the Thomas Mitchell in the 1806 Montgomery County, Georgia, tax digest below. It notes "Do [ditto Montgomery], Hancock" next to his name. Below his name is a Thomas Raines who may have been a relative or sibling of Ann's. Listed above Thomas Mitchell is Edward Blackshear who may be the same person who married their daughter Amy.[2]

1806 Montgomery County tax digest for Thomas Mitchell (click on image for a larger view)

In 1825, Ann and Thomas moved to "newly formed" Thomas County, Georgia, where Thomas died the following year. Ann died there in 1830.[3]

Catherine

This post is part of the 52 Ancestors in 52 Weeks challenge by genealogist Amy Crow at No Story Too Small.

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[1] Folks Huxford. Pioneers of Wiregrass Georgia. Vol. 1. Cooper Press, Jacksonville, Florida, 1966, 184-185.

[2] Ancestry.com Georgia Property Tax Digests 1793-1892. Militia District Number 51. Citing Georgia Tax Digest [1890]. 140 volumes. Morrow, Georgia: Georgia Archives.

[3] See footnote 1.