CHAPTER LXIX. "BONES OF OUR ANCESTORS"-SOCIETY OF THE CINCINNATI-VIRGINIA ANCESTORS-FOREFATHERS OF Central KentUCKY SETTLERS-DERIVATION OF SURNAMES-ORIGIN OF THE NAME QUISENBERRY. So many Kentuckians trace their ancestry to Virginian families that the author has concluded that the following chapter on "The Bones of our Ancestors" written by Mr. A. C. Quisenberry of the War Department, and first published in the Lexington, Kentucky, Herald, will be of interest to many readers of this work: "For at least a century, or from the date of the Declaration of Independence in 1776 to its centennial in 1876, the matter of preserving or searching out family history was almost entirely neglected by the people of the United States. The antagonism felt towards the mother country during that time was so fierce that nearly all Americans made haste to forget all the connections that their families had ever had with England, and so radical was the new Democracy, established as a result of the war of the Revolution, that whoever took any pride, or even any interest, in his forefathers, or in his family descent, was looked upon with contempt as a vain fool or a proud-stomached, would-be aristocrat who was out of place in a free Republic founded upon the corner-stone fact that 'all men are created free and equal.' It was in this way that the preservation of family history fell into disuse in this country. "The Society of the 'Sons of the Cincinnati.' founded while the guns of Yorktown had hardly ceased to reverberate, was composed of officers of the American army, and eligibility for future membership was confined strictly to eldest sons by a system of primogeniture similar to that by which estates descend in England. The fierce Democracy of the day condemned the Society of the Cincinnati as an aristocratic institution that contravened the principles upon which the Republic had been founded. The opposition to it was so pronounced that the Society was practically disbanded and lay dormant for many years. It has been fully re-established only since the organization of the 'Society of the Sons of the American Revolution.' On October 22, 1875, this, the first of the modern Revolutionary War societies in the United States, was founded in far-off San Francisco, three thousand miles. away from the scenes of the struggles for American Independence and it was composed entirely of lineal descendants of soldiers or statesmen of the American Revolution. The next year (1876), the centennial of American Independence was celebrated in Philadelphia. "The celebration of our first national centennial marked a great revival of interest in American history, and thousands of people, in all parts of the country, began to ask themselves: 'What part did my own ancestors take in the war that established this great country?' Fortunately, notwithstanding the loss of so many old records, it is still possible for nearly every one to find this out. The establishment of the patriotic societies-Sons and Daughters-gave an added impetus to the work of research and in that way a general interest in genealogy was revived in every section of the land until now the family that is not intensely interested in its history as far back as it is possible to trace it, is an exception. The tracing of one's family.back to the Revolutionary war is like the first taste of blood to the tiger -it awakens a fierce and unquenchable thirst for more and more and more. "It is true that some people are still actuated by a desire to trace descent from some noble family, even if they have to 'fake' the pedigree and there are some who seem to take great pride even in tracing back to William the Conqueror, or some other illustrious bastard, but the obvious trend of the great mass of American genealogy today is towards tracing the real descent of the family and proving that the general average of the preceding generations have been self-respecting, honest and honorable men and women of clean lives and upright character in whatever walks of life their lot may have fallen, high or humble. "One who has no previous history of his family is almost certain, when he sets out to trace its descent, to be met at the threshold of his inquiries among the older members of his family by three traditions, which appear to be practically universal in American families, to-wit: “(1) That in his family 'three brothers' emigrated together from England. There will hardly be a divergence from this belief in any family which has only a traditional account of its origin in America; yet it is now an almost proven fact that among the thousands of early emigrants of our colonial period there were not more than a dozen cases altogether of 'three brothers' coming together. "(2) That his family in England was nobly connected, or in some unexplained way was descended from a royal family. Such descents are not unusual but they are very far from being anything like universal. "(3) That somewhere in Great Britain, and in the keeping of the British government, there is an immense fortune pertaining to his family, and waiting distribution among its American heirs. This idea is nearly always a stumbling block to one who is tracing a family, for many of the people of whom he makes inquiries imagine that the only conceivable object the searcher could have for hunting up his family history is to get this fortune; and so they shut up like clams, lest any clue they might give would enable the searcher to get ahead of them in the division of the spoils. "Those who take stock in these transatlantic heirships and in the 'Family Associations' organized for the purpose of securing the rights of American heirs, seem quite blind to the legal difficulties which hedge about dormant estates in England, and are also quite ignorant of the fact that any claims to such estates and their accumulations, now held by the crown, were if the case is of any antiquity-long ago outlawed by the limitations of time. Many of the stories about dormant estates in Great Britain, now awaiting American heirs, are the purest fiction and never had any foundation in fact. "It is safe to say that every one of the first thirty thousand families, of different names, that settled in Kentucky had among them one or more men who had served in the Revolutionary War in some capacity, either as soldiers or sailors, or as civil officers, and all of them, practically, were families that had been in America an average of at least one hundred years when the Revolutionary War began. Of these thirty thousand families probably three-fourths were of families that had long been established in Virginia, the other fourth being mostly from North Carolina, Maryland and Pennsylvania in the order named, though there were some, also, from each of the original colonies. Therefore, most of the Kentuckians of today who begin to trace back their ancestry will have to begin with the records of the county in Virginia from which their first Kentucky ancestor came. Of course all of the Virginia counties were more or less represented; but, after a study of the subject for many years, my opinion is that the bulk of the original settlers of Central Kentucky came from the Virginia counties of Orange, Spottsylvania, King George, Caroline, Hanover, Culpeper, Albemarle, Augusta, etc. "Barring the Scotch-Irish settlers in Augusta, most of these Virginia counties had been themselves settled from the older Virginia counties of Westmoreland, Northumberland, Middlesex, Richmond, Lancaster, King William, King and Queen, Gloucester, York, Essex, Elizabeth City, Charles City, New Kent and James City. In some of these counties the records have been destroyed by 'the mordant tooth of time'; in others they were criminally destroyed or stolen or carried away by soldiers during the Civil War. In still others the records are intact from the date of the organization of the county. The records of Westmoreland county are intact from the year 1653, when the county was organized. This is the county that gave to Virginia and to America the Washingtons, the Lees, the Madisons, the Monroes and the Marshalls. Virginia owes it to herself to publish the records of Westmoreland county in the same style in which the records of Spottsylvania county have been printed. your ancestors in Virginia left no wills; and in such an event the next best records for genealogical purposes are the land deeds. These will frequently disclose the names of your ancestor's wife and children; and often give a clue as to where he last came from; as, for instance, when he buys land the deed will be likely to describe him as 'John Smith, late of the city of Bristol, in England;' or 'John Smith, late of Philadelphia, in the colony of Pennsylvania;' or 'John Smith, late of the parish of St. Marks, in Culpeper county, Virginia,' etc. "Every variety of county records-county court orders, depositions, civil suits, fiduciary accounts, poll-books of elections, etc., are likely to give data that will be of value to one who is searching out the history of his family. Next in value to the county records are the state records (land grants, military rolls, etc.); and the old church registers of baptisms, marriages and deaths. Comparatively few of the old church registers of Virginia are still in existence. Of those that do exist, a few have been printed. "Assuming that the genealogical searcher has succeeded in tracing his ancestry back to its beginning in Virginia-which in some cases will be all of three hundred years ago—if he has patience and perseverance, and money to spare, he will now wish to trace it in England, from which country a vast majority of the old Central Kentucky families originally came -if not in all lines, at least in one or more lines. My personal investigations have shown that five hundred years ago, in one little section of County Kent, in England, there were families of the unusual names of Hickman, Brockman, Couchman, Haggard, Trussell, Eubank, Stubblefield, Questenbury, and Quisenberry. Unusual as these names are, however, for many years they were all numerously represented in Clark county, Kentucky; and this fact serves to show how strong a "It often happens, however, that some of strain of ancient Kentish blood now flows in "Being backed by the high authority of official sanction, the county records furnish the best possible genealogical data. In his will the father names his children, generally in the order of their ages: and frequently there is data by which the maiden name of his wife may be learned. In fact, there is hardly any limit to the genealogical information that may be gleaned from wills. The testator, especially in the earlier wills, frequently mentions. the name of his father and mother in England, or other kinspeople there, and where their homes in England were. Such data as this is of great importance when one has traced all there is to trace in Virginia and has transferred his search to England. the veins of the people of Central Kentucky. Of course, however, there are a great many. Kentuckians who trace back to every shire in England. "One snag the genealogical searcher will meet at every turn will be the changes that have taken place in the spelling of his name. Mr. Saffarans, for instance, will after a little investigation find that his name was originally spelled Severance and pronounced "Saverance." In like manner, Mr. Blockson will trace back to Bloxham; Mr. Marcum to Markham; Mr. Exum to Exham; Mr. Semple to St. Paul; Mr. Crothers to Caruthers; Mr. Sinkler to Sinclair and St. Clair; Mr. Polk to Paul, through the diminutive of Paul, which is Paulock, or Pollock, which has been euphonized into Polk, and so on, ad infinitum. "Surnames (that is, 'over' names, or names over and above what you had before) were practically unknown in England before the year 1200, when the noblemen began to assume them; and it was a hundred years later before the citizens generally began to assume them. The people at large assumed surnames according to individual fancy, regardless of the relationship existing between them; thus, of 'three brothers,' one might be called Green, another Dixon (Dick's son), and the third Timberleg; for a man did not always choose his own surname, but his neighbors frequently gave him his nickname as a surname. The surnames were derived from a variety of general sources; from occupations, as Smith, Taylor, Cook; from colors, as Redd, White, Blue; from places or localities, as London, AtWood, de Quincey; from personal peculiarities, as Timberleg (now Timberlake) for a man with a wooden leg; or Cockeye (now Cockey) for a man with a cock-eye; or either Fairfax or Whitehead for a flaxen-haired man; or from personal feats as Pierce-Eye (Percy) for a man who in battle had pierced his opponent's eye with a spear; or Shakespear, which explains itself, and so on through the whole category. "A very distinguished name in Kentucky is said to have originated from the fact that several members of the clan McIlvaine settled upon a mountain ridge in the highlands of Scotland. Upon this ridge the furze which the Scotch spell 'breckan' and pronounce 'bracken,' grew very profusely; and the name of that mountain was Breckan Ridge (pronounced "Bracken Ridge”), and the McIlvaines who made their homes there soon assumed, or had bestowed upon them, the patronymic of Breckanridge—and that is the original Scottish spelling of the name. The genealogist who becomes absorbed in his subject is sure to find the study of the origin of surnames the most intensely interesting and fascinating. part of his work—if it can properly be called work. "Genealogical researches in England will, of course, have to be pursued, as a general thing, through the professional genealogists of that country, whose prices are usually higher than the back of an exasperated cat. There is this consolation, however, about the matter-once your record agent gets a clue to your family, he is almost certain to be able to trace it back for several centuries. It is believed that any old family whose genealogy can be traced back two or three generations can almost certainly be traced back to the Reformation. English genealogy, as a rule, may be said to begin with the rise of heraldry and the general adoption of surnames. Only a very few families can trace themselves reliably to that much-sought-for starting point, the Norman Conquest. Indeed, for the great majority of English families the fifteenth and sixteenth centuries are the extreme limit of antiquity to which they can hope to attain. "Even an undistinguished family of good people when traced back for several centuries will be sure to disclose a very interesting history. The writer of this chapter became interested in the genealogy of his family nearly forty years ago, mainly through an intense curiosity to learn the origin and signification of his very peculiar name-Quisenberry. It took many years and 'a right smart chance' of money (in homeopathic doses, through the years) to do it. He has traced his ancestry in a straight line, through sixteen preceding generations, to Tielman Questenberg, who was born in Brunswick, Germany, certainly not later than the year 1380. The name Questenberg means 'a crested mountain.' Tielman Questenberg settled in the city of Cologne in 1418, and soon afterwards went to London as a merchant of the great Hanseatic League, of which he was a prominent and influential member. In 1467 his grandson,, Heinrich Questenberg, who was also a Hanse merchant in London, married Catherine Cutts, of Canterbury, County Kent, England; and as the marrying of an English woman was a violation of the Hanse laws, he was expelled from the Hanseatic League, and then settled permanently in England, where his name was Anglicized into Questenbury. The 't' being silent, this name was pronounced as if spelled Quesenbury. Heinrich Questenberg's greatgreat-great-great-grandson, Thomas Questenbury, was born in Bromley, Kent, March 16, 1608; and in 1622, when he was fourteen years old, he ran away from his step-father, John Griffin, of Westminster, Gentleman, and came to Virginia, where he married in 1626, when only eighteen years old. From him have descended all the people of the name in America, who are numerous, and who now spell the name in many ways. The original spelling of the name in Virginia, about two hundred and ninety years ago, was Quesenbury. It is now spelled in nearly any way you like, by different branches of the family, in different parts of the country. Thomas Questenbury's great-great-great-grandson, Rev. James Quisenberry (my great-grandfather) went from Orange county, Virginia, to Kentucky in 1783-one hundred and twenty-eight years ago. He lived in the fort at Boonesborough for two years, and two of his children were born in the fort. In 1785 he settled in what is now Clark county, Kentucky, where he died in 1830, at the age of 71, leaving 24 children. At the time of his death his eldest child was 53 years old and his youngest was but three months old.. Two of his brothers— one in Virginia and one in Illinois-were each. the father of twenty-two children; so that these 'three brothers' had an aggregate of sixty-eight children. Such of the descendants of those old heroes as have inherited their great abilities are much more to be envied than those people who have descended from mere noblemen and kings." |