13. Thomas Bailey Christian - Important Christian surname families of the frontier

 

Important Christian surname families of the frontier Thomas Bailey Christian  Capt. Gilbert Christian and his nephew Israel Christian (W) father of Col. William Christian Gilbert: had previously arrived in New Castle, Pennsylvania in 1726 and, after living in Lancaster for a time, he and his family were among the first to settle in the Valley of Virginia in 1732. Israel: Early Kentucky pioneer and landowner; founded Fincastle, Kentucky and Christiansburg, Virginia. William: In Dunmore's war; led an expedition against the Overhill Cherokees, which saw little action but compelled some of the chiefs to agree to peace. He served in the commission which negotiated the "Treaty of Long Island of the Holston" with the Cherokees, signed on July 20, 1777.  Mr. Thomas Christian, I - progenitor of a large family

County Maps

 

The Newberry Library

Virginia Formation Maps

Heads of families at the first census of the United States taken in the year 1790 : records of the State enumerations: 1782-1785, Virginia

 this is online but I am having trouble finding a good place to search

Ancestry.com has a search but it is only for certain states:

Search for "Sceggs"

Search for "Skaggs"

What it says at FamilySearch (so is this the same as Ancestry?) I'll have to run some comparisons.

Search for "Sceggs"

Search for "Skaggs"

CHRONICLES OF THE Scotch-Irish Settlement IN VIRGINIA (AKA Chalkley's)

 

CHRONICLES

OF THE

Scotch-Irish Settlement

IN

VIRGINIA

EXTRACTED FROM THE ORIGINAL COURT RECORDS OF

AUGUSTA COUNTY

1745-1800

BY

LYMAN CHALKLEY

Volume One

V1

https://www.google.com/books/edition/Chronicles_of_the_Scotch_Irish_Settlemen/VzUPAAAAYAAJ?hl=en

http://usgwarchives.net/special/chalkley/volume_1/contents.htm one page at a time!

https://www.familysearch.org/library/books/viewer/202922/?offset=0#page=1&viewer=picture&o=info&n=0&q= Good Search

https://archive.org/details/chroniclesscotc00lockgoog/page/n7/mode/1up

Volume Two

V2

http://usgwarchives.net/special/chalkley/volume_2/contents.htm one page at a time!

https://www.familysearch.org/library/books/viewer/204429/?offset=0#page=1&viewer=picture&o=download&n=0&q= Good Search

Volume Three

https://babel.hathitrust.org/cgi/pt?id=hvd.hn4x4i&seq=11 pdf

http://usgwarchives.net/special/chalkley/volume_3/contents.htm one page at a time!

https://www.familysearch.org/library/books/viewer/204429/?offset=0#page=1&viewer=picture&o=download&n=0&q= Good Search

https://archive.org/details/bub_gb_wk8PAAAAYAAJ/page/n5/mode/1up

Here is a good overview but I wouldn't read it here because it is page by page and no search.

http://usgwarchives.net/special/chalkley/

-------------------------------------------------

(this from https://www.rocktownhistory.org/static-pages/Web_Pages/Library/OnLineBooks/Chalkley.htm)

Chalkley's Chronicles

Lyman Chalkley's three-volume Chronicles of the Scotch-Irish Settlement in Virginia Extracted from the Original Court Records of Augusta County, 1745-1800 (Rosslyn, Va., 1912-1913; reprint, 1965)  is a popular reference work that contains abstracts taken from the Augusta County court records. Chalkley's Chronicles may serve as a useful source for leads and to identify original records to consult, but there are many reasons to exercise caution when using it.

Before the publication of the Chronicles, the National Society of the Daughters of the American Revolution, which had been approached to become the publisher, commissioned genealogist and historian Thomas Forsythe Nelson to make an analysis of the work. Nelson's detailed evaluation, in which the Society as well as Herbert Putnam, who was then the Librarian of Congress, and historian J. Franklin Jameson all concurred, was that the typescript of Chalkley's abstracts that had been submitted should not be published. Nelson found that the abstracts contained an abundance of transcription errors, erroneous dates, misspelled names, material omissions, and other serious mistakes. He concluded that the abstracts were "condensed to the point of mutilation" and that many entries misrepresented the contents of the original documents.

Nelson also pointed out that Chalkley had abstracted only some of the records that pertained to persons and families in which he was interested. Publication of the abstracts could easily lead to the erroneous conclusion that the absence in the abstracts of information about a person or a family meant that there was no information on the person or family in the county court's records.

Nelson's whole report, containing detailed comparisons between Chalkley's abstracts and the original records, was published as a substantial pamphlet under the authority of the 21st Congress, National Society, Daughters of the American Revolution (Washington, D.C., 1912) with the title Report on the Chalkley Manuscripts.

Mary Smith Lockwood, an honorary vice-president-general of the Society, nevertheless proceeded on her own to have the typescript of Chalkley's abstracts published in the familiar three-volume edition.

Many users have no doubt concluded wrongly, as Nelson predicted, that the absence of references in Chalkley's Chronicles indicated a lack of data; and many other users have certainly been mislead by using Chalkley's faulty abstracts and not consulting the original records. Chalkley's Chronicles can be a valuable resource if it is used as a first finding aid for citations but not as a correct reproduction or representation of the full rich entries in the county court's original manuscript records.

An online series on Research in Virginia Documents.
Prepared by Daphne Gentry, Publications and Education Services Division.
Copyright by The Library of Virginia; this note may be reproduced in full if proper credit is given and no changes are made.

 

Use the link below to access this publication:

http://www.rootsweb.ancestry.com/~chalkley/

Chicago Manual of Style (CMOS)

 

The Chicago Manual of Style Online

CMS CRIB SHEET By Dr. Abel Scribe PhD

Citation examples University of  Western Australia

CMOS Blog CMOS Shop Talk

Daguerreotype

 Daguerreotype was the first publicly available photographic process, widely used during the 1840s and 1850s. "Daguerreotype" also refers to an image created through this process.

Daguerreotype - Wikipedia

Daguerreotypes Of People From Virginia - The Gene Genie

Because I have a Daguerreotype of my ancestor, Thomas Bailey Christian, in Virginia, with his 2nd wife who is wearing a bonnet, I thought I would do an image search to see if I could learn anything. Maybe find the photographer!

Pinterest search "Daguerreotype + bonnet"

https://www.pinterest.com/search/pins/?q=%22daguerreotype%20bonnet%22&rs=typed

11. Thomas Bailey Christian - The Cornstalk Orphans & DNA

There were four "Cornstalk Orphans". I'll take one at a time here starting with TBC. Starting with facts. I'm not going to put my sources here because I don't have them organized right now but I might get to that later.

1. We know that TBC was an orphan

2. We know that Thomas Mastin and his wife Agnes "took in" the Cornstalk orphans

3. We know that Thomas Mastin "took in" TBC

Odd DNA findings

Kennith Simpson, who believes he is a direct descendant of TBC, through a Christian, So his last name should be Christian (3) (long story) took a DNA test which said he had YDNA haplogroup (2) R1b. With no Native DNA(1). We really need more descendants of TBC to confirm this!

1. No Native DNA? (a) This was 2013 - they didn't have tests for that really and (b) DNA is a crapshoot - one sibling can show 25% Scottish and another sibling can show 0% Scottish.

2. Kennith shows haplogroup R1b

            a. He could be mistaken about his parentage. (Unlikely - see #3)

            b. Being R1b does not rule out TBC being Native see A

            c. Elinipsico OR Cornstalk could be R1b we don't know see A

A - Francesca (Norman) Williams'      comment

3. Kennith last name should be Christian - this one really threw me. This doesn't make any sense - if you believe the family oral history, and I do, how could Thomas Bailey Christian match someone with the last name Christian when we were told Thomas Mastin gave him the name Christian in honor of his friend (probably William Christian, I haven't looked into that yet). That's just too much of a coincidence. These are the only options:

        a. Kennith is not a descendant of TBC. I think this is unlikely but possible. We need more testing to solve this mystery!

        b. Elinipsico was a kidnapped Christian and the Long Hunters knew this and that's why they named him Christian. But if that is true why didn't they return him to his Christian grandparents??

        c. Mastin knew Elinipsico was a kidnapped Christian but took him in because his wife, Agnes, was related to TBC's mother (sister?)

I felt like I had no choice but to go along with Kennith's contention that TBC was not Elinipsico's son...until I had my own DNA compared to confirmed (enrolled) Shawnee and Cherokee and I matched.

Back to me. I really, really do not want to do this but I feel like I have to. Because so many of my relatives are having their oral history discounted. I hate that! I don't understand the mystery of TBC's father but I do know that his mother was both Shawnee and Cherokee because I took a DNA test where the testing company now has, in 2024, small samples of confirmed, enrolled citizens of several tribes and I match Shawnee & Cherokee. If you are in my family I will share details if you contact me.

I'll write more later - I have to take a break.