More Black History and my ancestors

 Alexander G. Swasey, Jr. was born in Newport, RI. His father of the same name was a wood carver, creating many figures to hang on the prow of ships. He also created an eagle which survives to this day.

But let's look at Jr. because he is well known as a ship captain...for the Confederate Navy. He was already a ship captain before the Civil War broke out and he became a blockade runner...still trying to bring supplies into Charleston SC, where he had chosen to live. It's also where he died.

But he also lived in St. Augustine FL. There his wife lived with his children on several census reports, including A.G. as well.

I've written before about his involvement in the Confederate blockade running, and how he was captured early in the war by the Union Navy. See HERE. Here's a Union report in the NY times in Jan 1862 showing how he narrowly escaped capture in the Bahamas...

"On the morning of the 2d inst. the ocean steamer Ella Warley, Capt. SWASEY, ran the blockade at Charleston, from Nassau, N.P. She was chased and fired on by the blockading squadron, without harm to her. Her passengers were all English and Scotch, except B.T. BISBIE, late a bearer of Confederate dispatches to Europe. The Nassau authorities forced the Flambeau out of the harbor to coal, which gave the Ella Warley the chance to escape."

Very fuzzy photo of Alexander G. Swasey JR. in the book "Lifeline of the Confederacy, Blockade Running During the Civil War." by Steven R. Wine.

He is noted for having only begun being a blockade runner in January of 1862, and captured on April 25, 1862 on the Ella Warley...captured near Abaco, one of the islands of the Bahamas.

The nautical records regarding this capture, and what the freight (weapons) had been, can be seen HERE.

But let's look further at his involvement in the Slave Trade. The following statement was made by my cousin, John Rogers, when visiting Charleston SC.

"Here's some verbiage based on what the docent at the Charleston Slave Mart told me.  I can't verify that my memory is totally correct, or the historical veracity of what he said without researching it more.  But this is my best recollection - feel free to edit however you want:

 

Captain Alexander G. Swasey was a ship captain as well as a Confederate blockade runner during the Civil War.  Although he was based for a time in Charleston, South Carolina (and ultimately died there), the historical record shows he made trips between Charleston, New Orleans, and the Caribbean.  According to information provided by a docent at the Charleston Slave Mart Museum, this was a common triangle for slave runners.  Once the Act Prohibiting Importation of Slaves took effect in 1808 (the earliest date permitted by the United States Constitution), slave states continued to smuggle slaves by claiming that any slave brought from Africa who even set foot in the Caribbean was no longer considered "imported."  

Charleston and New Orleans were two of the most important slave ports at the time, so the triangle among those two cities and ports in the Caribbean would have been a common route for slave captains such as A.G. Swasey."

 

John Fitz Rogers

December 29, 2016

And there were several ships in which Captain A.G. Swasey did carry enslaved persons.

The Schooner Calluo was his ship sailing from Charleston SC to New Orleans...as shown by the following manifest. 

The only enslaved man on the manifest is Francis, a male age 30, height 5' 8", and I can't make out the shipper's name. A.G. Swasey signed that he was the captain, going to New Orleans, where Francis A. Foygurt (or something like that) received the enslaved man. Left Charleston on April 6, 1743, arrived New Orleans April 28, 1843.

Here is another manifest with 8 slaves described leaving Charleston SC. June 6, 18?3, arriving in New Orleans June 29, 1843.

A.G. Swasey signed that he was agent for Mr. Cotter of Charleston. His (or very similar) handwriting shows their names, genders, ages, heights and coloration. And I would guess he also wrote "Eight in all" and "Charleston 6th June 18?3," with a signature "AGSwasey" with quite a flourish.

The next handwriting is different, stating "Examined and found correct, (unclear words, maybe English Turn) signed Francis A. Foygurt (or something like that) then date June 29th 1943.

A schooner is not a very big ship. The trip took most of the month of June. And if it stopped in any Caribbean islands, that might have been why it took so long. We don't know those details.

The records on Ancestry seem to have disappeared, but back when I first wrote about Capt. Swasey's involvement with the slave trade, there was a ship's manifest from somewhere in Europe as well. It is no longer in my records. I thought perhaps my other relations had decided to "white wash" the family from some of these historic records...but apparently they also have lost these as well.

He spent the years after he was captured in a Union Prison in Boston Harbor. I don't know how he returned at the end of the war to Charleston, but he died in 1866 and was buried in an unmarked grave.

His son Alexander John Swasey was born in 1853, in Charleston SC.  I don't know when his mother died. He had older sisters. His mother, Anna J. Zylstra Swasey was a second generation Dutch American. She had some family in Charleston also, but I'm not sure what their relation to her was. Young A.J. grew up from his 9th birthday in the privations of the war. His father's death was when he was 12. The next record I've found shows him getting married at age 29 in Texas (probably Galveston as that was where his bride lived). He is listed in the Galveston city directories for 1884, 86, and 1889 (without any trade listed.) He had two daughters, one of whom was my grandmother on my father's side of the family. The family still lived in Galveston until my grandmother married in 1905. Then A.J. Swasey was listed in the Houston city directories until his death, working as a clerk and bookkeeper in oil companies. He died in 1913.

Captain Swasey was involved in the terrible trade of shipping enslaved people from one port to another. He then tried to break another law by bringing in needed materials and shipping out the Confederate's crops through the Union blockades to English owners of his ship, the Ella Warley. I can't say he is my most notorious ancestor, but he's at the top of the list of those that I know of.  Yet many of my ancestors also fought and lost in the Civil War, living in other southern states. (I will search for more stories about them soon.)

February Black History Month

 My goal was to go through my ancestors and find proof of those who owned slaves...or had dealings with the slave trade.

I get distracted however, and when looking at those who immigrated to Jamestown, I wanted to know where they settled in Virginia.

So let's look at one of the immigrants, who had been born in England, and apparently was on the early rent roles. Did he have slaves?

Peter Rogers, s. of Giles Fitz Rogers, (Capt. immigrant to VA,) is mentioned in a deed recorded in Edward Pleasants' The Valentine Papers, Vol. IV, pg. 2206 as follows:

Apparently Peter left 100 acres and 2,000 lbs of tobacco to Francis Smith, in Spotsylvania Co.

Anyone raising tobacco must have had slaves in order to produce the quantities Peter apparently had.

The DAR and my genealogist cousin think we are descended from Peter Iverson Rogers (1627-1724) I chose to believe his brother John Rogers (1680-1762) was our link to Capt. Giles Fitz Rogers.  That's partly because the DAR folks and my cousin both believe that Peter's wife Mary had been a daughter of William Byrd of Virginia. Not so. 

Records indicate Mary Byrd married someone else, and Peter Rogers probably was married to Mary Armistead.

Whether my line came from either of the brothers, we know that Henry Rogers, Sr. (1741-1794) was the emigrant from Virginia to Tennessee in the 1780s.  Henry Rogers Sr, on my tree is the son of George Rogers (1721-1792) who was the son of John Rogers (1680-1762) and thus the great-grandson of Capt. Giles Fitz Rogers.

And some Henry Rogers is on the rent roles in Virginia in Fauquier County VA...which I had to look up! It's on the NE part of the hump of VA. This Henry Rogers is probably the one I'm related to, because we know that his son (my great great some number grandfather) Rev. Elijah Rogers was born in Fauquier County VA in 1774. Fauquier County was officially formed in 1759, but was settled much earlier.

Here're a detail of 28 July 1763 deed when John Rogers rented 225 acres in Leeds Manor district from the original owner, Lord Fairfax...in which John's sons, Henry and Steven, may inherit the deed upon John's death. The yearly rent was 45 shillings, due on Christmas day.  However this kind of disrupts my sense that my Henry had been the son of George. And the John I thought might have signed this deed, had died in 1762, so it must have been another John Rogers. So that throws into the air that this Henry, son of John, would not have been the son of George instead. Argh!

In both 1770 and 1777, Henry Rogers is on the rent roles of Leeds Manor...now called the Leeds Manor historic district. I'll continue to think of this Henry as my grandfather, and work on figuring out who he was the son of later...

"John Marshall’s Leeds Manor Rural Historic District, centered on the historic Leeds Manor Road, covers over 23,000 acres in the northwest section of Fauquier County. The district’s name comes from two sources: its association with the 18th-century Manor of Leeds, which was part of Lord Fairfax’s Northern Neck Proprietary; and the Marshall family, who bought the land from Lord Fairfax’s heir in 1781. Chief Justice John Marshall, with his family and associates, farmed much of the land well into the 19th century. Many of those large parcels remain intact and are still farmed, continuing to evoke the district’s significant agricultural past. The district also contains several African American communities established in the late 19th century and associated with descendants of the founding families. The district is home to an impressive collection of historic architecture ranging from simple 18th-century farmsteads such as Marshall’s birthplace at The Hollow, to grand 19th- and 20th-century estates such as Carrington and Morven. Most significantly, however, the district retains the sweeping vistas and large open landscapes typical of its past, with minor areas of concentrated modern development.

I'll include some photos from Leeds Manor...which show the early architecture. And then I'll go research those African American communities. The Virginia Historic association must know somethign about them, the descendants of the founding families.

#030-5428_Leeds_Manor_RHD_2021_setting_VLR Virginia Dept. of Historic Resources

Historic African American Sites in Virginia

Launched in February (Black History Month) 2019, this online catalog of Commonwealth sites listed on the Virginia Landmarks Register and the National Register of Historic Places associated with African American history will continue to grow as DHR adds new listings to both registers.

It is worth noting, the catalog below is an update and extension of DHR’s 1995 book publication Virginia Landmarks of Black History edited by esteemed architectural historian Calder Loth. Introducing the volume, scholar Armstead L. Robinson (1947-1995) wrote, “Virginia does indeed encompass this nation’s longest continuous experience of Afro-American life and culture.” An extension of that book, DHR’s online listing of “Historic African American Sites in Virginia” provides an “official catalog of the historic landmarks associated with that epic encounter,” as Robinson stated about the 1995 publication.

When I then go to the only area I have any knowledge of...Leeds Manor Historic District...I get just the same link that I originally had, with a link to the above info. I can't find out which of the (maybe 75) links might be in that district. I know they wouldn't be in DC, or Richmond...but that leaves all the rest of the sites that I don't know a thing about. I hate circular documentation of research.

So I lost the connection I've been believing for over 15 years to Capt. Giles Fitz Rogers, and will probably go with the DAR one, except for Mary Rogers not being a Byrd!

And I didn't find the Black communities either. A very big change without any fruit from the hunt.

Reposting of the McCord family records with recent comments

 

Thursday, December 14, 2017

Scottish ancestors Sir James MacKorda, Clan Chief

The history of the McCord family goes back to Scotland where a Clan Chieftan, James MacKorda died in the famous Battle of Killekrankie Pass in 1689, and his son John Duncan MacKorda/McCord (1660-?) who had married Mary McDougal. Their sons William, Robert, David and John came to America around 1720-38.   Some of them went to Lancaster county PA, while other McCords also immigrated to New York, South Carolina and Virginia.  (From: http://thewommacks.com/yahoo_site_admin/assets/docs/James_MacKorda_Descendants.156162820.pdf

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From: Family Tree - this resource has many generations of James and John McCorda given, but I can't locate mine (yet)

And this document relies upon a source which is considered secondary. A  primary source is a birth or death certificate, a will, a marriage record, a journal, letters, a document of property sale, or other legal documents.

So there was a famous battle in Scotland, which I'd never heard about, so I go to trusty internet to search for information about it.  Wikipedia says this:

The Battle of Killiecrankie (Gaelic: Blàr Choille Chnagaidh) was fought between Highland Scottish clans supporting King James II and VII and troops supporting King William of Orange on 27 July 1689, during the first Jacobite uprising. Although it was a stunning victory for the Jacobites, it had little overall effect on the outcome of the war and left their leader dead. Their forces were scattered at the Battle of Dunkeld the next month.

For more details here's the link.

And I don't know much more about the battle than I did before, actually.  I'd have to learn a lot more about Scottish/English history before these politics and military forces were understandable for me.  I have enough trouble with our American Revolution!

Pass at Killkiecranky

Clan Name: McCord 

Tartan: McCord

Origin of Name: from the Scottish "MacKorda" 


McCord, originally spelled MacKorda, was a Highland clan originating on the Isle of Skye on the west coast of Scotland.

Although John is the first recorded MacKorda, his son James Duncan MacKorda was the first Clan Chief of the MacKorda Clan. James was born 1620 in Scotland, and died July 27, 1689 in Killiekrankie Pass, Perhshire, Scotland, during the last great charge by the Highlanders.

Around 1670 the spelling of the family name was changed to MacCorde. The clan then emigrated from Scotland in the late 1600's to County Tyrone, Northern Ireland (Ulster)where, in 1715, the spelling was finally changed to McCord.

The McCord's are among the people refered to as Scotch-Irish. The term Scotch-Irish denotes only that they were in Northern Ireland for a time. Very little intermarriage occurred between these Scotch and the native Irish of Ireland. The Scotch and Scotch-Irish peoples, heritage, and culture were then, and are, entirely separate and distinct from that of the Irish of Ireland. During the late 1700's and early 1800's many of the McCords went on to settle in America and Canada. Source: "This was taken from "angelfire.com"

Not exactly a primary source, but information that is interesting!

I'll have to continue this sharing of information tomorrow!

Today's Quote:

The brave men, living and dead, who struggled here, have consecrated (this land), far above our poor power to add or detract. The world will little note, nor long remember what we say here, but it can never forget what they did here. It is for us the living, rather, to be dedicated here to the unfinished work which they who fought here have thus far so nobly advanced.  Abraham Lincoln

They do grow up fast..

...some old (and new) photos of my sons

Early smiles from my first born...Marty. 

 

My father holding Marty when he was around 6 months old.

Marty, at three or four years.

Second son, Russell was just a little bit of a thing when born, but has made up for it throughout his life.

He's always been inquisitive, and paid attention to details. This has been a good quality in his work with computers and other people.

He's not yet two years old, so I'm helping him down the big hill at my parent's home in Massachusetts.

March 1969. Always looking for interesting things. It became apparent when we'd go camping or hiking in the woods...every little thing was interesting for him!

Here's Russ in high school, and Marty smiling about something devious. He could often play tricks on Russ, but he also looked out for him many times.

My third son was unexpected, but a real gift. Here's Tai at around 2 years old.

Here Tai is close to the camera, and Marty is eating. Marty was in the Navy at that time. And I was in grad school. Tai was in kindergarten or maybe preschool. Russ was in college.

Here are some of my classmates in Counselor Education at U Florida...the teacher has almost no hair and is blond. I'm second from right in back row!

My sons and I would drive to Houston from FL to visit my parents and my sister and her children. Here cousin Zach is in foreground, and Tai is kind of lying back on his cousin Lisa. Tai would have been around 4 in this photo.

Here's Russ and his bride, Michelle after their wedding.

And now he has three beautiful daughters: Kate on left, then mom Michelle, Caroline a graduating high school senior, Russ and college girl Audrey.

Marty and his two children, William and Cayenne - taken a few years ago!

Marty and his second wife, Barbara!

Several years ago Marty's children graduated high school.

Tai is also married now, and has a dog and a cat!

Tai and his wife, Kendra.

I know I said I'd show old photos...but some of the newer ones were also in the same album. So I think I'm caught up!

But wait, that was just one photo album. There are at least 2 more on the shelf. I enjoyed throwing this one away when empty. Yay lightening up my life one little thing at a time. But the other 2 are totally about Tai, from beginning to walk till...who knows. I may not take each photo out of the pages, but just scan the ones I want to keep, and give the entire boos to him. Of course I probably don't want to mail them, so sometime he can get them from me!

The families in the past

 I didn't get to know them, because I was pretty much focused on raising my own children. But my husband had a sister and brother.

Here his sister is in the middle of the front row, with her husband to our left and her (and my husband's) brother to the right. My husband is leaning forward to be in the picture!

My mother and father. I'm surprised to see him touching her arm. They usually were pretty unaffectionate in public.

The administration building at Principia school, where both my parents worked, and my sister and I went to school. It was for children of Christian Scientist parents.

These are a mixture of our parents. I'm walking on the left, with my husband's father next, then my mother, then my husband's mother. This was about a year before we separated. We enjoyed eating at a fancy restaurant called the Kapok Tree in Clearwater FL. 

There was always a wait to get seated, and the walkway included this air conditioned portion with more statues and palm trees. I guess the food was alright, but the atmosphere was the main attraction.

We were separated, so my husband and the children flew to be with his parents for the holiday. It was to be his mother's last Christmas.

I think my husband is looking around his mother's shoulder, who's sitting in a wheelchair. 

My husband's older brother being silly at Christmas in 1971. 

And our lives kind of split in two after that. The children would spend every other weekend with him, and usually most of their vacations. Like many divorced families, it wasn't ideal, but we went forward and coped with the changes as they happened. I was the one always on the move, while my ex lived in one house after a few condos.

But let's look at some old photos of those children on my next post!

Third in a series of old family photos...not that old, but out of my past

 

This was our back yard in Connecticut one year. We had some nice times living in New England, going to all the historic sites nearby, but I admit I didn't enjoy the snow as much as I thought I would.

So we moved to Florida. We had off and on romantic feelings, as all married couples do. But we didn't stay together that long after we'd moved...maybe a bit over a year.

Hillsborough Bay, near the Courtney Campbell Causeway, is like a big bathtub most of the time. We had a little sailboat, and here hubby is rigging the sail. I have no idea who the little girl is in front of me, and I'm facing away. Youngest son is in the lifejacket by the boat. I guess my parents were watching my oldest son, and taking these pictures.

Speaking of bathtubs. This is us trying to sail without much wind. And I think by then my son had decided against trying this. 

 We were to learn that the nicer beaches were over in Clearwater and St. Petersburg, where the Gulf of Mexico gave cleaner sand at least, but still not often very big waves.

Out of the past - second chapter of photos out of the album

 

I just edited this old photo of me at around 4 years.

I married my Coast Guard husband  and won't even say the date. He was handsome to me. I was only a military wife for a couple of years. Our first son was born in a Naval Air Station hospital.

About a week after my son's birthday, my whole family came to Texas from St. Louis...parents and sister. She is enjoying the Gulf of Mexico here, and had just graduated from high school. 

It's pretty grainy to try to enlarge her, but this gives you a better idea of how she looked.

It's always fun to point cameras at other photographers. Here is my dad captured by my husband looking over the parental car. Yes they had driven the thousand miles to meet their first grandbaby. We lived up those stairs in the apartment behind my dad. We found a downstairs apartment a few months later!

After our second son had been born in Connecticut we moved to FL. So here I am skinny again drying off after a dip in the pool, with my parents visiting at a motel near Tampa. Dad has his back to the camera, while Mom sits in the far background in her shades. Oldest son is reaching for something on the table, while youngest is facing toward him on the other side. He's about 2.

More about our nautical life in the next post. (Not very much actually.)