Another Rabbit Hole-Goodnight John Boy!

So I have a friend, my first childhood friend named Marsha.  We visited her and her DH, Parker, in Tennessee where they live back in 2014.

Here is Marsha back when we were little.............

Marsha is the one shoving cake in her mouth, I am the one mugging for the camera at my 2nd birthday party.

Anyway on that trip I got to talking about genealogy(duh!)and Parker pulled out some of his paperwork to compare notes.
He told me he was related to Martha Washington through his Dandridge line(She was born a Dandridge, married a Parke and then a Washington, and is his 1st cousin 7 x removed)and Patrick Henry who married secondly Dorothea Dandridge(who his 5th Great Aunt).
He also said he was related somehow to Earl Hamner, the writer who is known as the creator of the epic tv series "The Waltons".

                                       Earl Hamner, Jr.

I fairly quickly years ago found all his Daindridge related ancestors.  Then I found that Parker and I are 9th cousins 1 x removed through our common ancestor Robert "Potato Hole" Woodson(he's my 9th Great Grandfather and Parker's 7th Great Grandfather).

Parker's Martha Dandridge shows as more distant for me-the wife of my 11th cousin 8 x removed(Geo. Washington)and Martha's cousin, Dorothea Dandridge shows as the mother in-law of my 3rd cousin 6 x removed-her son Patrick Henry Jr. married Elvira Ann Cabell, who is my 3rd cousin 6 x removed).

                     Dorothea Spotswood Dandridge, the second wife of Patrick Henry

Incidentally I found years ago that my direct ancestors, John Mason III and his wife were neighbors of Patrick Henry and wife Dorothea Dandridge Henry, and they sold 400 acres of land to Patrick Henry's widow(Henry died before the actual transaction happened)for 80 pounds in July of 1799.

Parker and I also share Payne and Cole cousins on these same allied lines.

But I digress......back to the Hamners.

A photo of Earl Hamner with Richard Thomas the actor, who portrayed the character base on Earl.

I just couldn't seem to find the exact link from Parker's Hamner line to Earl Hamner's line.  When I get stuck like this I'll usually start another tree for the person I am trying to link to, in this case Earl Hamner.
So I start going back and once I hit Earl's Great Grandparents I find Andrew J Mann(born in Campbell County, died in Charlotte County VA)and wife, Tabitha Holt(born in Prince Edward County, married in Campbell County and not sure where she died abt. 1832, probably in Charlotte as Andrew remarried in Charlotte County).

Holt, I have a lot of Holt ancestors!  So I search MY Holts.
Tabitha's father was Josiah Holt who was my 5 x GGrand John Francis Holt which makes her my 1 st cousin 6 x removed.
So this  means Earl Hamner Jr. was my 5th cousin 2 x removed through his maternal grandmother's side.



Everybody of my generation knows what a phenomenon "The Waltons" tv show was, running from 1972 to 1981.  There were specials and tv movies after that into the 1990's too.
You can go read all about the career of Hamner HERE if interested.
Earl Hamner Jr. based The TV show on his childhood living during the Great Depression in Nelson County in the foothills of the Blue Ridge Mountains of Virginia.
Earl Hamner wrote a novel in the early 1960's that was turned into a major motion picture called "Spencer's Mountain" in 1963, starring Henry Fonda and Maureen O'Hara.(It's a good old movie if you are looking for something to watch too.)  Even though they moved the setting in that film to Wyoming from Virginia, it was the genesis for the TV show, "The Waltons".
Hamner wrote another novel, "The Homecoming: a novel about Spencer's Mountain".

Spencer by the way was Earl Hamner Jr.'s paternal grandmother's maiden name, Susan Henry Spencer, the part played by Ellen Corby in the series. And Susan's mother's name was Olivia, the name given to John Boy's mother in the TV series too.

That "The Homecoming" novel was turned into a tv special called "The Homecoming"(starring Patricia Neal, Richard Thomas, Ellen Corby and a few of the same kids from the tv series)and further gelled "The Waltons" tv show concept.

Something else I found interesting while rooting around in Earl Hamner's mother's family.  His mother was born Doris Marion Giannini.  A surname like that makes your ears perk up in rural early 20th century Virginia!
Seems her Gianninis go back in America to the 1700's.
To Giovanni Antonio Giannini(or Gianniny as it was written back then)and Maria Modena Giannini from Lucca, in the Tuscany region of Italy.  They arrived in 1773 on the "Triumph" into a port on the James River along with Fillippo Mazzei, and Italian entrepreneur, who hoped to establish a wine, olive oil and silk business in the Virginia Colony.
Antonio Giannini was one of the ten Vignerons(or vineyard cultivators)who traveled with Mazzei and his family.
Mazzei's plan was to set up in Western Virginia but after sending his workers to scout out conditions in the west, Mazzei stopped over at Monticello to see Thomas Jefferson and Jefferson, so taken with European culture and that lifestyle(he was ambassador to France for years you know)and Jefferson wanting to help get wine making going as an ecomony in the Virginia Colony(and my guess is Jefferson though having a neighbor who made wine could only be a good thing too!), sold Mazzei land nearby Monticello to set up his operation.  Mazzei called his plantation "Colle".  And that is how Doris Giannini, Earl Hamner, Jr.'s mother's 3 x Great Grandparents came to the Albemarle region of Virginia.
And Earl Hamner didn't let this Italian winemaking heritage go to waste as it was the basis of his writing of the TV series "Falcon Crest" about a family of California winemakers. lol
Go HERE to learn about the Giannini Family in Virginia and their Thomas Jefferson connection.

Just the most interesting stuff you dig up when you discover your family roots!
Now I'm honing in on Parker's direct connection to the this Hamner line.

Sluggy