When Family Lines Intersect

Sometimes I think about that silly children's song, "I Am My Own Grandpa" when I consider my maternal ancestry.

Seems like I am always running into branches that double back on themselves.

For instance I just found that I am related to a specific family surname of OVERBY or OVERBEE by marriage through both my maternal Grandmother AND my maternal Grandfather's lines.

This Overby line goes back to John Overby.  Before 1860 his middle name was given as Wesley, perhaps named after John Wesley, one of the founders of Methodism.
Currently no one has the definitive answer to where John was born....some say England, some say North Carolina.  All the records that can be found have him living in Wake County, North Carolina his entire life.....except for during the Civil War.
Family oral tradition is that John had a small plantation in North Carolina before heading off to fight the Yankees.  He was a POW for 4 years and had a hand crippled by a musket ball.

John Overby came home after the war to find his property had been confiscated and his 1st wife was dead.  Indications are that the wife, Catharine Cunningham Overby had died around 1855.  The 1860 census seems to support that Catharine died prior to 1860 as John and 4 children are listed in the same household in 1860, but no Catharine.  This means that John lost his wife about 10 years before the war.

After the war John Overby married again, to Elizabeth Frances "Betty" Cannada or Canady.  John also gains a new middle initial, "D." and many speculate that the "D" stands for David or Davidson.
John and Betty went on to have five children-twin sons Charles David and John David, Rosanna, Robert Clingman and William Burton.

My cousin Ruby....in the center of this photo(in jean jacket)......

had a brother Warren Rayford Sublett who died in 2017.  Ruby and Rayford are/were my mother's 1st cousins so my 1st cousins 1 x removed.  This connection is through my mother's father, Wirt Harper and his sister, Ollie Harper.  Ruby is Ollie's daughter and my mom was Wirt's daughter so my connection is through my maternal grandfather.

                               Warren Rayford Sublett

Rayford married a woman named Barbara Wills Overby.  Barbara's father was Clifton Lee Overby and Clifton's father was William Burton Overby, John D Overby's youngest child, making Barbara the great granddaughter of John Overby.  This link makes me related to the Overbys through marriage to my 1st cousin 1 x removed, Rayford Sublett.

While noodling around on my maternal grandmother's side of the family, I was filling in another of my mom's cousins' branches.  Mom's mom, my grandmother Lillian Vassar Harper had a sister Rosabel Vassar(my Great Aunt)who married Raymond Foster(Raymond is also related to me not only trhough marriage but directly through my 3 x Great Grandfather Wesley Baxter Foster, so my 2nd cousin 2 x removed).  Their second child was Hilda Janet Foster. 

Hilda dancing with her cousin's husband back in 2014 at the Family Reunion.
Hilda passed away in early 2016.
Hilda and my mom were quite close as children and remained close throughout their lives.

Cousin Hilda Foster's third husband(she had four)was Kenneth Sledd.  Kenneth's first wife was Barbara Ann Fuller.  This Barbara's parents were William Henry Fuller and Hattie Sue Overby.
There's that Overby surname again!

Hattie's parents were Martha Chitty and Charles David Overby.  Charles David was one of the twin son's of none other than John Overby and Betty Cannada/Canady.
This makes me relate by marriage to the same Overby family through Hilda Foster, my 1st cousin 1 x removed.
So through my maternal grandfather AND my maternal grandmother lines I am related by marriage to the same Overby family line.

And to just make things more confusing....how can it possibly get worse!?...lolz....I see that Barbara Ann Fuller second husband was John Robert Couch Jr..

John's father was Cleveland Mason Harper.  Hmmmm, I already had Cleveland Harper's father, Richard Washington Harper on my tree but it's not "my" direct Harper line.

Every time I find an answer it leads to new questions.  ;-)

Any interesting discoveries in your family tree lately?


Sluggy

My Tangly Tree....Family Tree That Is

The more I dig into my ancestry the more my family tree branches start getting gnarly and twisted up into themselves.
Meaning, at some point in the past all the little branches start tangling up with the larger limbs they forked off of.
Like what I just discovered this past week when I broke through one of my brick walls.

One of my maternal grandmother's father, or my great grandfather was named John Little Vassar.
Now I have the Vassar branch of the family going back to the 1st Immigrant of that line to Virginia in 1635, 12 generations counting John the Immigrant to me.

Plus I have an additional 20 generations going back from John's wife, Elizabeth Dowe/Dew to William the Conqueror.
But who cares about him, right? 8-)

What I am focusing on is on that Vassar line.
My 5th great grandparents are Nathaniel Vasser(1756-1823),and his wife, Sarah Hudson(1756-1846). 
Sarah's parents were Peter Hudson and Mourning Griffith(or Griffin) of Virginia.  At this point back into this Vassar/Vasser line I only had the pedigree, or the direct ancestor once you get back into the Hudson side of the line, no siblings for anyone. 
And I only have as far back in Hudsons as Peter and 1 further generation back for his wife Mourning Griffith(her parents are John Griffith and Sarah Parrish).

The Vassers/Vassars continue down with Vassars until you get to my grandmother, who married a Harper, my mother who married a Bowman, to me....Sluggy.

That line is well established however there are other offshoots from my maternal grandmother's side that I didn't have much documentation/family tradition coming into this whole genealogy hunt.

One of those offshoots is John Little Vassar's grandmother's family.

John Little's parents were John Alfred Vassar and Rosa Belle Snead(the ancestral line that I am related to Sonya Ann through).

John's mother, Rosa Belle Snead's parents were Lewellen Snead and Rebecca Womack.  It is this Womack line that I have been trying to make headway on.

Rebecca's parents were Abraham Womack(1785/90-1863)and Willie(though some call her Millie)Wade(no dates).

I busted through the Womack brick wall this week with the aid of another researcher to discover that Abraham's parents were Abraham Womack and Tabitha Hudson.

This Tabitha Hudson was born abt. 1760.

Hmmmm.
My Sarah Hudson, in my great grandfather's line, was born 1756.

Hmmmm again.
Tabitha and Sarah both lived in the same geographic area of Virginia.

Well when I discovered that Tabitha's parents were Peter Hudson and Mourning Griffith, I knew I had found Sarah, who married Nathaniel Vassar, Tabitha's sister.

So my 2 x GreatGrandmother, Rosa Belle Snead's 2 x Great Grandparents are the same 2 x Great Grandparents as her husband, John Alfred's 2 x Great Grandparents.
And Rosa Bell's husband is my 2 x Great Grandfather.

This means my 2 x Great Grandparents were 3rd cousins.
My family tree seems to be branching out and then cleaving back together along this journey of mine. lol

I also found this same type of situation in my mother's father's sister's family.

My grandfather Harper had an older sister named Ollie Harper.
She married Joseph Warren Sublett.
I doubt she knew at that time that they were related.

Joseph Warren's 3 x Great Grandfather was a man named Pierre Louis Soblet, who immigrated to Virginia from France(first, by way of Germany, Holland and England)in 1700. Warren traces back through his direct Sublett surname line, from Joseph Warren to William Joseph, to Benjamin Branch, to Matthew Thomas, to Benjamin Sr., to Pierre Louis Soblet.

Ollie's 5 x Great Grandfather was this same Pierre Louis Soblet through her mother's side of the family.....Jennie Vie Tucker back to his mother Mary Jane Mason, back to her mother Elizabeth Weatherford, back to her mother Martha Sublett, back to her father William Abraham Sublett, back to his father Pierre Louis Soblet.

This means my great Aunt Ollie and Uncle Warren were 4th Cousins 1x removed.

Does your head hurt from the math yet?
Mine does. ;-)

Ok, back to seeing dead people for me......

Have you made any interesting family history discoveries lately?

Sluggy