Gloucester County, Virginia

I'm just starting work on this page, and I expect to continuing toying with it for a long time.

I am a descendant of many of the earliest settlers of Gloucester County, Virginia. This page provides will provide some basic genealogical and biographical information about many of them plus several early Gloucester residents with no connection to me but who interested me for some reason.

For the time being, I will simply list some of the names: Bernard, Buckner, Feild, Iverson, Lewis, Martiau, Reade, Rich, Smith (John, from "Purton"), Warner, Willis.

My other Gloucester genealogical interests include the Brown, Brushwood, and Robins families of Ware Neck, Virginia.

I am also interested in the history of Ware Episcopal Church, and I manage the cemetery there and can answer questions. I can also help with research at Singleton Methodist Church cemetery. I am active on Find A Grave and visit cemeteries throughout Hampton Roads.

BROWN
"Merchants of Ware Neck Stores" in The Family Tree Searcher, Vol 12, No 2, covers many people from Ware Neck, Gloucester County, Virginia, including several of my Brown family relatives, who ran stores in the area.

Many of my Ware Neck Brown family relatives are buried at Singleton United Methodist Church cemetery in Schley, VA. I attempted to document the family relationships in the cemetery there in The Family Tree Searcher, Vol 19, No 2 in the article "Brown and Related Families in Singleton Cemetery".

BROWNE
The gravestone for Capt. Junius B. Brown, CSA, in the Ware Church Cemetery always made me wonder whether that was someone I was related to, since we appeared to share the same last name. Finally, I investigated and found out that I am related to him -- on my mother's side of the family! The story of my distant cousin and honored Gloucester resident "Capt. Junius Brutus Browne, CSA" (1830-1878) is in The Family Tree Searcher, Vol 18, No 1.

CLACK
James Clack was an early rector of Ware Parish, and my article "The Family of James Clack" in The Family Tree Searcher, Vol 16, No 1 talks about him, his ancestors, and his wife and children. Special attention is paid to his wife, Jane, who is probably not a Bolling, probably not related to Pocahontas, and whose burial location is not known.

DIXON
The John Dixons of Gloucester is a paper available on request explaining five generations of men in Gloucester County named John Dixon, several of whom lived at Mount Pleasant or nearby Airville.

EDWARDS
"Dr. Richard Edwards of Waverley Highlands" in The Family Tree Searcher, Vol 18, No 2 is about my investigations and the research of an Edwards family member into three very old gravestones at Ware Cemetery.

LANE
The ancestry of Henry G. Lane, my mother's uncle by marriage, has been uploaded to Ancestry.com as LanesOfWoodstock. Uncle Henry was born at "Woodstock" in Mathews County, VA, and his ancestors included members of the Tabb, Smith, Randolph, and Harrison families, and I have some of his family papers and photographs. This was my test case for uploads to ancestry.com, and I continue to update it occasionally. Membership in ancestry.com may be required.

LEWIS
The Lewis Ancestry of Iverson Lewis describes the immigration of Zachary Lewis to King and Queen County, Virginia, in 1692, and his two sons, Zachary and John. It then talks about John's children, in particular Iverson Lewis. This paper is available on request. For more about the Lewis family, see "Early Baptists in Gloucester County, Virginia" by L. Roane Hunt in The Family Tree Searcher, Vol 17, No 1, and "The Town of West Point, Virginia" in The Family Tree Searcher, Vol 10, No 3, by L. Roane Hunt.

Lewis Family of the Poropotank and Warner Hall, a short unpublished paper available on request, talks about a branch of the Lewis family unrelated to me, who settled on the Poropotank River and then married into the family who owned "Warner Hall". This paper is largely based on work by Dr. Malcolm Harris, and addresses confusion about how the local Lewis families are related.

PORTEUS
"The Gravestone of Edward Porteus" in The Family Tree Searcher, Vol 15, No 3, is a short article about the mysterious gravestone left behind after the death, ca. 1700, of Edward Porteus. It was moved from Violet Bank on the Poropotank to Ware Cemetery for safe-keeping, and is the oldest gravestone at Ware.

SOUTHERN
My article "Finding William Southern" in The Family Tree Searcher, Vol 17, No 1, is about my research on William Southern of Gloucester and King & Queen Counties, Virginia. His daughter Elvira married James Brushwood, and they are my father's great-grandparents. I also have several unpublished papers: William and Julia A. Southern, which is a rougher but more expansive look at my great-great-great-grandparents; Southern Family of Virginia, which is a survey about the larger Southern family in this area without many conclusions about how they might be related to me; and Julia Anne Roy, which looks at William's presumed wife Julia and her Roy family history.

WILLIS
"The Early Willis Family in Gloucester" in The Family Tree Searcher, Vol 11, No 1, describes the Willis family of "White Hall", who were early Gloucester ancestors on my Feild side.

I am a regular contributor (and currently the editor) of The Family Tree Searcher, which is the journal of the Gloucester Genealogical Society of Virginia. Consequently, it is not unusual for my family history to be mentioned, so check often.

Unpublished papers are available on request.

WARE EPISCOPAL CHURCH
I manage the cemetery at this colonial church and I make the cemetery records publicly available online. That includes a list of who is buried there and their locations and a transcription of their epitaphs. See warechurch.org/cemetery. Note that at the bottom of the page I talk about Gloucester cemeteries in general.

FIND A GRAVE
I am active in the Find-a-grave community and have uploaded family photos, gravestone photos, biographies, and family links. Here are some starting points for virtual visits to my family's gravesites:

Joseph W. Brown, Sr. -- my father's father and the rest of the Brown and Robins families we are related to

Bernard Feild -- my mother's father and the Feild and Lewis families he and my grandmother were related to

James W. Brushwood -- the patriarch of my branch of the Brushwood family

Tim Sullivan -- my wife's Irish immigrant father

Following parent, spouse, children, and sibling links will allow you to visit pretty much all of my relatives.

I am currently researching the Brushwood family. Eliza Maude Brushwood was my great-grandmother -- the mother of the mother of my father. Eliza was the first of four wives of Capt. William T. Robins. They had three children, Freddie Lee, Edith, and Thelma, my grandmother. Her parents were James and Elvira. What else can I find out about them? I have found many 19th century Brushwoods in Gloucester and King and Queen Counties, Virginia, but how are they related? I'm trying to place them all.

I collect information about all these family names. If you wish to share, I can be reached via email to .