Family Group #5

The following information comes from Gretchen Anderson.  Gretchen is a Hawkins researcher who is connected to family group #5.  Here is what Gretchen says about her family interspersed with a few comments from me. You can reach Gretchen at: elderdaughter@gmail.com

I found that my family is in the Hawkins Group #5 based on the yDNA results from a sample provided by my cousin, George Hawkins.

 

My mother was born Hawkins.  Her father was James Edgar Hawkins, Jr.  His father, of course, was James Edgar Hawkins, Sr.  James Sr.’s father was William Louis Hawkins, b. 1820.  William Louis was a judge of the Orphan Court and a Justice of the Peace in Ann Arundel County.  James Sr was a grocer.  He owned a grocery on Patapsco Street called Hawkins Market. But he owned the farm called Best Success in Anne Arundel County, MD, south of the Patapsco River.  William married Leah Lee of Howard County, daughter of James Lee Jr. and Lethe Trundle Lee.  

So I would add a few maps and images to get my head organized on where this family was living.  Anne Arundel County is outlined in dotted red line in below map.  It is the land just south of what is now the city of Baltimore.  So we can imagine that the land of this Hawkins family was in the northern part of the county of Anne Arundel.

The Federal Censuses of 1850 and 1860 show William Louis and Leah living with Aaron Hawkins on the farm, Best Success.  Along with other records, this shows Aaron to be the father of William Louis.  Aaron is listed as Head of Household.  When Aaron died in 1867, he was buried in the family cemetery on Best Success and the land was passed to his only son, William Louis.

What connects the generations of this family is that they all owned and lived on the land called Best Success.  There are land records recording Best Success from 1683.  Matthew Hawkins purchased 250 acres of Best Success in 1705 and deeded 90 acres to his brother, Joseph Hawkins, calling it Brother’s Kindness. Matthew’s Will gave the remaining 160 acres of Best Success to his four daughters, who subsequently sold it.  In 1742 Joseph & Aaron Hawkins, sons of Matthew’s brother, Thomas, bought back the 160 acres, then in 1750 they purchased 90 acres.  Now they owned all of Matthew’s original 250 acres. In 1753, Aaron and Joseph Hawkins along with Thomas Wright, purchased 600 additional acres of Best Success.  500 of those acres were owned by the Hawkins brothers, 100 to Wright.  Here is where we lose the trail between them and my Aaron Hawkins b.1793.  My thought is that we likely descend from Thomas Hawkins via one of Thomas’ sons since the farmhouse and some portion of the Best Success tract remained in the family until the 1990s.

 

I am working on the theory that my missing generation(s) between the brothers Aaron & Joseph Hawkins and my Aaron Hawkins, will be found based on records involving the farmland, Best Success. I’ve hired a professional genealogist to find those land and probate records that I am unable to find online.

Gretchen supplied a couple of really wonderful maps that she is sharing with our readers below:  

 

On the map below  (Map of Colonial Baltimore) it shows Hawkins Point along the Patapsco River with Baltimore on the North side.  Best Success was on the South side of the Patapsco River.  When my grandfather grew up, the area was known as Brooklyn.  It is now part of Baltimore. Brooklyn was only about 3 miles from the Best Success Hawkins farm.

    You can see Brooklyn on the below map just south of the Patapsco River.

The map above shows land owned by William Hawkins in 1878.  It appears to at the west end of Furnace Branch, so this is the location of at least some of the acreage of Best Success.  You can see the Cedar Hill Cemetery about half way between the farm and Brooklyn.  That is where most of my ancestors from this line are buried, including those disintered from the farm and reburied in Cedar Hill Cemetery.

I hope this helps with the location.

Below is an enlarged view of the above.  You may have to manipulate the map to see the part that you wish to see.

The Hawkins farm, Best Success, was in what is now Glen Burnie.  Furnace Branch (the stream, not the road) ran thru it.  I remember the stream from when I was a little girl.  An elderly relative who grew up in the farmhouse, which was built in the first decade of the 1800s, told me the property, Best Success, extended to Hawkins Point.  Since there are many Hawkins lines, I can’t say for sure that the Point is named for my family.  

The second map is an attachment and shows land owned by William Hawkins in 1878.  It appears to at the west end of Furnace Branch, so this is the location of at least some of the acreage of Best Success.  You can see the Cedar Hill Cemetery about half way between the farm and Brooklyn.  That is where most of my ancestors from this line are buried, including those disintered from the farm and reburied in Cedar Hill Cemetery.

I hope this helps with the location.