family Group #1

This newspaper was posted on a facebook site.  James Hawkins' descendants are a part of Family Goup #1

 

Thomas Lowery Hawkins b. 1812 Russell County, VA

We had a researcher reach out to us this week about his mother's Hawkins line:

Here is what Sean says:

My mother was a Hawkins and her line goes back to Thomas Lowery Hawkins b. 1812 Russell,Va.
I was wondering if anyone from this group traces their line back to Thomas Lowery? His father may have been James T. Hawkins b.1772?

Here are the documents that Sean has sent for his Thomas Lowery Hawkins:

 

Sean asks for help if anyone knows more about this family.  You can get in touch with him at

scw1972@gmail.com

Hawkins Heritage Newsletters

 Phil Hawkins produced Newsletters for several years when he was Administrator of the Hawkins yDNA project.  When I agreed to be administrator, I told Phil that I had not even managed to write one article for his newsletters every month.  I knew that it was beyond my capabilities to produce an entire newsletter.  There is a lot of excellent information in the newsletters!  If you find time to browse and find articles about your own family group, I would love to add a link to that specific newsletter on to  this blog site.  Just send me a link to the article and I will try to add it with a title o family group so it can be easily accessed by others.  This will be a kind of indexing project that we can all work on. 

My e-mail is mosesm@earthlink.net

Here is the link to the home page for Phil's website.  Use the header to choose to view the newsletters from this page:

https://freepages.rootsweb.com/~hawkinsdnaproject/genealogy/index.html

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.

Hawkins in Bedford County

Hawkins DNA Group #1  Possible Connections to Bedford County, VA

A genealogy buddy of mine and I were chatting about the importance of looking at original documents.  Transcriptions and reports are great for getting clues, but often there is much more to the story when one looks at the originals for oneself.

My friend told me that the wife of one of her husband’s ancestors had been reported to have been Mary Cope.  This lady’s ancestry had proved to be a dead end.  On a trip to the VA library in Richmond, my friend found that the lady had actually been Mary Hawkins before her first (and very brief) marriage to William H. Cocke who was killed during the Civil War.  Mary Cocke had then married George William Johnson in 1868 in Bedford County, Va.  All of this was very clear upon looking at only one page of marriages for Bedford County for herself.

The Bedford County caught my attention as while I don’t seem to have any documentation for the Hawkins families found in Bedford County to be a part of DNA group #1, there are many guesses and premises that would point to that being the case.  

So here is the little bit that I know.  I challenge readers to find errors in my information or to give documentation that I am correct or to add new information that has come to light that I am unaware of for the next issue of the Hawkins DNA newsletter.

If you are interested in knowing more about Mary Hawkins Cocke Johnson my friend has information about her at:  http://www.benbowfamily.com/getperson.php?personID=I2806&tree=B1

Kit #68105 is well documented back to Benjamin (b. 1762) and Hannah Hawkins who lived on what is now a part of the Biltmore Estate in Buncombe County, NC.  Dot’s best guess BEFORE this family lived in Buncombe County is  Bedford County VA/ Campbell County  (Campbell County was carved out of Bedford in 1781)  A William Hawkins died in 1793 in Campbell County and his will lists all of his sons and 1 daughter for sure with the possibility of a second one.  This William's wife was Mary (according to the will) and some say she was a Littleberry.  The curious thing is that William's sons names appear in the Benjamin of Buncombe County family with 2 prominent uncommon names for Hawkins -- Robert and Littleberry.  This William of Bedford County was born c1735 +/-, and that's about all we know about him at this time.  

Kits #95267 and #11301 are Hawkins DNA group #1 matches.  Both believe that they descend from a couple named John and Winnie Hawkins.  John (b.1754) left a will in Henry County, Ky when he died in 1821. 

John and Winnie Hawkins had children who seem to have lived in Bedford County, VA.  One son, William was married to Jane Bayne and the couple lived in Bedford before they moved to Craig County where this WIlliam died.  

Another genealogy buddy of mine, Sara Powell, has Hawkins lines in Bedford County, VA as well.  The name that connects to her that pops to my mind is Lucas Powell Hawkins.   Sarah has indicated that she has no participant who has done  DNA testing for this connection.  My notes say that Lucas Powell Hawkins lived from 1803-1889.  I have wondered if Lucas Powell Hawkins connects to the man that I call Thomas Hawkins of Old Rappahanock County, VA (1635-1677).  Thomas Hawkins of Old Rappahanock County had a  wife with maiden name Lucas.  This family favored male names of William and Thomas.  May be a coincidence.....maybe a real clue

Thomas T. Hawkins born ni 1829 in Wilkes County NC

 January is the time for cleaning  out files and piles and I am throwing the below in the trash.  But just in case someone might know this family I have digitalized the article.  It is about Thomas T. Hawkins born in Wilkes CoWilkes County, NC in 1829.  I have shown the article in two sizes.  The second is easier to read, but must be manipulated to read entire article.  i do not know which yDNA family group this is connected to.  If you know please  let me know via e-mail:  mosesm@earthlink.net

Family group #8

 I recently heard from a researcher about joining her husband's yDNA results to our Hawkins yDNA project.  Her husband does not carry the Hawkins surname as his Hawkins connections are on a female side of the family.  I explained to her that she would not get anything of interest from joining since he would not match anyone in the project with yDNA.

The researcher is fairly confident about her husband's Hawkins connections to Robert Hawkins who immigrated from England.  Robert Hawkins married Anne Prebble soon after his arrival on our shores.  She suggested a good source of information for this Hawkins family line:

Baltimore County Families, 1659-1759

This book is available on Ancestry.