Category: Genealogy

I’ve posted a first draft of an article documenting the ancestry of Julia Chew and Thirza Chrisman. It’s been a fun and challenging investigation, beginning with a marriage record for a Thomas Chew and Julia Minser that didn’t match the will of Julia’s father, William Huggins. At the end was the discovery of two women born out of wedlock, and an absolutely fascinating genealogical challenge.

Also, I want to give a shout out to Brad Minser: his carefully documented family tree was the key to making sense out of that vexing and conflicting marriage record and will.

I stumbled upon a serious flaw with my article about Andrew and Anna Chew’s children, and updated the article accordingly.

In David and Nancy McBride’s Marriage Records of Highland County, Ohio (1805-1880), I discovered the source of the commonly listed 20 March 1820 marriage date. Much to my surprise, Joseph’s wife Amelia/Emilie was a Chew before she got married.

While it’s fairly unlikely that both Joseph Chew and Emilie Chew had mothers named Anna M., but if this were the case, there’s no reason why the Anna Chew living with Joseph’s wife and children couldn’t be Joseph’s mother-in-law, and that his mother passed away before the 1850 census, or perhaps even remarried after Andrew passed away in 1830.

Additionally, in the same volume, I stumbled upon a marriage record between a Nathan Overman and a Nancy Chew–probably 21 July 1821, though the index–spanning 1817 to 1821–didn’t actually list a date. Thomas Chew was named the guardian of Nancy Chew Overman’s two children, Zebulon and Luisa, after Nancy passed away between 1841 and 1846. Typically, people name close relatives such as brothers and sisters as the guardians of their children, which raises the question of how Thomas and Nancy were related. And both Joseph and Thomas were mentioned in earlier records associated with Nancy Overman.

I already have lock-solid documentation proving that Nancy Chew Bishop was a daughter of Andrew and Anna Chew, and it’s pretty unlikely that they would name two of their daughters Nancy.

I published an article digging into the immediate ancestry of Mary Caldwell Chew, wife of James Chew (~1740-1783). She was the daughter of Andrew and Jane Caldwell of Berkeley County, West Virginia based on the will of her brother, Andrew Caldwell Jr., and that of her father, Andrew Caldwell Sr., all supported by other primary source evidence.

This conclusion is contrary to the common assertion that Mary Caldwell Chew’s parents were James Caldwell and Catherine Buford.

For reference, James Chew was the son of Thomas Chew and Martha Taylor, first cousin to President James Madison’s father, a major in the Virginia Militia during the Revolutionary War, and a member of the 1780 Virginia House of Delegates.

I published a first effort at mapping out documentary evidence tying Andrew and Anna Chew to their commonly listed children.

Summary

Andrew Chew left behind very few documentary records of his existence. Many family researchers, including myself, list basic facts about his life, including his birth between 1770 and 1773 in Spotsylvania County, Virginia; and his death in 1827, 1825 or 1830 in Ohio.

With the exception of his 26 Apr 1797 marriage bond for a marriage with Anna Mariah Barthist, however, these basic genealogical facts are neither supported nor contradicted by primary source evidence.

The names of the men and women commonly listed as Andrew and Anna Mariah Chew’s children are a different story. I will document what evidence I have discovered that support the assertion that Andrew and Anna Chew are the parents of the seven children commonly associated with them in other family trees.

The following two children can be conclusively tied to Andrew and Anna Chew via primary source evidence:

• Mary Moon (1807-1859), based on a document where Andrew Chew granted permission for her to marry.
• Nancy Bishop (1812-1892) based on an affidavit from her son James, and supported by an 1850 US census record.

I believe two additional children can be tied to Andrew and Anna Chew by combining circumstantial primary source evidence with an indirect proof.

• Joseph (1798-1845), based on an 1860 US census record combined with an indirect proof.
• Thomas (1801-1879), as Joseph names him “brother” in his will.

I can find no primary source evidence supporting the assertion that the following three children are descendants of Andrew and Anna Chew.

• Sarah Bailey (1810-1877)
• Elizabeth Beals (1802-1881)
• James (1805-1840)

I finished transcribing Mabel Vinson Cage’s memoir, and published the lot. Of course, very little of it relates to my daughter’s family–really just chapter 2–but maybe someone else will appreciate it.