I’ve held firm to personal beliefs for nearly thirty years and last night my thoughts were finally validated.   Reviewing online Wake County civil action papers brought to my attention while preparing for Dana Leed’s upcoming special autosomal DNA presentation for the Wake County Genealogical Society in August, I came across a document that will forever solidify my opinion. One thing I’ve learned in this genealogy obsession is that somehow, like magic, if I reach out to assist someone then ultimately the favor is returned.  I believe it’s all about the power found in the old proverb about good deeds:

Jeremiah 17:10 say “I YHWH search the heart and examine the mind, to reward a man according to his conduct, according to what his deeds deserve.”

And yet, for many years, some of the Anson/Union County descendants of Gideon Green have Gideon’s son Leonard Green Sr. as being the GG Grandson of Farnfold Green who may have been the first to own land in the historic coastal North Carolina town of Beaufort:

“Lineage: Roger 1620-1671, Timothy 1650-1712, Farnifold 1674-1714, James 1710-1788, James 1739-1784, Gideon 1755-1799, Leonard Sr. 1790-1881, Leonard Jr. 1819-1925.”

I am not going to say Leonard is not the GG Grandson as shown in the above lineage found on the blogsite Beaufort North Carolina History though I believe fervently the lineage is wrong. Let’s look forward to a new find and to records making the connection I’ve only been able to guess at in the past.

From my platting of land grants along Richardson Creek in old Anson, now Anson and Union Counties NC, look at entry #80. I believe this tract represents the first grant issued to our Thomas family of that area. Jacob Thomas entered the 100 acres in 1779 with the grant ultimately being issued after the war, in 1783. Neighbors Joaquim Hudson and Thomas Gilbert walked with the surveyor, serving as chain carriers and likely holding the measuring equipment and helping out as needed.  This piece of land later fell into the hands of Michael Austin, John Curlee, and then Spear Moore. It is my strongly held belief that this Jacob Thomas is the father, maybe brother(?), of Benjamin Thomas who is my earliest documented ancestor.

Looking upstream a few bends, Gideon Green received entry #45 which he later sold to Jacob Gurley who had arrived in the area from Johnston County.  And, looking even a bit further upstream, where Pleasant Hill Church Road crosses the creek today, Gideon Green received another grant identified as #22 which he later sold to Benjamin Thomas, my earliest proven ancestor. The eastern most line of that tract runs along Walnut Branch, and it is known that Benjamin and others are buried on the tract. A crossing of the larger Richardson Creek once called “Charity Ford” is located on the land. Note also that Salathiel Clifton and Benj’n Thomas were present at the survey of Gideon’s grant to carry the measuring poles and assist with the surveyor. Also, note that Captain Salathiel Clifton served in the Anson County regiment during the American Revolution. Tract #22 represents my ancestor’s first ownership of land in Anson County.

But looking far to the north to where these people surely came from, I believe Jacob Thomas who owned land along Richardson Creek first shows himself to us in 1771 in the following court minutes found in Wake County:

Ordered that Nathan ROLAND be overseer of the road from Terrible Creek, to Cumberland line, and that the following persons work under him viz. William ROLAND, Etheldred JONES, William JONES, Role STEDSEON, William WAMMACK, Jacob THOMAS and Smiths BATTEMORE.  1^st Tuesday, December 1771, Book A-1, Page 22.

Following the court order, Jacob disappears and is never heard from again in Wake County though the next year court minutes introduce us to yet another person named Thomas:

Ordered that the following Persons be appointed a Jury to lay of a Road from James Quantocks to the County line agreeable to the Order passed last Court (towit) Jacob Utley, James Quantock, Christopher Woodward, Lewis Jones, Landman Short, Francis Settles, Christopher Osborn, William Barker, Henry Day, James Holland, Richard Green, Anthony Holland, Lazarus Hood, Joseph THOMAS, and that John Utley be appd. Constable to summons said Jury.

Jacob Thomas and family may have moved from Wake to the northeastern side of the Yadkin River to what is now Montgomery County before crossing over into what is now Union County. That’s an idea that needs more work. But as luck again would have it, not too many years ago Y-DNA solidly connected me to Lt. Col. (ret.) Dan Thomas who is a descendant of the above Joseph Thomas who remained in Wake County before moving nearby to Chatham. For the first time, our large southern North Carolina Thomas family became kin to another and equally large branch of family living far away along the Cape Fear River. So, here we have a plausible string of events loosely illustrating the split in two branches of our family …though we still don’t know exactly how.

Looking at the above two court entries, see the names Anthony Holland, Christopher Osborn, William Barker, Lasarus Hood and of course Richard Green?  All these men, or at least their immediate kin folk ended up moving to lands withing five or so miles from Gideon Green and Jacob Thomas along Richardson’s Creek.  Christopher Osborne and William Barker lived near present-day Midland in now Cabarrus, while Anthony Holland lived in the area of Running Creek in old Montgomery, now Stanly County. The extended Hood family interacted with our Thomas family as well as the family of Elisha Thomas of Johnston County. Furthermore, in 1782, at the mouth of Island Creek in Montgomery, now Stanly County, Leonard Green helped the surveyor carry equipment when a grant for Goin Morgan was surveyed. Looking back to the Green family lineage I earlier declared as wrong, being the one stating Leonard Green Sr. lived from 1790-1881, who was this fellow identified below as walking the woods of Island Creek eight years before Gideon’s son was born?

Back to Wake County, numerous grants, deeds, and court records connect the Thomas family to others who made the move to southern North Carolina. But rather than clearing up my curiosities, the records led to more what-ifs.  For instance, a grant for 200 acres was surveyed in 1778 for Daniel Oaks who is likely the father of Mary Oaks who married Joseph Thomas’ son John Thomas in 1789. The reason for bringing this up, from the 1778 survey warrant as shown below, note that Daniel Oaks’ land is situated north of Buckhorn Creek on both sides of Cary’s Creek, “joining the lower side of the land whereon Leonard Green Sen. lately lived.” Furthermore, and according to the Marcom map of Wake County land grants, those whose lands adjoined or were near that of Daniel Oaks includes William Hayes, Joseph Cobb, Andrew Peddy, Etheldred Jones, John Humphries, and Stewart Hamilton.  And knowing I can get hung upin matters concerning land, most important in the above passage is that Daniel Oaks’ land adjoined the elder Leonard Green. This fellow Green is documented twelve years before the birth of Leonard Senior, the son of Gideon Green.

So, seeing all this has for years held me in suspense. I’ve known these people had to be part of the “path” of genetics leading to who I am today.  And yet, I have never found even a smidgen of information that undeniably connected my family in Anson to those in Wake as indicated by Y-DNA. It is in the need to find a smoking gun that everything turned on its ear when I made a new find late last night.

Take a minute to study the following which I came across while flipping through civil action papers 1760-1774 at familysearch:

About the document, on 13 Dec 1772, being a year after Wake County was formed, Joseph Thomas, Daniel Hooks, and Gideon Green are ordered to appear in court to testify on behalf of Henry Day in a suit raised by Joseph Cobb. Amazing!  This is the first document I’ve ever seen for Gideon Green outside of southern North Carolina. Here, the man who sold my Thomas ancestor his first land in Anson County is earlier in Wake County serving as witness alongside Joseph Thomas.  Incredible and according to the Marcom map, the plaintiff is a neighbor. And as for Daniel Hooks, who might he be? There is a Daniel Hooks who happens to appear in 1790 Richmond County and then in Anson County in 1800. Could this be a matter of phonetics? Could this Daniel Oaks in 1772 have moved south where by 1790 he was known in a new place as Daniel Hooks?  I think that would be really cool as my father’s first cousin H. George Thomas married Ms. Ida Hooks. Ms. Ida sure could bake the cakes! What if, without knowing it, we are all family by marriage occurring many years ago?

Based on the above, I believe Gideon is the son of Leonard Green or at least one of the others of that name who interacted with my distant Thomas family in early Wake County. There are Leonard, Richard, and William who I believe to be brothers in that county. The timing of this group in Wake County simply does not correlate to the narrative of descendancy from Farnfold Green as is believed by some. Furthermore, I believe the document in Wake naming Joseph Thomas and Gideon Green may indicate the connection to my branch of the family in Anson County is more closely connected to Wake than has been previously supported. Plausibility has increased that Benjamin Thomas in Anson County is closely connected to Jacob Thomas of Wake. And of importance I cannot shake free, our Benjamin Thomas family of Anson County absolutely does not descend from the Quaker lineage of Tristram and Stephen Thomas.

However, in 1742 a person named Richard Green penned a will claiming Chowan County to be his home. Richard mentioned his sons: “I also give to my five sons Richard Green, William Green, Thomas Green, Lonard Green, Jacob Green, my wifes land for which their own need.”

The will was probated in Edgecombe County, and I believe these sons mostly settled in southern Wake County before moving to the region around Rocky River in southern North Carolina. Somehow Joseph Thomas connects to this family though in that determination I run into yet another brick wall. More on that on a later date.

Closing Note: I must apologize as growing from my excitement of connecting Anson County family to Wake by way of this document naming Joseph Thomas and Gideon Green, I inadvertently overlooked other connections I don’t think have ever been fully discussed. Earliest in the area of Wake of the name Green were Edward and Peter Green. There is nearby Green path and I wonder if that is named for the family? There is also Silas Green who has ties to both the earlier Edward and yet William Green who I believe is tied to Richard. Are Edward and William Green kin and do they somehow descendant from the same family.  Is their ancestor Richard Green or Peter and/or Edward? There is also a Joseph Green and Isham Green who moved to South Carolina from Wake.  Beyond the Green family, I wonder about Joseph Cobb from the record and whether he has ties to the David Cobb family of Anson.  I think this find will significantly impact Cobb family thinking. I plan to dig a bit deeper into these people and will soon provide a bit of thought on who they might be ….