what I plan to take with me

This is my packing list for September:

apple TV to connect computers to a TV screen
Books on Pittsylvania, Henry, Cumberland, Goochland including the index to the church records that I used for my White pages.  Remember that the actual records are on Ancestry
Book with passwords in it in case I need something
Computer
internet device
blanket
pillow
towels
dirty clothes bag
a book or two about the battle of Point Pleasant

rough schedule of what we might do

I have offered to pay for a professional who lives in the area of Pittsylvania County to meet with us once during the time we are visiting the area of Pittsylvania County.  If we like him/her very well, we might engage this professional for another meeting.

I propose that we make schedule this event on Thursday evening...  Evening so that as many of us will have arrived as possible...We could either ask the person to come to the house or we could plan a meeting at a restaurant that he/she would recommend that would allow us to both eat and meet.  If we do this on Thursday, we could find out what we might only find at the courthouse or any other place that is not likely to be open on the weekend.

I propose that I (or someone else who might have more time to give to this project) make a list of times that various places we might want to visit are open ahead of time so that we can schedule our time as efficiently as possible.

It seems to me that we might spend Friday gathering deeds, etc.....Friday night sifting through what we have found so far.  Divide Saturday into gathering information that we missed on Friday with visiting sites in the area  that have meaning to our group (for example, the spot at which William Witcher is buried).  Then on Sunday, we would spend time on visiting sites before leaving for home.

This is a very rough idea of how we might spend our time.  My thought is that each evening would be spent in sharing information.  Hopefully Luan will help us with our DNA education.  I hope to have an apple TV so that we can share information that is on each of our computers and/or phones and iPads.   Please, everyone help me to make this a bit less rough.

First time we see H2 Patrick Morrison

Luan shared her timeline today and it had me pulling out information that I remember thinking about before....but while I am organizing it in my mind, I think I'll post to this blog, so that I will remember what I knew when we visit the area in September.

First thought is that the first mention we have of OUR Patrick Morrison is in Albemarle County in 1751.

Marsha, the deed in 1751 that H2 Patrick witnessed was in Albemarle County:

3 Jun 1751 - Witnessed Deed from Thomas Higginbotham to Robert Rose (Deed bk. 1, pg 378) Patrick Morrison appeared as a witness on a deed in Albemarle County for sale of 540 acres of land on the Piney River and Piney Woods.This Patrick Morrison would have been at least 16 years old to sign legally as a witness on this deed.

“Thomas Higginbotham, son of John and Frances (Riley) Higginbotham was living in Albemarle Co., in 1751, when on June of that year, he conveyed by deed to Robert Rose also of Albemarle, for a consideration of 45 lbs, three messages or tenements . . . Witnesses: John Walker, Robert Green and Patrick Morrison” 

(Albemarle County Deed Book 1, page 378). 

My comment to this is:

Thank you so much.  I remember that deed!  I pulled out my copy of Robert Rose’s diary  when we talked about it before.  It was apparently the last official thing that Robert Rose did.  His very last entry in his his diary was on June 13 in which he mentions that “Thos Higgenbotham gave Me a deed for his three tracts of land, 2 of 540 Acres in consideration of 45 pounds….rode to the Mines and Home again at night”.  the book says that there is a handwritten note next in the diary explaining that Robert Rose died on the 30th of June in Richmond.

So what I think of to look at next are the following:
1. Are there any Morrison references in Robert Rose's diary other than this. 
2. on page 104 of Robert Rose's diary he describes the land that he rode through between Mr. Burden's home where he was well entertained to Mr. Matthew's House on a Creek in Augusta.  I might want to copy that in if it is of interest to us later on. 
3. Who were John Walker and Robert Green?  Do they have a relationship with the H2 Morrison family?  Why was Patrick Morrison asked to witness this deed?  Were they all friends of Higginbotham?

Next Luan said the following:  And I answered with:

The Higginbothams were related by marriage to an older William Morrison who married Rachel Higginbotham. I think that William Morrison was eliminated somehow as not being an H2, but I don't remember now how that happened. 

And I answered with:

I think that I remember that we had ruled out the William Morrison who married Rachel Higginbotham as an H2 as well….and I also do not remember why.  But I did a bit of looking on the Ancestry family trees and see that this William Morrison died young…maybe 35 years old….but had several children before he died….and that some of the trees say that he was born in Goochland County, Virginia about 1727.  the marriage between this William Morrison and Rachel would have been 1749 in Amherst County.  Amherst County was carved out of Albemarle County in 1761, so someone who was born in Albemarle and married in Albemarle might have died in Amherst without every having moved from his farm.

By 1779 Patrick Morrison is likely to have been in Pittsylvania County:

13 January 1779

A Patrick Morrison signed as a witness to a deed in Pittsylvania Co., VA for land on the north side of Pigg River between one William Lawson and Sarah his wife and David Ross of County of Dinwiddie

witness: 

George Herndon

David Wall

Patrick Morrison

(Pittsylvania Co., VA  Deed & Will Bk 5 1767-1780, 126-127).

While I had the Robert Rose Diary book out, I looked to see if there were any other mentions of Morrison in it.  All of the mentions had to do with William Morrison and his wife Rachel Higginbotham and their friends and family.  There is interesting information if at a later time, we find that this couple is of interest.

I will start another blog post with military service of Morrison men in the Revolutionary War. 

Professional resources

I made a quick look to see if I could find some names of some professional resources in the area.  I have offered to pay for either a lecture during the weekend or some professional help....whatever makes the most sense for the group.  Here is a great link that I found:

http://www.victorianvilla.com/sims-mitchell/local/genealogy/clerks_office_treasures.htm

I will bring some of my Pittsylvania County/Henry etc books.  As I have time, I'll post them on a separate blog post that I will label as some such title as Books that I own .....

Where will we stay?

Just heard from Luan last night that she has "pulled the trigger" after consulting with the group and made a reservation for a house on Smith Lake.  It is lovely and it makes the trip even more enticing!  I will post where we stayed after the trip is over.


In preparation for a hoped for trip to Pittsylvania County, Virginia in the next 12 months, I am going to start adding some good ideas to help organize the trip.  The first came from Coit Morrison who is not actually in our DNA group.  His suggestion is that we do as his Morrison DNA group does and rent a house through a site that his own Morrison group uses.  Below is the e-mail information that Coit sent to us yesterday:

Greetings Morrison-H2!

May I make a suggestion? We of Morrison-Q, for several years now, have been using VRBO.com for our meetings. We pick a house that would be a comfortable place to have our meetings. We split the cost of the house by how many bedrooms. If you have more people coming than bedrooms, just rent a bigger house, or organize another house nearby, or suggest a nearby hotel. You would use one of the houses as the meeting place for the whole group. Last year Morrison-Q rented 3 houses near each other and met in the largest house. Meeting in a house is so much more comfortable - and you can leave stuff set out. You can cook and eat meals together as well - which is much more cost efficient than eating out. The night owls can even stay up into the wee hours and fellowship. These houses have really help to build some close relations within our group.

I did a search on houses with 5 or more bedroom in the Pittsylvania region - there were a dozen or two. This is the link to one of the lower cost houses I found - https://www.vrbo.com/219912ha# - based on the fall time of year, including all fees and taxes - this house for three night would only be $579 - split 5 ways it would only cost $115 per person for the weekend. You can't stay in a hotel at that price. Check it out - there are a lot of nice houses in that area for rent.

Let me know if you have any questions...

Blessings!

Coit Morrison

Morrison-Q

I loved Coit's suggestion.  It would be particularly good for Luan who plans to bring her dog(s?).  And I LOVED the idea of having a house on Smith Lake!  I don't want to lose this thought.  We could rent one house and overflow could stay in a local hotel/motel if we didn't want to get into lots of rentals....and then there are people like me who would be willing to bring a blow up bed and contribute money towards rental without a REAL room if that would be acceptable to the group.  I am not very picky....but I do snore....so I can be a problem.