Isle of Wight Notes…
Recently the good folks at the Isle of Wight County Historical Society contacted me with some kind words and an invitation to a honorary membership… whereupon I poured an adult beverage. An Old Fashioned as it were, which I found fitting.
The gist of the exchange was the lament of all of us who have been curious enough to explore the old records… that being the fact that the olde pharts (colonists) had a tendency to move from IOW into that Gawd Forsaken Burned Out Husk of a county called Nansemond and that wilderness of ne’re do well carpet baggers known as Chowan Precinct. I could add the area now known as Southampton County, VA, but why thicken the already muddy waters?
They (the IOW Board members) convened and contrived deviously to taunt me with some olde records of a former Surry Co Clerk of Court, “who sent his floppy disc/CDRom with an extraordinarily researched and plotted map of reconstructed 17th and early 18th century IoWC patents”. The only catch is that the records are still in the said old computer on CD ROMs… hell, I haven’t used CD Roms in I can’t remember… but then that offer of access is like showing money to a politician. I’m not sure where this will lead, but I am intrigued… I have mentioned this to my computer savvy grandson and we still entertain the conundrum. The main problem is that I live in SW Florida… not an easy drive to Virginia. The said grandson and I previously trekked to Monticello and he demonstrated a keen interest in history…which should sound familiar to all of us… meaning he has the correct affliction.
The map below is why I would love to get my mappishly greedy hands on the files of the late Surry County Clerk… as usual, don’t click on this graphic … click on the BLUE filename under it to get a better and zoomable view.
I am actually an Isle of Wightian by historical account, although my website gives the impression I am a Tarheel (which I am also, I suppose) and am firmly in the camp that “All Roads Lead to Virginia”. While my suspect Anderson precursor was George Anderson of said county, who obtained a patent in 1695 and sold the land in 1710, gives me certain bragging rights, the real Gobsmacking, What the Hell Moment, was when I figured out through DNA that I was a bastard descendant of Edward Brantley d 1689 of IOW.
But then… this Post is about my real love… which are the maps that lead me to those conclusions. And, let’s face it, not very many folks are interested in “my” peeps… you want to find “your” peeps… which is why I unabashedly explain that “I don’t really care about your ancestors” and the huge ZIP file of the research you could send me … really, let’s be honest, it’s about the maps, which I hold a great fondness for… the creation of which keeps me off of pool tables in honky tonk bars and chasing women of ill repute… Although I do indulge in an occasional adult beverage… I do however, like run-on sentences for some strange reason which evades me.
This Page is all about any comments that you folks might leave which might provoke a direction for me to take… I can add updates at any time…
I have the outlandish desire to complete a map of Nansemond… you know, the burned county, which has no records other than the patents located at the Library of Virginia. https://lva-virginia.libguides.com/land-grants but then, take a look at my present map. https://andersonnc.com/wp-content/uploads/2023/04/new_nan_cho_1.pdf
Nansemond was an appendage of Isle of Wight, the two counties are forever historically intertwined. The abomination that exists now in it’s place is a joke… it does not even make sense… now it is called a “city”. Is it the smallest county or the biggest city?
There is also Chowan Precinct. David McCorkle has provided ALL of those patents… https://nclandgrants.com/
I have had the idea for a while, after witnessing the impact to genealogy that the DNA revolution has provided, and the revelatory impact that the “digital age” has provided, (Familysearch.org…the elephant in the room) that we merely need to put the puzzle pieces together.
I think maps are the next wave…