Re: John and Ruth Creel witness deed in 1721 Richmond Co. VA
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In reply to:
Re: John and Ruth Creel witness deed in 1721 Richmond Co. VA
Mike Howerton 2/15/04
My mother and I have been to all the courthouses you mention, many of them more than once. There are also good abstract series of these counties' land records and court order books available at genealogy libraries in Salt Lake, MidContinent in Independence (Kansas City) and Fort Wayne. The Northern Neck Land Grants books have some Creel land purchase records too. Richmond county is very well organized and easy to use. Thomas and William Creel show land records there. By looking at Northumberland and Richmond records together you can see that the land John Hill sold to the Creels was part of a parcel he bought that was located partly in Richmond and partly in Northumberland county so this group of people lived close to county lines. In Northumberland county, near the courthouse there is a genealogy library where they have microfilmed copies of all early records and they are very welcoming and helpful to researchers. There seem to be people working on indexing/abstracting some old court books that have not been closely examined before. That is how we found the entry about John and Anne's son David. Stafford has only a little Creel material but the Creels were in Prince William once Stafford divided. Prince William has deeds reflecting the activity (up to 1738) of the John Creel we think is old John's son and also deeds pertaining to William Creel (d.1757) and his son John, who moved to Pittsylvania County in the 1760s. Culpeper first shows Creel activity with John and Avey - they are apparently in Culpeper in the 1760s and around a place called Turkey Hole Mountain in the 1770s which ends up being in Madison County when that is formed from Culpeper. This John died around 1790 and his wife and son John sell his land. Orange County does not show Creels in the deed records but Charles Creel is on tax lists and some petitions to the legislature. He is associated with the Stapp family by then.
Of course in the late 1700s there are lots of records for Creel familes in the Fauquier/Prince William area who show no clear connection to any of these earlier Creels except living generally where the earlier ones lived - hard to believe there is no connection, though. We just have not yet discovered it.
Mom and I are headed back to Northumberland, Fauquier etc this fall. If any one has ideas about what else we might look for, we'd be happy for suggestions.