Re: Winchester, VA, Moats???
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In reply to:
Re: Winchester, VA, Moats???
samuel moats 5/29/08
Hello,
My Moats ancestors left Pendleton County about 1819 and have lived in Ritchie County, WV, since then. As far as I know, our ancestors were all white. I understand the family in Pendleton County today is mostly black. I was told that a folklorist named Gerry Milne at August Heritage in Elkins, WV, has done some research on how the Moats family in Pendleton became black. He indicated that two old maid sisters wound up owning the family homeplace and hired a black farm hand to work the farm. Then both old maids got pregnant and each had a black child! I don't know if this is so, but as I said, my family moved away nearly 200 years ago.
But we must all be related. I understand some DNA work is being done these days to trace relationships.
My ancestors seemed to think their father, George Moats who moved from Pendleton County to Ritchie County, had been born in South Carolina. He would have been born in the 1770's. There were people by the last name of Moats or Motes in South Carolina in the late 1700's, so this may be a place where relatives may be found.
Sandra Moats Moore