Life and Times of Edward Boling and Mary Wharton

Background Recently, I updated a surname report to cover all 12, 495 persons in my ancestral tree, which has grown from 10,772 since I produced my first post on surnames in 2014. Based upon my analysis of surnames, it turns out that my father's family was much larger than my mother's.  And, the gender ratio among …

The Thornton Family’s Fredericksburg Mansion – Part I

My Thornton Family History The Thornton Family is one of Virginia's distinguished Colonial families. A large branch of my family tree includes Thornton ancestors and spans 24 generations. My Thornton family members date back to 1314 in Bolling Hall, Bradford, Yorkshire, England when Robert DeBolling (my 16th paternal great-grandfather--Generation 2) married Elizabeth DeThornton in 1337 before the two …

150th Anniversary–Battle of the Wilderness

My second great-grandfather, Lawrence T. "Larl" Boling married Sarah Tapp, daughter of the now famous Catharine Dempsey "Widow Tapp," (making her my 3rd great grandmother) because she had the misfortune of living on the land that became known as the "Wilderness Battlefield," in Fredericksburg, Virginia, during the Civil War. On Friday, May 2, through Sunday, May …

Railroaded in Colonial Virginia…

THANKFUL THURSDAY...PART 2 King George County, Port Royal, Virginia We are picking up from Part 1 of this post, dated January 30, 2013, in King George County, Virginia, meandering toward our final destination the Centre Hill Mansion Museum to do the annual January 24th Ghost Walk through the house originally built by Colonel Robert Bolling …

The Changing Story of Race in America & in Our Family

In my efforts to find out when and how the Boling family came to the infamous Ely's Foard Road property in Spotsylvania County, Fredericksburg, VA, I was merging individual family timelines into one to identify the earliest beginnings of the family name at this residence. As always in research, one thing leads to another and …