Week 23 – So Many Descendants

 

The photo below is a screenshot of some of the descendants of William Haley that I have added to my tree. Each little square represents a person whose name I know. This is just a sampling, as I have not included most of his descendants who are not attached to my direct line. It is still a lot.  William Haley was born 28 Aug 1748 in Culpeper County, Virginia, shortly after Culpeper County was formed from Orange County. Who his parents are remains a mystery. It is unclear exactly when, but William married Mary “Molly” Turman who was the daughter of Martin Turman.

William and Mary were the parents of eleven children who were named in William’s will, written in 1830. He also makes provisions for the children of Thomas Lane and John Forston so it is possible they had two other daughters who, along with their spouses were deceased by this time.  I am descended from their daughter Mary, who married Jesse Cash. Let’s do the math. If eleven children had only six children (assuming this is an average), that equals sixty-six grandchildren. If sixty-six grandchildren had only six children each, that amounts to 396 great-grandchildren. The great-great grandchildren would equal 2,376; assuming the number of children dropped to only four each, the three times great-grandchildren would be 9,504; four times great-grandchildren would equal 38,016; and by the time you got to my generation, dropping the number of children to just two per person, that would leave us with 76,032. My family is extended two more generations, and while only one grandson is a parent so far, it’s easy to see how many more people likely descend from William Haley.

William Haley was a Patriot during the Revolutionary War. He is listed as a matross in the Regiment of Artillery under Captain Drury Ragsdale’s Company of the Continental Troops in July 1778. A matross was basically a gunner’s assistant, who aided in loading, firing and sponging the guns. In September 1779, he is found on the roster of the 7^th Regiment as a Private. His father-in-law, Martin Turman, was also a Revolutionary Patriot who was allotted 500 acres in Georgia for providing supplies. By 1792, William and family were living on Cody’s Creek in Elbert County, Georgia. He was also fortunate by drawing land in Wilkes, County for his Revolutionary War service, and received grants in both the 1806 and 1825 Land Lottery. I am descended from a number of Revolutionary Patriots, but of them, William Haley has many more descendants who are members of the Daughters of the American Revolution than any of the others, by far. Almost one hundred women from all parts of the United States have proven their descent to him in order to become a member. Except for my own descendants, I don’t know any of them, but of the possible 150,000 descendants of William and Mary Haley, how many of them have I crossed paths with and I never knew the same blood ran through our veins?

William Hailey certainly isn’t my only great (however many) grandparent with a boat load of descendants. I have a number of very prolific ancestors – Richard Warren who arrived on the Mayflower had 56 grandchildren; Pryor Pennington from Kentucky had 15 children; John and Malora Ditmore had 12 children. I would bet if you’d climb around in your family tree, you’d likely fine some really large families. You never know, if your family is as large as mine, you might discover your next-door neighbor is your 4^th cousin twice removed!