VardamanMarthaElishaIvieAndOtherAncestorsofTomLent

Martha Vardaman
and
Elisha Ivey
and other Vardaman Ancestors of Tom Lent

Page Updated 12 Feb 2019

Page Started 6 Feb 2019

DISCLAIMER FROM JOHN GWIN:
As far as I am concerned, at least some of what we have published here is
hearsay
--unproven and undocumented--
and should be treated as such until proven otherwise.

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A. Here’s Our Outline Format Showing
What We Know or Think We Know So Far
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20.00--Johannes Welhelm "John" Vardaman, m. Margaret Evans;

[Jesse H. "Jack" Vardaman Note:
The original emigrant to America was a John Vardaman who died and left his will in New Castle County, Delaware, in 1714. At that time the three counties of present day Delaware (New Castle, Kent and Sussex) were nominally part of the Province of Pennsylvania although they had their own legislature. They were known as New Castle (or Kent, or Sussex) on the Delaware. They did not exist as an entity of their own until the American Revolution.
The above John Vardaman left a wife, Margaret, an adult son, Johannes, and three minor children: sons Christopher and William and daughter Jane Margarita. The first three of these children were in all probability born before 1700 and prior to the family's arrival in America. The last child could also have been born prior to the family's arrival in America.]

21.00--William "Old William" Vardaman, m. Magdalena Petersson;

[Jesse H. "Jack" Vardaman Note:
            WILLIAM, son of John: You will note that I have left this son until the last. That is because all of the contacts that I have had over the past many years and most of the records that I am aware of (other than a few from the very early years) pertain to this son and his descendants. We generally refer to this ancestor as "old" William Vardaman.
            William was born, as near as we can currently determine, ca. 1698 probably in Sweden. He was brought to America by his parents at about the age of seven and was raised in New Castle County, DL. He married Magdalena Petersson, daughter of Peter and Karin Petersson, at Holy Trinity Church in New Castle County, DL, on April 21, 1720. The Peterssons were a Swedish family. The last record of the William Vardaman family in Delaware is the baptism of a daughter in 1724. William next appears in the Rockfish Gap area on the eastern slopes of the Blue Ridge Mountains in what is now Albemarle County, VA, but was then in Goochland County in 1734. By 1744 he has moved a little further south to the Peaks of Otter area of the Blue Ridge Mountains in what is now Bedford County, VA. In 1744 this area was in Brunswick County and later, in 1746, in Lunenburg County. Bedford County was created out of Lunenburg in 1754. In 1766 "old" William with his second (or possibly third) wife and youngest son, James, relocated to the Dutch Fork area of what is now Newberry County, South Carolina, but was then in Craven County and later included in the judicial division known as Ninety Six District. "Old" William died ca 1789 in Newberry County naming his wife Bridgit and four sons John, William, Jr., Peter, and James, in order in his will. The first three, as best we can determine, were from his first wife, Magdalena Petersson, while the last son, James, was with his last wife, Bridgit Tinkler. Based on details included in the various biographies of his grandson, Rev. Jeremiah Vardeman of Kentucky and Missouri, "old" William raised a very large family. Since there were only four sons, we believe that there were several daughters. Unfortunately, we know the names of only two: Maria and Jemima. While it can't be proven, we feel certain that there was another daughter named Frances who married Peter Bennett. Beyond this we are unable to conjecture with any degree of confidence on the names of any additional daughters.
            However, marriage records of additional Vardaman women in Virginia and the presence of additional families in mid-18th century Virginia with children bearing the first or middle name of Vardaman leads us to believe that there were probably several more daughters. We have the record of the marriage of a Susannah Vardiman to a James Shelton who was born in Essex County, VA, in 1734 but cannot place her in the family. In addition we have a DAR record of the marriage of a Mary Vardiman to an Adam Epting probably in Craven Co., SC, prior to 1775 and cannot place her in the family. There is also a Vardiman Clements in Pittsylvania County, VA, in 1767, and we can make no connection of the Vardaman family with the Clements family.]
22.01—John Vardaman II, b. ca. 1725-1730; m. Elizabeth Morgan;

[Jesse H. "Jack" Vardaman Note:
            John II, son of "old" William: This John Vardeman is thought to have been born ca 1725-1730 and was in Bedford County, VA, with his father as late as 1750. He married Elizabeth Morgan ca 1750, probably in Bedford Co., notwithstanding statements in the Rev. Jeremiah Vardeman biographies that John and Elizabeth married in South Carolina. This family left Bedford County ca 1767 to begin a steady trek westward through the New River and Clinch River areas of what is now southwestern Virginia. In 1775 he joined the company of men recruited by Daniel Boone to blaze a road through the Cumbertland Gap into Kentucky for the Transylvania Company of Col. Richard Henderson. Boone's mission was accomplished with the founding of Fort Boonesborough on the Kentucky River. John Vardeman then moved his family into Kentucky ca 1776 settling on Cedar Creek near Whitley's Station in a community that would come to be called Crab Orchard some 35 miles south of Fort Boonesborough.]
22.02—William Vardaman, Jr., b.

[Jesse H. "Jack" Vardaman Note:
            William, Jr., son of "old" William: This William remained in the Bedford/Campbell County area of Virginia until ca. 1784 when, with his wife Jane (maiden name unknown but has been conjectured to be Bennett) and children, he relocated to Wilkes County, Georgia. At this time we know that he had a son, William, who married Rachel Walker, and at least two daughters, Hannah, who married Jesse Evans, Jr., and Roda, who married Lewis McLean. We believe that they probably had a third daughter, Elizabeth, who married Reuben Bennett, but this has not been proven. It is not unlikely that William and Jane could have had additional daughters, but we know nothing of them. While it is possible, it seems unlikely that they would have had any daughters who married and remained in Virginia. It is unlikely that William and Jane had any son other than William. The families of these children of William and Jane remained in Georgia, although we know that the children of their son William moved on to Alabama, Louisiana, and Texas. William, Jr. died ca. 1796 in Wilkes Co., Georgia.]

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B. Here’s Tom's and My Communication So Far
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Tom, Just want you to know that you must have really gotten my curiosity in a stir, as I have already built a page on my website (not online yet, however—I’ll let you know when it is) for your Martha and Elisha and am doing some subsequent research. My second cousin, Jack Vardaman, is the most esteemed Vardaman researcher in the world, as far as I know. I met him some 15 or so years ago. He has written a history of the Vardamans that is published on another of our cousin’s Treespot website at http://treespot.net/reunion/Flyer/Dec2003_Early_Vardaman_History.pdf. In it, he discusses at length an “old William” Vardaman, one of whose sons is named Peter. Peter ends up in Bagdad, Shelby Co., KY! Peter only has one son, but he names in his will several daughters, one of whom is mentioned on p. iv of Jack’s history as “Mollie”.
Jack lists her given name as Mary, but I don’t know how he got that. So I googled “Molly” and found that Molly also is sometimes a nickname for Martha!

Thanks for all this. One person's tree on Ancestry does say Martha's father was Peter, with no dates or locations. I'd be very pleased to be descended from an "old William." But I'm confused about why it's good that you found them in Kentucky, when my info has Martha and Elisha in Tennessee. I've looked at the Early Vardaman History, which is very interesting, and it has Peter being born 1735-ish and married in 1760. But my Martha was supposedly born about 1749, and her son (James) Vardaman Ivey is supposed to have been born about 1760 — which would mean Martha gave birth at age 11, so that's silly. But it's hard to see how Peter could be the grandfather of Vardaman Ivey. I'm excited to have inspired a page on your website. That's so cool. Question: Do all Virginia-Kentucky-Tennessee-Missouri Vardamans descend one way or another from the same immigrant? Or were there other Vardaman clans running around? Tom

You’re most welcome! :-) It was PETER who was found in Bagdad, Kentucky, not Martha and Elisha. They were indeed in northeastern Tennessee on the Kentucky border. Also, I just noticed that Roger Nicki said on his Ancestry profile that Peter, Mollie’s dad, was the son of WILL as in WILLIAM—“OLD William", that is! And listen: we already know that Roger and Jack disagreed by FIVE YEARS on Peter’s date of death. So I think that another error is VERY easily understandable, ESPECIALLY since both of those dates were preceded by the word “about”. Oh, I am VERY encouraged that your Peter Vardaman and my Peter Vardaman could easily be the same person. Finally, yes, Jack’s research is pretty conclusive—most if not all of the early Vardamans came from the same family. He’s very thorough. Please do read his paper at http://treespot.net/reunion/Flyer/Dec2003_Early_Vardaman_History.pdf. it’s about a 30-minute read, and you’ll be glad you read it. John

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C. How Tom and I (May? Could Possibly?) Be Related
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IF Tom's and my Peter Vardamans are the same person, then this chart may show how we are related.
And IF it is correct, then Tom and I are half-sixth cousins thrice removed.
"So if we AIR kin, I reckon we're not very MUCH kin," as folks might say back where I come from.
"Never you mind, though, 'cuz blood's blood, kin's kin, an' it's all fam'ly!" ;-)
By way of explanation, the generation numbers in the first column came about this way:
I originally started this site using my "furthest back person" in each line as generation number one.
But that made my own generation number different in almost every one of my lines, which became quite confusing for me.
So I decided that my own generation number would be the same in every line.
But now I needed a number large enough that I'd probably never be able to research that far back.
I arbitrarily chose generation number 28.00 for myself, meaning my parents would be gen. #27.00, my children would be gen. #29.00, and so forth.
The numbers after the decimal indicate the known (or estimated) birth order. --John M. Gwin

Gen. No.	John M. Gwin's Line	Relationship	Tom Lent's Line (see more at https://www.ancestry.com/family-tree/tree/75214248/family)
21	21.00--William "Old William" Vardaman, Sr., m2. Bridgit Tinkler	Parents	21.00--William "Old William" Vardaman, Sr., m1. Magdalena Petersson
22	22.04--James Vardaman m. Sabra Liles/Lyles	Half-Siblings	22.03--Peter Vardaman m. Prudence (nee unk. but possibly Snow)
23	23.02--Thomas Vardaman m. Annie Vining	Half-First Cousins	23.05?--Martha ("Mollie"?) Vardaman m. Elisha Ivey/Ivie
24	24.01--Edwy Liles Vardaman m. Lucinda K. Mauk	Half-Second Cousins	24.00--James Vardeman Ivey m. Mary Martin
25	25.08--John Forsythe Vardaman m. Julia Ann Flynn	Half-Third Cousins	25.00--Matilda Ivey m. Jacob House
26	26.04--Adrian Belle "Ada" Vardaman m. James Basset Gwin I	Half-Fourth Cousins	26.00--Hollingsworth House m. Eliza Weaver
27	27.04--Adrian Sutton Gwin m. Dorothy Lee Keeney	Half-Fifth Cousins	27.00--Harriet Lee House m. Nim Rod Huddleston
28	28.01--John McDonald Gwin m. Sharon Lynn Hamrick	Half-Sixth Cousins	28.00--Bessie Huddleston m. John Harris
29	29.01--Jeremiah Scott "Jeremy" Gwin m. Kara Marie Douglas 29.02--Charity Elizabeth Gwin m. Beau Scott Pihlaja 29.03--Sarah Joy Gwin m. Jason Dean Johnson, Sr.	Half-Seventh Cousins	29.00--Eunice Harris m. Jesse Huddleston
30	30.01--Adrianna Rose Gwin 30.01-30.02--Asher and Cressida Pihlaja 30.01-30.04--J.D., Ryan, Tate, and Zachary Johnson	Half-Eighth Cousins	30.00--Linda Huddleston m. Tom Lent, Sr.
31		Half-Ninth Cousins	31.00--Tom Lent, Jr. m. Martha Murdock
32		Half-Tenth Cousins	32.00--Henry Lent

Simeon Williford	48, b. NC
Catherine Williford	38, b. TN
Nancy Williford	18, b. TN
Jane Williford	16, b. TN
James Williford	14, b. TN
Samuel Williford	12, b. TN
Rebecca Williford	10, b. TN
Jeremiah Williford	8, b. TN
John Williford	6, b. TN
William Williford	4, b. TN
Abijah Williford	2, b. TN
Jane McGill	60, b. TN