Recently I was matched to two other men at Familytreedna.com at the Y-67 level of the Y-chromosome tests (67 indicating the number of STR’s, or markers, on the chromosome tested – it is one of the larger tests, with 12, 25, 37, 67 and 111 markers being the levels for this test). Our results were a genetic distance of 3 apart at this level, meaning that there are three differences in our measured markers, which is a relatively close match (no pun intended). By comparison, one of my a known 3rd cousins is a genetic distance of 0 at Y-67, and another person that is a 6th or 7th cousin is a distance of 5 from me. So this new match should roughly be in this range. One of them also matched me at Y-111 at a distance of 4.
It turns out these men are of the same family, 2nd cousins I believe, and they trace their male line back to John Culpeper Wilson in Henry County, Virginia in the mid-to-late 1700’s.
There are a number of John Wilsons in Henry County during this period, one of them being the brother of one of our James Wilson ancestors who inherited some of his father Thomas’ land in his 1816 will, after our direct ancestor had moved to Kentucky around 1805. Since John Culpeper Wilson moved to Ohio in the early 1800’s he could not be the same John Wilson, son of Thomas Sr., who remained in Henry County. John Culpeper is actually called by that name in two of the tax years – once as “John Culpeper Wilson” (1791) and another as “John Wilson (Culpepper)” (1793). It wasn’t unusual for the tax collectors to add descriptors to listed taxpayers with common names – the descriptors were often geographical locations where the person lived: e.g. Home Creek, Leatherwood (Creek), Horse Pasture Creek, etc. Other times they were “Big(g)” or “Little”, or “Jr” and “Sr”, and “son of James (or Thomas, or Moses)”. Now, it seems that many trees assume that John Culpeper Wilson must have been born in Culpeper County, Virginia. But, at least based on my records of Wilsons, no other added descriptors seem to be based on the origin of the taxpayer – indeed, it would seem to be rare that the tax collector would even be aware of where specifically a particular person had been born, especially when they are in their 40’s or 50’s. Also, since John is very likely to be related to the clan of Wilsons from which I am descended (based on his promixity to them in the tax lists as well as the DNA record), it would be likely that others of them were also from Culpeper. But no other Wilson, even those with common names like James, Thomas or Moses that were shared with other taxpayers, had the “Culpeper” designation.
The first thing then to check is whether there was a Culpeper Creek (or area) in Henry County at that time where John might have lived. But I am unable to find any mention of a Culpeper Creek or River or Branch, or any geographical feature by that name in Henry County, either in current records or historical records (the latter primarily being records of land deeds, whose descriptions were typically based around waterways).
Another possibility would be that Culpeper was John’s middle name. Although I haven’t found any other instances where the added descriptor seemed to be a middle name, I have only transcribed tax records for Wilsons, so it could very well be more common for other names. Assuming that was the case, then it could be that Culpeper was the maiden name of his mother or another close ancestor. The surname was fairly common in certain parts of Virginia (ironically, though, not in Culpeper County). From a Culpeper family history website: “The Culpeppers who established a permanent family presence in Virginia did so in Lower Norfolk County in the far southeastern corner of the state, and it is from them that most living American Culpeppers descend. ”
Given that, I spent some time looking into Wilsons in Norfolk County. I did find some interesting possibilities, which will be discussed in another post. But I wasn’t able to find any marriages between Culpepers and Wilsons (which doesn’t mean there weren’t any, however).
Regardless, John Culpeper must be related to us through the Henry County Wilson Clan. Based on his reported birth year in Ancestry trees (1760), it is most likely he is a grandson of James Sr. As mentioned above, our Thomas (son of James Sr) already has a known son John, so he would have to be a son of one of Thomas’ brothers. based on James Sr.’s will, the only known brother was Moses. While in the tax records of the 1780’s it is virtually impossible to disambiguate the several John Wilsons that appear (plus the records are quite incomplete), the picture becomes a bit clearer in the 1790’s. The number of John Wilsons dwindles down to 2 (and only 1 in some years’ records, likely due to omissions), and there is a fairly standard pattern of one of them reporting no horses (those and cattle being the only property that was usually taxed), and the other reporting 1 or 3 depending on the year. The latter was identified as John Culpeper in 1793, so it seems reasonable to assume the John with horses in other years was John C also. In 1795 he was recorded as John Wilson (Leatherwood); Leatherwood was a tributary to the Smith River at about the point James Sr originally had land, and was a waterway where I believe his grandson James (our ancestor) also bought land. That, as well as the fact John was regularly intertwined with the rest of our Wilson clan in various years’ records makes it a virtual certainty that he was a close relative. My best guess is that he was the son of either Moses (son of James Sr.) or Daniel (father unknown, but possibly James Sr.) based on his position in some of the tax years.
Unfortunately, however, none of this really adds to our knowledge of James Sr.!