Tuesday, January 24, 2012

A Beginning


Elisha Bellamy was born on January 10, 1760, in Cumberland County, Virginia. Though I still have not unearthed a primary record confirming this date, it seems to be the consensus of most of the secondary sources I’ve found. The secondary sources also suggest that Elisha was the first of eight children born to Samuel and Amy Bellamy.

Cumberland County was much like the rest of colonial middle Virginia: a frontier county on the western border of Virginia which gradually became a middle county, acting like a buffer between the frontier and the more heavily populated tidewater area.[1] Elisha was born as the county began its transition toward middle county-hood. As a result, the community that surrounded Elisha during his growing up years would have been more established than it had been in Cumberland’s frontier days: multi-storied brick houses would have marked where the county’s wealthy planters lived. Tobacco fields would have added a sense of civilization by breaking up the woodlands with their even, well-manicured rows.

Still, the wealth of the upper class did not hide the poverty of those not privileged to be born to planters. Slaves’ and poor farmers’ dwellings dotted the countryside around the plantations. There were clearly distinct and separate lifestyles that could be lived in Cumberland County. Although more research is needed to be sure about Elisha’s early situation in life, it is probable that Elisha grew up in a comfortable farming home on its way to becoming planter elite in the next few generations. Or if he didn’t come from such background, but rather from a poor farming home, he was able to build a rather successful future from meager beginnings.


[1] Garland Evans Hopkins, The Story of Cumberland County Virginia (privately issued, 1942), 18.

Monday, January 16, 2012

What's Elisha's story, Wishbone?

Everyone loves a good story. Children grow up hearing stories read and told. We use stories to teach and to entertain. I believe that stories have power, and as a family historian I collect stories.

A lot of people think family history is akin to genealogy: hours spent in archives looking up old, dusty records no one else wants to read just to find a single birth date. What a bore! Or so they think. I agree that looking through dust-encrusted records for hours on end may not be appealing to everyone—it wasn’t to me until recently—but family history is much more than that. Yes, we love census records. And yes, old dusty records are a little bit exciting. But that’s because every record tells a story: stories of death and life, stories of heartbreak and love, stories of anguish, and stories of peace. That is why we research. That is why I research—to find stories.

Does anyone remember the Wishbone episode where a family friend of the Talbot’s, a Native American story teller, is setting up a story-telling night at the local library? In it, he talks about stories. He says, “[The old stories of my ancestors] tell me who I am. Each story is a path—a trail—that leads to a good place every time I follow it. . . . You follow the trail, but you don’t know where it’s gonna lead, what you’re gonna find along the way.”

I hope that my research—and this blog—will help give light to Elisha Bellamy’s stories and the stories of his family.