“MY SEARCH FOR THE PARENTS OF JOHN T. ROBERTS b. 1779 N.C./VA/IN”
I never knew my Great Grandmother Effie, the wife of my beloved Scottish Great Grandfather, Angus Boyd, who would say to me as I twirled in circles in front of him ”My Wee Bonnie Lass, Your making my head dizzy”! Then, he would lift me up on his shoulder and off we would go to walk up the hills of Silver Lake, in Los Angeles, CA.
I knew his wife Effie Roberts Boyd died at a young age of the Spanish Flu after giving birth to my Grandfather Hugh and his brother Ralph. Angus never re-married, as she was the love of his life. One of the stories I heard was that one of the “Lucky Baldwin’s”, one of Los Angeles richest, daughter was madly in love with Angus but he remained single until his death.
On my maternal Grandmother’s side, her sister Auntie Viola had spent years doing that side of our family tree going way back to 1635, all Northerners! I never heard a word about Effie until I started my own search and found myself in a time and place I never had considered our family came from…the south!
I first was able to find a match on Ancestry that lead me to a man named Ray Burgess who’s family name was Mylar and with his previous work and help, I found that a Fanny Mylar married Thomas Slaughter Roberts and had my G Grandmother Effie.
The Mylar line went back to the names Brooks, Frost, and lo and be hold, I found a match that connected to Amelia Roberts Frost, who was the daughter of Cornelius Roberts from VA., and Amelia’s son Snowing Frost, but how did that relate to Thomas Slaughter Roberts? How were they related? Were they cousins who ended up in the same town and married in the mid 1800’s in California?
I began corresponding through Ancestry with another California “Robert’s Cousin” who also came from the same line that Thomas Robert’s descended from. Working together, we found his father was William Mill Creek Roberts m. to Nancy Miller, who came to live in Parjaro, Santa Cruz Co., CA. After many months of searching and sharing information, we found records that proved that William’s parents were John T. Roberts and Esther Durnil who had settled in Washington Co., Indiana after coming from VA, through Ky.
We then began our search for John T.s parents on Ancestry and we found many trees that were showing his parents as a James Roberts and Sarah Ellis who were from Robert’s Cove, Grayson Co. VA. Sarah was said to have died in childbirth when John T. was born in 1779 Mt. Airy, Rowan Co., N.C. James then married a Frances Lawrence and had more children including a son named John C. Roberts b.1785.
I was thrilled to have all this information that went on for generations! James. it was said, was the son of James “Jim” Roberts who was the son of William, son of Randal Roberts that came from Ireland and their Irish line went on forever and included royalty and I, being a newbie at this foolishly entered every ancestor in my tree.
We really though we’d hit pay dirt! I then found some of the dates for John T. didn’t quite add up. I started searching for any book I could find. The first was “Robert’s Family History” that was written many years ago going back to Pa and the Quakers. The only copy I could find was at a library in New York that would send it to my library in Palm Spring but I could only see it at the Library and could not make any copies. This was in the early 90’s. No luck, as there was nothing about my John T. in that rare book!
More book and more research was done and I found out about a book, “ROBERT’S FOREBARES OF ROBERT’S COVE” written by Earl Robert in 1986. I tracked down Earl in TN. We spoke on the phone as I wanted to buy a copy. He apparently published it, along with gathering his information of 10 years from Bibles, letters, family reunions held in Grayson Country, libraries, courthouses, and cemeteries. He was a wonderful, sweet man and we had a great chat. I was back and forth to Nashville, writing songs so we had a lot to talk about. I was gifted with a copy of his book as he had said he though there might have been a John born in Robert’s Cove but his memory was getting bad and couldn’t be sure if it was my John T.
When the book came in the mail, I scoured every page with no luck finding my John T. only another son named John with a later birth date than mine (1885, mother was Frances)
Earl had written “It is believed that John Roberts, the son of Randall Roberts and Martha Westropp, came to this country from Brightfields, County Cork, Ireland. later to N.C., to date he said no linkage to Pa has been established.” Apparently, at of that date 15 John Roberts emigrated to VA between 1636 and 1655.
According to Earl, the only known record located on John Roberts was his marriage to Elizabeth in Surrey Co. N.C. and that all of their 14 children were born in N.C. where they lived until his death in 1808. (In 2018 I found through Family Tree Y-DNA Robert’s project that Cornelius Robert’s Direct Male Line connected to this Robert’s Cove Group.) I then had to delete that long line of this wrong Robert’s Cove Group and was back to square one.
I was on and off Ancestry for a few more years and I felt like I had reached a thick brick wall! About 2010, I decided to tackle that brick wall, brick by brick.
I got in touch with a descendant of James and Frances Roberts of the Robert’s Cove Group and told her about my John T. I was told in no uncertain terns that he was no descendant of that line and she gave me all her reasons that he wasn’t from that family. One was that he was not mentioned in James’s will or papers from serving in the Revolutionary War and that every child had to be listed also, there was another son named John b. 1885 who’s mother was Frances, wife of James. She did not want to stay in touch any longer as she has worked on that tree for 25 years. She suggested I speak with another descendant A. Collins who was writing a book and was from Robert’s Cove. We did speak and she and I became friends and corresponded for close to 5 years.
I started investigating every Robert's line I could find in VA and N.C. with the help of A. Collins. None added up with birthdates, etc. Except a Shadrach Roberts and his 1st wife, Katherine Turner who I could place in both Rowan Co., N.C. and Grayson/Carroll Counties, VA.
When Ancestry started the DNA Robert’s Circles I found another Robert’s cousin who when I voiced my suspicions about Shadrach and Katherine Turner, she told me Turner had been a male middle name down her line so I knew I might be on the right track.
My uncle, from my Boyd Family had never known anything about his father’s family so before he passed in 2010 I found the Family Tree Y-DNA Projects. Y-DNA is a test that only traces back the male line so you would have to need a direct male line descendant to test (Son, Father, Grandfather, G Grandfather etc) my uncle donated his DNA we did the Y-DNA Testing and found his furthest male descendant from Scotland.
Okay that was my next challenge! So, from every John T’s male child, I searched for information on every son, and their sons, sons, on down the direct male lines until I found 2 brothers, one in Florida and the other in Arizona. I had searched every obituary I could find for any information on every one of these males. I was able to get a phone number for the brother in Florida who said “No, he wouldn’t do it” but maybe the other brother in Arizona, who had at one time, been interested in Family history, might be interested.
Feeling like I was finally getting to the last few bricks on this wall, I found his number and called. He thought about for a few minutes and listened to me go back in time about our mutual ancestor and he said he “Didn’t think he would be interested in testing but to send him my copies of what I’d researched”. I did send everything I could come up with that might peak his interest but no phone call back. I would check with him every once in awhile to see if he had changed his mind and about 5 years or so later, he finally said “Yes”!
In the meantime there was another direct line male from John T.s line showed up on the Ancestry DNA Circle. I called my guy in Arizona and after a lot of bribing but I finally got him to do the Family Tree Y-DNA testing for the Robert’s Project. I found another direct line male who also showed up in our John T Roberts DNA Circle on Ancestry and he had was also in the FTY-DNA Robert’s Project. I was thrilled!
Then, there was the matter of finding any direct line males from Shadrach Line. That’s when my friend A. Collins, the writer from Robert’s Cove, just happened to mentioned that about a year before she had had a message asking if her line of Robert’s connected to Shadrach’s line and they stayed in touch for awhile comparing notes. She had no phone number or any way to get in touch with him and believed he might have died.
I was able to put on my detective hat and knowing he was from California was able to find his Obituary. I found his daughter and was able to message her on Facebook. She was still very much in mourning the death of her father and could not go through any of his papers. We kept in touch and a few months later she sent me 2 inches high of his papers. I asked if there were any other direct line males in her family who might do the Y-DNA test and she said maybe her brother or uncle but give it a little time. A few months later her uncle agreed and took the Y-DNA Test at Family Tree and joined the Roberts Project. A few months later her brother also tested and joined the Robert’s Project.
Back to the past and results…When I had found that Cornelius Roberts was in the same area as Shadrach, I really though they had to be related as their descendant married 100 years or so later in California but the answer was a big no! I had 2 Robert’s lines which made it twice as hard to figure out who was who.
Cornelius’s male descendants who also had tested with FTY-DNA Project matched the James/John/William Roberts male line’s from Robert’s Cove, VA and in that same Family Tree Y-DNA Robert’s Project Group is my friend A. Collins 2 male descendants.
I am so lucky to have found Family Tree Y-DNA Projects and finally found 3 John T. male descendants and 2 male Shadrach descendants who’s Y-DNA which showed they matched each others direct male line.
It all came together with a lot of searching for deeds, census, land grants, etc. in other counties and figuring out the ways the counties changed names during that time period, plus help from N.C. and VA Genealogy Societies. I read a lot of history about the late 1700’s and learned about the conditions of families in 1779 when John T. was born in N.C. or VA during the Revolutionary War.
I can’t thank these male Y-DNA donors enough in helping me tear down our John T. Robert’s Brick Wall. So sad to say the Robert’s uncle who tested, who was a young man, passed away last year. He was a very talented, sweet, man who will be greatly missed. His name is Craig Roberts…Thank you Craig for stepping up and thanks to all the other Robert’s Cousins, Bev, Shelly, Beckie, Judy, Anne, Len, Roy, James, Vicki and Sherry for all your help in this 15 year search.
You can find the copies of the FTY-DNA Test Results, research papers, etc. on my Ancestry Tree Page and in my Gallery at Bonnie’s Family Tree 2010-2019.
