Re: BASHAW, VA/KY, 1700s/1800s
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In reply to:
Re: BASHAW, VA/KY, 1700s/1800s
MaryE 9/02/01
Mary,
I cannot tell you how indebted I am too you for dispelling this notion that James Bashaw is James Basham. You would not think that would be a fight you would have to take up, the evidence being so inane. But we have to tell people over and over not to waste their time tracing Frances Taylor's family, she is not yours! James was a Bashaw not a Basham!
I don't know why people pull names out of thin air and try to make them fit their preconceived notion, or why they do not learn at least a little history of the area they are researching.People did things then, just as now, for a reason. It behooves us to find out why. Most of what they did, just as now, was to better their lot in life. So that if a person moved further west, it was probably because the land was cheaper, more fertile, or had characteristics that favored what they wanted to do with it.There also may have been kinfolks there, but it does not mean you can take everyone with the same or similar name and assume a relationship for them without some proof.
As an added note: Every time a person left a port and returned, someone got the headright.What if that were in effect today? I would say, "I am flying to Atlanta on business, if you pay my air fare, I will give you my headright." Who would not do that?
So that every headright is not for an indentured servant. And 'servant' did not have the meaning it has today either. A servant could be a 'factor,' a man who does some kind of work for another. Someone, at that time, for whatever reason, was at "his disposal.'' He could be of the same class.
As for your Bashaws who came to TN, we too, were aware of them, and we also knew they were not Bashams. After we knew that fact, we concentrated on our lines and left the Bashaws to your researchers. I see you have done a very good job, we hope we have done the same.