Chat
|
Daily Search
|
My GenForum
|
Community Standards
|
Terms of Service
|
|
|
I was very excited about your inquiry, particularly about the black lady who visited your uncle in Teigenmouth, England. I am African American, and my last name is Birchett, and I have been very excitedly searching the history of our family. We trace our origins to Prince George County, Virginia. I have talked to a person who lives near Hampton, who says that his ancestry includes a set of Birchetts who descended from French Huguenots in the early 1500-1600s. They had five small plantations in Prince George County, and each plantation had between 5-8 slaves. The custom in those days was for freed slaves to take the last names of the plantation owners. The records on the Internet, of deeds, wills, and slave registers, traces the Birchetts of Prince George County all of the way back to an Edward Birchett, who appears to have given five Native American slaves to a James Thweatt in exchange for care when he and his wife became ill. I received this information from the e-mail of a Max Killer (emoss@erols.com). This Edward Birchett and ann lived in 1713. There is a J.D. Thweatt who served as a colonial soldier for Virginia. Antoher Thweatt appears to ahve served as a corporal in Company K of the 50th Tennessee Confederate Infantry. I don't know if there is a connection between the two Thweatts.
By the way, all of the other African Americans that I have met have had the last name Burchett -- not Birchett. Have you any idea why there are so many variations of the spelling of this name. One of the searchers on this Genealogy Forum list says that the name can be traced back to France, and the Bouchet version? Have fun! (smile).
Please let me know if you run across any more information about the descendants of slaves from the Birchett plantations.
Followups:No followups yet |
| http://genforum.genealogy.com/burchett/messages/88.html | ||
 |
Agreement of Use Link to GenForum Add Forum |
|