Re: Robert Greenhow husband of Rose Oneal Greenhaw the spy
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In reply to:
Re: Robert Greenhow husband of Rose Oneal Greenhaw the spy
Sylvia Greenhawk 3/11/05
Hi Sylvia,
My John Greenhow did have a brother, Thomas who was b. ca 1723. However they were b. England and Thomas died in Eng 1796.
He was married to Dorothy Wright.
I have no idea where they originally came to in America. The earliest I have on them is that they were in Va after 1746 and before 1753.
None of the family that I have found so far has any references to MD.
That doesn't mean they were not there just that I haven't found a connection yet.
Evidently our line stayed in the Southern parts of the states some moving west into Ark, TX, OK, AND COL eventually.
I have been told that a/some brothers of John Greenhow I,had gone to Ireland or Wales and then came over to America but I haven't gotten that far back in research yet to find that info. So perhaps your line came thru them.
Now as to the name, ha!!!! Since many people back then did not read nor write sometimes, I have found that there are many spellings of the name because many times it was spelled or mispelled if you look at it according to the way the HEARER heard the name pronounced. An example isa xxgrandmthr's name was Penelope P Bell which we knew had married in a certain place but could not find her name in the marriage record.
After years of searching a helpful courthouse clerk told us to look for a phonetic spelling.
We did and found her listed as Peeble in one listing and People in another. Especially on census records this type ofdiscreptencies are abundant. So many times even within the same family the names on censuses are spelled differently.
And the area in which they lived had very different I guess you would call it 'brogans' and because of the differences in languages of which English is very hard for some to understand it was difficult to translate what one was saying sometimes.
I have found this very true in our French ancestors, as well.
A very common error I have found in my line is the interchange of GreenhaW with GreenhaM I think probably because of the 'fancy' handwriting many people had back then. Several times the M & W have been interchanged. One researcher insists my Grandfather was married to his own Mother because of a mixup like this! His father's middle initial W was interchanged looking like my grandfather's middle initial M due to the fancy handwriting in court records.
It is possible that your ancestors may have had American Indian kin and the name Greenhawk is an Indian renderingof the Greenhow/Greenhaw name as many of their names did contain references to animals, birds and other works of nature. I haven't found any proof of Indian ancestry although I was told by my Grandfather all my life that we had Indian ancestors which I assume he heard from some of his ancestors.
I only have one William and he was b. NC and moved to Ala. My Jonathan was born in Eng and died in Ala and all his children were b in Va, NCor Ala and his son Jonathan Jr was born in NC and died in ALa so I don't think they were in MD
I am sorry I couldn't be of more help but maybe some of the problems I have found will give you some ideas of what to look for.
Good hunting.
Ferne