Re: Kissiah, Chesterfield County,SC
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In reply to:
Re: Kissiah, Chesterfield County,SC
12/28/01
Allen Winburn, who is the grandfather of Simone Barrett Laurence, researched the Kissiah from around 1910 to 1930.He came up with the information on Rebecca Kissiah.She was born around 1790 and married William Henry Johnson in Chesterfield County probably about 1810 or 1811 because they had a son Henry Johnson who was born around 1812.He and my father had an Indian look and we always felt that it must have come from the Kissiah.John Kissiah is listed near the Patrick and Alligator areas of Chesterfield County during the period 1830-1860.Rebecca is listed as 80 years in the 1870 Census of Chesterfield County, SC.
According to Simone's talk with the Darlington County historian Horace Rudihill, the first mention of a Kissiah in the area is around 1772.I have searched records all over the world for this particular name and derivitives and the earliest I have seen this name in the Carolinas, North or South, is in South Carolina in the 1760s.We do know that there were Johnsons that could have married into the Indians and had this as a first name and whether there were some Indians that Christianized and used this as a surname, we don't know.This is just a theory now with a lot of facts pointing to this direction.I have searched the world on surnames and have never come up with anything that shows this as a name used as anything but a first name as shown in the Bible.
Atkinsons: When I was looking at a copy of my old map of the old area of Thompson Creek of the Chesterfield County, SC, the names along the creek are Purvis, Johnson, Johnston, other names, including the name Atkinson.I feel that this might be of interest to you.These were early people who lived along the Thompson Creek that runs along the Pee Dee River area in Chesterfield County, SC.In some of my records or Simone, we also have come up with the name Ware as being kin to some of these older families such as Johnson, Purvis.We do know that in the old cemetery book for Chesterfield County there are a lot of Kissiah starting form 1830-1850 and they seem to have married in to French Hugonauts such as Isgett and Padgett.I have worked with several of those names down there.On the name Boan, some people spell it as Boone, but it is the same family.This is common around the Bethesda area.
In Virginia in 1744 there is a Kesiah marriage in Caroline County.The Purvis and Johnson people came out of Virginia we know, and so this could be another possible connection with the Kesiahs of Virginia.There was also a death of a male Kesiah in July of 1736 in Middlesex, Virginia.
I hope that this is helpful.Lonnie T. Johnson
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Re: Kissiah, Chesterfield County,SC
12/28/01