Re: Charles & Hugh Vance & Hoges 1700s PA & VA (Opequon valley)
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Re: Charles & Hugh Vance & Hoges 1700s PA & VA (Opequon valley)
Brent Snodgrass 9/28/08
My difficulty is that several of the names I'm tracing are fairly common.There were at least 2 William Pattersons in Lancaster county early on (must find a time when I can concentrate to check exactly when), but within a few decadesone was over toward Pittsburgh (with allied families by at least 1755) and another was founding Martinsburg (with allied families including Pendleton and Snodgrass by at least 1771).
Hugh Vance and his father -- whether named Charles or something else -- was in Lancaster county with the rest, went to Princeton in the 1760s, back at Opequon doing the equivalent of graduate seminary study with Smith, and ordained and preaching to 2-5 congregations all along the Opequon from the Potomac to Winchester, VA by 1771.And the Hoges can still be seen in VA for quite a while.(I imagine other branches of the Pattersons, Snodgrasses, Pendletons, etc., also stayed.)
Now, I also know some of the allied families went to Harrodsburg, Mercer county KY, later, between 1783 & 1798.Most of the survivors came back to the Martinsburg area and rejoined the others before their transmontane diaspora from 1800-1810 (when I lose track of most of the other branches though it appears some went to the deep south, to Tennessee, back to KY, to OH and IL and Arkansas and Texas and southern California...)
Well, too much of that is hand-waving, already.I'm still hoping we can nail down some of the individuals, figure out exactly where more of them went.
It would be great to find better traces of Charles Vance in Lancaster county, for instance, or some record of their immigration.Either they weren't keeping records at Philadelphia for a while or the records were destroyed or lost.
These Vances are connected by marriages with the Pendletons, Hannas, Pattersons, Parks, Snodgrasses, Craighills, Beesons.Most of these families have multiple marriages connecting them.Well, and of course the preachers also officiated at a lot of marriages, for which they're mentioned.(Oh, and in connection with the whole post about freedom of religion, the VA Episcopalian Establishment had refused to recognize some such marriages officiated by preachers of other denominations in VA early on.)
OTOH, not being able to find records of people is a good thing, a sign of greater freedom and privacy.Either way, if I find them it's good and if I don't it's good.
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Re: Charles & Hugh Vance & Hoges 1700s PA & VA (Opequon valley)
Brent Snodgrass 9/29/08