Lucy Hanks - Anne Lee Hanks

Tell us more, Vicky Reany Paulson

Anne Lee Hanks' father was William Lee, II, and you state that her mother was Anne Lee Lee. Who were the maternal (Lee) grandparents and great-grandparents? I'm sure we have the correct Lee's somewhere on Geni; we just need to know which ones are Anne Lee Lee's family.

Is this documented in your current book, or the one you are working on?

I'm afraid I was lazy, with my Lee material, in my first book, as I knew the Lee genealogy would be a difficult task. I worked on it daily, for 7 months, and have written it in my second book, which will be out in a matter of weeks. The paternal parents of her father are William and Dorothy Taylor Lee. His parents are William and Alice Fenton Lee. Many use "Felton". but that is the wrong Alice and William Lee, much older, and wrong dates. I researched the area, and found several Fentons, who were also merchants, as was William Lee, but no Feltons living in the area. Daughter, Mary, was born before the date of marriage, suggesting she was most likely a widow. The fact that Richard "the Scholar" Lee sued Mary (Heath) as William left the estate to her, also suggests she was not a Lee. His three sons, were all under age, to be Willed the property. The present day Lee's insist this William died, but he has lots of records, and two Lee books, second edition of Edmund Jennings, and Montique, both have the same story about William. They are available to read, at the Library of Congress. William Lee, who married Dorothy Taylor, was one of these sons.

Hampshire County, Virginia, where Joseph Hanks resided, and has many records, has two census records, 1782, and 1784, which lists the family there. There are 11 persons, 2 parents, and 9 children. The 1784 is of particular value, as his oldest son, Thomas, is now over 20, and there are still 9 children under that age. We know Joseph and Anne Lee Hanks did not have another baby, but a 9th child is recorded. Nancy Hanks Lincoln is recorded in Lincoln's Bible, as being born in 1784. I also found a tax record of his, and information on the family in which he mortgaged the farm to, and acquired his farm, then moved to Kentucky.

Thanks, Vicky ... that points out some issues with paternal side of Anne Lee Hanks.

What about her maternal side? (Anne Lee Lee)

The first William Lee is the son of Col. Richard Lee, who lived next to Thomas Hanks, in Gloucester County, Virginia. He married Alice Fenton, who had a daughter, named Mary. She used the name Mary Lee, but was born years before the marriage date. Alice and William had three sons, William, John, and Richard. William died while the boys were still young, so he made out his Will, leaving everything to Mary "Lee" Heath, the only child of age. It was not normal to leave property to a woman, as they couldn't won property. His brother, Richard "the Scholar", sued to get the property back, as he was heir at law. He won. When the boys were of age, they sued him. He rewarded them with property and money, but much less than their father had. William II married Dorothy Taylor, and their records are at North Farnham Parish. This serves Gloucester County, so the property must have been there. To keep it short, as they have several children, William III is the oldest. Her mother, Elizabeth Taylor appoints William as the Executor of her large estate, but he dies, before probate. His son, William III, marries Ann Lee, and has two daughters, Elizabeth and Anne, and then dies. He then married Marie Thornton, and has several more children, in which you find in many of the Ann and Joseph Hanks records, as well. William III is then appointed Executor of the Wills, and HE dies! Dorothy marries Richard Croucher, and has another son named Richard. ( She also has a Richard with William) Both Joseph and Thomas Hanks, Joseph's cousin, are in this Will, because they're wives are Anne lee and Elizabeth Lee. I also found her pet name for Elizabeth was LUCY! Others call her Betsy. Marie Thornton Lee takes care of the younger children. Her brother, John, is killed while in the military, and has records from the surgeon, who buried him, and also at North Farnham Parish. Brother Charles marries Jane, also there. This shows the DNA test in which the Lee's state proves that she is not related to the "famous" Lee's, is wrong, as they use a John's descendant, and he had none, and a Charles, that married Ann Dabbs. He brothers, Charles, William and John, all settle in Orange County, which becomes Rockingham County. This is why her son, Joseph, takes her to Rockingham County. They didn't move, the area was divided into a different county! She went there, to be with her Lee family, after Joseph Hanks, her husband died. I have no definite record of her death, and burial, but I do have the records of where her brothers were buried. In Herndon's Informants, by Prof. Rodney Davis, there are several quotes, which state she was a red head, and so were some of her children. This branch of Lee's are red heads, and since both of her parents were Lee's, it would be a genetic possiblilty. This is her brief family tree.

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Ann Hanks

This has been an inflamed issue for a couple of years now. http://www.geni.com/discussions/143543 (tip of the iceberg).

Charles Lee m. Ann Dabbs is not a Stratford Hall Lee *and* does not belong to the Richmond County Lee group. He is a Unique, and a Founding Ancestor in his own right.

*Recent* Y-DNA studies on the Richmond County group, including descendants of Charles Lee m. Jane/Jeane/Jenne, *confirm* that they are related to each other AND NOT to the Stratford Hall Lees.

The assumption that William Lee of Richmond = son of William Lee and Ann Fenton is well over a century old, and was based on the arbitrary assumption that two persons of the same name in the same area must be the same person. This is especially dangerous when dealing with names as common as "William" and "Lee".

The Charles Lee of Orange County study is reproduced here on Geni: http://media.geni.com/p13/f6/a8/39/5b/5344483d283b441d/lee_s_of_ora...

I was the person responsible for bringing it to the attention of Geni in the first place.

Wrong, Mavin. Edmond Jennings Lee's book #2 is the source. You should read it, and stop arguing. You had a Charles Lee and Ann Dobbs tested, and a descendant of John Lee. Well, the son of William Lee and Dorothy Taylor Lee named John Lee died in the military, and HAD no descendants. And check out North Farnham Parish, too. The book is available at the Library of Congress. The DNA results of the REAL ancestors at Family Tree DNA. The dirty secret is also exposed in the second book! Even Barton didn't get this right.

Please stop dragging out that old and well-established information that has *nothing* to do with the family of William Lee of Richmond. *Everybody* knows now that Charles Lee m. Ann Dabbs isn't related to *any* other Lee family, and there are literally *scads* of John Lees with and without connections to other lines.

RECENTLY, two descendants of Charles Lee of ORANGE County (Charles Lee m. Jane) were tested, along with a third descendant who traced his line back through Charles' brother William to William Lee of Richmond.

They all matched exactly.

They all matched the pattern for "William Lee of Richmond" on file at both FTDNA.com *and* leedna.com.

NONE OF THEM MATCHED THE DESCENDANTS OF RICHARD LEE AT ALL.

Moreover, the available documentation fully agreed with and supported the Y-DNA information.

All of that information can be found in this article http://media.geni.com/p13/f6/a8/39/5b/5344483d283b441d/lee_s_of_ora... that you refuse to acknowledge the existence of, preferring to rely on a (yes) century-old publication (Edmund Jennings Lee III 1845-1896) that just happens to fit your presumptions better than more recent research and scientific findings.

The National Genealogical Society does not publish trash.

William Lee of Richmond County is, and always has been, the weakest link in the "Lost Descendants of Col. Richard Lee" theory. Even if Col. Lee's son William was the same person who married widow Alice Fenton (and there is neither primary documentation nor universal agreement on this), there is not one iota of primary documentation to show that William Lee of Richmond County was their son.

There was authorial say-so, without supporting documentation of any kind, in a couple of books ("Log Cabins to White House", Mary Taylor Brewer, c1985, and "A Weaving" by Clara McLaughlin Funai, 1977), both of which have been found to contain outdated and inaccurate information. One user review on Google for the Brewer book states bluntly: "This book has more errors than facts, very little documentation, I actually threw mine in the garbage." https://books.google.com/books/about/From_Log_Cabins_to_the_White_H...

An Amazon user review said, rather more politely, "There are documents available now which Brewer apparently was not aware of. Therefore, some family data is correct and some is incorrect. Do not add it to your family tree unless you can verify it with original sources which are now being used by family researchers." http://www.amazon.com/Cabins-History-Taylor-President-Zachary/dp/B0...

Once Y-DNA research matured and became able to tell with some accuracy who *was* related as well as who *wasn't*, the jig was totally up.

Erica already knows all about this. So do Justin, Angus, Maria, Dan, Ben, and Mike Stangel.

I figured as much.. Its a fine balencing act though but i,ll take that to private message rather then pour more petrol. Here

Well, I have happy news as a result of all this.

I'm related to the Hanks, it seems.

I'm still going through the will & marriage books for North Farnham Parish in the county of Richmond, Virginia; it will take a while longer to ensure I've interpreted correctly.

But I can give a summary of what I see so far.

John Wollard was (likely) an indentured servant of the Quaker Jervais Dodson (Dodson is "also" a name in the Hanks tree here). He did fairly well & left an estate that included four slaves.

His grandson Richard Wollard married Elizabeth Hanks - Elizabeth Woolard - I believe, if i'm counting right, Nancy (Hanks) Lincoln's great niece.

I'm concentrating on documenting the Geni profiles. But I'm a happy Geni camper today. :)

Sorry other way around. Elizabeth (Hanks) Woolard is Nancy (Hanks) Lincoln's great aunt.

So your ancestor came from the a family devided against its self with one side wanting war can not stand speaker? That sums it up i dont like a at war all the time family at all but i guess i cant change that.. Excelent work erica..

Some times i think you all encourage us to fight it out just for the fun of it.

Michael my relationship to the Hanks here is a hundred years or more "before" the <tongue in cheek> War of Northern Aggression.

By the time the War came around, the way I have this story, and not sure it's right - my Wollard ancestor had evolved his name to "Willard," and was a gunsmith in Culpeper county, Virginia.

In 1864 he loaded up the covered wagon and crossed the continent to (what was then) Milton, Oregon.

Johnson Monroe Willard

So he didn't serve. It is possible his family was indeed a divided one.

I see. Very intresting and impressive non the less..

He was an ordinary man from an ordinary farming family and survived a great tragedy - losing so many children in the diphtheria epidemic. So impressive for fortitude, yes.