Shadows Of Empire: The Manley Family in Colonial
The Lloyd Manley
Genealogical Archive (LMGA)
This site is now
deprecated. Please update your bookmarks to:
http://freepages.genealogy.rootsweb.com/~colonialmanleys
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down and read the latest news!
See the
best fit pedigree
You can
view the master index to the LMGA here
Please
send offers for exchange of sources to brucemanley31061@yahoo.com
A list of
good (and some not so good) genealogy libraries can be found here.
A
bibliography (just starting) with links to download primary sources can be
found here.
Individual
analyses of the pedigree based on the LMGA index are MOST welcomed and part of
the reason for sharing all this!
Being a novice
at this gig I personally spent over a thousand dollars and hours of work
debunking a sincerely believed myth solely because I couldn’t find the original
source of the information. After finally tracing the myth back to an anonymous,
un-sourced posting with the Church of Jesus Christ-Latter Day Saints I
confirmed what I had by then suspected; that it was indeed a myth. With good
intent but ill effect it is still being repeated on the internet ad nausea today. So, I’ve created some
ground rules for myself to protect people like me who might run into that sort
of thing. Any information that furthers my research, and for which I can
reciprocate with information of my own, is greatly appreciated. I only ask that
if you use any information I forward to you that you reference it to the LMGA
so that others may trace your steps and readily clear out any myths or fictions
before beginning serious research. I will do the same for any sources you
provide.
The main purpose of the LMGA was to determine the
origins and antecedents of a Jonathan Manley, Senior of Warren co., KY who
lived there from about 1805 to 1825. Information germane to that goal is
especially valuable. I probably cannot offer much assistance with post-colonial
genealogy.
For the
reasons aforementioned, I must unfortunately decline offers of information for
which a primary source for it cannot be readily located or produced (hearsay).
I welcome offers of transcriptions of primary sources only if performed by a
duly appointed official of a legally constituted court, Church official or
government official with jurisdiction and authority to so. Unfortunately I must
decline offers of bible records, wills, accounts, etc. transcribed by
individual persons, and for which a true likeness of the original cannot be
readily produced or located and for which a public archival reference is not
supplied. For photographs please reference, if known, the photographer, place
and time the photograph was taken as well as identities of all persons in the
photograph. Please use full legal names with
maiden names if known. Please do not reference any material in exchange to
the LDS library, regardless of the nature of the evidence (complicit actors in
the mess I described above). A list of good (and some not so good) genealogy
libraries can be found here.
News:
18 August, 2006 - James Blanks,
Blanks family and ancestors had long ties to Charles City co., VA dating back
to late 1600’s
I’ve searched two genealogy
libraries since my last news piece and found, to my dismay, that there were few
if any indices on Charles City co., VA at either library (only one index
covered the relevant time period and it indexed only a tiny fraction of extant
records). If anyone has access to the library at
15 August, 2006 - Jonathan Manley,
Sr. of Warren co., KY may not have originated with
The account record of John Manley of
Prince George’s co., MD arrived yesterday from the MD State Archives. It was a
surprise and probably raises more questions than it answers. Normally an
account record lists the names of the lawful heirs to an estate. In the late
1700’s it would at least name the eldest male and widow. This account names
only the apparent widow, Elizabeth Manley. We know from the deed record that
Elizabeth Manley had an apparent eldest male child named John Manley to whom she gave the inventoried items on 12
December, 1785. The account was done in an orphans (orphans Judge Joseph Beall) court and she asked for an allowance from the estate
(presumably for rearing a minor thence to avoid an orphanage). Moreover, John
Manley appears to have died not in 1783 but on (27 March 1781, 27 May 1781).
All this strongly suggests that John Manley was a very young man and it seems
highly unlikely that a man who had to have been born before 1730 would be
having his first male child in the 1770s. This coupled with the locating of
Nancy Blanks Manley at Charles City co., VA is
beginning to suggest a paradigm shift. A statewide trace prior to 1787 on the
combination ‘Nancy Manley’ (Nancey Manley - Nancy
Manly - Nancey Manly) in WV, VA, PA, DE, MD, NC and
SC resulted in the one hit aforementioned There was also the later hit in 1803
in which the WV court clerk unambiguously calls her Nancy Manley wife of
Jonathan Manley (“Jonathan Manley and his wife Nancy Manley”) three times. I
now have more new records (previously unknown) on Jonathan Manley, about a
dozen, than I have on any one Manley in St. Mary’s co., MD. Yet with half as
many records I can at least guess what the family connections were. With
Jonathan I can find no candidate in the area that would fit the description of
father or mother. Everyone is accounted for. Common sense and experience in
colonial records tells me that given these facts he probably was not from that
area. There are really two types of records we’re talking about here. The first
is merely the kind that shows somebody exists at a time and place (what I’m
referring to) and the second is the type that demonstrates familial relations
(which do NOT always exist). Records of the first kind DO exist and if someone
is there for at least 5 years SOMETHING will show up. This pattern holds for
Jonathan Manley quite well all the way back to 1776 at MD - I have a more or
less continuous record of where he was and when. Neither he nor his parents
were in MD prior to 1771 (1776 - 5 yrs). The John Manley who died in 1781, the
last candidate to establish that flow of evidence, was the right age to be
Jonathan’s brother, not father. I’ve turned the entire state of MD upside down
and shaken it and there is no trace of an older Jonathan Manley or other suitable
Manley there. Perhaps Jonathan and Thomas were nearest kin to John Manley
because they were brothers and perhaps these three brothers originated from the
Charles City co., VA area, went to MD to fight in the revolutionary war, little
John R. was born there, brother John was killed, brother Thomas appeared at
Warren co., KY on 1820 (only trace I’ve gotten on a Thomas Manley of the
appropriate age) and Jonathan moved on to WV. The war service would have been
through local militias (Jonathan 1776 Bladensburg - earliest MD hit) and not
the Continental Army. That fits the evidence a lot better. There are other
known Manley clans closer to Charles City co., VA that could be related.
Origins in VA may also explain why John R.s children
seemed to think he was born in VA instead of MD. John R. was twice right (USC
1850, 1860), but the children confused it with his father’s birthplace as John
R. would have been born in as little as 2 years after arriving from VA. It may
also be the case that Jonathan’s father was indeed Jonathan (he signed the Oath
of Fidelity as “Junior”), but I’ll hold out for the possibility that it was
John because of nickname similiarities. I think his
father was one or the other as no other related John or Jonathan Senior has
been found in MD at that time (1778). As
soon as I can get my hands on the indexes for Charles City co., VA I’ll update
again. The pedigree on this site was entirely dependent on what seemed like the
reasonable assumption that Jonathan Manley originated with