Updates

I'm trying to post once a week, but this week I don't have a biographical sketch to share. I've spent my genealogical time updating the Hancock line, and I have the great good luck of being able to use someone else's well-documented research. John Frederick Dorman, who is the top expert on Virginia genealogy and the senior fellow of the American Society of Genealogists, wrote a series of books on the early settlers of Virginia and their descendants. The books, Adventures of Purse and Person: Virginia, 1607-1625 are now in their fifth edition. The Hancocks are covered in the chapter on the descendants of Thomas Harris. Harris was an "Ancient Planter", meaning he arrived before 1616, stayed at least three years, and paid his own passage to Jamestown. His daughter, Mary Harris, married Thomas Ligon, the "gateway ancestor" I discussed in my last post. Their daughter, Johan Ligon, married Robert Hancock. Johan and Robert are my 9xgreat-grandparents.

As part of my Hancock work, I came across another Revolutionary War soldier, "Colonel" Samuel Hancock. I don't know how I overlooked him before. His older brother, Simon, died in 1776 in Pennsylvania, near the Delaware River. There is no information about how he died, other than that it was while undertaking "military duties". Washington crossed the Delaware at the end of 1776, so it is possible that the Bedford County militia, which is likely where they served, was with Washington. As I discover more, I will continue adding to my earlier post listing Revolutionary War ancestors.