The Weaver Family
Compiled
and Submitted by Raymond Weaver
victoryfirst504@gmail.com
Please
contact the submitter with questions or comments.
Who are Paul and Margaret
Weaver and their ten children? Where did this
family come from genealogically? Who were their
ancestors and what was their past?
Mom often talked about her ancestors. She
knew about her Grandfather Albert Andrews’
adventure in the South Dakota Indian Territory.
She knew, of course, that her mother was born
there. I remember her telling the story of how
her father, as a child, told a workman in his
father’s work shop ( Columbia Bridge Co. ) to
sharpen his knife “as sharp as a razor”, on his
father’s orders ( not true ). I recall Mom
telling about Peter Nevius who, according to
her, was the Mayor of New Amsterdam under Peter
Styuvesant ( not substantiated ).
Daddy knew somewhat less about his
ancestors. He knew they were from upper East
Tennessee and originally from
I had passing interest in family history
until the television series “Roots”, a twelve
hour docu-drama in January, 1977. This series
chronicled a negro family from the time of the
free ancestor’s capture in
Over the last thirty years I have
discovered an amazing amount of information
about our family. Almost all of it has been
finding other’s work. I dare say that it is rare
for an amateur genealogist to make an original
discovery. One such discovery comes to mind. I
found the grave plot of the Charles Andrews
family at
When I checked the obituary for the date
of this twenty-one year old male, Herbert F
Andrews, I found that he had been killed in a
very tragic hunting accident in North Chicamauga
Gorge. This happened only two months after the
death of his mother, Mary Winters Andrews. Some
seventeen years later ( 1915 ) his father,
Charles W Andrews, was killed when the horse
pulling his buggy bolted, throwing him out. These are only a few of the
untimely, tragic deaths that I have found. In
1943, Mom’s brother,
Uncle
Bob Morrison, an Army Air Corps flight
instructor, was killed when his plane crashed
while on a training flight with a student pilot.
A century earlier it is reported that Elijah
Witt was killed when he was thrown from a horse.
Moses Gamble, brother of Andrew Gamble, (
Rebecca Trotter’s maternal grandfather ), was
killed in the Sultana Incident in which a
Mississippi River steam-boat exploded while
loaded with returning Union POWS. There have been two deaths
in war, Grandma Rebecca Weaver’s brother, Amos
Alexander Trotter, died with typhoid during the
Civil War. Granddaddy Bob Morrison’s uncle,
David Harry Morrison, was killed in action
during the Civil War two days after the enemy
had, in fact, surrendered. Because of
communications problems it was common for
fighting to continue well after the official end
of hostilities. Great Grandma Nora Jollay’s
father, Chesley Skeen, served with the Grand
Army of the Republic ( Two family lines are
believed to be of Nordic or Viking descent. It
is believed that the Morrison Clan of Lewis,
All our ancestors came to There is a sprinkling of
Welsh, Dutch, and French as well. All our
ancestors that we know about were Calvinist
Protestants when they immigrated. There is some
reason to suspect that one family, the Ezells (
William Weaver – Kissia Ezell – numerous
spellings ), may have been Jewish. It is
possible that Ezell is a culturalized form of There is however, a
tradition of American Indian ancestry. The
source of this ancestry has never been
identified. Brown eyes crop up in our line from
time to time. These are not consistent with our
known ancestry. I remember my Grandfather, Odes
Weaver, teaching me to count to twenty in
“Indian”. He never said where that came from.
Aunt Loan ( Leona Weaver Byrd ), Grandpa George
Weaver’s sister, was told when her husband died,
that if she fell on hard times she could go live
on the Cherokee Indian Reservation in One of our Dutch ancestors,
Johannes Nevius, was believed to have been a
farmer on
Two
brothers, John and Guillermo ( William ) Witt,
escaped with their lives from Catholic France.
They came to the Huguenot colony of Manakin in Spiritually, all the
immigrating ancestors that we know about were
Protestant Calvinists. This is not surprising
given that they were mostly from Presbyterian
Scotland. In all fairness we must recognize that
religious persecution and martyrdom happened on
both sides. The severest incident we know of is
the beheading of Grandfather William Ruthven ( see “Gowery Conspiracy”
and “Raid of Ruthven” online ). This was
probably as much political as spiritual and his
conduct was less than totally noble. Some of the
Ruthvens escaped to Our Methodist roots are
very strong on both the Weaver and Jollay side.
Grandpa George Weaver was the oldest member of
Second Methodist in Our Catholic roots come
from one source, the family of Charles Carol
Morrison and Mary Elizabeth Jones. We know very
little about the Jones family. Charles Carol
Morrison’s grandfather, Thomas Morrison, was a
devout and godly Presbyterian Christian, as all
his ancestors had been. Thomas’ son, David
Humfreville Morrison was quite secular according
to his obituary. We do not know precisely how
Charles and Elizabeth became Catholics. I
suspect that There is royalty in our
past. The facts of life are that there is
royalty in everyone’s past if you go back far
enough. Yes, there are Barrons and Earls and
even Lords and Kings. That is NOT who we are. We
are commoners. We are artisans. Only two of our
direct-line ancestors are known to have a
college education ( Pastor David Samuel Andrews
and physician, Dr John Cutler Emery ). Our ancestors were
religious refugees and pioneers. Many of our
ancestors built log cabins in the wilderness.
They befriended and even fought wild Indians (
Christian Hettick – killed by Indians ). They
built stockade forts ( Josias Gamble – Many of our ancestors
fought in the Revolutionary War. A number made
the First Families of Tennessee as “charter”
residents of the state when it was received into
the union in 1796. Several served with the Union
Army in the Civil War. There were no known
Confederates, only one known slave owner (
Josias Gamble ). There has never been a single
divorce among our direct-line ancestors. Only
one of our ancestors that we know of, has ever
been charged with a crime.
Grandfather Lord William Ruthven was a
leader of Scottish Protestants in 1584. He was
charged with holding King James IV of After her father died, Mary
was raised by her mother in Catholic France.
When she returned to We know very little about
our Weaver ancestors. Grandfather William and
Kizzia Weaver were married in Orange Co NC on 1
Oct 1812. We next find them at Halls Crossroads
north of We first locate the Jollays
in On Mom’s side, the
Morrisons were originally from the Isle of
Lewis, New Hebrides, on the north-west coast of Grandfather Samuel
Morrison’s grandson, Thomas, built a river raft
on the main street of The Andrews Family was from So we see all these strands
coming together in |