Susannah’s surname may not be Anderson. Her first name might not even be Susannah, but since we do have that name published in family history, Susannah is what I’m calling her unless we discover otherwise.
How I wish we had firm evidence about Susannah, the wife of John Vannoy. Something. Anything. But we don’t.
Of course, we know that she existed, by some name, because John Vannoy had children whose births were recorded in a Bible and he certainly didn’t bring them into this world by himself.
If Susannah’s birth surname might not have been Anderson, or its Dutch version, Andreissen, where did this information come from? In fact, where is her name recorded at all?
Great question.
Earlier Researchers
Thank goodness for earlier researchers. While they may not have gotten everything right, they did us a HUGE favor by recording what they were told, often reaching back two or three generations. This at least gives us something to work with. If the family members who recorded that history lived a century ago, that means their information may reach back two centuries, give or take. Some did us the additional favor of researching local records or writing about letters and documents that have since been lost to time.
James H. Hook, in a book written in 1957, referring to John Vannoy, tells us:
“He married, about 1740, Susannah, who, according to his grandson, Andrew Vannoy, son of Nathaniel, was Susannah Anderson, born in New Jersey. Confirmation of the New Jersey Origin of the Vannoys in North Carolina is given in the Cleveland Genealogy, Vol. III, p. 2086.”
Professional genealogist, Yvette Hoitink, in her summary about Susanah, writes:
The book is well documented and discusses the merits of the evidence, using qualifiers where appropriate. This shows that the compiler was a competent genealogist.
This publication shows that it was grandson Andrew Vannoy, son of Nathaniel who said his grandmother was Susannah Anderson, born in New Jersey. Note that this recorded tradition does not name her parents, and they are not recorded elsewhere in the book. It is likely that later researchers tried to fit her into the known Anderson family of New Jersey by making her a daughter of Cornelius or Andrew.
According to the publication, Andrew Vannoy, son of Nathaniel son of John, was born on 4 November 1783. This means he would not have personally known Susannah’s parents. However, he may have known Susannah herself, if she indeed died in 1816 as her Find-a-Grave memorial indicates.
His identification of her as an Anderson from New Jersey may have been an amalgamation of family stories. After all, he had a great-grandmother who was an Anderson from New Jersey. Without corroboration by independent evidence, this family tradition is not reliable.
The great-grandmother that Yvette is referencing is Rebekah (Rebecca) Anderson/Andriesen (1697-1727), who married John Vannoy’s father, Francis Vannoy (1688-1774), in 1718 in Hunterdon County, New Jersey.
James Hook also wrote about John Vannoy in an earlier 1954 book about the Lt. Samuel Smith family:
“His wife was Susannah, born Susannah Anderson, according to a letter written by her grandson, Andrew Vannoy, son of Nathaniel.” and ” It was Andrew Vannoy, a grandson of John who gave his grandmother Vannoy’s name as Susannah Anderson but did not give his great grandfather Vannoy’s first name.”
It also provides more information about the family Bible:
“The Bible of John and Susannah has been preserved. The family data in it begins with this entry: ‘John Vannoy, son of Jesse, was married to Susannah Vannoy. ‘Apparently, this was a later entry and should not be accepted.”
Jesse? Where the heck did Jesse come from? I’ve worked with the Vannoy records for more than 30 years now, and I’ve never once seen a Jesse this early or attributed as John’s father. I’ve never seen this information anyplace else either.
Also, about that Bible being preserved – I’d love to see it. Where is it? Does someone even have a photocopy? Checking my emails from 25 years ago, people were talking about it then, but in the abstract.
In his later 1957 publication, Hook attributed John as the son of Francis based on Francis’s will, as discussed in the John Vannoy article.
From the book, New Jersey, Abstracts of Wills 1670-1817
August 15, 1768 Francis Vannoy of Hopewell, Hunterdon Co., yeoman, will of. Personal and real estate to be sold and money given to my 4 children, John Vannoy, Hannah Willson, Cornelius Vannoy and Andrew Vannoy. Eldest son John to have 5 pounds more than the rest. Exec son Andrew and son-in-law Peter Willson. Witnesses – Francis Wilson, James Willson, Andrew Wilson, Proved July 21, 1774
On the 1722 Hopewell Township, NJ, tax list, we know that Francis Vannoy was listed with 3 sons and 3 daughters, and that his probable brother, Andrew who is listed on the tax list as Abraham, has 1 son and no daughters.
We know that John Vannoy, and his wife, whoever she was, had left New Jersey and were in Rowan County, NC, in the Jersey Settlement, at least by the fall of 1752.
What Do We Actually Know About Susannah?
We are going to have to take Susannah’s first name on faith that her grandson knew and remembered her name accurately. I think that’s fully reasonable. The grandson, Andrew, was born in 1783. It’s very likely that both John Vannoy and Susannah were deceased by that time, but his father, Nathaniel, very clearly knew his mother’s name.
What do we actually know about Susannah?
The first thing we know, or can at least infer about Susannah is that she grew up in the Presbyterian church.
Let’s look at the pieces of evidence that we have collected.
Cornelius Andreissen and Annetje Opdyke, the grandparents of John Vannoy, Susannah’s future husband, had five of their children baptized in the Presbyterian Church in Churchville, Pennsylvania, on June 6, 1710.
By 1724, when Cornelius Andreissen died, they were living in Hopewell Township, New Jersey. In fact, Cornelius Anderson owned a mill in the southwestern corner of Hopewell Township.
In the book, A History of the Old Presbyterian Congregation of “The People of Maindenhead and Hopewell,” and More Especially of the First Presbyterian Church of Hopewell, we find not only the history of the founding of the church, but also of the settlement of this region, early taxpayers and residents. The land for the original church was purchased in 1697 in what is today the village of Pennington. The village, originally called Queenstown, in honor of Queen Anne, probably began to attract settlers in about 1708. Prior to that, it was wilderness.
The original name of the congregation was “The People of Maidenhead and Hopewell,” and 100 acres of land was conveyed for the purpose of “erecting a meeting-house and for burying-ground, and school-house.” Among others, the land was conveyed to Johannes Lawrenson, Thomas Smith, Jasper Smith, Joshua Andris, Enoch Andris, Cornelius Andris, and Lawrence Updike. Updike is Opdyke, Andris is Andriessen that became Anderson, and Lawrenson is Louwrensen.
John Vannoy’s father, Francis, married the daughter of Cornelius Anderson and his wife Annetje Opdyke, whose father was Johannes Louwrensen Opdyke. Cornelius Anderson’s other daughter married John Smith, so these families were connected as early as 1697 and likely earlier when they were living across the river in New York.
In the church booklet, we note one Frances “Fonnoy” (Vannoy) listed in 1722 with 10 cattle and horses and 150 acres of land. Of course, that was before the infamous 1731 Coxe Affair where the powerful Coxe family claimed that the land purchase had never been sold – attempting to coerce the settlers into paying for their land a second time in order not to lose it entirely.
John Vannoy was probably born in Maidenhead Township, near Hopewell, sometime around 1716, give or take a few years in either direction, not long after his family moved to the frontier.
Susannah, his eventual wife, was born between 1713 and 1720. If she was an Anderson daughter, her father was most likely on the 1722 tax list, which includes:
- Abraham Anderson with 1 son and 10 daughters
- Benjamin Anderson with 2 sons and no daughters (probably eliminates him)
- Cornelius Anderson with 3 sons and 4 daughters
- Ellakim Anderson with 1 son and no daughters (probably eliminates him)
- John Anderson with no sons and 4 daughters
- Isaac Anderson with 1 son and 2 daughters
It’s worth noting that these names have been Anglicized, and I can’t fit everyone into a known family structure, although Ellakim is clearly the son of Cornelius based on later documents.
Even though the community would probably have been struggling to build a church and school, I hope that the children were being educated which was clearly the intend of the deed conveyance. I believe they were, in part, because John Vannoy or Susannah recorded their children’s names and birth dates in a Bible. You can’t do that if you can’t write.
We know that Susannah was living in the same location as John Vannoy in Hunterdon County, New Jersey, in about 1740 when they married. You have to live close enough to court. Their first child was born on April 12, 1741, just three weeks before her father-in-law pledged money for the Presbyterian parsonage. Baptism records that no longer exist would have reflected the baptisms of their children. It’s interesting that their only child known to have been baptized in North Carolina is Daniel Vannoy who was born on February 22, 1752 which tells us that he was not baptized earlier.
On May 1, 1741, Francis Vannoy is listed as a donor for the parsonage of the church, so we know beyond a doubt that his son John was Presbyterian, and based on the early Andreissen involvement, so were the Anderson and Opdyke families.
While this church isn’t original, it was reconstructed in its original location. The church today looks very much like it did in 1923, above.
According to the plaque on the front of the church, it was built in 1724, rebuilt in 1783 or 1785 (I can’t see the date clearly), enlarged and then rebuilt again in 1847, burned in 1874, and rebuilt a final time then. This also explains why none of the parish records exist.
In the churchyard, or burying-ground as was stated in the deed, several Vannoy burials can be found on FindaGrave. Assuredly, there are many more unmarked graves, very probably including Susannah’s children born about 1744 and 1748. Her children’s grandparents, probably all four of them, would rest here, too – as would Susannah and John’s siblings.
On the June 26, 1753 tax list, Francis Vannoy, with 3 sons and 3 daughters, and Andrew Vannoy with one son, both appear on the list, but John Vannoy does not. That makes perfect sense, because by the third week of September that year, John registered his stock mark in Anson County, North Carolina in the Jersey Settlement – so they had already left.
I had previously surmised that the Vannoys were probably Presbyterian, based on later interactions with Presbyterian circuit riding ministers in North Carolina. Presbyterian minister Hugh McAden stayed with the Vannoy family on September 5, 1755, after having ridden 45 miles that day. He clearly knew where they lived and how to find their cabin. He also stayed with the Anderson and Smith families during that same trip, both of whom were related to John Vannoy through his mother, and to Susannah as well if she was an Anderson.
Susannah would have been about seven months pregnant when the road-weary preacher came to visit. She was looking after a whole passel of young kids and cooking in an outdoor kitchen. She was probably hot, sweaty, and tired. I’m sure she was gracious, but the last thing she really wanted was an unexpected guest. Nevertheless, practicing frontier hospitality, she would have wiped her hands on her apron, handed him a bowl of whatever was in the pot, and made him welcome.
On the other hand, Reverend McAden surely brought news of her family and friends back in New Jersey. She, of course, hadn’t seen them in more than three years, so that probably overshadowed her fatigue. Regardless, he bunked with the family, as was the custom for frontier visitors.
Combined with the 1710 Andreissen Presbyterian baptisms, the early Hopewell Township Presbyterian records including the Vannoy, Andreissen and Opdyke families, and the continued thread into North Carolina, this confirms that Susannah was Presbyterian, at least initially.
The only other choice was Baptist. A Baptist Meeting House was built in Hopewell about 1715. Baptists would clearly influence Susannah’s life and that of her children, but that was years in the future.
Children
The majority of the information we have about Susannah is through her children, thanks to those Bible records, plus additional research.
- Rachel Vannoy was born on April 12, 1741, and was reported to have married Neil Patton, I was unable to confirm this, although, the Rev William Hamilton Eller (1842-1922) reported their marriage, here. However, she unquestionably married John Darnell sometime around or before 1771. They had four sons, including twins, before John reportedly died at the Battle of Hanging Rock in the Revolutionary War when the twins were but three months old. In January 1782, Rachel was ordered to deliver “what orphan children she had in possession” to the court, and in April, she was granted administration of John’s Estate. In 1785, with her brother, Andrew Vannoy, she posted a bond to administer another estate, and in October of 1787, apprenticeship records show that the twins, Benjamin and Joseph, born May 6, 1780, were apprenticed to Andrew Vannoy “to learn the occupation of farmer, read, write and cipher.” In 1787, she was shown on the state census with one male child under the age of 21, and in 1795, her land was mentioned in a neighboring deed.
- Andrew Vannoy was born on August 12, 1742, and died on October 9, 1809, in Wilkes County. His marriage license was issued on October 18, 1779, with Susannah Shepherd, daughter of John and Sarah Shepard. They had ten children.
- Appears to be a child missing who would have been born in late 1743 or early 1744.
- Abraham Vannoy was born on January 15, 1745. We have no further information about Abraham, so it’s possible that he died relatively young.
- Francis Vannoy was born on August 13, 1746, and died near Barbourville, Knox Co., KY, on July 26, 1822. The first record of Francis appeared in the court claims in 1765 in Rowan County, NC. By 1779, he was a juror in Wilkes County, where he received land grants for seven parcels of land between 1779 and 1799 for a total of 710 acres. He moved to Knox County around 1815 based on lawsuits in Wilkes County. Francis had as many as 19 children, not all proven, by at least two wives.
- Appears to be a child missing who would have been born in 1748.
- Nathaniel Vannoy was born on February 16, 1749. He died of measles at Greenville, SC, at age 87 at the house of his daughter, Mrs. Sallie Cleveland, on July 26, 1835. “He was a soldier of the Rev. War and served with Col. Benjamin Cleveland at King’s Mountain.” His obituary further stated that he was “half English and half French in stock,” neither of which was accurate, and that he was the first white man to be born in western NC, which is doubtful. His wife was Elizabeth Ray “of Ashe Co., NC,” and they had nine children. Nathaniel was also one of the early Baptist preachers in Wilkes County.
- Hannah Vannoy, born March 26, 1751, may have married the Reverend Andrew Baker. There’s some question about whether Andrew Baker actually married Hannah, Susannah or any of the Vannoy daughters.
- Daniel Vannoy was born on February 22, 1752, and married Sarah Hickerson on October 2, 1779. In August of 1774, he was baptized into the Dutchman’s Creek Church that had an arm at Mulberry Fields, and in September 1776, he purchased a scythe at the estate sale of James Burks in Surry County. He died sometime after January 1795 when he sold land and is not found in the 1800 census or later records. The family didn’t leave because his children remained in the area. His son, Joel Vannoy, married Elizabeth Saint Clear in March of 1817 in Wilkes County, and Little Hickerson signed their marriage license as bondsman. Little Hickerson was also known as Samuel Stewart, as discussed in this article, and was a nephew of Daniel’s wife, Sarah Hickerson.
- Susannah Vannoy was born July 6, 1754, and may have married John Long, Sr., although I cannot confirm that.
- Katherine Vannoy was born on December 26, 1755.
Baby Math
Given that Susannah’s first child was born on April 12, 1741, she became pregnant in mid-July 1740, suggesting that she was married a few months earlier, probably in early 1740. Of course, this presumes that Rachel was actually her first child.
Given that Susannah’s last child was born the day after Christmas in 1755, and it’s unlikely that she conceived another child after age 42, or so, that suggests she was born about 1713-ish.
This assumes that she lived long enough to have had another child in 1757.
- So, if she was 42 when Katherine was born, Susannah would have been born around 1713.
- If Susannah died before 1757, then she could have been born as late as 1723 or so, although 18 was a bit young on the frontier for a marriage.
We’re also presuming that Susannah was John’s only wife. Given that there was a Bible, I would presume that a second wife would have been noted if there was one. Also, a first wife would have been listed as the mother of the earlier children.
It really makes me uneasy that I’ve used the words presume or assume four times in this section alone, but all of this adds up to evidence.
And we’re not done yet.
Cousins
I retained Yvette Hoitink to sift through the various Dutch records both in the Netherlands and the US colonies to see if we could find any hint whatsoever as to the identity of Susannah’s parents.
We do have a significant hint in the fact that Andrew stated that John and Susannah were cousins.
What is a cousin?
The closest cousin one could have would be first cousins, people who shared grandparents.
If John and Susannah were first cousins, and Susannah’s birth surname was Anderson/Andreissen, that means they would have shared grandparents – Cornelius Anderson/Andriessen and Annetje Opdyke.
If they were second cousins, they would have shared great-grandparents, one generation further back in time.
I retained Yvette to thoroughly research all of the children of Cornelius and Annetje to see if there was any hint that Susannah might be related. Yvette did find a significant amount of information, but absolutely nothing connecting anyone with the name of Susannah, which is not a typical Dutch name.
Yvette then researched a generation further back, and in doing so, revealed the parents of Annetje – but nothing to connect Susannah.
It may be worth noting that after Cornelius Anderson died in 1724, his widow, the administrator of his estate, was referenced as “Annah,” which was clearly the name by which she was called. Her son, John Anderson and son-in-law, Francis Vannoy, were co-bondsmen. I only mention this because Annah and Susannah could sound similar, but checking the estates and known children and grandchildren of Annetje Opdyke does not show another Annetje, Annah, or Susannah. Of course, some children could have been omitted, and in at least one will, Andrew Anderson, no children were mentioned at all.
But what if Susannah’s last name wasn’t Anderson? People are more likely to know their grandmother’s first name than her birth surname. I’ve seen a grandmother’s birth surname recorded incorrectly on someone’s death certificate countless times. I’ve chased so many wild geese.
Maybe Cousins on the Vannoy Side?
What if Susannah and John were cousins on the Vannoy side, and not the Anderson side?
John’s grandparents, John Vannoy (1644-1699) and Rachel, whose surname remains stubbornly elusive (zilch evidence for either Cromwell or Cornwall), had three boys and three girls.
- Francis (1688-1774) – our John’s father who married Rebecca Anderson, so he’s accounted for.
- John Vannoy – born about 1686 and alive in 1699 when his father wrote his will, but nothing more is known.
- Abraham Vannoy – born about 1690, married Susanna Clayton, started having children about 1721, and died in 1774 in Kent County, Delaware.
- Rachel – born about 1692 and appears to have married John Wells
- Sarah – born about 1694
- Catherine – born about 1696
Additional research may reveal more about Rachel’s daughters. I’d love to find someone confirmed to descend through all daughters from Rachel to take a mitochondrial DNA test so that we have something to work with. If that’s you, please reach out – I have a DNA testing scholarship with your name on it!
There’s no mention of a daughter, Susannah, anyplace, but at least we find the first name of Susannah in the family. John Vannoy’s uncle, Abraham, married Susannah Clayton. I was initially excited, but I quickly came to realize when researching this family further that for John Vannoy’s wife, Susannah to have been Abraham’s and Susannah’s daughter, she would have had to have been their firstborn, AND never been mentioned anyplace. It’s not impossible, but it is unlikely.
Furthermore, we have a different problem. Little Creek, Delaware, where Abraham lived and where Susannah Clayton’s parents lived, is about 125 miles from Hopewell, New Jersey, so the children of John’s son Francis and John’s son Abraham probably never met. Francis moved to Hopewell Township at least by 1722, and possibly as early as 1714, before his son John was born.
Conversely, maybe Susannah was a daughter of Francis’s brother, John, about whom we know nothing – including if he survived to adulthood. A John Vannoy is not found in the 1722 tax list, so John likely either died or moved elsewhere.
There are too many Johns in this family! It seems that every child in every generation married and had one. I swear, I need to assign numbers.
Frontiers and Children
Based on John Vannoy’s history, we know that Susannah lived through the Coxe Affair in New Jersey in 1731 as a child, where, if settlers had purchased land, they lost it. The only other alternative was to repurchase their own land, causing many people to leave and start over elsewhere and forcing others into bankruptcy.
When John and Susannah married, owning land probably seemed like nothing more than an unrealistic dream – but crooked politicians could wrest it away from you with the stroke of a pen and a few lies. By the time they had been married more than a decade, they still didn’t own land, and they apparently weren’t taking any chances.
John and Susannah loaded up and made the long journey from New Jersey to the Jersey Settlement in NC, some 600 mountainous miles that probably took two or three months if nothing went awry. Any wagon breaking in the train meant that everyone stopped to repair it, so the journey was likely arduous.
We know they were in Rowan County by the third Tuesday of September 1753 when John registered his stock mark at court.
This journey would have been made with children ages 12, 11, 8, 7, 4, two and a half, and 19 months.
Does this mean that Susannah’s next baby arrived at some unknown place along the road, and didn’t survive?
I fear that it does.
Babies were generally born about 18 months apart, but sometimes in as few as 12 months and as many as 24.
Did Susannah give birth to a baby in a makeshift bed in the back of a wagon, with absolutely no privacy, have to bury her infant someplace alongside the trail, then have to pull away and leave the tiny grave behind?
Oh, my aching mother’s heart. God bless them both.
Susannah’s next child wouldn’t be born until July of 1754, so she would have become pregnant in October 1753, just a month or so after John registered his stock mark.
This tells me that they lost a baby someplace on the way to North Carolina, or perhaps immediately after arriving.
Their last child was born the day after Christmas in 1755, so we know that Susannah was alive at this time.
Then…nothing…radio silence.
Additionally, we don’t know what happened to some of her children:
- Abraham born in 1745
- Hannah born in 1751
- Susannah born in 1754
- Katherine born in 1755
There’s no record in Nathaniel’s Bible, or from his son Andrew’s letter, or from Nathaniel’s son, Jesse’s Bible. Their births are recorded, but nothing further.
It’s very likely that Susannah buried these children too, including her own namesake child.
We know that five survived, and probably at least that many didn’t.
Susannah’s Death
Our only option for estimating when Susannah died is to bracket those dates with what we know about the history of her family.
We know she was alive the day after Christmas in 1755.
We know, based on multiple historical sources, that it’s very likely that Susannah and John Vannoy’s home was burned in 1771, forcing a hurried evacuation to then Surry, soon to become Wilkes County, probably settling on or near Mulberry Creek. If so, and if John’s Bible “was preserved,” as was reported, then we know either it didn’t burn in the fire, or he or Susannah meticulously wrote their children’s births in a replacement Bible at a later date.
We know that John and four sons were alive in 1772.
The Surry County tax list is missing for 1773, but in 1774, the four sons are present, but John is not.
By this time, the family is living in the part of Surry County that would become Wilkes County a few years later.
We have no idea if Susannah survived this long.
Her name is never mentioned in any legal or tax record anyplace, in any county. John does not have a will or estate record, at least not one that survived. If the family’s farm was burned in Rowan County in 1771 during the Regulator War, John and Susannah may have died with literally no possessions on the very edge of the frontier, having saved only their lives.
Susannah’s death date is not recorded in the family Bible, and neither is John’s, but then again, neither are the death dates or spouses of their children.
Not 1816
What I can tell you with near certainty is that our Susannah did NOT live until 1816, as is shown in many trees and on FindaGrave, where literally not one fact about her is accurate. She would have been approximately 100 years old, possibly more – a very remarkable accomplishment – so we can rest assured that if she was anyplace near 100, that legend would have survived. The Susannah Vannoy of 1816 is misidentified as our Susannah.
Susannah’s son, Andrew Vannoy married Susannah Shepherd in 1779 in Wilkes County. Andrew died in 1809. Susannah is enumerated on the 1810 census and is remembered in her father’s will that same year.
It’s very likely that this is the Susannah who died in 1816. I recall finding something in the court records at some time, but I can’t locate that record again. (This is why you should always write everything down, along with the source, when you find it.)
The identities of these two women, Susannah, the wife of John Vannoy, and Susannah Shepherd, the wife of Andrew Vannoy, have been conflated.
Not Baker
One last item about John’s wife, Susannah “Anderson”. Her middle name is often given as Baker, as in, Susannah Baker Anderson.
For the life of me, I couldn’t figure out when or where that started. It’s not stated in any of the early biographical books or articles about the family, or by Andrew Vannoy in his letter. This could have originated in an early speculative tree that has been copy/pasted hundreds or thousands of times, to the point where everyone assumed someone, someplace has the original information.
The Baker family does live nearby in Wilkes County and a Baker was a chain-carrier for one of Nathaniel Vannoy’s land grants. Andrew Baker witnessed several deeds for Nathaniel and vice versa. The Wilkes marriage records show that Martin Baker married “S… Vannoy” where the page is torn, on August 1, with the page torn again, and the bondsman was Nathaniel Vannoy.
Aha – I think we’ve solved two things. The first being where the name Susannah Baker Anderson came from – an amalgamation. Secondly, this is where the confusion about one of the daughters of John Vannoy marrying the Reverend Andrew Baker originated.
Andrew Baker was in Wilkes County by 1782 and claimed land on the New River, a neighbor of Nathaniel Vannoy. His son, Andrew, claimed his father’s 200 acres in 1779 next to land where “Susanna Baker now lives on.” She released her dower rights on a piece of property on Grassy Bottom Creek in Rowan County, North Carolina, in 1768 when she and Andrew sold it to James Sheppard. We know unquestionably that John Vannoy was still living in 1768, so this Susannah Baker is NOT Susannah, the wife or widow of John Vannoy.
Whew!!!
When I first started assembling information about this woman, now at least 20 years ago, our Susannah was listed as Susannah Baker Anderson. This phenomenon used to occur when there was uncertainty so someone connected both surnames, “just in case”, “because one of them has to be right.”
We were all novices at one time, so I recorded it the same way.
Today, with more information available, we can now determine why that assumption might be made, and also why it was wrong.
What About Mitochondrial DNA?
Thankfully, a descendant of Susannah Anderson has taken a mitochondrial DNA test at FamilyTreeDNA.
She has 1130 matches in total, of which 363 are exact full-sequence matches. Unfortunately, only about one-third of those matches, 130, have entered either their Earliest Known Ancestor (EKA) or the geographic location of that ancestor so that Susannah’s mitochondrial matches show on the tester’s matches map.
Of course, I first checked for matches in the same part of the world – looking specifically for the Netherlands. Red pins indicate exact matches, and the majority look to be in Scandinavia and Finland. But not all of them.
Expanding the map is somewhat helpful, but shows her exact matches widely scattered, which likely reflects the fact that haplogroup H1a is a relatively old haplogroup and had the opportunity to spread widely.
Taking a look at the US matches map doesn’t show any names that I recognize in the regions I had hoped. Of course, from these locations in the 1600s and early 1700s, her descendants are scattered everywhere now, and not everyone can trace their ancestors that far back in time. Or, they can, but didn’t list an EKA or location.
I was very much hoping for matches to another Andreissen woman, or another name I recognize from the congregation or tax list in New Jersey.
One of the challenges we have is that females’ surnames change every generation, and when people don’t include their EKA information, it means that genealogists have to click to view every person who has provided a tree.
Unfortunately, usually fewer than half of the matches have uploaded or connected to a tree, and without either an EKA, or a tree, or hopefully both, complete with a location, it’s VERY difficult to establish a genealogical connection.
Anyone who connects with people in Scandinavia is fortunate because, as a group, they are very involved with genetic genealogy and far more likely than average provide EKA, tree, and geographic location information. That can also make maps skew towards that region.
The great news is that the new Mitotree and MitoDiscover, to be released in early 2025, will provide Susannah with a more refined haplogroup or branch, a Time Tree, and a Match Time Tree showing her matches on that tree, WITH their EKA ancestors. (Yes, I’ve seen it – no I can’t share it yet.)
If you descend from any of the Hunterdon County families we’ve discussed through all females, or any other Hunterdon families for that matter, please test your mitochondrial DNA. With changing surnames in each generation, sometimes it’s all we have to make that elusive connection.
The best thing you can do to help yourself and your matches is to provide a tree, enter your EKA information (which is not extracted from your tree), and provide the best location possible for your most distant direct matrilineal ancestor. I wrote about how to do that, here.
Susannah’s Legacy
There are no deeds or other records that give us even the slightest hint about John Vannoy’s wife by any name, when she was born or died, so we’ll go with Susannah Anderson, which was recorded by her grandson.
We know that Susannah grew up in Hopewell Township, New Jersey, born just a few years after the first settlers began making inroads into the wilderness. The first church she attended would have been a log cabin and probably unheated.
As a teen, she flirted with the handsome John Vannoy, whose parents also attended the same church. In about 1740, they married, either in that same humble church, or perhaps one of their parents’ homes.
In 1741, their first baby arrived, founding the next generation.
A dozen years later, seeking to own land, John and Susannah set out for the next frontier with like-minded neighbors and family members – North Carolina.
Based on gaps between children, we know it’s very likely that Susannah buried at least two babies and likely three – one probably on that journey between New Jersey and Rowan County, North Carolina, in 1753.
The Vannoy Bible recorded the birth dates of the Vannoy children, but since there were no death dates, and no spouses listed for several children, it strongly suggests that Susannah may have buried someplace between two and four additional children before they reached adulthood.
If the family oral history and history of Rowan County are to be believed, and there’s no reason to doubt their accuracy, especially since one corroborates the other, Susannah’s home was burned in 1771 during or as a result of the Regulator War. It’s very likely that her husband and sons participated, and their home and farm were torched by Governor Tryon’s militia as an act of retribution for their uprising.
The Baptist Church in Rowan County backed the Regulators, while the Presbyterian ministers backed the governor and his troops.
The Vannoy family would have converted to being Baptists at this point, if they hadn’t already. Susannah was about 50 years old or maybe slightly older in 1771 when her home was torched, if she was still living by then.
We don’t know anything about Susannah for sure beyond the day after Christmas in 1755, when the birth of her youngest child, Catherine, was recorded in the family Bible. Given that there was a family Bible, this suggests strongly that John could write. It would have been unusual if Susannah had been taught to write – women learned “useful” tasks like cooking, cleaning, and household chores. Writing and cyphering were activities men needed to do.
That said, I really, really hope it was her handwriting in that Bible – although if it were, I suspect we’d have additional information.
If Susannah lived to 1771, she would have gathered what she could, as the family hastily departed to what was then Surry County, the portion that would have become Wilkes in 1778. None of her children had yet married by this time, unless Rachel had married Niel Patton, so they would all have lived at home as they attempted to escape the fire, save their livestock, each other, and any shreds of their lives.
I hate to think of the possibility that she perished in that fire. I would think if that had happened, it would have been added to the family story, given that the fact of the arson was passed down to her grandchildren.
As horrible as this scenario is in its own right, I’d much prefer to think that the soldiers at least gave the family the opportunity to leave before torching their homes. Yes, watching your home burn would be horrific, but the terror of being trapped and trying to find everyone and escape the flames is the stuff of nightmares.
If Susannah did not live to 1771, and died between 1755 and 1771, she would have been laid to rest in the churchyard beside the Jersey Baptist Church on Jersey Church Road in Rowan County, or perhaps in a private cemetery on the land where she and John lived on Lick Creek, at the mouth of the Yadkin River.
Susannah’s grave is unmarked, and she probably rests beside some of her children in the silent spaces between gravestones.
If Susannah did make it to Surry or Wilkes County in 1771, she is probably buried with John someplace near their log home that they carved out of the wilderness where they sought shelter after escaping Governor Tryon’s marauding troops. Resting in a quaint and now overgrown cemetery where prayers were offered as family members were buried in wooden caskets made from trees in their forest home, some 250 years ago.
Susannah faced at least two, if not three, increasingly difficult unbroken frontiers, gave birth to at least nine and probably 11 children, and buried at least three or four of them, if not more.
I still try to fathom what Susannah’s life must have been like and have come to the conclusion that she must have been incredibly brave and hearty – but then again, what else could she be? She had little choice but to greet whatever challenges life rolled her way – any one of which would do us in today.
But not Susannah.
She survived long enough to shepherd in the next generation and plant the seeds of the Vannoy family in Wilkes County, North Carolina. Some family members still reside there and have flourished, while others, like seeds scattered in the wind, have established the family elsewhere.
To Susanah, every challenge was just one more obstacle to overcome, which she did handily. She just kept putting one foot in front of the other, walking down life’s rocky road.
Hand in hand with her family.
And here we are today.
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