Tuesday, July 12, 2016

The Hazelwood Family from Virginia

My interest was piqued about the Hazelwood family recently when I came across a DNA match to a Hazelwood on Family Tree DNA. When I did a search for all the Hazelwood matches in the database there was only one match that  was in the search results, and that was a fifth cousin. That is match, even though it is a distance cousin that I will gladly look at. I will contact the fifth cousin match, share information, and try to identify our most recent common ancestor. I would like to identify the parents of Benjamin Hazelwood, and their births and places of birth and the DNA match might help to do that.  

Benjamin Hazelwood is a fourth great grandfather on my maternal line. Mother’s mother was a Ramsey, John Scott Ramsey married Nancy Hazelwood, daughter of Benjamin Hazelwood. I have researched Benjamin Hazelwood, and found censuses that were of value in placing him at a certain location at a certain time. However, Now, it is time to get out the Hazelwood research binder and look over the information to determine if there is any relevant information for this family.  There was little information of value that would help move this line back another generation. I need to come up with a plan for researching the Hazelwood family.

The information that I have for Benjamin Hazelwood is that he was born 15 Aug 1756 in Henrico County, Virginia, died 11 Feb 1832 in Knox County, Tennessee. Benjamin Hazelwood married his second wife 20 Sep 1790 in Campbell County, Virginia. Benjamin’s first wife was Catherine Harroway and they married 7 Aug 1780 - Charlotte County, Virginia.

The first thing was to make a list of what I know about the Hazelwood family. My Hazelwood maternal line is one that I haven’t researched for very long, and the reason is there are other family lines easier to research. What do I know about Benjamin Hazelwood? Benjamin Hazelwood’s daughter Nancy married John Ramsey. How do I know this? I found their marriage in the Early American Marriages: Virginia to 1740 – 1850. Very few records for Benjamin Hazelwood from Charlotte County, Virginia. I found censuses for 1810-1830 with Benjamin as head of house. However, as you know pre 1850 censuses only have the head of house and age categories on them. There isn’t a probate record for Benjamin on Ancestry, so what a dilemma! What am I to do? I know that Benjamin married Sara Cox because I found a marriage record for them where they married in Campbell County, Virginia 20 Sep 1790.

The records I have searched are: Compiled trees on Ancestry (I won’t use the information from them, there were no sources); census records for the years 1810-1830. a marriage record for Benjamin and Sara; a DNA Hazelwood History from the YDNA Hazelwood Project; a FTDNA YDNA Project list that was on Hazelwood Familial Lineage. What records do I need to look at next?  I have had success in the past when researching on the DAR database so I tried it again. Bingo!

William Hazelwood provided goods for the war that is called patriotic service. On the application for William his son Benjamin was mentioned, another son William and a daughter Catherine Hazelwood. Catherine Hazlewood married Ezekiel Ramsey according to the DAR application.  This information was on separate applications for William Hazelwood born in Virginia and died in Charlotte County, Virginia, 3 May 1824.   Now, I have names of children and birth dates, place of birth, and death dates I can research each of them. Armed with this information I will be researching the Hazelwood maternal line for a while.

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