Over the past few months I've neglected this blog in favor of my Norwegian heritage site (What's in a Nordic Name?) and life's daily demands. In family gatherings over the week of Christmas I anticipate family conversations about shared ancestors and the cultures and circumstances in which they lived. The focus will be on the family present this holiday season, so, I don't expect to be back to blogging for a while. When I resume, it will most likely be on my Starkey family site. However, I want to post one more 2009 blog for my Blackley ancestors.
The mid-Atlantic states are currently experiencing a heavy snowstorm. Smyth county Virginia, home of the Davis' and Blakely families in the 1700's, is in the path of that storm and is currently blanketed in white. Travel in the area has become difficult to impossible and many holiday travelers have had to detour to hotels, motels and shelters in the area as roads became treacherous. An online, local newspaper, SW VA Today, posted a photo of a snow covered main street worthy of a holiday card. And another local website, SWVaNow, posted a slide show of picturesque snowscenes in the area.
(broken links removed - 8/7/2017)
So pull up a comfortable chair, grab a cup of coffee, tea or wine, check out the winter wonderland scenes in these links and imagine Charles and Margaret Blackley preparing for a holiday celebration with their family during the last quarter of the 18th century. Did they begin their celebrations of the Christmas season on December 25th (The Nativity of Jesus)? Did they have a horse-drawn sleigh for visiting family nearby? Did they gather together with neighbors and family to worship on Christmas Day or read the Bible to each other at home? Or did they, as many Scots-Irish did, celebrate "Old Christmas" on January 6th? What foods did they prepare for their feast -- ham? wild turkey? venison? Did they shoot celebratory rounds from their muskets? Did they end the day with a bonfire? If James, Alexander, Sarah, Jesse, Mary, Martha, Charles, Joseph, John or Agnes could tell us their favorite memory of Christmas, what would it be?
Wishing you special memories this Christmas!
Greetings Bonnie, I am descended from Alexander and Sarah Blakely. I am enthralled with your blog and excellent writing. More please!
ReplyDeleteHello Group- My GGG Grandparents were George and Margaret Blackley of Bristol. Any connection to your Blackleys? George was born in 1813, and is buried with his wife in Bristol. judworth@yahoo.com
ReplyDeleteLife's detours have kept me away from my blogs, but I hope to get back to them within the next six months or so. I'm glad to find other Blakely cousins have found the blog. I'm not sure about a connection with George and Margaret of Bristol, but the proximity to Rural Retreat and Jefferson County, TN makes it seem likely there's a connection. Maybe we'll find one.
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DeleteHello and thank you for this blog. My name is Patrick Blakeley (spelling changed by my grandfather or gg grandfather not sure which) and I'm a descendant of Charles Blackley according to these and other records we have come across. My great grandfather was Jesse, son of Felix, son of Joseph Martin, son of Charles Blackley, my great great great great grandfather. Any sources about the Blakely (Blackley) history you can recommend would be greatly appreciated. I would love to know from where in Ireland the family lived before migrating to Virginia. Were they Presbyterian? I am studying books on the "Scotch-Irish" about their plantation in Ulster and move to America. I'm in the middle of a book called "the Scotch-Irish-A Social History" by James Leyburn. Great book...gives real insight to what our ancestors may have endured generations prior to and after their immigration to America. Thanks again for your fantastic blog and for sharing your amazing knowledge of the context within which our ancestors lived.
ReplyDeleteI'm glad you've found this interesting. It's been a while since I've been able to devote time to my genealogy research so I don't yet have anything new to add, but I'll make a note to get back to you after the first of the year with some of my sources. I don't have anything yet on the families origins in Ireland (or Scotland which I suspect they may have). I do know that Joseph Martin's son, James, my ggg-grandfather was a Presbyterian. Happy Holidays and check back in middle to late January for an update from me.
ReplyDeleteThanks Bonnie! Actually I'm not really sure who changed it or when our name was changed to the Blakeley spelling. I was just wondering if our ancestors were part of that Presbyterian/ Ulster community in Ireland who had migrated from the Scottish lowlands. Probably no way of ever knowing, but arrival date in America and religion might point to that.
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