1637 John HAM of Bristol

1637 John HAM of Bristol

Bristol ties? HAM genealogists have been asking this question for the last 40 years.

The problem started in 1969 with the popular genealogy book "Historical Southern Families" by Mrs. John Bennett Boddie (Genealogical Publishing Company, Baltimore). She miss-identifies the wife of Jerome HAM of Virginia, and makes mention of Jerome HAM of Bristol. HAM Genealogists consistently tie the two together as one man since then.

"Historical Southern Families" has been a very popular book, selling thousands of copies. So, the miss-information has now spread widely and amateur genealogists stubbornly resist the facts. And, I have tried to lay out the facts in "A Short History of the HAM Surname in Virginia & NC."

The confusion is only heightened when Beverly Fleet's "Virginia Colonial Abstracts" mentions "Hierome" HAM in Charles City County in 1655. And the list of errors goes on and on....

If you look at the genealogy trees on Ancestry.com, you'd think 97% of genealogists have figured it out by now. Unfortunately, now hundreds of HAM family trees are based upon miss-information.

For those who are following the saga, let me add a document indexed at the Library of Virginia, which is not in any HAM genealogy book to date. This document relates to the sale of tobacco in Virginia by a John HAM of Bristol, England (published 1641).










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To see the record, follow these instructions:

Search the Colonial Records Project at:

http://www.lva.virginia.gov/
or
http://ajax.lva.lib.va.us/F/?func=file&file_name=find-b-clas27&local_base=CLAS27

Basic search:
Words to search: HAM Bristol
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- Click on the number "1" to view the transcript record.
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Va. Colonial Records Survey Report No. SR 10962

Microfilm Reel No. Not Filmed, but there is a typed abstract on file with the Virginia Colonial Records Project A copy of the original can probably be obtained from the Bristol Public Record Office.

Author/Depository: Public Record Office Class: E 134 17 Charles I, Mich 29.

Title LinkExchequer King’s Remembrancer. Depositions taken by Commission Publication 1641 Gen. note Exchequer King’s Remembrancer. Depositions taken by Commission. vol. II, p. 517

Ham, John -- testimony by -- 1641, SR 10962, p. 2.
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dated Sep 27, 1641
Depositions taken at Bristol, Sep 27, 1641

Sep 27, 1641

John HAM testimony: Some tobacco was landed Legally, having a warrant from the Lord Treasurer, but some was not.

Deposition, n.d.:

John HAM testimony: Tobacco was put in warehouses.
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note: - It appears that the Lord Treasurer issued Treasury Warrants in about 1637 for the importation of tobacco into Bristol ports on board some ships such as the Lilley and the James. However, no warrant was issued for the ships Welcomb and Prudence. So, in 1641 (about three years later), a Commission was formed to investigate and impose custom rates and duties upon the tobacco that was imported without a warrant from the customs house. These ships were sailing from Virginia and the West Indies.

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The question is interesting is because there are several HAM's in both the areas of Bristol and Virginia at the time.

Jerome HAM of Bristol was Merchant and Town Clerk of Bristol from 1581 to 1621. That would be a 40 year career. As Town Clerk, his signature is on numerous records, and his name is sometimes written as "Hierome HAM."


He marries the widow of John OLIVER in 1598/99. His wife Elizabeth HAM dies in 1619. No children bearing the HAM surname are mentioned in her will. Jerome HAM probably died some years prior to 1638. To my knowledge, his will has not yet been located.

Joseph HAM immigrates to Virginia in about 1621 at the age of 16. Indentured servant to Lt. Albiano Lupo. Settles on the New Posquoson.

In 1635, William HAM of Maine and New Hampshire arrives at the Richmond Isles on the ship named Speedwell. He is originally contracted to fish.

Joseph HAM of the New Posquoson dies in York County, Virginia on March 3, 1638. He had immigrated to Virginia in about 1621 at the age of 16, and left no known children bearing the HAM surname.

From 1637 to 1641, this deposition at Bristol indicates that a John HAM of Bristol was importing tobacco from Virginia to Bristol from about 1637 to 1641.

In 1653, John HAM gentleman of Bristol files will. He mentions a son John HAM and three daughters, Penelope, Mary, and Anna. He dies in about 1654.

Jerome HAM of York County has not been found in records from Virginia until 1652. And, "Hierome HAM" is mentioned in Charles City County records in 1655. It would appear that both the Jerome HAM of Bristol and the Jerome HAM of Virginia both went by the name of "Hierome HAM."

Very curious. The York County Jerome HAM is mentioned in Lower Norfolk County, Virginia as "Jeremy HAM," to note the difference in pronunciation. He dies in 1659, leaving one son, Jerome HAM, Jr.

John HAM immigrates to Virginia in 1658. We may never know if he participated in the estate settlement on Jerome HAM because Jamestown records were destroyed by fire in 1699.
George HAM immigrates to Maryland in 1660.
Rosse HAMM, apprenticed in Bristol, England is bound for 4 years as an indentured servant to John BEARE in Virginia in 1662.
John HAM of New Hampshire arrives in Dover, New Hampshire in 1665.
Thomas HAMMS, apprenticed in Bristol, England is bound for 4 years as an indentured servant to Edward POORE in Virginia in 1667.
Elijah HAM, of Albemarle County, VA purchases 132 acres of land from James HARTFORD of Bristol, Kingdom of Great Britain in 1810.

It has not yet been determined if these early immigrants are related in any way. The John HAM importing tobacco to Bristol in 1637 could be either the John HAM who dies in Bristol in 1653, or his son John HAM.

There are two items that we have been trying to address in order to help straighten out the miss-information. One is we give the details regarding the correct information in our book, "A Short History of the HAM Surname in Virginia & NC." The second is we are seeking participants in the HAM DNA Project which is helping to resolve this Bristol question, among other things.

At last count, over 700 family trees have bad information about Jerome HAM. Let's hope that we don't have to wait another 40 years to clean this up.


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Journal of Genetic Genealogy

Fall Issue of the Journal of Genetic Genealogy

A few good articles in this season's edition of the Journal of Genetic Genealogy.

Those of you who are familiar with the DNA testing might recognize Whit Athey's name, he was the one to create the "Haplotype Predictor" (link found in the HAM Country DNA Tools area). Whit is the main editor of this "Journal of Genetic Genealogy."

Mentioned this month in JoGG is an interview with John Butler. You folks may not recognize him, but I had written him when I was first developing my program "ft2dna." John Butler is with NIST, the National Institute of Standards and Technology.

NIST keeps a catalog of Y-STR standards on their web site. I was converting FTDNA numbers into "ATGC" format a few years back, and many of the Y-STR markers were not yet posted to the internet. I wrote John Butler about it, and he was able to post the standards for all of the first 37 Y-STR markers tested from FTDNA. So, thanks to John Butler, I was able to complete the "ft2dna" program. (It is found in the "Tools" area of HAM Country).

Which, of course I used in the Lamarc mutation rate study for HAM DNA Group #2. (The bottom link on the main DNA Project page at HAM Country).

Funny thing, this past week I have been working on improvements to my "ft2dna" program, so that I can automate some of the work involved in running Lamarc (or PHYLIP) against our DNA groups. I have automated the "ft2dna" program sufficiently to generate a Genetic Distance chart of our entire project, as well as generate ATGC format for the entire HAM DNA Project these days. However, I have a number of bug fixes yet to complete, and I want to have the "ft2dna" program generate the results in the Lamarc file format (xml) for me. That could save me a considerable amount of time.

I have modified the "ft2dna" program to generate a "Dean McGee web page style" of a Genetic Distance chart, using the data that I use as input to Dean McGee's utility anyways. If you have downloaded the older version of the "ft2dna" program, the documentation has some links to NIST that I used as a reference to generate the "ATGC" format. Pretty grueling stuff to try to figure out on your own. For example, Sorenson uses DNA complements, which can be confusing if you are not aware of what they are doing. With a number of Y-DNA testing companies analyzing Y-STR values with different techniques, it becomes important to have a standard to apply for DNA Project administrators.

Butler has a PDF file in this issue of JoGG that shows the ATGC structure for Y-STR's that I was attempting to convert with the "ft2dna" program. A good reference if you are interested in how that conversion is done.

Ann Turner is on the Editorial Board at JOGG, and she helped me to figure out "how to" do the BLAST searches for the Y-STR values. I did those BLAST searches in order to verify that I was writing the "ft2na" program against reality. Ann Turner has also written a "Mutation Rate Calculator" also found in the DNA Tools area at HAM Country. She is also an expert at mtDNA, and has helped a number of Genetic Genealogy Project Administrators with their mtDNA analysis.

Anyways, it is good to see a standard from these Y-DNA testing companies. John Butler is interviewed in this season's issue of JOGG.




see: http://www.jogg.info/42/index.html








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HAM Surname Counties of Origin in Virginia

HAM Surname
Counties of Origin
in Virginia

I have uploaded a You Tube video of the Counties of Origin of the HAM Surname in Virginia prior to 1800. From the book "A Short History of the HAM Surname in Virginia & NC." A 3.5 minute video, about 5 MB in size.

Not all counties are included here. For example, counties are not included that were once in Virginia but now are in present day West Virginia. But, it does give a quick overview of the migration pattern for the HAM surname in Virginia prior to 1800. Lists names of first inhabitants with the surname HAM(/M/ES) by County.


In a few cases, I had to make a judgment call on which person to list. For example, Joseph HAM arrived in 1621 in Elizabeth City County, but died in York County. Or, for example, John HAM died in Stafford County in 1739, but Elizabeth HAM is the first to appear in Stafford County in the book (1716), so Elizabeth was listed in the video. Another example would be Jerome HAM, who first held land in Charles City County, but lived in York County.


Therefore, a few adjustments were made in order for the video to make better sense.


The HAM Surname Counties of Origin in Virginia

You Tube video




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