Ann Debolt

The following is from the Footnotes of "DeBolts in America: The DeBolts of Fayette and Greene Counties, Pennsylvania," written by C. Gerald DeBolt in collaboration with Esther DeBolt Ryczek, digitized in 2001 by Ron and James White, retrieved August 17, 2007 from http://www.brittanywhite.com/Debolts%20in%20America.txt.

"Whether George Debolt, Sr. was ever in Greene Co. makes for some interesting speculation. Lucetta Johnson, in her work quoted at length on pages 25 to 27, said that Nicholas Debolt’s father’s widow had later married a man named Notts (probably Knotts) and that they had a son Benjamin, John Debolt called Uncle Ben. There, in fact, was a James Knotts who died in 1801. He made and had recorded a will dated 1798. He had a son, among many, named Benjamin. His wife was Ann. James Knotts lived in Greene Co. Thus, if Ann had been Nicholas’ father’s wife, perhaps he too had been in Greene Co. However, the early records say George, Jr. was living in Fayette Co. when he met and married Ann Long. It is possible Nicholas’ father wasn’t George but Henry. If that is true, then George, Jr. and Nicholas were cousins not brothers. Because of abundant documentation, there are no doubts about Michael Debolt and his descendants in Fayette. Co. The same can’t be said about the Greene Co. Debolts. Based on all the circumstantial evidence and the available documentation, I am reasonably sure George and Nicholas were brothers. If they were brothers and their father George, Sr. had moved to Greene Co., they undoubtedly returned to Fayette Co. after he died to live with their Uncle Michael. The boys, particularly if quite young, could not have stayed with their mother alone on the frontier. Their mother Ann probably married James Knotts a good while later. She may have had family in Greene Co. to stay with."

The following is from “Excerpts from the Memoires of William and Rebecca Johnson,” written by Lucetta Johnson, digitized in 2001 by Ron and James White, retrieved August 17, 2007 from http://www.brittanywhite.com/Debolts%20in%20America.txt.

"Mother’s Great-grandfather Debolt was a Huguenot who came from France, if we accept the story told by the man who “laid out” Nicholas Debolt, Mother’s grandfather. She herself does not remember that her father ever gave her any information about his Grandfather and Grandmother Debolt or their family. Whether there were any children besides Nicholas, she does not know. However she does recall that her great-grandfather’s widow married a man by the name of Notts and that this couple had a son whom her father called Uncle Ben."