George Quesenberry, Sr.

A Patriot of the American Revolution for VIRGINIA (SOLDIER). DAR Ancestor # A132722

Not the same as George Quisenberry. Evidence needed to support as son of James Quisenberry

George Quesenberry

1748 George Quesenberry of Prince William & Grayson DAR Ancestor #: A132722 married Martha SLINKER * in Orange Co, VA,1769. Martha was born in Bedford Co, VA 1753. Martha died 1797 in GraysonCo, VA, at 44 years of age.

George and Martha were likely married in Bedford Co VA, as their first two children, Frederick and Nancy, were born there. Their children are as follows:

1. Nancy Ann (1771-1864) m Thomas Richardson, moved to Indiana.
2. Frederick (1772-1854) m Mary "Molly" Phillips(d/o Tobias Phillips and Margaret Jennings)
3. Moses (1775-1842) m Elizabeth (?)
4. Joseph (1778- ?) Said to be a minister and moved to TN, no confirmed info found on marriage or death.
5. John Quesenberry (1790-1853) m Nancy Hylton
6. George Quesenberry (1794- ?) no confirmed info found.
7. James (1796-1845) m Elizabeth Moore(d/o Peter Moore and Janie Murtland)
8. William (?-?) no confirmed info found
9. Thomas (?-?) no confirmed info found
10. Catherine "Caty" (?- ?) 1809 Grayson county court records indicate Caty had some illegitimate children, no mention of their names, genders, or ages, or any other info on Caty found.

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Disputed Origins

https://tpettit.verio.com/rowan/families/fg02/fg02_137.htm

Elza Cox and some others give as the parents of George Quesenberry of Montgomery Co. Aaron Quesenberry and Joyce Dudley of Orange County, Virginia. This is an error, as that Aaron Quesenberry’s son George is known to have lived and died in Orange Co., marrying thrice there. Also, he was born around 1760, and would have thus been only 10 years old when George of Montgomery Co. married Martha. This attribution seems to have come about solely by substituting George for James Frederick, discussed below, when the evidence became clear that George rather than James Frederick was the name of the patriarch of the southwest Virginia Quesenberrys.

Garvet Quesenberry, Kelly Webb, and many others instead give as the father of our George, a James Frederick Quesenberry, b. 1720's, and then sometimes go on to attach James Frederick as either a son or a brother of the afore-mentioned Aaron Quesenberry. (The annual gathering of Carroll & Floyd County Quesenberry's is even called "The Descendants of James Frederick Quesenberry Reunion.") But this seems to be based entirely on a widely circulated account called the "Isaac Quesenberry Record", which (correctly) names Thomas "Buck" Quesenberry's father as Frederick, but then goes on to claim as children of Frederick, the Moses, Nancy and others who are really Frederick's brothers or sisters, and in an attempt to tie into the families documented by Anderson Chenault Quisenberry, conflates this "settler" Frederick with James the son of Aaron, calling the combined personage James Frederick. When more disciplined researchers uncovered George in county records, the romantics seem to have then elevated the mythical James Frederick from father of Thomas (Buck) to father of George, with some of them leaving him as a son of Aaron, and others noticing the age problem and calling him a brother of Aaron. While George's father may indeed be a brother of Aaron (I believe he is), there is no reason to call him "James Frederick", as that name was only the result of combining the name of George's son with that of Aaron's son, and Frederick was not a Quesenberry name before George Quesenberry married the sister of Frederick Slinker.

The most recent variant, adopted by Mr. S. H. Landreth of Pulaski, VA, in his book on the Quesenberry family, and picked up by others, seems to be to give the father of George as Aaron's son Moses, saying that Moses had a son George who stopped off in Bedford County before moving to Kentucky. In fact, that Moses, who was b. ca 1745-1750, was much too young to be the father of George of Grayson Co., also born ca 1750. (Mr. Landreth manages this by moving back the birthdates of Moses and his father Aaron and Aaron's father Thomas by about 20 years from the earliest endpoint of the range suggested by the known records.)

Most researchers agree, though, that the given names used by sons and grandsons of George of Montgomery Co. overlap with those used by known descendents of Thomas Quesenberry and Caroline Rawlings too much to be a coincidence (particularly the frequency of the names Moses and Aaron, which came in from the Rawlings side), the few names appearing in the Montgomery Co. line and not in the Orange Co. family being clearly attributable as coming in from the distaff side, as Frederick from Frederick Slinker and Tobias from Tobias Phillips, etc., and likewise for most of the names appearing in the Orange Co. family but not in the Montgomery Co. family. As virtually all records concerning Thomas Q. (son of Humphrey) are lost, by far the most likely explanation is that Thomas had at least one other son besides Aaron, and that our George's father is one of these unknown brothers of Aaron, possibly named Moses or Thomas. (If he was named Thomas, he was probably older than Aaron, but if named Moses, probably younger. The tradition among Virginia planters was very strong to name the first son after the father's family, usually his father, and the second son after the mother's family, usually her father or favorite brother. So Aaron probably had an older brother.) But there is NO known evidence other than the pattern of given names that this hypothetical brother existed.

This individual entry should thus be considered as a placeholder to keep these notes in, and to enable finding the "Anderson Chenault Quisenberry" families by following database links.

Naming patterns indicate that a Moses was indeed the father of George, as the first son usually named after the wife's father or oldest brother is indeed named Frederick, (after Martha's brother), and the second son, usually named after the father's father) is named Moses. There is never an Aaron listed among any of George's children, grandchildren, or great grandchildren, but there is a Moses in most of the family lists. It is hard to sort out records due to the fact that George and Martha had grandchildren the same age as their younger children, and named after them, and records do not give much defining information. If anyone has found some concrete information and is willing to share, please contact Cindy at galndixie@aol.com Contributor: Cindy Akers (47405168) • galndixie@aol.com

• As you note, the George who was Aaron's son lived in Orange County all his life, marrying three times there. So far as I am aware, the parents of George Quesenberry who married Martha Slinker have not been determined.
• Reference: Find A Grave Memorial - SmartCopy: Feb 17 2020, 12:27:00 UTC
• https://tpettit.verio.com/rowan/families/fg01/fg01_250.htm The "? Moses" listed as father of George is a placeholder. See his Notes.