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This project is for all the descendants of the Aldridge-Arledge family whose American experience began in Northumberland County, Virginia in the 1660s and has spread across America in the intervening 350 years.
The project began in 1997 when a group of Arledge researchers discovered each other online and began sharing information about "their" branches of the Arledge family.
In the years that followed, hundreds of Arledge descendants have contributed their family trees to the project, the database for which has been managed and researched by Pam Wilson.
A webpage was created starting in 1997 (see www.arledgefamilyhistory.org, the Arledge Family History Project) that provides a repository for research documents and early common histories. However, it has not been possible to maintain an accurate family tree down to the current generations on that website.
In 2008, Pam uploaded the huge database of nearly 40,000 Arledge descendants to Geni.com and invited Arledge descendants to add to and maintain their branches on this collaborative family history workspace. Geni provides several advantages to the
The Arledge project is a project in collaborative history-building. Please contact Pam if you have questions or would like to be added to the family tree of Arledge descendants.
If you are an Arledge or Arledge descendant
NOTE: As of November 2008, AFHP Coordinator Pam). Geni profiles may be set to various levels of privacy, especially for the younger generations (living people) to maintain security of information, yet you can specify that family members and "family of family" be allowed to view and access it. Sharing stories and photos is especially rewarding!
FROM NORFOLK, ENGLAND, TO NORTHUMBERLAND COUNTY, VIRGINIA
Clement (1636-1699, below), whose name became ARLEDGE....
Clement Aldridge / Arledge (1636-1699) and his wife Elizabeth Tilles settled on Virginia's Northern Neck in Wicomico Parish, Northumberland County, Virginia on an area called Cherry Point. They had nine children.
All of the Arledges in America can trace their ancestry through Clement and Elizabeth's son William Arledge / Aldridge (1678-1725), who married twice and was the father of four sons and at least two daughters.
With his first wife Isaac Arledge and a daughter Sarah.
- Elizabeth Thomas and moved first to Frederick County, Virginia and then to the area around Camden, South Carolina, where he died in the following decades. Elizabeth remarried Matthias Fellows. Children of John and Elizabeth settled in Fairfield, Kershaw and Edgefield Counties of South Carolina.
- William married a woman named Mary (last name unknown) and migrated to South Carolina as well. He seems to have died childless, but many records exist for him there, and his nephews administered his estate.
- Jesse (b. 1795) of Randolph Co, NC, settled in Iowa and in east/middle Tennessee, from which place many descendants went south to Texas.
- Isaac Arledge (youngest son of William, by his second wife) migrated, along with his brothers John and William, to the Camden District of Couth Carolina. Although he likely married twice, the only name we have is a wife named Anna or Hannah. He settled and prospered in Fairfield County, South Carolina and had a large family.
- Isaac's son Clement migrated to Stewart County, Tennessee.
- Isaac's son Clement also had other children Eli and Jeptha, who remained in Fairfield County, SC, and then Isaac and Daniel, who migrated with brother Cyrus to Limestone County, Alabama. A daughter Anna (married Featherston and Warren) was in York Co, SC as of 1860.
- Isaac's son Jonathan (1790-1875), and they are the ancestors of all of the present Polk County Arledges.
- Isaac also had sons Joseph (1749-1806, of Fairfield Co, SC) and William (1778-1817, of Fairfield Co, SC) and daughters Huldah (m. Jesse Wright), Sarah (m. James Bishop), Anne (m. Bishop) and Rachel (m. Mabry Hill).
Therefore, from Northumberland County, VA, then, three of William ARLEDGE's sons -- CLEMENT'S descendants spread from Randolph County, NC west into Tennessee, Ohio and Iowa, with the next generation moving south to parts of Texas
These families populated the South during the next century, with some branches spreading south and west into Georgia, Alabama, Mississippi, Louisiana, and into Texas, while others reached up into several areas of North Carolina and some even ventured northwest into Tennessee, Arkansas, Kentucky, Indiana, Illinois, and beyond to the Pacific frontier.
All of the Arledges on this Project are believed to be descended from one of these four sons of William Arledge.
There is also a branch of Arledges descended from David Arledge or Aldridge born c 1793, of Barnwell County, SC, who married Elizabeth Sanders. Their descendants are to be found in Barnwell and nearby counties of SC, various counties of south Georgia, and also in the Atlanta area. We have not yet discovered who David's parents were so that we can connect this branch to the larger tree, and it would be very helpful to have a descendant of this branch take a DNA test to confirm that these are indeed from the same Aldridge/Arledge family as the others listed above.
Yes, there is an Arledge DNA Project on Family Tree DNA.
Throughout the family's history, the Arledge name has transformed from Aldridge and has been recorded and misrecorded by census takers and county clerks with innumerable variations such as Aldredge, Arldridge, Aldrich, Alldredge, Orledge, Ollege, and so on. Some branches of the family, notably those in Stanly and Union Counties of NC, retained the Aldridge spelling. A few branches in Alabama became Aldrich or Aldridge as well. It is important to distinguish these members of the Arledge/Aldridge family (descendants of William of Northumberland Co, VA) from many other families named Alldredge, Aldridge, and Aldrich, as well as Allred and Aldred, that lived in the same counties and states and whose migration patterns were similar.