With the holidays over, I am ready to tackle this pile of information everyone has provided me about Vess Genealogy!

Surprisingly, what I ended up doing was tossing my entire research book in the trash and starting over!

My research on Peter Vess is complete! Stick a fork in it and call it done (for now, at least).
It is now time to shift my focus towards Nathan and Willis, to see if I can dig deeply into their past as deeply as I have dug into Peter’s past.

I do hope my extensive research on Peter’s neighbors and Nathan’s South Carolina origins, will be helpful in making a possible connection with Willis Vess.

Willis Vess: Scratching The Surface

This weekend, I began to take a deeper look at Willis Vess and stumbled upon research left by genealogist, Anna Popejoy.

I do not know who Anna is (or was) or her connection to Willis VESS, but bits and pieces of her extensive research pops up here and there; especially, in regards to the Whitlock family (perhaps that was her connection). She clearly had a passion for genealogy and (it seems like) history too! Her research intrigues me and I am absolutely eager to discover more!

DNA Confirms A Relation

According to Familytreedna.com (Y-Chromosome Testing), Willis VESS and Peter VESS are indeed related, but where on the family tree do they connect?

Looking at the information above, there is no telling how closely related they may be with one another.

Does Willis share a father with Peter, a grandparent, a great-grandparent, or are they connect through a great-great-great grandparent from across the Atlantic? Hopefully, further research can give us a better idea…

More Closely Related Than We Think

Autosomal DNA testing (like Ancestry DNA and 23andMe) allows us to connect lineages that are “closely” related (5-6 generations back). The older the generation testing, the further back you can go in time.

In theory, if descendants of Willis Vess/Vest appear as shared DNA relatives (Ancestry.com), there is a really good chance that he is pretty close to Peter Vess on the family tree.

Surprisingly, I do have a few descendants of Willis Vess/Vest coming up on my Ancestry DNA matches as 4th-6th cousins. That means we likely share a 3rd, 4th, or 5th grandparent. Which is extremely exciting, for that my fourth great-grandparent on the VESS side is Peter Vess!

But how can I tell for sure he is related to the VESS line?

Well, my half-aunt and my mom did their DNA test too, which allows me to further separate my parents paternal lines and the results I came across are really exciting!!

My Aunt and I share several DNA relatives who are descendants of Willis Vess/Vest, in which my mom does not have any DNA relation with at all- confirming a VESS connection with the Willis VESS/VEST line!

Interestingly, we share 1 DNA relative who is a descendant of John P. Vess, brother of Willis Vess!

I have another DNA relative who is the descendant of Willis Vess through his son Henry Russell Vess, but he/she doesn’t show up as a shared relative on my Aunt’s DNA results; however, this DNA relative has shared matches with other Vess DNA relatives and does-not show up on my mom’s DNA results either.

Because my Aunt is a generation older than me, her DNA is able to pick up an extra generation of descendants and it shows the following:

2 DNA relatives who are descendants of Willis Vess through his sons, John Henry Vess and John Jackson Vess!

The best part, these DNA relatives are also her 4th-6th cousins. That puts Willis Vess very close to Peter Vess on the family tree! Willis and Peter might share a parent or grandparent!

Of course, DNA matches can’t provide us with all the answers we seek; instead, it just kind of points us in a very vague direction.

Too Many Gaps

With another cup of coffee and 50 tabs open on my desktop, I am still digging…

I am trying to build a time-line (just as I did for Peter).
According to records, Willis claims to be born in North Carolina (abt. 1812). He also claims both his parents were born in North Carolina. Interesting.

I have been researching North Carolina families for years and the only VESS/VEST family in North Carolina, on record, during the early 1800’s is William Tunwell VEST and his son John VEST who was born in Virginia (1768), settled in Fortysth, North Carolina, and married Elizabeth Ray. It is unlikely that Willis Vess is the son of William Tunwell Vess/Vest or John VEST. So, I’ve scratched him off the list and put him on the back burner.

There is still the VESS family in Patrick County, Virginia (which is located just above Stokes and Surry County, North Carolina). We might be related through them, but records are super scarce!

BUT, how do you explain Nathan Vess? According to his records, his parents supposedly were born in South Carolina. But, he seems more closely related to Peter than Willis (Perhaps Willis is a 1st cousin?).

And – nothing on Jonathan Vess (the 3rd so-called brother from Ireland). My research is beginning to largely suggest that he was probably an older ancestor (an uncle, father, or even grandfather to Peter and Nathan).

So, many questions!

Moving Backwards to Move Forward

Finding a new VESS line is super exciting!

Of course, I am going to have to do some more research for that I am not familiar with the history of Alabama (home of Willis Vess). In fact, when did people start settling in Alabama?

According to land records, Willis Vess/Vest obtained land as early as 1837 in Franklin County, Alabama (Huntsville area). His father, John Vess, supposedly had a cabin in Mountain Star, Alabama, which is not too far from Huntsville.

Pictured above (circled in red) is likely the area in which John and his son, Willis Vess lived in Franklin County, Alabama. Although this map is from 1908, you can still see many recognizable neighbors from earlier census records, including the Whitlock, Askew, and Willis families.

Help From Anna Popejoy and An Unknown Researcher

While browsing records on Ancestry.com, I stumbled upon an attached document linked to William Whitlock on someone’s family tree, titled, “Genealogy of Lou Pero.” I do not know who Lou Pero is nor does it state the name of the original author of these notes; however, the author noted that “a great deal of my information came from Anna Popejoy…” and this particular note pertained to William Whitlock providing information on when the Whitlocks migrated from Georgia to Alabama.

William Whitlock, is supposedly the father of Talitha Whitlock who is the wife of Willis VESS.

According to these notes, Anna wrote about “a wagon trail out of Georgia, October 10, 1821, to Franklin County, Alabama. Those of the Whitlock’s in the wagon train to were William, Elizabeth, Nathaniel, Hezekiah, and Talitha…” This information came from “Whitlock Gleanings, a genealogy workbook compiled by Thomas Edward Roach, 1984.

This gives us a better idea as to when the Whitlocks came to Alabama! So, my next task, is to determine when and where Willis Vess came from!

I certainly have a lot of research to do!
With a game plan, a starting point, I am super READY!!!