Okay, so I stumbled upon a Best-Vess connection; well, not a direct connection, but more of a very distant, extremely short, yet interesting connection…

I am in the process of mapping out every VESS record I can find prior to 1850. Of course, it is pretty wide-spread, but I am looking for individuals with the VESS name who claim to be born prior to 1800. So far, it’s been an effective strategy; however, I fell off task when I stumbled upon an unknown William Vess. Needless to say, I had to check it out!

His name was in the middle of a lengthy book about the HOFFMAN family [The Hoffmans of North Carolina Posted 29 Apr 2010 by Lynn Shore-Ancestry.com]. But, what really caught my attention (scrolling through the pages) was a list of familiar families (such as Jones, Hovis, Lineberger, and Palmer) that I often come across during my research as families who were living near Peter or Nathan at one time or another. So, who were the Hoffmans?? Honestly, I’ve never heard of them.

The Hoffmans

According to The Hoffmans of North Carolina ,(scrolling back a few pages), Elizabeth Hoffman, who married Jacob Palmer, is the daughter of “pioneer” Jacob Hoffman and Catherine Best (Katerina Margaretha Bosch) from Germany.

YES, you read that correctly: BEST! AND…Catherine Best is the sister of Boston Best (Sebastian Bosch Jr.)!

Earlier in my research, I stumbled upon Boston Best near the Gosnell family in Lincoln County, North Carolina [below], before the Gosnell family settled in Glassy Mountain, Greenville, South Carolina with the Bellew family. Remember: Nathan Vess married Clarinda Bellew, whose mother is Clarinda Gosnell.

A Distant, Extremely Short, Yet Interesting Connection

Of course, I was super excited to find a VESS in a book (any book) related to the Best family!

Without a birth date noted, I couldn’t tell where this William Vess fell on the Vess family tree. In fact, I was hoping to find a new Vess family, for that I am not aware of any Vess family living in Lincoln County, North Carolina during the early 1800’s.

However, after a little digging, I found him.
He is William Madison Vess, son of Andrew Jackson Vess and Ruth Elizabeth Palmer and grandson of Nathan Vess and Clarinda Bellew.

He was born in 1852 and married Matilda Caroline Jones, whose 2nd great-grandmother is Catherine Best (Katerina Margaretha Bosch).

Above, can give us an idea of just how interconnected all these different families were during the 1800’s. I mean, Carolina Jones and William Vess are pretty much distant cousins and they probably didn’t even know it. So, technically, we do have a few distant Vess cousins (the descendants of Caroline Jones and William Vess) who are descendants of the Best family from Germany. But so far, no direct BEST-VESS connections.

Anyway, I just wanted to share with you one of my usual research experiences, where I start doing one thing and eventually get stuck on a totally different thing! It is amazing where research takes us! Although not a significant finding, it was still worth checking out!