Introduction
Carl B. Neal
published the Beaver Pond Neals of
Virginia in 1965 after several years of extensive research. This
book is well documented and can be found in most major libraries and
Carl's records were microfilmed and placed in the LDS Library
in Utah. The film was also donated to the Seattle City Public
Library. Carl put his heart and
soul, and money, into researching and publishing the BP book and I
for one owe him a great deal of gratitude and thanks. I never met or
talked to Carl before he passed away but I did correspond with his
widow, Mildred Sinnott Neal and she gave me written permission to
use the BP material in my research and in any subsequent
publications.
Although this
on-line edition relies
heavily on the original BP book it does not by design contain every
item. The purpose of this edition is to integrate additional data
that has been found since the BP book was published. It also focuses
on my direct line. Also, while the
BP book makes an excellent reference book, it does in my opinion,
contain too much data that is presented in a manner that makes it
difficult for the average reader to follow. Hopefully, this work
will allow one to follow the generations easier and those needing
additional data and/or documentation can consult the BP book.
As with all genealogy
projects there are inevitably missing people and sometimes whole
lines that are not accounted for. The BP book is no exception and
that is one of the reasons I decided to write Volume II. I also
wanted it to be an extension of the BP book rather than a separate
book to honor Carl and to simply expand and continue his research.
When
I began my research in the mid 1970s, I quickly ran into the
proverbial brick wall as most, if not all genealogist do at one time
or another. I knew who my g-grandfather Neal was, where he was born,
and his mother's first name but that was it. My g-grandfather, Thomas
Fletcher Neal, apparently had some kind of rift with his mother
and/or with his brothers Wellington and Armistead Neal and moved
away from the family into another county. My father remembered
Thomas very well and he said Thomas never talked about his family.
Ironically, after an argument over a horse, Thomas also had a son
that walked off the farm one day and never returned or heard from
again.
I worked for the Federal
Government at the time I started my research and was able to do most
of my early research at the DAR Library in Washington D.C. as well
as the National Archives. On one visit to the DAR
Library I came across the BP book and immediately felt a connection.
It's weird but I just knew these were my ancestors! Unfortunately,
disappointment soon set in as I could not find my connection. I did
find someone that could be my g-grandfather but things just didn't
seem right. On subsequent visits to the library I was drawn to the
BP book like a magnet, hoping each time I would find something that
I might have missed before.
On one occasion I was reading about a
Judge
Stephen Neal that seemed to be a very interesting person and
might therefore of had a biography published somewhere. He also
happened to belong to the branch that I thought my g-grandfather
might belong to. As luck would have it, I found a biography of Judge
Stephen Neal and lo and behold, all my prayers and questions were
answered.
When I saw my g-grandfather
and gg-grandmother's names in Judge Neal's Biography, my first
impulse was to jump up on the table and shout "I found you!!!!!".
Being in the DAR library, however, I decided that probably would not
go over very well so I just shouted it in my head. After all, I
certainly did not want to be barred from this library. So, my strong feelings of a
connection to my ancestors, who were living through the work of Carl
B. Neal, were true and correct. My g-grandfather was pretty much
where he belonged in the BP book but what Carl didn't know, and what
made finding my connection difficult was that my g-grandfather was
from a second marriage. It seems that after his first wife died,
John Neal who was about 65 years old at the time, remarried a young
lady, Eliza Fletcher, and became the father of two additional sons:
Thomas Fletcher Neal, my g-grandfather, and James W. Neal.
The Neal family outlined here came from Ireland and settled
on Beaver Pond Beach of Deep Creek, which flows east into the
Appomattox River. It is just south of Amelia Court House, Amelia
County Virginia, and is an
artificial reservoir above a dam built for a grist mill. This
area was initially Prince George Co.
The Beaver
Pond drainage basin terrain is slightly rolling and the soil is a
grayish red, probably a mixture of clay and sand. At one time,
Beaver Pond Beach was used as a canal from the dam to Petersburg for
transporting tobacco.
According
to Virginia records, we know our Neals came from Ireland in 1718 and
1730. The Neals were Presbyterians and it seems likely that
they were Scots-Irish who initially migrated from Scotland to Ulster
Ireland perhaps in the late 1600s. Anyone interested in the history
of the Scots-Irish should read "The Scotch-Irish, a Social
History" by James G. Leyburn, published in 1962 by the Univ. of
N.C. Press.
Carl B.
Neal corresponded
with Professor Leyburn regarding our Neals as being more Scots than
Irish in their character rather than more Irish as he thought
Professor Leyburn had described the Scots-Irish. Professor Leyburn
replied "your Neal ancestors came to America in 1718; that was
pretty early in the century of migration. It may well have been that
their own parents had very recently gone to Ulster from Scotland,
for there was a considerable migration from Scotland after 1689.
This would easily account for their being "more Scotch than
Irish". What you quote from John Hatchett's narrative about the
qualities of the Neals would also apply to literally hundreds of
Scotch-Irish settlers."
John Hatchett in his narrative, written between 1790 and 1805, describes
the Neals as "honest, industrious, money making people,
Protestant religion, were great church people, their creed and
catechisms were strictly attended to and learned to their children
at an early age. My mother's parents lived on a rich
plantation." John Hatchett also stated that his Neal ancestors,
including several uncles, were from Ireland and settled on Beaver Pond.
Professor
Leyburn also wrote "that they should have gone to the
Appomattox River region seems very understandable to me. That
district of central Virginia was one of the early centres of
Presbyterianism in the colony. Indeed, the first Presbyterian in
Virginia was named Hanover, and the Presbyterian religion is still
strong in that whole region. My guess would be that the early Neals
felt that in Amelia county they would be settling among people of
their own sort, even though many of the Presbyterians there were of
English stock rather that Scotch-Irish."
There
were other Neals on record in Amelia County that lived, or at least
owned property there. There was an Arthur Neill, a Thomas Neal and a
William Neal. While it may seem resonable to assume they were
related in some way to our Neals, there is absolutely no record or
evidence to show any relation. What the available records do show,
however, is that they could not have been descendants of
Steaven Neall Sr.
