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Rea family in 1700s VA

Rea family in 1700s VA

Posted: 24 Mar 2015 12:34PM GMT
Classification: Query
Surnames: Rea Webster
Tracing back to William Collings Rea, then to his father James Rea, Sr., d.~1788, Henry Co., VA, but running into a problem for the next generation back...lots of trees show James Rea Sr. as the son of John Rhea [Rea] and Hannah Hastey, but I've found notes from a modern-day Rea in VA, who states this is incorrect, citing research and DNA. That person states that "Rea" was not the spelling used by any of the children of John Rhea & Hannah Hastey Rhea. The only other clue I have found is some trees referencing a Hannah Webster Rea as James Rea's mother but no father's name found. With James Rea Sr.'s birthdate at 1730, Hannah Webster's would be earlier than that but I haven't found anything for that name/time period. Does anyone have any parentage for James Rea, Sr. that doesn't go the John Rhea/Hannah Hastey route?

Re: James Rea family of Henry Co, VA in 1700s

Posted: 30 Mar 2015 7:49PM GMT
Classification: Query
I'm pretty much convinced that this often-repeated descendancy is in error.

I know that John Ray & Hannah Hasty are often given as the parents of James Rea [Henry Co VA] in many internet trees. I've written emails to these various posters but have never gotten a response stating the source of their info. And at least one of the trees [from A Deason Smith (deceased)] even states that there is no proof of this connection.

On the other hand I have corresponded with Joseph C Rhea, author of Ray-Rhea: a family book of history and genealogy for Rhea and related families (1969) in which he describes how he is descended from John Ray & Hannah Hasty. The passage in the book that seems to have led to the confusion has been transcribed in this old RHEA-L post
http://archiver.rootsweb.ancestry.com/th/read/rhea/1998-02/0...

Joseph C Rhea obtained this information from notebooks made by his great grand uncle The notes were taken in the years after the Civil War from interviews with older family members, in this case a grandson of John Ray & Hannah Hasty. I suppose it comes down to whether one believes he knew the names of his grandparents.

In addition, it is now clear from Y-DNA evidence that the results from descendants of Joseph C Rhea do not match those of the descendants of James Rea of Henry Co, VA. Therefore these two Rea lines are not related.

I have also searched for the parentage of James Rea (Sr), but have not found any plausible candidate. I believe that James Rea (Sr) was likely born well before 1730, but the evidence is circumstantial and based on the probable birth years of his children. It's possible that he came from Ireland.

Re: James Rea family of Henry Co, VA in 1700s

Posted: 31 Mar 2015 7:47PM GMT
Classification: Query
Surnames: Rea Webster
Thank you, Roger, for the response. I appreciate the info that you've not been able to find any other parentage for James Sr.

I think it may have been your note to another Ancestry member that I mentioned in my post, about the Hannah Hastey thing being wrong. After I read that note, I deleted the link from my trees [here and on Geni].

Since I hadn't been able to find anything but that incorrect info, I decided to just look through as many other trees as I could that led up to James Sr. to see if anyone had anything else. It was combing through all that info here on Ancestry that I found one with "unknown" father and Hannah Webb as James Rea, Sr.'s parents.

I'd love to get some male DNA tested that's close to me but my father passed away a year ago, before I started looking for ancestors, and I only have a sister. My father only has one sibling, a brother (who has 2 daughters), but I am doubtful he'd agree to a DNA test for ancestry. There are no other males of that line in my acquaintance (my grandfather was an only child), so no luck there.

Again, thank you for your reply and all the information you've provided. Happy searching!

Re: James Rea family of Henry Co, VA in 1700s

Posted: 2 Apr 2015 9:30PM GMT
Classification: Query
Terriann

I'd be interested learning about your Rea descendancy (from Wm Collins Rea I assume).

Y-DNA has been tested from descendants of two of Wm Collins Rea's sons: One from a descendant of Wilson Rea and the other from a descendant of Abner Rea, both of whom lived in Franklin Co, IL, where my GGGrandfather, Wilson Ray was married and lived for a time.

I have a close match with both of these descendants as well as a number of other people. However I have not been able to identify the precise connection with this Rea family, which remains a mystery at this time.

Please contact me directly [ dzupina @ yahoo.com ] and I can give you more details on the DNA testing results.

-- Roger Ray
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