Chuck's Story
Chucks Story. The Family Legend ~Virginia and Ireland
This is the legend~ the reality may be even more entertaining.
A 200 year break in time to 2000-2002
Charles Wilson (Chuck) Pomeroy, died July 24th 2008 in Front Royal Virginia.
There is an obituary for him with a history here
In 2002 he and Richard Anthony (Tony) Pomeroy in Australia took a DNA test .
They were somewhat surprised when the results showed that Pomeroy's of Clara in Ireland and Tony in Australia, and therefore Pat and Annie in England were all genetically connected with Charles Wilson Pomeroy in Front Royal, Virginia
The origin of this family seem to be on the Devon Cornwall border or close to it. AJPs great x3 grandfather Richard Pomery born in Werrington in 1781 had older brothers ;William born in 1775 and John 1778 and a half brother Roger Bb 1762 who in 1780 married Grace Vosper in North Petherwin, Devon.
Annie, Pat and Tony all descend from this line which Annie believes she had traced back to 1719 in Lewannick , Cornwall but where Chucks family members fit in we do not yet know.
In 2014 we still dont know for sure because records of such things are scarce to non existant.
A family letter would be the most likely source and one doesn't seem to exist. We believe the migration could have been as little as between 50 and 70 years before that but earlier than 1719. However with more recent DNA results showing that this branch of the family connects to that of the Brixham in Devonshire family and the armorial tree this date range could change.
The Lewannick Pomeroys definitely connect by DNA to the Brixham and to the Stoke Gabriel Pomeroys in South Devon. The names of those who make that connection is yet to be discovered but it may go back as far as 1520 in Ireland
18th Century Ireland
'In Ireland bad harvests in 1726-29 led to a famine, this was followed by another terrible famine in 1741. Harvest failures, high rents and payment of tithes were some of the factors which convinced many to risk the hazardous sea crossing to America.
Chucks big question was always ‘Where in this part of Ireland was it most likely, in 1782 , that news might have come of a ship going to America’.
Cork or Cobh is favourite, it is not far from Millstreet where there a records of Pomeroy families living.
Where would that ship have made landfall in America. Possibly in Alexandria, Virginia.
The family legend has it that In about 1782, when young (Ole) Richard son of James was still at school and yet a teenager, heard that there was ship in port which was taking passengers to "free America" .
This part of the story might indicate that he was from a modestly comfortable family because if they were truly poor he would have been working by the age of 8 or 9.
News from a port would indicate that they were somewhere near or on the coast
The legend tells that on his way home from school one day he simply handed his books to his sister and gave her a message for his mother: "Tell Mam I have gone to America"
He never returned home.
HOW do these American Pomeroys connect to the Irish Pomeroys of Clara.
We have so far been unable to explore the connection.
Time and DNA may tell us - research is more likely to reveal it.
Before Lewannick the family came from Trewen and possibly Linkinhorn and possibly North Petherwin but even today, 2021, we are still working to establish this connection
We are getting closer all the time.
Chuck had his Poms in Ireland around 1750 ..
..link here
maybe something in Lloyds register will move the search on
I wonder what happened ; surely his parents would have gone looking for him, how did this young chap manage to make that long and perilous sea journey? Perhaps he signed on as a deck hand or a cabin boy, it was not uncommon .
or more likely he was signed as an indentured servant to someone going to America...a tailor in need of an assistant willing emigrate ?
There is mention of a Richard Pomeroy in a census in Alexandria , Virginia in around 1787 but the connection is unconfirmed as yet.
Alexandria I discovered is close to Washington DC
Ole Richard arrived in Front Royal Virginia before 1788 and on 5 Nov 1792 married Mary Lehew daughter of an inn keeper in Front Royal..
Chuck has recently found a record of Richard around 1788 and there is a Richard Pomeroy in the 1787 census of Alexandria , however we can't prove that he is 'ole' Richard' . Chuck's Ole Richard named his first son Alexandria (after the port city near Washington DC)
In true Irish tradition named his second son after his father.... James
This was Chucks great-great-grandfather. Chucks grandfather's name was Walter James Pomeroy and his grandfather was James Pomeroy son of "Ole Richard".
Chuck found a Walter Pomeroy in Alexandria Virginia in 1798 who was a cloth merchant selling to a 'Big House' owner in Warren County, Virginia, up until about 1800.
Could these two Walter Pomeroys be one and the same man?
A clue may be that Chuck's family traditionally give their children a name of an American President.
We have not as yet found how our families connect but DNA tells us they do . Somewhere.
Chuck's oral legend has three Pomeroy brothers , we are not certain of their names but call them Richard, James, William, ( there may have been a Henry in there) and they arrived in Waterford, Ireland sometime before 1750.
One of the brothers had a son, Richard , who settled in Millstreet, a tiny community in County Cork, and he later assigned/or leased Claramore . He married Mary Dunn in 1798. That was the start of the Pomeroy's of Clara.
2010 and this was found
Rolls Office of Chancery in Ireland... between 1670 and 1690.
1. Civil Survey of 1654: Cullen, Co Tipperary, Ireland
Name: Richard Pomery of Cullin - blacksmith, Survey Barony: Clanwilliam
2 . Ballinacree, co. Tipperary: 1697: Richard Pomeroy, eldest son of William P., of Ballinacree, co. Tipperary, (Sent his son to Grays Inn. )
Another Pomeroy, possibly the son of one of the original three, called Henry, leased or become the owner of Knockhill about 7-10 miles away. The beginning of the Pomeroy's of Knockhill.
Meanwhile, in Waterford one of the original brothers, James, was working in the shipping /fishing/ merchant business near the waterfront where he married and raised a family of at least sons , Chucks ancestor whom we call Ole Richard', and at least one sister.