This week’s writing prompt is Family Recipe, the suggestions are all related to family cooking recipes. I don’t really have a family cooking recipe to discuss that I can think of. But there are more than one meaning for the word recipe. The meaning that comes to mind first, a set of instructions for making a particular food dish. There are two additional meanings as well. The now archaic use of the word recipe to mean a medical prescription. The third meaning of the word recipe is one that is still used today, to mean something which is likely to lead to a particular outcome. (1) Examples, a recipe for disaster, a recipe for love, etc.

You may think that my use of the phrase a recipe for a family tree disaster a bit of an exaggeration. But it is not. Once someone enters incorrect, unresearched, mis-researched, or just plain made-up information into a family tree online it gets copied thousands of times and is taken as gospel by some, despite no documentation. Getting people to rescind the incorrection information is a nightmare in itself, for even if you did get the original poster of the information to correct or remove the information, it is already out there being seen by the masses. To get thousands of people to make the correction in their trees or websites is almost impossible.

There is more than one example within my tree that I could use to make this point. But I am choosing to discuss my 4th great-grandmother Martha Willoughby Norris.

There is GREAT confusion regarding her. I have seen my Martha, the wife of James Norris, given the maiden names: Long, Bunyan, Donaldson, Williamson, Weathersby, and Willoughby!

I have researched all the records that are available and also used DNA to piece together the puzzle of her maiden name.

I have painstakingly gone through all my DNA matches and looked for a connection to any of the other surnames in Maryland that people have listed as a maiden name for my Martha, that are a DNA match to me and my extended family members that are descended from James Norris and his wife Martha.

Looking at all the maiden names linked to her, I will first start with Long, since it’s the name most often listed for her, and has been copied innumerable times. Martha Long was the daughter of Coulbourne Long and Easter/Ester _____. There is a marriage record to be found for Martha Long who married JOHN Norris, not James Norris! 

John Norris who married Martha Long was distant kin to my James Norris. John Norris was the son of Edward Norris and Hannah Scott.

I have zero DNA matches to the surname Long in Maryland. 

I descend from two related Norris lines. Edward Norris (the father of John Norris who married Martha Long) was a sibling of my ancestor Joseph Norris who married Mary Talbot. Edward Norris and Joseph Norris were both the sons of John Norris and Elizabeth “Eliza” Parsons. But my James Norris who married Martha, was only distant kin to the John Norris who married Martha Long. My James Norris, who was the son of Thomas Norris and Elizabeth McComas, was never married to Martha Long.

Both my direct ancestors (both are my 6th great-grandfathers) John Norris (m. Ann Wheatley) and Joseph Norris, Sr.  (m. Mary Talbot) were the sons of John Norris and Elizabeth “Eliza” Parsons.

I discovered where people were getting the name Bunyan from, a marriage record from the 1800’s in London, England! A couple named James Norris and Mary/Martha Bunyan were married on 12 July 1843 in Saint Botolph Without Aldersgate, London, London, England. Obviously, this marriage record and this couple have no connection to Colonial Maryland a century+ earlier! I have zero DNA matches to the surname Bunyan.

Although I have a few DNA matches to the name Williamson, they are not in Maryland nor connected to this Norris line.

I do have DNA matches to surname Donaldson, but they are ancestors on the other side of my tree, they lived in Pennsylvania, and are not connected to the state of Maryland or to my paternal Norris line.

I believe the surname Weathersby was someone mistakenly listing it incorrectly when it should have been Willoughby. Since the surnames Williamson, Willoughby, and Weathersby, are all taken from old DAR applications of the same root ancestor James Norris, I believe they actually all should be the same surname Willoughby.

I have zero DNA matches in Maryland to the surname Weathersby.

Lastly, I will discuss the surname Willoughby. I have NUMEROUS DNA matches to descendants of Richard Willoughby and Mary Willoughby Hardcastle. Both are the children of Andrew Willoughby and Anne “Annie” ____. These DNA matches descend from these two siblings and also are DNA matches to numerous people that are close and distant kin to me and all descend from James Norris and Martha.

I also have DNA matches to descendants of Mary Willoughby who married William Wofford. She is a sibling of Andrew Willoughby. Both Andrew Willoughby and his sister Mary Willoughby Wofford are thought to be the children of William Willoughby and Hannah ____.

I went through all the known and possible children of Andrew Willoughby and Anne “Annie” ____, including their son Richard Willoughby.

Richard Willoughby migrated from Maryland to Johnston, North Carolina. My Martha was born in Maryland and remained in Maryland for most of her life (the family did migrate from Maryland to Kentucky. Her husband James Norris dies in Butler County, Ohio), she does not fit as the child of Richard Willoughby.

But my Martha does fit as the daughter of John J. Willoughby who married Rachel Diass (Dias/Dyas). He was also a son of Andrew Willoughby and Annie ____. 

Many list Rachel Diass/Dyas as the daughter of John Diass and Mary Sinclair, but I have not seen any sources or documentation as to why they list Mary Sinclair as her mother. There is a good chance she is the daughter of a John Dias/Dyas. His will is proven in Talbot County Maryland is 1755 and his surname is listed as Dias/Dyas. 

There is a John Dyas, Jr. listed as serving in the Maryland Militia for Talbot County, Maryland, in 1740 and 1748. This could be the same John Dias/Dyas who dies in 1755, or he may have had a son named John Dyas/Dias, Jr. after him.

Rachel Dyas/Diass (and John Dias/Dyas/John Dias/Dyas, Jr.) may have been relations of Thomas Dyas who is listed as being born before 1640 and died before 1700 in Westmoreland County, Virginia. Thomas Dyas is one of the early colonial settlers of southern Maryland and Virginia’s northern neck counties.

I do have Dyas/Diass DNA matches. 

Some give the maiden name for Anne “Annie” wife of Andrew Willoughby as Dent.

She is not the Annie Dent that is listed as coming to Virginia in 1729. She is not Anne Dent that was the daughter of William Dent and Elizabeth Fowke, that Anne Dent died unmarried and is buried in the Durham Churchyard in Charles County, Maryland. She also is not Annie Dent, who was the daughter of John Dent and Mary Hatch, and married John Cadle.

I don’t believe the maiden name for Anne “Annie” ____, wife of Andrew Willoughby, is truly not known and has not been proven.

Andrew Willoughby is thought to be the son of William Willoughby, who was born in England and died 13 September 1713, in Dorchester, Maryland. But more research needs to be done to substantiate the parentage of Andrew Willoughby.

A marriage record for James Norris and Martha ____ has not been found. The first name Martha and her maiden name Willoughby are from an old DAR application, which does not always have accurate information, but often it does, and sometimes will give helpful and informative clues, even if it does contain errors.

James Norris was a private in the Continental Troops, Baltimore County, 1st Maryland Regiment (Smallwood’s Regiment) during the American Revolutionary War.

Side note: There are some, like I have quoted below, that have Martha moving to Bracken County, Kentucky where Joseph and James were living. “James Norris born Baltimore County Maryland in 1747/8. He was devised a slave in his father’s will in 1761. He was appointed administrator for the estate of Moses Norris in 1783. He migrated to Mason co., Ky with his brother Aquilla & his nephew Abraham Norris & others about 1793. About 1805 Aquilla & James moved to Brown co., Oh. where Aquilla located. Tradition states that James settled near Dayton [Ohio]; no evidence has been discovered to substantiate the tradition. James died at the home of his son, Aquilla, in Butler County, Ohio. Martha moved to Bracken County, Ky where her sons, Joseph & James [lived].” [Harry Alexander Davis, The Norris Family of Maryland & Virginia; Genealogy of Thomas Norris 1361 – 1930 (4 vol. 1941 Washington D.C. Transcript), pg. 352-3,]

In the above quoted passage, the author is confusing the two families of James Norris and John Norris. Some of the information is correct, some is not. The Martha A. Norris who dies in September 1819 in Kentucky (who is mentioned in the book) is Martha A. Long Norris, the wife of John Norris. Although there is some confusion when it comes to the woman named Martha Norris who died in September 1819. There is a Martha A. Norris who died September 1819 and is buried in Fallston, Harford County, Maryland. This latter Martha was born Martha Amos. So, she is not the same woman as Martha Long Norris.

I would say my analysis of my DNA matches, and available records, when comparing all the surnames given for her maiden name, that Willoughby is the only name that is backed up by a very strong DNA connection.  

My direct line:

1. John J. Willoughby and Rachel Dyas/Dias.
2. Martha Willoughby and James Norris.
3. Sarah “Sally” Norris and John A. Armstrong.
4. Bradford Carroll Armstrong and Martha Ann Knight Lyons.
5. George Pendleton Armstrong and Alice Elizabeth Nutick. (my great-grandparents).

Do I believe that my writing here about the confusion regarding the two women named Martha, that both married men of the same Norris family, will solve the nightmare of thousands of family trees that incorrectly list Martha Willoughby as Martha Long? Well, hope springs eternal!

Reference:

1. OED – Oxford English Dictionary

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