BEGATS AND BEQUEATHALS

As the posting linked above indicates, he first begins appearing in records of Orange County, Virginia, in 1745, and then is found in Augusta County, which was formed from Orange, and Botetourt County, formed from Augusta, until at the very end of his life, he moved to Sullivan County, North Carolina (later Tennessee). Nothing suggests to me that George Birdwell had any connection at all to Stafford County, which is over 170 miles northeast from where George lived in Augusta-Botetourt County, where he was likely living when he first appears in Orange County records in 1745.

I’ve seen no documentation anywhere establishing a tie between George Birdwell and the Bridwell family of Stafford County. As the posting linked above states, I remain highly dubious about the Stafford County Bridwell link made by many Birdwell researchers as they speak of George Birdwell’s probable roots.

In the posting linked at the head of this posting, I state,

I have read claims that there are DNA matches between known descendants of George Birdwell and members of the Stafford County Bridwell family, but I have seen no evidence to document those claims. I do think that Y-DNA analysis of men who can document descent from George Birdwell and men who can document descent from the Stafford County Bridwell family should tell us quickly whether the George Birdwell line descends from the Bridwells in Stafford County. In the absence of that kind of information – I myself have not seen it, that is – I remain very skeptical of the claim that George Birdwell was born in Stafford County, Virginia, to a Bridwell father. The large majority of those living in Orange County, Virginia, where George is first found by 1745, either came there as immigrants from abroad or came down from the Middle Colonies, where their parents or grandparents were immigrants.

Given what I say above, I’m very interested to read this statement in the gallery of documents attached to Roy Isbell’s “Thomas-Isbell Family Tree” at Ancestry:[1]

Research in the 1950’s speculated that the BRIDWELL and BIRDWELL families were the same. Since then DNA testing of males descended from both families are NOT related. Therefore the speculation tying George Birdwell to a Benjamin Bridwell needs to be dismissed.

As the screenshot of the passage I’ve just quoted found at the head of this posting indicates, it appears this statement was posted by a researcher of the Birdwell, Stephens, Easterwood, and Ward families posting on a now-defunct Rootsweb thread in July 2016. I’m fairly sure that the person posting this information in July 2016, who is identified as Shannon, is Shannon Birdwell, a descendant of George Birdwell through George’s son Moses, whom I’ve mentioned a number of times on this blog (see e.g., here).

Shannon is an outstanding Birdwell researcher who has sent me much valuable information on the Birdwell family over the years. As I say above, though I keep reading all over the place online that George Birdwell was born in Stafford County, Virginia, and that the DNA of his descendants matches that of the Bridwell family of that county, I’ve seen no documentation at all of this claim. It should be fairly easy to test the Y-DNA of known male descendants of George Birdwell and that of men in the Stafford County Bridwell family, and in that way either prove or disprove that claim that George Birdwell was a descendant of the Bridwell family of Stafford County.

Until I see documented evidence of that DNA match, I’m going to remain very skeptical of the claim that George was born in Stafford County and was a Bridwell. Lord knows, I’ve been wrong in the past and may be wrong in this case. But I don’t think so.

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[1] Roy Isbell, “Thomas-Isbell Family Tree,” Ancestry.