Greene County, Tennessee Revolutionary War Land Grant: James Rodgers, 11 May 1792

North Carolina (Revolutionary War) Land Grants
Roll 12: Book 1
Ancestry.com image number 148 of 330
Page 284
(Greene County, Tennessee)

The State of North Carolina,
To all whom these Presents shall come. GREETING:

Know ye, that we, for and in consideration of the sum of Fifty Shillings for every hundred acres hereby granted, paid into our Treasury
By James Rodgers

Have given and granted and by these presents do give and grant unto the said James Rodgers a tract of land containing two hundred acres lying and being in our county of Greene on the north side of Nolachucky on Deals Branch of Lick Creek. Begining at a Spanish oak, white oak and dogwood. Thence east one hundred and ten poles to a white oak and ewe?. Thence south two hundred and forty poles to a white oak and black oak. Thence with said Rodgers line one hundred and thirty six poles to a stake. Thence to the begining. As by the plat hereunto annexed doth appear together with all woods, waters, mines, minerals, here did with and appurtenances to the said land belonging or appertaining to hold to the said James Rodgers his heirs and assigns forever yielding and paying to us such sums of money yearly or otherwise as our General Assembly from time to time may direct provided always that the said James Rodgers shall cause this grant to be Registered in the Registers office of our said county of Greene within twelve months from the date here of other sum the same shall be void and of none effect.

In Testimony Whereof, we have caused these, our letters to be made patent and our Great Seal to be hereunto affixed.
Witness Alexander Martin
Esquire, our Governor, Captain General and Commander-in-Chief at Danbury this 11th day of May, in the 16th year of our Independence and in the year of our lord 1792.
By his Excellency's Command.
G. Glasgow, Secretary.
Alexander Martin (signed)

Aaron Rodgers - Green Bay Packers Quarterback and His Connection to the Chicago Bears & Pittsburgh Steelers

While watching the big playoff game today, I became interested in the Green Bay Packer's quarterback, Aaron Rodgers. He shares the same surname with my mother's family.. and it's spelled the same way with the "D" too! I come across Rogers often, but not Rodgers. So, I became intrigued and wanted to know more about Aaron Rodgers' family tree.

A simple Google search brings up his name is Aaron Charles Rodgers and was born 02 Dec 1983 in Chico, Butte County, California. Knowing that Ancestry.com has database for birth, marriage and death records for California, I immediately head over there to do some simple searches.

I navigate to the database "California Birth Index, 1905-1995" and I find him with his full name and birthdate and the database also contains his mother's maiden name, Pittman. I then go to the sister database "California Marriage Index, 1960-1985" and search for a marriage between a groom Rodgers and bride Pittman. Bingo! His parent's names are Edward W. Rodgers (born about 1955) and Darla L. Pittman (born about 1958). They were married on 05 Apr 1980 in Mendocino County, California.

Going back to my trusted friend, Google, I search for Edward W. Rodgers in Chico, California. Up pops a bagillion results for a Chiropractor named Edward W. Rodgers, (JR!) in Chico, California. We now know he's a Junior! I also take note that he comes up as Edward Wesley Rodgers, Jr. I immediately go back to Ancestry.com and do an Advanced Search for an Edward Rodgers in Chico. I find what I believe to be Aaron's grandfather in the "Social Security Death Index" and also "U.S. Phone and Address Directories, 1993-2002". Both name him as Edward W. Rodgers with the same birth date of 07 Nov 1917 and either living or died in Chico, Butte County, California. Noticing on the "Social Security Death Index" that he passed away in 1996, he should appear in the Ancestry.com database "California Death Index, 1940-1997". He shows up stating that he was born in Illinois and his mother's maiden name was Larrick.

This is when the fun really starts! I head over to the new FamilySearch.org and do an Advanced Search for Parent's surnames of Rodgers and Larrick. I find three definite results. The first two are a birth certificate for a Louis Alexander Rodgers and also a death certificate for him. The third result is what I'm looking for.. a birth certificate for Edward Wesley Rodgers, born 07 Nov 1917... in CHICAGO! As in the Chicago Bears?! So these documents state that the parents names are (with variations like abbreviations) Alexander John Rodgers and Cora Larrick. The birth certificates state that Alexander John was born in Pennsylvania and that Cora was born in Illinois.

I was then able to locate the family in the 1920 census, although they weren't living in Chicago anymore. They were living in Rock Island Township, Rock Island County, Illinois. It's definitely the right family, as you'll be able to see from the names and places of birth in the household.

According to the birth certificates of Alexander John's two children, he was born about 1892 or 1893.. prime age for the WWI draft! I find his WWI Draft Registration Card with him having registered in Jun 1917 in Chicago. It states that he was married, although unfortunately it doesn't state the wife's name. His place of birth more than makes up for the fact of a lack of his wife's name. It states he was born on 25/28 (hard to make out) Jan 1893 in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania.. as in the Pittsburgh Steelers! I sure wish these dang WWI Draft Registration Cards were much more clearer and easier to read. I've never seen a single clear image. Anyway..

Well considering we know his birth date and place of birth, we should look for him in the 1900 census in Pittsburgh.. and he's easily found.. maybe too easily. He is listed as Alexander J. Rodgers, born Jan 1893. He is with his widowed mother, Louisa Rodgers, born Mar 1870 in Germany. They're both living in the household of Louisa's parents (Alexander's grandparents), William and Sophia C. Houseberg.. natives of Germany. Them being from Germany leads me to believe their surname would've been Haasberg or something similar back in the old country. Haas is the German word for House.. they wouldn't have used "House" in Germany. The family is living at 646 Herron Ave, in Pittsburgh.

At this point, I'm now stuck in a rut. I'm not aware of any resources online for Pittsburgh vital records or even a state census for 1895 (does it even exist?). I then remember this awesome website that has tons of old Pittsburgh city directories digitized online, so I head over to DonsList.net to see what they have available. I find a directory for Pittsburgh 1900, so I decide to take a look.. considering I know Louisa Rodgers (widowed) was living with her parents are 646 Herron Ave. I'm surprised to locate Louisa and she's living at 648 Herron Ave.. and she's listed as the widow of Archibald! What are the odds?

As for Archibald, I did find one result in the Pittsburgh 1880 census for an Archibald that would be roughly 2 years older than Louisa; but I can't be positive it's him, I would need more proof. This Archibald is the son of Alexander (Archibald's only child's name!) and Mary Ann Rodgers, both born about 1837 in Ireland. Interestingly enough, Alexander's occupation is listed as a "puddler", which according to Wikipedia (horrible source, I know...), "puddling was an improved process to convert pig iron into wrought iron with the use of a reverberating furnace"

We now have Aaron Rodgers' connection to the Chicago Bears and Pittsburgh Steelers! Now I wonder if he has a connection to New York (New York Jets!).. other than immigrations, of course.

Robert Pattinson is related to Dracula?

Today while doing my daily genealogy blog readings, I stumbled upon Randy Seaver's article Is Robert Pattinson a cousin to Vlad the Impaler?. I was instantly intriuged because I myself have a connection to Vlad Dracula Tepes "the Impaler".

Reading his article, I find that the entry originated with a article posted today (June 24th) on the UK version of Ancestry's Blog. You can find the article here: Twilight star Robert Pattinson is related to Dracula!. Reading the article and looking at the [very] tiny hard to see pedigree, I become confused and dumbfounded.

The article was written by Annabel Bernhardt, the PR Manager for Ancestry.co.uk. In the article she claims that King George VI of England is a direct descendant of Vlad II Dracul, the father of Vlad III Dracula.. otherwise known as Vlad "the Impaler". At this point I could care less about Robert Pattinson's connection to Vlad, or even the current reigning English monarchy. I needed to clear the air of King George VI's ancestry.

King George VI of England is a descendant of countless royal and noble houses of Europe, but one: the Basarab family of Transylvania. The Basarab's were a very large Transylvanian family with powerful aristocratic, noble and also royal connections. It is through these that Vlad "the Impaler" is connected to King George VI and his descendants, not related.

King George VI's mother is the well-known Mary of Teck, wife of King George V of England. Mary's paternal grandmother was the Countess Klaudina Zsuzsánna Rhédey de Kis-Rhéde. Klaudina ia a documented descendant of the Szilágyi de Horoszeg family. The connection with the current England monarchy is through this Szilágyi family. The wife of Vlad "the Impaler" was a noblewoman from that same Szilágyi de Horoszeg family. Here is the descend of Klaudina to the Szilágyi de Horoszeg family:



Klaudina Zsuzsánna Rhédey de Kis-Rhéde is the great-granddaughter of László Rhédey de Kis-Rhéde and his wife Mária Toroczkay de Toroczkó-Szent-György. Mária herself is the daughter of István Toroczkay de Toroczkó-Szent-György and his wife Borbála Kapy de Kapivár.



In this next pedigree chart, you see that Borbála Kapy de Kapivár is the descendant of Miklós Kapy de Kapivár and his wife Katalin Lipcsey de Nagy-Lucse. Katalin is the daughter of Damian Lipcsey de Nagy-Lucse and his wife Margit Macedóniai de Macedónia.



This next pedigree shows that Margit Macedóniai de Macedónia is the granddaughter of János Macedóniai de Macedónia and his wife Anna de Gara.



You can see this this next pedigree that Anna de Gara is the great-granddaughter of Dezső de Gara and his wife Anna Szilágyi de Horogszeg.



This final pedigree chart does not show Anna, but she is a known granddaughter of Miklós de Szilágy, alive in 1408. She is the daughter of Mihály, who was the uncle to Erzsébet. Erzsébet was the wife of János Hunyadi, Regent of Hungary, and mother of Mátyás Corvinus, King of Hungary. Vlad Dracula "the Impaler"'s wife is the known daughter of Osvát, brother of the previously mentioned Erzsébet.

A lot of false pedigree and assumptions are made when it comes to celebrities, royalty and family trees. Embellishments are made and facts are not documented and sourced. I'm honestly a little upset that this fabricated pedigree for King George VI of England shows that he is a direct-line descendant of the Transylvanian Basarab family. This is false and there is no given proof by Annabel Bernhardt of her sources for this information.

Source: Nagy, Iván, and István Fribeisz. Magyarország Családai.