From Whence I Came

From Whence I Came--

I've been interested in my family history since I was a late teenager, when I asked my parents about their forbears.  My dad rattled off 4 and 5 generations back; my mom didn't have as many in her memory bank.  Dad's maternal great grandmother was named Mary Frances Ramey.  He didn't know any more than that.  I wrote down all that they gave me, and since I worked at the Justice Department (just a stone's throwfrom the National Archives)  I verified his information through the Census books that were available to the public.  My first teacher of genealogy was a professional genealogist there in Washington, D.C.  She taught that "documentation" was the only sure way to prove ancestry.  I believed her.

Years ago research consisted in writing letters to Divisions of Vital Statistics to ask for death certificates or copies of wills.  That's how parents and children were proven.  As years went by I visited several libraries in California where we were living and found that in some cases there were published books that abstracted wills and other legal documents.  But I never found any more on Mary Frances Ramey, except for her marriage to A.B. Corder.

We made a trip to Richmond Virginia State Library and Archives in 1988.  We both had a list of surnames and information that I needed.  We worked there several days and he had no luck with his Ramey search.  On the last day we had a few hours only before flying home to Los Angeles.  One more stop at the Library…maybe we would find something.  Surprisingly, while driving there from the hotel I spied a huge billboard along the highway--advertising French "Remi Cognac".  In smaller letters under  the larger ones, "pronounced Ray-Me".   Could it be that Mary Frances was from French ancestry??

When we got into the library, he looked up in the card file "Huguenots to Virginia". Right there, with only a matter of minutes to complete our study, a book was listed on the Remy family with its various spelling.  The book could be found in the Pasadena Public Library in California.  I did find it and photocopied many pages.

Happy ending:  Mary Frances was a descendant of Jacques Remi,  He was a French Huguenot from France who had fled to Germany.  He then went to England where he sought passage to America in 1654 as an indentured servant  to Nicholas Spencer, Esq. for a 7-year period.  There was a copy of his naturalization record dated 1680 in Jamestown, Virginia.  He is listed in "Original Lists of Emigrants, Vol 1 (1600-1637), Vol 2 (1662-1700, by John C. Hotten.  In "First Families of America", p 683, is found: Jacob (Ramy) Ramey ca 1635-1721, from Ivoy, France, 1660 settled in Westmoreland Co., VA; married Mary Spencer in 1671.

I have known these facts for several years, but I made application on-line to the National Huguenot Society just last week.  That's how family history research has evolved through the internet.