Stinson Potpourri

Happy Birthday, Ida Estelle!

All birthdays are special, but when you reach 87 years and are still doing your own shopping and hanging out with the kids, they're super special. Ida Estelle Benson, John Thomas and Ida Stinson's youngest child, will celebrate her 87th on May 4th! Send me an e-mail (kathy-stinson@cox.net) and I'll send you Estelle's address and phone number. Send a card! Give her a call!

17th Century Stinsons in Maryland

Last week I spoke (by phone) with a woman named Catherine Stinson, who lives in Onancoke, Virginia on the Eastern Shore. A couple of months ago Charles Stinson's son was in the Starbuck's near Longwood University in Farmville and paid for his coffee with a credit card. The cashier (oops, I mean the Barista!) noticed his name and mentioned that her mother was also a Stinson. As they chatted Charles' son learned that her Stinson line had been traced back to the 1600s on Maryland's Eastern Shore. The mom, Catherine Stinson, told me that she had a genealogy report "somewhere" that her father had done years earlier. She confirmed that her Stinson line did go back to the 17th century in Maryland, but she didn't have any more details. I asked for a copy of the genealogy report, but so far haven't heard back. We did note that our lines share some common first names, including "Aubrey" which was my father's name and also Catherine's great uncle's name. I wouldn't be surprised if we share a common ancestor prior to Alexander. Perhaps Alexander came to Williamsburg from Maryland, not directly from England as we have always assumed.

A quick search on Ancestry.com showed me that a John Stinson arrived in St. Mary's County, Maryland on the Bachelor of Bristol on 2 Nov 1674. There are several other references to John Stinson, including a survey of his land on 21 February 1685. He owned 618 acres in Anne Arundel County, Maryland which he called "Stinson's Choice." I found references to two other 17th century Stinsons, both living on Maryland's Eastern Shore on the Chesapeake Bay.

Buckingham Stinsons Reunion, 1 June

The flyers announcing the 2008 Stinson reunion were mailed on April 8th. The mailing list is posted on the Buckingham Stinsons Website. Send me an e-mail (kathy-stinson@cox.net) if you know anyone who should get a flyer. I'm planning on doing a short fireside talk --complete with Powerpoint presentation! -- DNA genealogy and how it may help us Stinsons learn about our family history. I'm a novice and no scientist, but I'm learning fast and looking forward to sharing. I hope there'll be some folks interested in sitting in. And all you Stinson men need to honor your Stinson women and volunteer for the clean-up committee. It's easy and you'll score lots of points!


Stimpson vs. Stinson, a follow-up:

My most recent blog entry reported that the DAR had recorded our patriot ancestors, Alexander, Sr. and his son, David as "Stimpson" not Stinson. Edna Barney responded to my query and I'm sharing it here. I encourage you to visit Edna's Website. You can start by clicking the link at the end of her message.

"Kathy - I contacted DAR about the name difference as soon as my papers were approved and they did not consider it a "biggy," as I can order my pins with the STINSON name and all indexing will take one to STINSON. Actually, I have a suspicion that they are in the process of changing the name to STINSON.

The reason I suspect that is that neither of my STINSON patriots were published in the last issue of American Spirit, as they should have been.

When I contacted NSDAR about that, all they told me was that they would be in the next issue. I believe DAR is being consistent, as that is the spelling they used for the
only other Buckingham County STINSON - Alexander Junior.

I wrote about that here with an image from the Patriot Index:
http://neddysnook.wordpress.com/2008/04/01/dar-patriot-index/ "

Edna Barney