Tracy Family Tales

Posts

6 - John Tracy

Now we can finally turn our attention to John Tracy. This is as far back as I can reliably trace the paternal Tracy line. The fact of the matter is, John Tracy's parents are unknown. However, we can make some inferences. First let's start with some facts. We know that John Tracy, like Nancy Ann Price, was from Maryland. According to the genealogical researcher Charles Crain, John and Nancy Ann Price were married in 1793 in Maryland. We also know that Nancy Ann Price was living in Harford County, east of Baltimore County. Finally, we know from the 1810 US Federal Census that John Tracy was between the ages of 26 and 45 in 1810 (only age ranges were tallied at that time). This puts his birth between 1765 and 1784. Given that he was married in 1793, it seems likely that he was born closer to 1765 to 1770 or so. If John Tracy was from nearby Baltimore County then it is possible that he was a son of Benjamin Tracy (b. 1730), who is a descendent of Teague Tracy (b. before 1665) and ...

5 - The Veazey Family of Cherry Grove

In the previous tale I gave the ancestral lineage for the paternal side of Nancy Ann Price's father, Veazey Price. We don't know much about her mother's side, the Bartons, but the maternal ancestors of Veazey Price are well documented. John Veazey Veazey Price is a descendent of John Veazey, born in Essex, England, in 1647. They are said to be from an English family of Norman descent. The name "Veazey" could derive from a plant known as vetch in English or vesce in French. The lands where the plant grew came to be known as the "Veacey" lands. The name itself has many spellings including Veazey, Veasey, Veasie, Vesey, Veazie and Vezey. John Veazey was granted a tract of land in 1670 bordering the Bohemia and Elk Rivers in what is now Cecil County. This land later became known as "Veazey's Neck" and sat adjacent to "Veazey's Cove". This, along with subsequent land patents, would become the family's ancestral home and is sti...

4 - Price Family History

In the previous tale we identified the mother of Jesse Tracy as Nancy Ann Price and determined that she was born in Maryland before migrating to Kentucky with her family. Let's now explore the Price ancestry of Nancy Ann Price. William Price The first of the Price ancestors to arrive in the New World was William Price. He was born about 1630 in Wales and it appears that he arrived in the colonial Province of Maryland in 1653, based on surviving immigration lists. He settled in what was then the northern part of Kent County (founded 1642) “south of the Bohemian River and east of the Elk River” (Crain) and became a planter. As you can see from the map below, at that time Kent County included almost the entire eastern shore of the Chesapeake Bay. The colony itself did not, at least officially, extend much beyond where William Price established his home. Approximate location of William Price's settlement in the 1650s Historically, Maryland was settled as a safe ...

3 - The Price Connection

In the previous tale we located Bazzle Tracy in Waynetown, Indiana, in the 1880s. We discovered that his parents, thanks to the reporting of Hiram W. Beckwith, were John and Nancy Tracy, and that both were born in Maryland. First we shall turn our attention over to the mother, Nancy Tracy, before we attempt to unravel the mystery of John. Hiram W. Beckwith also tells us, in his biographical sketch of Bazzle Tracy, that Bazzle is married to Elizabeth Price. Elizabeth was born in Fleming County, Kentucky. In the 1880 US Census, she, like Bazzle, also identifies Maryland as the birth place for both her mother and father. Unlike her husband, the census taker indicated that Elizabeth can both read and write (so she may have been Beckwith's correspondent and source for his information). His wife (Elizabeth Price) was born May 8, 1804, and is a member of the New Light church. They were married March 14, 1822, and have eleven children. Beckwith writes that Bazzle and Elizabeth’s first bo...

2 - Origins in Maryland

Our quest for identifying the parents of Jesse Tracy now moves south from the Old Turkey Run Cemetery to Waynetown, Indiana. Waynetown is also located in Montgomery County and is due west of the county seat at Crawfordsville. Map showing Montgomery County and Waynetown. By DemocraticLuntz at English Wikipedia, CC BY-SA 4.0, https://commons.wikimedia.org/w/index.php?curid=63582566 In the year 1880 the population of Waynetown stood at 569 people. One of those residents was a 77 year old farmer named Bazzle (or Bazil) Tracy. He cannot read nor write and, consequently, his name does not have a consistent spelling. Bazzle is important to the family history by being the brother of Jesse Tracy ( see the previous tale ). For it is in this year, or nearly so, that Bazzle would provide us with an important clue to unlocking the origins of this family of Tracys. About this same time, a man named Hiram W. Beckwith was writing a book on the history of Montgomery County, Ind...

1 - Old Turkey Run

In the introductory post I traced the paternal line of my grandfather, Truman G. Tracy, back four generations to a Jesse Tracy, born in 1795. Although described as a “Kentucky farmer”, Jesse died in Montgomery County, Indiana and is buried in the old Turkey Run cemetery. The quaint little cemetery is about a mile south of the town of Wingate (formally Pleasant Hill) and just north of the gently winding Turkey Run creek, after which it is named. It is tucked back from the main road at the end of a grass pathway and is surrounded by farms. An aerial view of Old Turkey Run Cemetery as of 2022. It doesn't appear to have changed much in the past 200 years, aside from a paved highway. The cemetery was established in 1828 along with the Turkey Run Christian church. The church no longer exists on the site but was moved to a new location in 1852 and finally to a red brick building in 1904. After the move it was renamed Pleasant Hill Christian Church. Today it is the Pleasant Hill Uni...