Birth Records for Leesburg/Loudoun Virginia - 1820s
Hello - I'm trying to find the family of my 3rd Great-Grandfather, George Fairhurst "GW" Bowlen. A memoir written by his daughter says he was born on a plantation near Leesburg, VA in 1829. His father's name was William Ezra Bowlen or Bolon and his mother was Ellen Fairhurst. He had 5 sisters, but no one knows anything about them. Hoping to find their birth records. I see
Any help is greatly appreciated!
Thank you! Aimee Shramko
Answers
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Hi Aimee,
Unfortunately Virginia births do not start until 1853. The Virginia death records also start in 1853. They can give a birth date and birth place. Here is a link to that collection. I know there are currently some new indexing projects being done for death records, so if you don't see it today & you expect them to be there, keep checking back: https://www.familysearch.org/search/collection/1708697
I just searched the FamilySearch catalogue. Unfortunately there are not deed or will records up yet for Leesburg, (which is in Loudon County). Many other Virginia counties have those records up. Keep checking back, much is being done right now with Virginia records. Until then, I think this resource may be able to help you: I've heard really good things about the Thomas Balch library in Leesburg. https://www.leesburgva.gov/departments/thomas-balch-library
Hope this may be of help
Julie
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Hi Julie,
Thank you so much - I appreciate it! I just learned that my great grandfather was raised a Quaker, so perhaps the library can help me find records that the Quakers might have kept.
Thanks again!
All the best,
Aimee
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Knowing they are Quakers is a great find. Hope you will update us on your finds.
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Thank you! I sent an email to the Leesburg library yesterday and am looking through the US Quaker Meeting records!
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Go to the FamilySearch Catalog and put Virginia in the location and Quakers in as the subject. A variety of collections came up. It seems to me I have researched Quakers in the south for something I was doing at one point, and ran across the information that most Quakers in the south eventually left. They worked hard as abolitionists in the slave states, but of course, failed. I seem to recall that many either left and went north or were actively expelled. Quakers were abolitionists everywhere they lived, and even in northern states, such as New Jersey, they were active in colonial times working against that institution which was practiced everywhere at that time. I have ancestors in New Jersey who may have had a slave in the early 1700's (he could have been an apprentice, too), which is how I bumped into Quaker information in that region.
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Thank you! Yes! I've made great progress today and think I've located my 3rd Great Grandmother's family - the Fairhursts (Ellen Fairhurst) through the Goose Creek/Loudoun and Fairfax Virginia Quaker meeting groups - I've yet to connect all the dots but I'm encouraged! Thanks so much! And what you said is true - the family did move west to Indiana.
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Hi Julie - I've made a lot of progress – but am missing that final “link”. Here’s my update:
I believe I've found the correct Fairhurst family and that they were part of the Goose Creek Quaker Meeting in Leesburg, VA.
I think Jeremiah Fairhurst (1721-1805) was the father of George Fairhurst Sr. (1757-1841) and that he was the father of Ellen Fairhurst (~1800-1880), my 3rd gg who married William Bolon/Bolen/Bowlen. I haven't been able to figure out the name of George Sr.'s wife.
I think their son Dr. George Fairhurst Bolon, who left the family plantation to attend the U of Maryland and become a doctor, was "disinherited". He also left the Quaker faith, became Catholic, and changed the spelling of his last name to Bowlen. I’m hoping to find all 5 of his sisters. I know they existed because I have a brief memoir written by his daughter and she mentions them but says she knows nothing about them – another clue that George Jr. was distanced from the family. Since his father was a Quaker, against slavery and managing a plantation with 5 daughters and only one son, I’m guessing he was not pleased that George left him “in the lurch” to attend school.
I pieced all of this together from a will I found written by an Ellen Bolon in 1880 in West Virginia. She seemed to "disinherit" most of her family and left $1 to the following: son George, daughter Elizabeth Bolon Rice, grandson John Rice, heirs of Fanny Tritapoe (haven't figured out who she is), Eugenia Bolon McCaffray (I think this is another of the 5 daughters), and T.E. Stone, widow of Augustus Stone (another mystery). She left everything to "Mary E Kidwell wife of Statten Kidwell" - haven't been able to find them yet.
The problem is that although many of the family members are well represented in the Quaker records, Ellen Fairhurst and her mother are not. I see a George Fairhurst Sr. (her likely father) in the Quaker records and in the 1820 Loudoun, VA census, but no names of family. So I'm unable to confirm that my theory of George being Ellen's father. All of her potential siblings are in either the Quaker records or in a family tree - but not Ellen.
The Thomas Balch library staff did their best and looked in the family file for Bowlen. I didn’t see one in the achieves for Fairhurst. Wish I could go there in person!
I think I’ve exhausted all of the Quaker records available on both Ancestry and FS. I did find that the Goose Creek Meeting is alive and well in Leesburg, VA – I would love to visit one day when it’s safe. I’m a bit hesitant to ask them about records since they don’t have a genealogy “tab” on their website. Thank you for reading this and as always, any ideas are most welcome!
All the best! Aimee
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Aimee, I'm so glad you've had some answers to your questions. Discovering your ancestor's religion is a great find. I just wanted to make sure you saw that @Sheyna Smith Axtell is familiar with Loudon records, if you have further questions. https://community.familysearch.org/s/question/0D54V000057crnCSAQ/anyone-need-help-with-loudoun-county-research
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