Searching for Benjamin

Benjamin Bolling b. 1732/1734 ~  d. 1830 in Wise Co., Virginia.

I've been searching for the ancestry and descendants of Benjamin Bolling for over ten years now.  I'm not having much luck!

Bejamin was supposedly born in 1732.  Some researchers say in Albemarle Co., Va. He supposedly married Martha (Patsy) Phelps in 1753 in Albemarle Co.  I can find no proof of any of this.

Benjamin's second (supposedly second) wife was Elizabeth/Crissy/Charity Larimore. They had a son named Jeremiah. I descend from Jeremiah through his son Ezekiel. 

Our surnames are Bolling, Branham. Puckett, Edwards, Sutherland, Mullins, Gibson, and various others, mainly from SW Virginia. 

DNA tests done on descendants of Benjamin prove that he is NOT the son of John and Elizabeth Blair Bolling and therefore not a descendant of Pocohontas.  On the Bolling Family Association website Benjamin is in DNA group 3.

There is one theory (supposedly from a paper written by Jeremiah) that Benjamin's name was John Benjamin Bolling and that he was the son of "Polly" Bolling (who died at his birth) and Isham Randolph (whom he never "seed"), and that he was raised by his grandmother, Betsy Bland, who gave him enough money to buy a farm in NC.  It says he lost the farm and returned to Virginia to find his grandmother had died.  He worked building a house for his sister, Jane Jefferson.  He married Elizabeth/Crissy Larimore, who was born on the Edisto River in SC., and they had their son, Jeremiah there.

Polly is a nickname for Mary.  The only Mary Bolling I can put in the same time frame as Benjamin's birth is Mary Bolling (b. 1711 d. 1744) who married John Fleming. DNA testing for that would have to be from the mother and I don't know that that's been done by anyone.  On the other hand, if Isham Randolph was his father, he should match the Randolph DNA, and from what I've seen he doesn't.  Also, if he was a son of this Mary "Polly" Bolling he would not have been a grandson of John Bolling and  Betsy Bland ~ they would have been his aunt and uncle.

I've never seen this "paper" and I was just at the Wise Co. Historical Society and they have no information on Benjamin at all.

Some descendants have a Native American profile?  It doesn't necessarily mean that came from Benjamin though.

The Bolling Family Association tends to think he is the son of a Benjamin Bolling and Charlotte Ward, of NC.:  I don' know where they got that information from.  I've never seen any kind of documentation on that.

So ~ Trying to find the parents of someone born in 1732 is like trying to find a needle in a haystack!

2011-07-01

06:13:03 pm

Not much about Martha. She is supposed to be from Albemarle Co., Va.  In researching Albemarle I have found a William Phelps and a Thomas Phelps there. But whether Martha belongs to one of them or not I just don't know. She was supposed to have Native Americn blood? She died in 1767 at the birth of their daughter Elizabeth? 

Charity was suppsed to have been born on the Edisto River in SC.  There are no Larimores that I can find in that area.  There is a George Lowerman in the same census as Benjamin in 1790 in Orangeburg District, SC, so possibly that is her father?  

Like I said, I've been searching for Benjamin's parents for over ten years.  I've been on forums, I've been on message boards, I've searched census, birth, and marriage records.  I've exchanged emails with dozens of people. And I still can't find his parents!  Any information you could give me that might help would be greatly and sincerely appreciated.  Thanks!  ~Barb