17 Clues to 17th Century Sartor origins...Genealogy Sudoku

Emmitt Smith's story last night on Who Do You Think You Are was amazing. I think it hit me much harder than last week's episode because Emmitt is a real person, not an actor, and his story is so poignant. (If you missed it, or just want to see it again, you can watch it here on hulu) I was once again struck by the amazing power of identity. As he stood there looking into the woods where his people were buried I have to admit that I teared up. I know that feeling. They are there; somewhere. We can't see them, but they are there.

African American research is hard. My heart frequently breaks for my African American clients because it's so hard and time consuming, therefore expensive, and frankly rather sad. Sometimes I literally can't find *anything* about them because they just slipped through "the system" and disappeared from history leaving nothing but a memory planted in their DNA. Emmitt took my breath away when he said "we may be at a dead end; and that's not what I'm looking for, a dead end." I couldn't agree more.

I've been in Baltimore all week researching a client's family which has serendipitously coincided with my own adventure researching my Sartor family origins. Now that the project is winding down, I'm able to take a few personal days to get that ball rolling again. I'm so excited and motivated by Emmitt's story.

Much of the foundation for my work on the Sartor family comes from a book published by Juanita Sample Taylor in 1986 called The Sartor Search. I can tell that Ms. Taylor cared about these people every bit as much as I do, and I wish I had met her before she died. I also wish she had cited her sources. But I missed that opportunity, and in her defense she wasn't trained to cite sources and it was cumbersome and you have to admit it takes up a lot of time and space. Decades later we have better technology, standards published by Elizabeth Shown Mills, and we know that it's absolutely worth every inch and minute. But hindsight is 20/20. So I'll get off my source citation soapbox and get to the good stuff.

In The Sartor Search, Ms. Taylor cites a letter attributed to William Sartor born 11 Mar 1760. He (allegedly) states:

The Sartors came from Wales in 1687 to Roanoke, Va. My grandfather attended law school in (name illegible) and while there met my grandmother who, I am told was Miss Mary Gray. The Grays were very prominent people. My Mother died when I was an infant. I want the people who come after me to know this little that I have gathered. My Grandfather after marrying came to South Carolina and settled on the Broad River and turned his attention to farming. He was also in the war with the Indians. My Father, John Peter Sartor was born in 1733. He had one sister, Elizabeth.[1]

If I had a birthday cake and could really and truly have a wish come true just by blowing out the candles, I would wish for the original copy of this letter. (We'll save the genie in the bottle for a time machine. I have at least 60 more birthday wishes left in me to wish for more documents.)

But I don't have the letter. And I don't have source citations. And I don't want to think about birthdays right now. So, what I do have is a giant Genealogy Sudoku. I love Sudoku! I have broken this letter down into 17 clues. If everything is true, all the clues will line up in nice, neat columns, rows, and squares of documents, historical context, and reason. Like Sudoku, if something is wrong, it will stick out like a sore thumb and provide a "handle" for research.

So, here's what we've got:
1. The Sartors came from Wales
2. They came in 1687
3. They came to Roanoke
4. They came to Roakoke, Virginia [note that this is a separate clue in and of itself]
5. William's father was John Peter Sartor
6. John Peter Sartor was born 1733
7. John Peter Sartor had a sister named Elizabeth
8. William's mother is not named
9. William's unnamed mother died when he was a child, possibly in the 1760's
10. John Peter Sartor's father attended law school
11. John Peter Sartor's father was in the "war with the Indians"
12. John Peter Sartor's father met Mary Gray at law school
13. John Peter Sartor's father married Mary Gray
14. The Gray's were a prominent family
15. John Peter Sartor's father, after marrying, turned his attention to farming
16. John Peter Sartor's father, after marrying, went to South Carolina
17. John Peter Sartor's father, after marrying, settled on the Broad River in South Carolina

I'm not quite confident enough to call these clues evidence yet. That's coming; I need more documentation. But there is enough truth in the last few clues about South Carolina that I'm willing to accept this letter as a framework for my little Genealogy Sudoku and provide me with some structure and reasoning. You have to start somewhere, and I have as much reason to believe this letter as to not believe it. No one has provided me evidence to the contrary, so for now, these 17 clues are my foundation for researching the 17th Century Sartor origins.

I think Emmitt Smith said it best: "It's wild. It's challenging. It's heartbreaking. But just finding the information is incredible."

Sources:

1. Juanita Sample Taylor, The Sartor Search (Liberty Hill, Texas: Self Published, Spring 1984), p. 6.

On the trail of William Pitt Sartor...genealogy stone soup

Facebook is amazing. Let me tell you a fabulous story. I have a book called _The Sartor Search_ which has formed the basis of my Sartor research for over 10 years. It was written in 1984 by a woman who poured her whole heart and soul into researching the Sartor family. Unfortunately, she didn't cite her sources. And then she died. Bummer.

So the torch has passed to me, and I've been wandering around trying to retrace her footsteps. On page 14 of this book, Mrs. Taylor says:

William Pitt Sartor b. 1790/1800. This is the elusive William that Sarah Hughes Sartor named in her application for Rev. War pension in 1852 as having carried her Bible to Miss.

And that's all I knew of William Pitt Sartor until last November, when I received a Facebook message from someone saying "Hey, my ggggrandfather is William Pitt Sartor. Let's compare notes." Thanks to this distant cousin, last week we learned that William went from Union District, South Carolina, to Rutherford County, Tennessee. In Tennessee he had several children before moving on to Mississippi by 1852, when his mother Sarah complained of her missing bible.

Searching Rutherford County deeds turned up only two deeds mentioning William Sartor, but they were good ones. It turns out that William Sartor was the executor of the estate of Thomas and Elinore Linam, who died intestate in 1841. Further research shows that Thomas and Elinore Linam came from Union District, South Carolina. Thomas sells land in Union at the exact time I would expect him to sell in order to show up in Rutherford County, Tennessee, by 1835, where Elinore purchased 6 slaves from her son; which is the only other deed pertaining to Thomas and Elinore Linam.

Although I have not been able to prove it yet, I strongly believe that William was Thomas and Elinore Linam's son in law. Marriage records in South Carolina are notoriously difficult to find; therefore I am not all that surprised to find that even Holcomb has no suggestions for me. But a week ago I didn't even know where William Pitt Sartor had gone. So I'm not complaining. I have faith that somewhere there is an answer just waiting for me to come find it.

So thank you, Facebook, for finding my distant cousins and providing more pieces of the Sartor puzzle. Perhaps if we all put our heads together, this community will make a well sourced genealogy soup from stones after all.

Not from Roanoke, North Carolina

While in North Carolina last month for the annual National Genealogical Society conference, I spent some time researching the possibility that the Sartor family came to Roanoke, North Carolina in 1687, just to be sure.

As I suspected, it does not appear that the Sartor family came to Roanoke Island, North Carolina in 1687. I did do some other cool things besides stopping in Detroit on the way home to visit my adorable nephew, but they do not pertain to the Sartor family so I'll write about the results of my wanderings and research into my North Carolina family branches later.

The question at hand was: "Is there any evidence in the North Carolina State Archives to suggest that the letter attributed to William Sartor b. 1759 which was published in Juanita Sample Taylor's The Sartor Search refers to Roanoke Island, North Carolina? Said letter indicates that the Sartor family came to Roanke from Wales in 1687." The answer is that although there are pre-Federal mentions of a Salter Family in North Carolina, they were contemporary to the known ancestral branch who lived in South Carolina by the late 1760's. No connection between the Salters of North Carolina and the Sartors of South Carolina has been found.

The key "takeaway" to be remembered for future consideration is that an Edward Salter received a grant in Beaufort County 9 March 1761. [Granville Land Grants] This is of interest because of the timing and location. It's in about the same place the Salter family is listed in the Mosely map of 1733. Church of England records [1] show Edward and William Salter in the area as early as 1748 and as late as 1763, but the timeframe of the publication (1742-1763) does not preclude an earlier and/or later presence. However, by this time "my" branch was in South Carolina, and there is no evidence yet tying Peter Sartor/Salter [etc] to his contemporary Edward Salter in North Carolina.

Taken together, this suggests, although I have not had time to explore and prove, that the Edward Salter family had likely been, and remained, in this area from pre-1733 [Moseley Map] through at least 1763 [1]. Which really doesn't say anything absolute yet, but it's good to remember. I haven't had time to dive into this. I scratched the surface to see what was there since I was in the area, and it didn't seem promising so for now, it's tabled.

The search goes on!

P.S. This research thanks (as always) to the sponsorship of my father who is working hard in Afghanistan so that I can a) be free to wander safely around the world with freedom and liberty for all and b) afford to investigate where that freedom came from. Love you, Dad.

1. Robert J. Cain and Jan-Michael Poff, editors, The Church of England in North Carolina: Documents, 1742-1763 (Raleigh: Office of Archives and History, North Carolina Department of Cultural Resources, 2007), North Carolina State Archives.

Roanoke or Rappahanok?

Today I found a possible validation of the Virginia-origins of the Sartor family proposed by Juanita Sample Taylor. Let me recap the critical foundations of research found in a letter attributed to William Sartor b. 1759 in The Sartor Search. He (allegedly) states:

The Sartors came from Wales in 1687 to Roanoke, Va. My grandfather attended law school in (name illegible) and while there met my grandmother who, I am told was Miss Mary Gray. The Grays were very prominent people. My Mother died when I was an infant. I want the people who come after me to know this little that I have gathered. My Grandfather after marrying came to South Carolina and settled on the Broad River and turned his attention to farming. He was also in the war with the Indians. My Father, John Peter Sartor was born in 1733. He had one sister, Elizabeth.

I would dearly, dearly love to see this letter or at least a copy of the original. I am working clue by clue through this letter trying to find supporting documentation. Other posts will address other points of the letter in the future as I continue gathering evidence.

The first statement, that the Sartors came to Roanoke Virginia in 1687, is pretty much impossible. This was at least 50 years before that general area was inhabited by colonists, and even then it remained the western frontier of Virginia until the Revolutionary War, at which time our Sartors lived in Union District, South Carolina. Eventually this area became a busy frontier hub when the Great Wagon Road was constructed, but in 1687 it was nothing but trees, chiggers, and bears with the occassional Indian family.

The question then becomes "Did William mean Roanoke, North Carolina?" This too is pretty much impossible. Following the late 16th century failure of the lost colony, Roanoke Island was not settled for several hundred more years. The Mosely map of 1733 shows a tiny settlement on Hatteras Island south of Roanoke, but no settlement, port, or other signs of life on Roanoke.

So, what does this mean? And what did I find today? Still no evidence, but an interesting possibility. It is possible that the Sartor family arrived in Rappahanok, Virginia in 1687. I examined Nugent's Cavaliers and Pioneers, the authoritative source on early Virginia land. Volume II covers the 1687 timeperiod. Nugent painstakingly lists the names of passengers transported by those to whom land was granted under the headright system. (Headrights were a land reward to patrons and/or ship captains for transporting colonists to the new world in efforts to create larger settlements and a stronger labor force.)

Before going into more detail, let me establish one more thing. In the course of research I have seen the Sartor name also spelled Sarter, Sorter, Sortor, and Salter. The Salter surname is particularly of interest because John Peter Sartor III's Revolutionary War Pension file (filed by Sarah Hughes) gives both the Sartor and Salter spelling.

Therefore, I went through a list of possibilities in Cavaliers and Pioneers and came up with one very interesting entry. A George Salter was in the company of Phillip May and Thomas Potts of Gloucestershire. They were granted land in Rappaannock County in 1687. This excites me for five reasons:
1. It's the right year, and it's the only entry so far that was in the right year. (according to the letter cited above)
2. Gloucestershire, England, borders Monmouthshire, Wales.
3. Rappahannock County was in the same general area as what later became Fairfax County. If the Union District Sartors did indeed come from Fairfax County, as The Sartor Search suggests, this is an exciting geographic proximity.
4. It would be easy for William Sartor to write Rappahannock wrong, mis-remember it, or for Ms. Taylor (or whomever first transcribed the letter) to have mis-read it.
5. George is a family name handed down through many generations. Most often it is given as George Washington Sartor, believed to be in tribute to "the" George Washington. But what if it was a family name to begin with?

So, I still have no concrete evidence that this is true, but it is a stronger connection than I have found elsewhere and cannot be ignored.

Sartor Branches Website

This month I created www.sartor-family.info as a central storage place for Sartor family documents and research. I also created a Facebook group to reach out to modern Sartor descendants. I'm calling all Sartor descendants who may have documentation pertaining to their origins. It's a huge ongoing project, but it's a start. This way the various descendants of the Sartor family have a dedicated repository and handy solution for "send me everything you've got." Which is a lot. I estimate that I alone have collected approximately 500 documents pertaining to the various branches of the Sartor family.

So far, I have identified ten branches of the Sartor family who will be documented forward in time from the Revolutionary War, when John Peter Sartor and his sons John Peter Sartor Jr. and William Sartor lived in Union District, South Carolina. This much I have proven. Central to the project is the question of the Sartor family's colonial origins before the Revolutionary War. This I am still researching.

In The Sartor Search, Juanita Sample Taylor publishes a tantalizing letter which was attributed to William Sartor, son of John Peter Sartor Sr. In this letter he states that the Sartor family came to Roanoke from Wales in 1687 and provides additional family clues. I dearly, dearly wish to know where this letter came from and where it is now.

Ms. Taylor indicates that the Sartor family came to South Carolina from Fairfax County, Virginia. Unfortunately, she lived in a time when citing sources was cumbersome and unpopular. Therefore according to modern genealogical proof standards, I can't accept her conclusions without further evidence. While I was in Raleigh last year for the National Genealogical Conference, I visited the Fairfax County archives and copied documents which do show that a John Peter Sartor Sr. and John Peter Sartor Jr. lived there in the 1750's - 1770's. I am in the process of proving that this John Peter Sartor I and John Peter Sartor II. I believe that it is John Peter Sartor II who was John Peter Sartor Sr. of Union District, South Carolina, but belief is not enough to satisfy scholarly research standards.

If you have any information pertaining to the Sartor family's colonial origins please contact me. I am also interested in original documentation of the various Sartor family branches including those former slaves of the Sartor family who adopted their surname following the Civil War.

Hopefully if we all pool our documents, the true story will emerge.