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Post a reply || Back to The Aventfamily.org message board Possible Avent-Shhands Connection??
Message: For many years various Shands family researchers have searched in vain for the identity of Elizabeth who married John Shands in Surry/Sussex Co. VA. A family group sheet on file in the Mormon Archives submitted by an Averit researcher gives her maiden name as Elizabeth Averit. Persons of the Averit surname were in Charles City and Surry Counties at the time and were contemporary with Elizabeth. However, birth and christening entries in the Albemarle parish registry identify godparents of the Avent surname for children of John and Elizabeth Shands. Also, there was a very well established and fairly prominent family of the Avent surname in the area at the time. Thomas Avent owned land on the Otterdam Swamp in Surry County. He was granted 1200 acres March 1729 by the Va. Council. (V. M. 34, P. 203). This grant was in Surry County, “beginning at Richard Moore’s line to Stewart’s line and over Otterdam Swamp to include all land between John Davis and Richard Pace.” He witnessed the will of Lewis Solomon 12/11/1742. Surry Co., VA Wills, p. 32 (Surry Co. Will Book 6, Page 444). As is known, John Roberts, father of Nazareth owned land on Otterdam Swamp. John Shands lived in the area and inherited the land of John Roberts as his grandson. There was an indenture of Bargain and Sale with a memorandum of livery and seisin thereon endorsed between William Shands and his wife, Nazareth, and William Petteway and his wife, Elizabeth, of one part, and Thomas Avent of the other part, that was acknowledged and ordered to be recorded in November, 1743. (Surry Co., VA Court Records, 1741-45, p. 185) The Avents were definitely in the immediate area simultaneously with the young, unmarried John Shands. Finally, whether written in script, or printed, if the letters are written very close together the Avent surname could be mistaken for the Averit surname, and vice versa. Based on the Albemarle Parish Registry entries, this writer hypothesizes that Elizabeth’s maiden name was Avent and that her father was probably the above-mentioned Thomas Avent. Elizabeth died after the filing of the appraisal record of John’s estate dated July 21, 1753. Replies to this post No replies yet |
