Related surnames: Ostrander, Beck, Vaughan, Eudailey]
To be a Virginian either by Birth, Marriage, Adoption, or even on one’s Mother’s side is an Introduction to any State in the Union, a Passport to any Foreign Country, and a Benediction from Above – Anonymous
It appears the first Palmer to America was Thomas Palmer, born in 1590. He came with his wife and daughter Priscilla on the Tyger and settled in Northumberland Virginia. Until I can prove the descendancy to Coleman, the only sure Palmer ancestry is from Connie Marie Palmer Lawson. That information links the following:
Rick’s great grandfather, George Melvin, and Connie’s grandfather, William Woodard, were brothers and were 2 of many children delivered to Mac Donald Palmer and his wife. Mac Donald was the son of Josiah Palmer/Palmore, son of Coleman Palmer. Any information in the tree on this site that takes place before Coleman was found online in several different gedcoms on Rootsweb, but still needs to be proven.
Meeting Cousins in June 2002
In about 1920, after returning from service in World War I, Rick’s grandfather, William Mathew Palmer, left Virginia and went up to Michigan, probably for work. He met and married Iris Luella Bradley, and his children and grandchildren were born in the Detroit area. The rest of the family stayed in Virginia. Rick remembered very little about this Virginia family, except that his parents took him there to visit a farm as a child. He remembered an old graveyard, where the pictures of the deceased were on the gravestone. He also remembered meeting an uncle named Rowlett.
After finding Rowlett’s death listed in the Social Security Death Index, I took a chance and wrote to a few Palmers in the same area. I hit the jackpot, and Connie Palmer Lawson and I had been exchanging emails ever since. Connie’s father was also Richard Palmer! My Rick (Richard) had obviously been named after his dad’s first cousin.
Connie and her brother Kenneth, are the grandchildren of William Woodard Palmer. His brother George Melvin was Rick’s great-grandfather. Connie invited us to come for a weekend, and Rick and I enjoyed a fun-filled two days sightseeing, meeting relatives, and having a generally good time!
It was an awesome thing to sit with our new-found family in the heart of Virginia, knowing that Rick’s grandfather (known to them as just “Mathew”) was a close relative of all these people. We had a wonderful time comparing notes and looking at old photos. We even found a picture in Connie’s album of Rick as a young boy. The identity of those in the photo had been a mystery to the family.
We also found the gravestones with pictures that Rick had remembered seeing as a boy, in the Palmer cemetery, on the very farm where Connie and Donnie Ray live.
Gravestone Pictures
Click on each picture for a view of the whole stone.
On the left is George Melvin Palmer (1869-1942), Rick’s great-grandfather. The woman on the right is Mary Harriet Bradbury Palmer (1842-1935), George’s mother and the wife of MacD. Palmer. [MacD was a Civil War veteran and is buried in the Hollywood Cemetery in Richmond.] We’ll never forget our great weekend in Virginia, and hope to get back to see our cousins again soon.
Because I’ve added so much information, there is a separate tree just for the Palmer/Palmore surname:
The Palmer Tree
Surname list
Persons
Sources
Photos
Coming soon
Obituaries/Death Records – view here
Including:
Richard C. Palmer, December 12, 1993
Rowlett Mack Palmer, November 17, 1978
Genealogy Reports and Trees
Descendants of Reuben Palmore – This report is still under construction. The information back to Coleman Palmer is correct. The connection between the supposedly first Palmer in America (Thomas) and his son Robert is not proven, so I have not listed him as an ancestor here. I decided to start with his son Reuben, but his descendants down to Coleman are just conjecture at this time. (Last updated February 2006.)
Census Pages –
See census records from 1810 to 1920 beginning with Coleman Palmer, here.
1810 Virginia: Coleman Palmore
- 1850 Charlotte County, VA: Coleman Palmore and family
- 1850 Charlotte County, VA: Josiah Palmore with his family
- 1860 Charlotte County, VA: Coleman and family
- 1860 Lunenburg County, VA: Mack Palmore
- 1870 Charlotte County, Bacon Twp., VA: Josiah Palmore and family
1900 Chesterfield County, Manchester City, VA. Several of the children of Mac D are listed in this area:
- George Melvin Palmer, Nannie R Beck Palmer with sons Willie M, and George L. and five families lower is Lucius T. or K. and his family
- Minnie and Nannie Palmer are listed a few pages away from their brothers in Chesterfield County.
1900 Charlotte County, VA and 1910 Lunenburg, VA, where Mack and William W. lived:
- 1900 Charlotte, Walton Twp, VA: William T. Palmer [brother of Mack D.] and his family, including widowed son-in-law John Townsend and his children, Allie, Flave, and Evelyn.
- 1900 VA: Violet Palmer with husband Joe Eudailey and their children.
- 1910 Lunenburg County, Rehoboth Twp., VA: Mac D. Palmer
- 1910 Lunenburg, Rehoboth, VA: William Woodard, Nettie, their sons Francis W. and Lucius K., and their nephew Rowlett.
- 1910 VA: Viola Palmer Eudailey and family.
- 1910 VA: Evaline Townsend living with her Townsend grandparents.
- 1910 VA: Flave Townsend
- 1920 Lunenburg County, VA: the Currin family [family of the 2nd wife of William Woodard]
- 1920 Lunenburg County, VA: William Woodard with Mable, daughter Harriet G. and son Keith Lucius
Directories
Eudaileys, Palmers, Townsends listed here.
CHARLOTTE COUNTY in Chataigne’s Virginia Gazetteer Pages 358-367 of Chataigne’s Virginia Gazetteer, Classified Business Directory 1893-94:
CHARLOTTE COUNTY in Chataigne’s Virginia Gazetteer Pages 358-367 of Chataigne’s Virginia Gazetteer, Classified Business Directory 1893-94. Photocopied by James H. Maloney in the early 1970’s from a copy in the rare-book section of the Washington and Lee University Library. Scanned and submitted to the VaGenWeb – Charlotte County by Mr.Maloney 10 Nov 1998. [Title Page] CHATAIGNE’S VIRGINIA GAZETTEER – AND – CLASSIFIED BUSINESS DIRECTORY 1893-94. J. H. CHATAIGNE, Compiler and Publisher, RICHMOND, VA. PRICE – – $6.00
PRINCIPAL FARMERS
DUPREES — J J Endaily [Eudaily?], D Townsend, J A Roberts, S B Collins, H W Collins, W J Clements, W H Crafton, C T Crafton, W Crafton, G J. W Roberts, S F Farrar, G Collins, J Palmer, E B Ferrill, L J Locke, John Farrar.
LACONIA — George Klise, D J Kuhn, Hugh McCarthy, William Palmer, F M White, John Bliss, John Corn, J W Dickinson, Daniel Hamilton, J L Jones, W H Keeton, Lewis Klise.
LULA — W H Eubank, James Bradbury, Henry Bradbury, John [Page 366] Dickinson, Wm Palmer, Thomas Crenshaw, Samuel Hailey, John Bradbury, Richard Crenshaw, John Crenshaw, Daniel Crenshaw, Frank Watson, Rob Watson, R A Carey, B F Taylor, John Towler, E L Taylor, Robert Towler, T O Haily, C H Endaily, A H Powers, W D Foster, N H Otley.
RANDOLPH — Robert Hamlett, S C Newcomb, W H Elliotte, A S Barksdale, H C Barksdale, O Hand, J E Booth, Byron Spencer, C E Boulden, C T Layne, P C McPhail, W M Watkins, N B Watkins, W W Dickinson, W I Dickinson, A C Bruce & Bro, J B McPhail, D B Hutcheson, J T Palmer, James Jones.
Links
There is an entire page dedicated to the Palmer name. Take a look at Palmer Paths.