Sunday, July 3, 2011

Alex Forgey Washington County, VA


I am doing some research on the presumed brother of  Andrew Forgey b. 1732 i.e. Alexander Forgey. My goal is to find out whether Alexander G. and Andrew are his sons.  He and Andrew apparently migrated to Washington County, VA around the latter part of the 1770's. Washington County, VA research is challenging because of record losses. This snippet from The Annals of Southwest Virginia describes some of the missing records:

I've found very few documents mentioning Alexander Forgey. He married Agnes Meeks in Washington County, VA in 1786. I also found Alexander in the Washington County, VA will book. This entry is not related to a will, but is a bill of sale between himself and his father-in-law Samuel Meek. An image of this is posted above.I interpret the above document as meaning that Alexander Forgey's wife went back to her father? I found an Agnes Forgy marrying a James Rogers on 26 Apr 1789 in Washington County, VA. I don't know whether that is a reference to his daughter? (By the way Anne is a nickname for Agnes) I wondered whether Agnes may have divorced Alexander. This is unlikely because early divorces were legislative and none seem to have been awarded before 1803, and only about half a dozen were awarded for that County after 1803 up until divorce was outlawed in the mid nineteenth century. I checked the Legislative Petition Database  and did not find any references at all to Forgey/Forgy.
The land sale below seems to confirm that he didn't have a wife in 1795. All of the other sales on the page refer to husbands and wives.


Land records are some of the few surviving records for that county. A 1782 Commissioner's Certificate for Alexander refers to the same land as the 1785 Grant Document, and the land sale posted above. The land Grant was awarded to him by then Governor Patrick Henry.  It sounds like he was assigned the commissioner's certificate by someone else. These Certificates were awarded to those who settled the area before 1778.



These are some of my sources for Alexander Forgey.



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