Still working on my mother’s side. This is another of my sixth great grandfathers. Richard is believed to be the son of George Keesey (no definitive proof) born in 1720 in Westmoreland County, Virginia. He died 9 March 1793 in Pittsylvania County, Virginia. Richard married Ann Fish (date and place unknown). They had 8 children. Some of the kids were born in King George County, Virginia and others were born in Amelia County or King George.
Richard or his son, Jesse, could be another possible patriot for the Daughters of the American Colonists if they were involved in the militia or provided support to the militia prior to July 4, 1776.
Some of my information about the Keesee family came from my visit with Mr. Clyde Runyon in Belfry, Pike County, Kentucky in 1980. Clyde could not prove definitively about Richard being our direct line as Census records did not list family members, every generation had a Richard, George & Jesse (making it difficult to keep family lines straight).
Another source I used was from a Mr. Vincent Keesee in his book, The Keesee Family in Pittsylvania County, Virginia.
Let’s take a look at the counties and see if it is possible that the family didn’t really move but borders changed. Again, I’ll use Wikipedia to get the history. Westmoreland County was established from Northumberland County in 1653. King George County was established in 1720 when land was split from Richmond County and that it was substantially reorganized in 1776 and 1777 when land was swapped with both Stafford and Westmoreland Counties. Wikipedia doesn’t have history on Richmond County but their website indicates that they were formed in 1692 (more than likely also from Northumberland). Northumberland was the “ancestor” of 116 counties that ever existed in Virginia’s history having been created in 1648.
Amelia County was created in 1734 and 1735 from parts of Prince George and Brunswick Counties. Prince George was formed in 1703 from a portion of Charles City County. What’s interesting here is that Brunswick was formed from Prince George in 1720. Charles City is one of the “original” counties of the Virginia Colony, being founded in 1619. That makes me think that the family was never in Amelia County but was in King George.
Pittsylvania County was formed in 1767 from Halifax County. Halifax was established in 1752 from Lunenburg County. Lunenburg was established in 1746 from Brunswick.
I’ll have to take a closer look at the various census records and see where they were taken and place it in a timeline along with the county formations to see if there was actually migrations or just boundary changes.
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