The McGinnis allied families are primarily represented by those women that married into the McGinnis family; bringing their own maiden surname and ancestral DNA into what is just one branch of our genealogical record. I have capitalized some of these surnames in this blog post to emphasize that those names are also part of our heritage. My most immediate McGinnis allied families’ surnames; the Rhodes and Rhyne families (my mother) and the Heafner family (my paternal grandmother), will both get a more detailed family history profile in future blogs; so I will start this blog post by focusing on Julia Ann Hamrick and her family.
Julia Ann HAMRICK, one of four of our great-grandmothers, was the wife of William Andrew McGinnis. Julia Ann was born in Rutherford County on 27 April 1860 to Robert Benson Hamrick and Emily Jane Horn (or Horne). The Hamrick family name is another old Cleveland-Rutherford County surname that can be traced back to the mid-1700s in that area. The lineage continues with: Robert Benson Hamrick (1828-1905); son of Robert Hamrick (abt. 1791-aft. 1860), with wife Hannah DOBBINS; son of John Hamrick (abt. 1770-abt. 1850), with wife Barbara MARUNEY; son of Samuel Hamrick, Sr. (1748-1835) who was among the first Hamrick pioneers to the old Tryon County area of NC, along with his wife Mary (by some researchers supposedly also a Hamrick (a cousin); son of Robert Hamrick (1717-1757), wife Elizabeth STONE; son of Patrick Hamrick who was born in Ireland about 1684 and died in Virginia about 1764, Patrick’s wife has been identified as Margaret ENGLISH by some family researchers.
Within this Hamrick ancestral branch you can see many of the other allied surnames that contribute to our blood-line; such as HORN. Emily Jane Horn’s parents were John Horn and Mary WOLF, and John’s parents were Jesse Horn and Mary Ann DUKE. Hannah Dobbins’ parents were James Ballard Dobbins and Nancy MELTON. Since James Dobbins carried the middle name Ballard, it’s a good chance that Ballard was the maiden name of his mother. I have as of yet to identify the parents and other ancestors of the Barbara Maruney, listed above, who was one of our 4x great-grandmothers; it is also possible that she is actually part of the Mauney clan. I also have not done the further research that might have identified the parentage of either Elizabeth Stone or Margaret English.
The next allied branch begins with Lucinda PADGETT (12 Nov. 1835 – 23 Sept. 1905), wife of James McGinnis. Lucinda was the daughter of Ephram Padgett, who was born about 1811 in Cleveland County; and Letitia HYDER, who was born in early 1812 in Rutherford County. I did a full profile of Lucinda in an earlier post, showing that her father Ephram Padgett disappeared from her family’s life early on, and I have been unable to trace his ancestry back any further. I do know that the Padgett surname is an old, established name in the Cleveland-Rutherford County area; while I cannot confirm a relationship to Ephram, there was a John Padgett who had fought as a patriot in the Revolutionary War, serving as a prominent minister in this area around the time of Ephram’s birth. I actually have more records on the ancestry of Letitia Hyder, which shows she was born to John Wallis Hyder (1786-1853) and Martha Lucy MULLINS (1795-1860); John’s parents were Benjamin Hyder (Hider or Heider) (1745-1826) who appears to be the Hyder pioneer to the area, and his wife Catherine HESLEP (1745-1830). Other surnames identified in this branch are WALLIS (possibly WALLACE) and CHASTEEN.
The final surname I can profile at this point would be that of ANTHONEY (or Anthony) which is carried by Margaret (Peggy) Elizabeth Anthoney; one of our 3x-great grandmothers, and wife of Larkin McGinnis. While I have been unable to prove who her parents were; I do know that the earliest settlers to the “old Tryon County area” with the Anthony name were Paulus (Paul) Andenia (Anthoney / Anthony) and Philip Anthony. Paul filed for a land deed in the area in 1763 and Philip acquired land in 1767. These appear to be the two Anthony pioneers to the area who both came from Germany and down the trail from Pennsylvania. While no relation has been proven between the two; it is generally thought that they were related, and possibly even brothers. It would follow that Peggy Anthony was most likely a granddaughter of either Paul or Philip.
For now, this is where we end our McGinnis surname genealogy, and we move on to the next 25% of our DNA “bloodline”, the Heafner’s.