Family Lines
This database and service is dedicated to furthering genealogy research and information sharing regarding the Jessee and related families. Their origins are believed to be in pre-Revolutionary War Virginia and they largely lived in North Carolina,Southwest Virginia, Kentucky, and Tennessee from 1775-1825. Many descendants migrated virtually all over the South, Midwest, and West, and later the Northwest and Canada.
Many if not most Jessees in America, and in this database, descend from John and Frankey (Lea) Jessee, and one or more of their fifteen children. The family moved from Caswell Co., NC to Russell Co., VA in 1790, established their farm and Jessee's Mill in Reeds Valley, and intermarried with other founding families of SW VA.
Search the Jessee Genealogy Service-Family Database and use it for free on RootsWeb. You can search for individuals by surname and given name, view and print pedigree and descendants charts, and download GEDCOM files. To find surnames and individuals of interest to you, please use the Jessee search index below the topmost banner, not the RootsWeb/Ancestral Quest search box at top. This database has been filtered to eliminate specific information about living descendants— those born after 1920— and scrubbed of other individuals who have requested that they not be included in a public database. NOTICE: The RootsWeb Database was last updated in December 2013, and I have not had access since to update it, nor has RootsWeb been reliable since. When I can, I will update this free service. The links below are to this RootsWeb database. Use Ancestry.com to find the most current database.
Descendants of John and Frankey (LEA) Jessee
Many if not most Jessees in America are descended from John (1750-1815) and Frankey Lea Jessee (1752/61-1836) of Cobb's Creek, Caswell County, North Carolina and Carr's Creek (today Mill Creek) in Reed's Valley, Russell County, Virginia. They had fifteen children. There are many "Jessee," "Jesse," even "Jessie" families in the United States and Canada who are known descendants of those fifteen children. All of us living descendants are about fifth or sixth cousins, or even closer kin. This is my record of their known descendants.
Descendants of Phillip and Rachel Jessee
Several Jessees in Russell Co., Virginia and America are descended from Phillip Jessee (1742-1858), who lived to be 116 and is sometimes referred to as "Old Phillip," and his only son Gabriel Jessee (1804-1886) who married Nancy Lee Wallis (1812-1887). Phillip and Gabriel were contemporaries of John and Frankey Lea Jessee and both families lived in Russell Co., VA in the 1800s. Their relation to each other, while likely, was unknown, and therefore I maintained two separate families on RootsWeb. More recent information suggests they are indeed brothers, and this relationship is reflected in the current Ancestry Database.
Descendants of Richard and Frances (Chowning) Jesse
Richard Jesse was born in 1768 in Middlesex Co., VA and his descendants have been provided to this data base by Donald R. Coleman.
“Trees without roots fall over.”
Descendants of John and Clia (Smith) Jesse
Descendants of John and Clia (Smith) Jesse, and two of their sons, especially William Morgan Jesse, are well documented in the book, "The Jesses, 1601-1928" prepared by J. S. Jesse. Harry and Beverly Jesse Shuptrine (4851 Royce Road, Irvine, CA 92612-2233) in their book "William Morgan Jesse and His Descendants" (July, 1995. Revised August, 1996), Gateway Press, Inc., of Baltimore, Maryland, August 1995, detail over 6200 descendants of William Morgan Jesse. This book is a major revision to and update of "The Jesses, 1601-1928" by J. S. Jesse.
Descendants of other Jessee, Jesse, Jessie, Jessey, and Jessy Families:
There are several other Jessee and Jesse families in America who are not directly descended from any of the above, and articles about many of these have appeared from time to time in the Jessee Family Newsletter. While I include what information I know, I do not maintain an extensive database for these families, but it is worth a search.. Many of these families have their origins in Colonial Virginia, and therefore I believe that most are related through common, but yet undiscovered Jesse(e) ancestors. There are also Jesse families of German, French, and English origins in America who are of more recent immigrants (after 1800), whose relationship may be more distant or non-existent.
Ancestors of Earl Wilson and Emma Elizabeth Jessee
I am providing the pedigree of our children, Earl Wilson and Emma Elizabeth Jessee, as a means to include in this database all of the recorded non-Jessee ancestors of myself, James Wilson "Jim" Jessee, and my wife, Nelda Faye Meline Jessee. Our family tree may be seen via our deceased parents: Earl Wilson Jessee and Frances Sylvia Brownfield Jessee, and Stephen Meline III and Violet Irene Peterson Meline . It includes the Meline, Ware, Tuck, and Campersurnames, who were early Butte County, California pioneers, and the Peterson/Petersen, Lunde, Skogstad, and Hermundstad surnames, whose family origins are largely from North Dakota and Canada prior to 1950, and Norway and Sweden prior to 1900.
This site also contains Pedigree information regarding Jim and his sister Julie Ann Jessee's mother, Frances Sylvia "Brownie" Brownfield, her Jweish ancestors, and the survivors of her Brownfield (Bronfeld/Braunfeld), Shlomkowitz (Szlamkowicz), Szklarczyk, Ajzenbaum, and Herszlikowicz families of Russia, Poland, and Israel, most of whom perished in the Holocaust.
Credits, Warnings & Disclaimers
This database includes the work of dozens, if not hundreds of people to whom I owe very much credit and gratitude. I have cited my sources wherever possible, but caution the user that the documentation is woefully incomplete in many instances. I must warn you, that while I believe the vast majority of the information here is valid and well documented by its providers, some of it is not, and some may be pure speculation or fiction. Because of the way this database has evolved over the years, I cannot take personal responsibility for its accuracy or documentation. Documentation ranges from none to thoroughly professional. There are errors, perhaps many errors here. Use this information at your own risk and with a proper sense of reservation. As we place the database on-line I am humbled by the responsibility. I am remorseful about the short-comings in documentation, wishing for the time to do what is needed. Your help in providing error corrections and appropriate documentation and source notes is very welcome.
While I welcome your inquiries, and additional contributions to the database, I am sorry that, as a rule, I cannot provide you the source materials or documentation behind this data, other than what appears here in source comments and other notes. For one, I usually record all I know, and there is not more information or documents to be gleaned from my files. I am overwhelmed by requests for copies of source materials and other documentation, and the time and cost to find, copy, and mail these are simply prohibitive. I am sorry that I cannot provide all that is requested.
As editor of the now retired Jessee Family Newsletter and Jessee Genealogy Service website, I have been the lucky recipient of very much information from others over the years. I am in awe of the many family's researchers, whose work is professional and thorough, and who have trusted me to publish much of their information through this newsletter and on-line database. I have come to simply trust that much of what has been sent to me has been satisfactorily verified and well documented. I trust personal memories, letters, Bible records, obituaries, hand drawn charts, and family histories that go back a hundred or so years. Much of what is in this database is from such sources, but it is not documented on and individual by individual basis.
When looking for source documentation please note that I have tried to credit the sources of information for whole families, usually documenting the source in the most distant or root ancestor for which they are providing descendant information, or a significant "anchor" person upon whom their information is centered. Look upline for source notes to determine the origin of the information. As a practice, in this newsletter and because of the increasingly public nature of this database and its source notes, I have not included a source contributors mailing address or phone unless they specifically wish it to be included, wishing to provide them some measure of privacy. I have made e-mail addresses available when provided.
“Family is like branches on a tree; we all grow in different directions, yet our roots remain as one.”