The Hussey Family

The Search for Henry

The road travelled to a dead end

I started the Hussey family investigation because of a casual conversation with Roy Hussey in 1996 while visiting him at his home on Tybee Island, GA. He was curious about several relatives he had heard about but didn't have the resources to find them. He said the family legend was that the Savannah Hussey's had come from nearby Statesboro, GA and that they had originally come from a place called Tarboro, NC. He had heard stories of some communication with the North Carolina Hussey's years in the past but that was the extent of his knowledge.

I was familiar with computer searches from my professional life and volunteered to look into the family history. At that moment I thought that I should be able to track down a few relatives and be done. I would have said that I have no interest in genealogy or any other flavor of family history documentation. I did in fact find those first few relatives but there always seemed to be another thread to follow and I got caught up in the challenge. I also discovered that in the 90's very little family history data could be accessed via a computer. What followed was many visits to libraries and archives in Florida, Georgia and North Carolina to scan microfilm and search books.

The family ties back to Henry are strong and are supported by land, court, census and marriage records. But it is if Henry came into being fully grown without a past.

In thinking about the search for Henry's origins, here are some things to consider:

  • The Hussey Name is not rare but neither is it common. No other Hussey's have been identified that were living in Hyde County, NC in Henry's time
  • The Hyde County courthouse burned taking with it many records that may have been helpful.
  • Birth and death records that were maintained were in family bibles and church records. None have been found for Henry. Organized state and county vital records didn't come into consistent usage until the 1920's
  • What records that exist were handwritten and names were phonetically spelled. Records were usually written after the event and not in the presence of the individual. So a record of Henry could exist and not be readily identifiable.
  • There are several possibilities in early American history that Henry could be related to:
    • The New England Hussey's that came from England are the best known and documented. Reviews of their records over the years has not turned up a relationship. In fact it is almost as if they had an aversion to the name Henry.
    • The Irish Hussy's who first came to the new world and settled in Jamaica have also not produced a relationship in the right timeframe.
    • There are records of a significant number of "Highland Scots" sailing directly to the colony of North Carolina in the 1700's. The Hussey name is well represented in Scotland.
    • Another possibility is that Henry was a Quaker who broke away from or had been disowned by the Society of Friends. There were several Quaker Meetings or communities in North Carolina that included members named Hussey. Quakers generally kept good records and no relationship has been found. Additionally, Henry was a slave owner, a practice that was abhorrent to Quakers.
  • DNA test results for Hussey family members six generations removed from Henry:
    • are 50% or greater Irish. However, at least three of the preceeding generations include marriages to irish women to include surnames of Mannion, McLean and Cahill.
    • England and Wales range from 27% to 17%
    • Scotland ranges from 10% to 3%
  • Literally millions of old records are added to online databases everyday. The rub is that capturing those records is much faster and easier that creating indices of those records that allow them to be searched. Additionally, computer and human generated indexes often don't recognize handwriting conventions from past eras, such as the large "P" shaped character that represented "ss". That means the only way to access them is to visually review them record by record.
  • Henry appears to be a cut above many of his peers:
    • Judging from his signature and the number of books he owned, he was literate.
    • He was not a penniless immigrant. He bought and sold land for what were considerable sums in his day. Additionally, land grant fees were relatively expensive and if Henry took advantage of the Headright system, that took more outlay of cash.
    • Henry had money at a relatively young age.
    • Henry owned slaves which were beyond the means of the average individual.

There is still hope that we will discover where he originated from someday. Keep the faith.