Weeks Family History & Genealogy

Looking for info on Hattie Weeks born 1869 in Columbus County, NC, father G.W. Weeks and mother Susan.

I have just read the story of the Weeks journey from England. Our Weeks family also came from England. They land in South Africa with the british settlers in 1820. What I found very interesting is that we also have the name William in our family. One of the Weeks's that came here were named William James. I do not know very much about the history but know that in the Grahamstown museum there is quite a bit of information.

Much of the early history of the WEEKS family has been lost and what we have recorded here has come down by word of mouth, but we feel it is fairly accurate. JOESPHS WEEKS' father was an English-man who was a Major in the British army. The Major had sons named: PETER, DANIEL, MILLARD, JOESPH, AMOS, and possibly CYRUS and how much more of a family we do not know.

We understand PETER lived near the Chicago area, and later moved to Wisconsin in the Milwaukee area. Some of his decendants were named CHAMBERLAIN. He had a son WILLAIM WEEKS.

DANIEL MILLARE WEEKS lived in the Tillsonburg are; born August 1801, died December 24, 1883. He had two daughters: -JANE, who married JOHN HALEY and had approximately eleven sons; and one daughter:- STANTON CARPENTER JR. who drowned at an early age; EDWARD, who aalso died young; and THANKIE who married JOSEPH M. TAYLOR, a mortician. THANKIE had two sons and one daughter: - HAROLD C TAYLOR, who married PEARL AUDREY HALEY and had one son, RICHARD G. TAYLOR; MARTYN TAYLOR; and ISABEL TAYLOR, who married D.L. MILLAR.

JOESPH WEEKS was born October 1, 1803, and died November 23, 1878. His family is herein recorded.

AMOS and CYRUS WEEKS lived in the Bayham area. Nothing more is known of CYRUS.

AMOS later moved to Michigan. He was born February 28, 1808 and married September 28,1840. His wife's name was Mary JANE. They had two sons and onedaughter: -

WALTER, born August 10. 1841, married November 1, 1863 to ELIZA JANE MATHEWS, born January 7, 1843 and died December 15, 1926. They had five children: - SARAH JANE, born November 29, 1871; MARY ELIZA, born May 18, 1876; RANSOM, born April 21, 1878; LORNE, born July 22, 1880; and ANNA MAY, born December 9, 1882.

CYRUS, born September 11, 1850 and died in 1916. CYRUS had a son WALTER. WALTER had ninteen grandchildren and sixteen great grandchildren.

NANCY, born January 5, 1845. We have no further information on NANCY.

WALTER WEEKS, who was born August 10, 1841 died January 19, 1923. The marriage and childred of WALTER'S family are as follows:

MARY ELIZA married in November 18, 1897, to ALVA CASWELL, born July 17, 1874. They had five children: - JOESPH; MARY JANE; MAITLAND, who died an infant; LEE born 1909; and THEDA, born 1915.

RANSOM married January 7 1902 to HULDA HOWER. He remarried January 28, 1920 SYLVIA CROSS, born February 3, 1892. They had seven children: - DOROTHY, born November 1, 1920; DONALD, born January 9, 1922; VIOLA, born May 22, 1923; FLORENCE, born March 3, 1924, died an infant; WALTER, born June 11, 1926; KENNETH, born June 18, 1927; and WAYNE, born January 14, 1931. RANSOM died August 26, 1953.

LORNE married September 16, 1901 to FLORENCE STEPHENS. They had one son, EARL, Born March 23, 1903. EARL married March 26, 1944 to MARGARET BELL. LORNE remarried March 21, 1909 to ANN MARGARET DELLADAUGH. They had one daughter HELEN, born April 19, 1911. LORNE died March 1953.

ANNA MAY married MR COULTER, February 23, 1905. They had five children: - twins, ROY who died September 7 1908 and RUSSELL, who died June 3, 1914; MARIE, who died April 2, 1922; LELA who married STANLEY NOELS; and ALBERT, who married VIOLET NOELS. ANNA MAY died March 1943.

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JOESPH WEEKS married CHARITY KERN of the Forestville area. They took up a tract of land in Derham township, Oxford County, Concession 9, Lot 5, bordering Cranberry Road in 1832. To procure the deed to his property, JOESPH rode horseback to Niagara. His neighbours were Indians having a little settlement nearby. The women worked at household tasks together with CHARITY WEEKS and the men worked and hunted together. JOESPH and CHARITY raised their family of eight children here, having 7 sons and 1 daughter.

RHONDA married Mr. SLAGHT and moved to the state of Washington. JOHN, AMOS and WALTER took up land from the crown south of Tillsonburg, in Middleton township, Norfolk County; and JOESPH and ISSAC framed the homestead on the ninth concession of Dereham township, the homestead being divided into two farms.

There was an almost complete cooperation among these early settlers, and a very deep love of the land. The five brothers would fo to one farm, cut down trees, clear a spot for a log cabin, later to be replaced by a larger house and later still by a substantial brick home. Thus they went from farm to farm helping one another. There was very little money; work was done by bees - Relatives and neighbours would gather to build a house or barn, and what happy times these gatherings were. The women came along to help with the meals. Money mattered very little to those early settlers, any lack was made up by trading surplus, and theirs was a very leisured way of life. Not that they didn't work hard, - laborious work was done with only an ax and adze at first, later by hand saws, and later still cross-cut saws. These brothers were the happiest people. They were cutting a home for themselves out of the wilderness and doing it the hard way, and always with a joke and hearty laugh. Whenever there was need, helping hands were ready. in those early times, doctors were few and far between, so the mother took over in illness, and usually someone in the neighbourhood with an special knack in caring for the sick would be on call whenever needed. The doctor was seldom called except in serious illness. For the most part they were a healthy, hearty people.

Much of the land was cleared by oxen, later stumping machines and horses. Water was a very precious commodity and wells were detected by "Witching". Only certain people had the gift of witching and the early settlers firmly believed in this way of finding water. A branched twig of hickory was held firmly in the hands, stem pointing upwards and when the witcher walked over water, even deep in the ground, the stem would turn downwards. Fire was something to be dreaded if uncontrolled. Every care was taken to prevent fires from getting out of control. Wood was used for cooking and heating. A huge cast iron, square stove was used for heating. Huge pieces of wood were placed in the stove and would hold the heat through the night. They were always careful to bank the fire before going to bed, wind the clock and put out the cat.