Looking for any information about James Acton, my 6Ggrandfather, b.1746 England d.1819 Garrard Co., KY. Spouse: Elizabeth McCraft b.1750 Scotland d.1822. I don't know the parents of James or Elizabeth. They had John James Acton Sr., my 5Ggrandfather. Any info would be appreciated.

My mother was Elizabeth Acton, b.3/22/1905, Pulaski Co. KY. She married my Dad, Wilbur W. Welch.

Her father was George W. Acton, b. 5/19.1874, (wife: Florence Pence).

George Acton's father was Samuel Acton, b. 7/19/1834, (wife: Nancy Jane Griffin).

Samuel Acton's father was James Acton, b. 1807 in KY, (wife: Elizabeth Warren).

James Acton's father was Aaron Acton, b. 1775, Henry Co VA, (wife: Elizabeth Littrell).

Aaron Acton's father was James Acton, b. before 1746, England. (wife: Elizabeth McCraft).

That's as far back as I go. Do you have any other info?

Rich Welch/CA

James Acton is my 6Ggrandfather as well. Aaron Acton is my 5Ggrandfather. I am also looking for James' parents. I'll let you know if I find anything, and please let me know if you find anything. Thank you.

I found some undocumented information that listed James Acton Sr.'s father as John Acton, Sr. (b. 1704, Charles County, Maryland.) No information on who his mother was.

John's father and mother supposedly were Henry Acton, Jr. (b. 1677 in Longnor, Shropshire, England; d. 5 Dec. 1742 in Prince George's Countyy, Maryland) and Anne Penn (b. 1682, Longnore, Shropshire, England; d. before 1 July 1737 in Prince George's County, MD

Parents of Henry Acton, Jr. were Henry Acton, Sr. (b. 1645 Longnor, Shropshire, England; d. 7 Mar 1685, Lebotwood Shropshire, England) and Hannah Corbett (b. 7 Jan 1644, Condover, Shropshire, England; d. 7 Mar 1685, Lebotwood, Shropshire, England)

Back beyond these, I have had some hints that the name was Ecton later changed to the Acton name.

You guys are descended from fast workers -- James is only my 4Ggrandfather. My Y markers are on record. It might be interesting to see how much variation has built up in 200+ years.

I'm dubious about the Maryland birthplace for John Acton, Sr. That would have him going back to Shropshire to father James. Then James emigrates, but not to Maryland where his grandmother lived, but to Henry County, VA. Possible, but unusual.

I've heard "Ecktor" as another variant. For some reason the hard "c" followed by a "t" is difficult for people to understand. On the phone, I have to spell it out all the time.

Thank you for your reply. I have questioned that a little myself, but haven't had the time to go back and research it more to find out what is truly correct.

James is also my 4ggrandfather. I have conflicting reports of him being born in England and in Maryland. I know a lot of ships from England landed in Virginia. There is a lot of Acton history in Virginia -- trying to get info from 2 sources there. From James's son Aaron on down, you should be looking in Pulaski County & Laurel County. Do you have any info on James's wife Elizabeth?

I have sketchy family papers tracing the line back to James. Otherwise, all my information is from the net.

There's information about James here:
http://listlva.lib.va.us/cgi-bin/wa.exe?A2=ind0802&L=va-...

I don't believe the story about her kidnapping by the Barbary pirates. Indentured servitude existed AFAIK, and buying someone out happened. The name McCraft looks to be extremely rare.

My ancestor is John (James), son of James. From there, it's straightforward. Except that some genealogists have claimed a Lee connection is to the family of Robert E. It's actually to another Lee family that produced the novelist Harper Lee. I like to tell people that my most famous relative is Atticus Finch.

I looked at Elizabeth again, and she's a mystery. Several sources say her name was McCraft. But the name isn't found on a few British Censuses I found.

http://www.1930census.com/british_census.php

The earliest is 1841, but there should have been some hanging around. A later US census has only 4 McCraft families.

The LDS site has 3 or 4 names in Lancashire, but the dates aren't right for Elizabeth.

Lots of similar sounding names though. If this was first written down by a grand-child decades later, we're out of luck. There might be a grave marker. James is said to be buried in either Garrard, KY or Shelby, AL.

Finding other McCrafts in VA around that time would be helpful.