As I was trying to figure out the Dinwiddie Co Thrifts mentioned in the Hawkins Bible entries
http://boards.rootsweb.com/surnames.thrift/233/mb.ashx
Bob Jensen was doing the same. Since then he has spent incredible amounts of time & effort on working out these families. I will post his results when they are done.

Bob has also worked on some related families. He, like me, feels strongly that Abraham Thrift of SC (born in VA? before 1760) originated in the Petersburg /Dinwiddie Co, VA region, though no documentation has been found yet. Bob went to the trouble of researching the descendants of Abraham Thrift, and this is pretty much done now. It is posted here as a pdf file:
http://freepages.genealogy.rootsweb.ancestry.com/~thriftzzfr...
It is not searchable, but there is a complete index of all names at the end; the index is very handy. If you see any errors in the document please let me know. Hopefully this week I'll add it into the list of Thrift family trees at the DNA project:
http://freepages.genealogy.rootsweb.ancestry.com/~thriftzzfr...

I've known of the large Thrift family in Clay Co, AL for years, but as far as I know no one till now has shown which family their patriarch, Richard Thrift (reported by the census to be born in SC in 1828) is from. Bob (with hints from Clay and me) traced the family back further, to Spencer Thrift son of Abraham. He then traced all the descendants he could, down to near the present time, including Thrifts in SC, AL, AR, GA, TX, OK, & CA. (These GA descendants of Abraham are different from the descendants of Robert T Thrift -but may still be distant relatives) This is a huge amount of work!

If you are a Thrift in the US who can't trace your ancestors back to the big Thrift families of VA, NC, SC, GA or FL, take a look, your ancestors could be here.

Abraham Thrift and his wife Susannah were in Guilford Co NC in 1781. This is Isham's territory, so Abraham may be closely related to Isham. (Abraham's only known child was born 1780, same year as Isham's first kid.) There is evidence that Isham & Drury Thrift were brothers, and this links Isham & perhaps Abraham to the Dinwiddie Co /Petersburg area where Drury lived. John Thrift born Petersburg also lived in Caswell, Rowan, Wilkes and Iredell counties in NC at different times before settling in SC:
http://www.southerncampaign.org/pen/w9516.pdf
so John may be related to Abraham, Isham & Drury.

A John & a Solomon Thrift are mentioned together in Bristol Parish near Petersburg 1770-1771,
http://books.google.com/books?id=b7GX427EbLAC&pg=PA231&a...
The Vestry Book and Register of Bristol Parish, Virginia, 1720-1789 Transcribed and published by Churchill Gibson Chamberlayne, Published 1898
p. 231 for year 1770 Solomon Thrift no inhabitant 21 [pounds of tobacco?)
p. 232 1771 John Thrift 1 22 220

Abraham & Solomon were in Cook's company together for 3 years in the Rev. war:
http://www.ncgenweb.us/ncrevwar/9thregimentar.htm
Roster of the 9th Regiment-Col. John Williams. The 9th North Carolina Regiment was raised on September 16, 1776, at Halifax, North Carolina for service with the Continental Army. The regiment saw action at the Battle of Brandywine and Battle of Germantown. The regiment was disbanded on June 1, 1778, at Valley Forge, Pennsylvania.
Name and Rank Company Dates of Enlistment and Commission Period of Service Occurances
Thrift, Solomon, Pt. Cook's 1777 3 yrs. Died 15 June 1778
Thrift, Ab?m., Pt. Cook's 17 Jan. 1777 3 yrs.

The bottom line is that I think it is extremely likely that John, Solomon, Abraham, Isham, Drury, and most of the Dinwiddie Thrifts were VERY closely related. I hope to show this by DNA tests if we can't prove it on paper.

I need participants from Isham's line, John's line in SC, Abraham's line in AL & elsewhere, as well as the Dinwiddie Thrifts. If we can get one or two people from each line we may be able to nail this!

Richard Thrift
rtx at cox dot net

Richard Thrift said:
"Abraham & Solomon were in Cook's company together for 3 years in the Rev. war:
http://www.ncgenweb.us/ncrevwar/9thregimentar.htm
Roster of the 9th Regiment-Col. John Williams. The 9th North Carolina Regiment was raised on September 16, 1776, at Halifax, North Carolina for service with the Continental Army. The regiment saw action at the Battle of Brandywine and Battle of Germantown. The regiment was disbanded on June 1, 1778, at Valley Forge, Pennsylvania.
Name and Rank Company Dates of Enlistment and Commission Period of Service Occurances
Thrift, Solomon, Pt. Cook's 1777 3 yrs. Died 15 June 1778
Thrift, Ab?m., Pt. Cook's 17 Jan. 1777 3 yrs."

I recently ran across a reference to these two in the book, "Tennessee Genealogical Records" by Edythe Rucker Whitley, published by Genealogical Publishing Co., Inc., date unknown. In the foreword it says, "Edythe R. Whitley's 'Tennessee Genealogical Records' brings together in one volume many documents copied from records either at the State Archives in Nashville or at over twenty courthouses. Originally compiled in the 1930s, in a series of eleven pamphlets, this valuable material has never before been available to the general public."

The book is readable on-line at Ancestry.com.

Anyhow, in the chapter "Revolutionary Warrants" is the following paragraph:

No. 1926. Heirs of Solo. Thrift, private in the N. C. Cont. Line; 640 acres; issued 27 July 1785. On the back is a transfer which states on 29 May 1807 that Abraham Thrift was heir to his brother Solomon Thrift, dec., in the N. C. Cont. Line. The transfer was marked "Invalid," because Solomon Thrift had a son now of full age who had sold the warrant to William White, who purchased it in 1795 soon after the son became of age. Lenoir Co., N. C.: William Thrift of Jones Co., N. C., only son and heir of Solomon Thrift, dec., who was a private soldier in the Revolutionary War, who resided in Caswell Co. at the time of his enlistment.

Regards, Bob

Robert L. Thrift
Masonville, CO

WOW! Fantastic!

So now, if we can get a descendant of Abraham to join the Thrift surname DNA project, we may be able to prove that BOTH Abraham & Solomon are closely related to William of Dinwiddie Co VA & Isham of NC (we have just recently shown the latter two are related).

I don't understand the location refs, and I wonder about the dates. What exactly happened in Lenoir Co., and when? Was the attempted transfer to Abraham initiated there, or invalidated? WHEN was William Thrift resident in Jones Co, was that 1795 or 1807?

What exactly occurred on 29 May 1807? since Abraham had died by October 28, 1806.

Where was the property? Most NC Revolutionary War bounty land warrants were further west in Tennessee near the Cumberland River (explored by Maj. Tilman Dixon, brother of Henry Dixon & uncle of Wynn Dixon mentioned below), but I think some were in the northeast corner of TN; is this what brought William Thrift to the State of Franklin in 1789?

Your book mentions number 1926 and date 27 July 1785, which matches this ref:
Military Land Warrants Continental Line
These rosters will contain the names of the North Carolina soldiers that fought in the Revolutionary War.
A list of warrants for lands granted the officers and soldiers in the Continental Line out of the Secretary's office.
Number To whom granted and rank Number of acres Service in months Date of warrant Location To whom deeded
1926 The heir of Solomon Thrift, Pri. 640 84 July 27, 1785 James Lee in part for W. Dixon
1927 Abraham Thrift, Pri 274 36 July 27, 1785

But then what does this represent, 6 years earlier?
http://wc.rootsweb.ancestry.com/cgi-bin/igm.cgi?op=GET&d...
CASWELL CO. DEEDS
[pg 009][Deed Book A]
148 State of NC - No.71 - to Henry Dixon Jun., 640 A on both sides morth fork of Moons Cr adj Saml Brackin, land of Tillman & Henry Dixon Senr., claim of Thrift. 3 Mar 1779. chc Benjn McQuiston, Jas Warren.

(Miles or Mills Thrift also died while in the NC Continental Line, but I haven't yet found mention of a bounty land warrant for his heirs.)

By the way, from the date of death it sounds like Solomon Thrift may have died at Valley Forge.

Thanks!
Richard Thrift

Richard and Bob

Caswell Co. NC was formed from the Northern part of Orange Co. in 1777. Wasn't Orange Co Isham Thrift's county?

Clay
Mount Airy NC

Yes. However Isham and Mary apparently lived in the southern part of Orange County which eventually formed Chatham Co. Here's Mike Thrift's observation:

http://www.vagenweb.org/shenandoah/thriftmichaelms.html
"He lived on Terrell's Creek, which exists by that name even today. However, the boundaries of Orange County were readjusted on several occasions so that Isham's land is located in today's Chatham County. The creek intersects State Highway 87 about one mile south of the Alamance County line. It flows east about one mile to the Haw River where it empties into the river. Isham's land was at this intersection of creek and river."

So another possibility is that the claim mentioned above was Isham's. However, to merit 640 acres would require several years' service as a private (less as an officer).

Mike said:
"(re Isham's apparent service in Continental Army): We found three separate pay vouchers for Isham all dated 1783 redeemable in Hillsborough, Orange County. The vouchers were obviously for services rendered in the past as the war ended in Yorktown with the surrender of Cornwallis in October 1781, but no description of the service is proscribed on the documents. We also found further corroborating evidence of Isham's service as a patriot as the Daughter's of the American Revolution registers him as such."

Richard

I didn't understand the reference to Lenoir Co. either, and in fact the whole paragraph seemed a bit cryptic to me. So I was careful to copy it exactly verbatim in the hope that it would make sense to someone else. But apparently I'm not the only one who's puzzled.

Regards, Bob

Robert L. Thrift
Masonville, CO

Terry wrote me offline:
"There is another good book on Ancestry for Caswell County - Caswell County North Carolina Will Books 1777 to 1814, 1784 Tax List, Guardian's Accounts 1794 to 1819 by Katherine Kerr Kendall

"Page 36 - Book B: 424 - Inventory of estate of Soloman Thrift 19 July 1791 by Sarah Thrift, ADM.

"The Soloman Inv was in 1791. Did not say if Sarah was his wife. If the Soloman died 1776, I was thinking that the estate in 1791 might be at too great a distance to be the brother of Abraham. But with the turmoil of those years maybe not."

Terry has also supplied the military service cards for Solomon and Abraham, obtained from footnote dot com. The cards are sequential and Solomon's is first, so he may be the older of the two.

Thrift, Solomon
9 North Carolina Regiment
(Revolutionary War)
Private Private
37185994
Book Mark R & P 436786

(next card)
Solomon Thrift
Pt, Cooke's Co
9th N. Carolina Regiment
(Revolutionary War)
Appears on a book* Copied from Rolls
of the organization named above.
Date of enlistment or appointment: 1777
Term: 3 yrs.
Casualties: Dead 15 June 78

Vol 6 page 53
______________________________
Thrift, Abraham
9 North Carolina Regiment
(Revolutionary War)
Private Private
37185995
Book Mark R & P 436786

(next card)
Abraham Thrift
Pt, Cooke's Co
9th N. Carolina Regiment
(Revolutionary War)
Appears on a book* Copied from Rolls
of the organization named above.
Date of enlistment or appointment: 17 Jany, 1777
Term: 3 yrs.

Vol 6 page 53

So, descendants can set ol' Abe up with the DAR if they want.


Richard Thrift

I knew about this estate inventory, but since it is dated 15 years after the death of Solomon Thrift, I couldn't decide whether this is the right Solomon or not.

Regards. Bob

Robert L. Thrift
Masonvilee, CO

Yeah, there are so many Solomon Thrifts around, it's a real problem ;)

How about this as a possible explanation? Either the kids (William) reached majority, and claimed their inheritance from the administrator (their mom) who, being female, didn't really have title to the property,
Or perhaps less likely, Solomon's wife died at this time, prompting the inventory, and Sarah the executrix may have been one of the children?

Richard