Ferrill & Storrs Genealogy

To add to be previous post:  I believe any Ferrell line with two or more generations with a first name of Charles, regardless of their location, can be traced to the first  Charles Ferrell to land in Colonial Virginia.   Caulean

Hoping to connect with anyone who can trace their Ferrell line — Ferrell by whatever spelling –  to Colonial Virginia, and has within their Ferrell line Charles as a first name for two or more generations.         

I like stuff organized. You’d never guess if you were to see my attic or garage, but the truth is that despite the apparent disorder, I can find what I need most of the time. Occasionally, I have to replace something that has been lost in my personal warren, but not usually.

I like the idea of people being buried together too. It makes genealogy so much easier. For the most part a great many of our ancestors were thoughtful enough to bury each other in graveyards with stones. Very kind of them. I made it a point to put my parents together in the same graveyard with my dad’s family. I doubt my parents would have cared, but maybe the great-grandkids will appreciate it.

I am organizing this blog so we can share information and collect memories that we can all share, even though many of us wouldn’t recognize one another on the street. We come from shared roots and to some extent at least it accounts for a fair part of who we are.

b. March 31, 1888, Muskegon, MI
d. September 22, 1969, Muskegon, MI, buried in Mears, Michigan
Parents: Frank Storrs and Alice Almira Wolcott

I have relatively few memories of my grandmother. She lived in Michigan until my grandfather died and then moved west to live with us for a couple years … from about 1962 to about 1964 more or less.

She saved my life during the Columbus Day Storm in 1962. I went outside to feel the wind blow and she yanked me back in the house moments before a dogwood fell on the patio where I had been standing.

When the Alaska earthquake hit we were at the coast at our beach house. The volunteer firemen went door to door to tell people to go up on Mt. Neahkanie to avoid the expected tidal wave. Grandma was so rattled she put her dress on backwards. Of course, we children thought that was uproariously funny.

I never really talked to her, nor she to me. I had the impression she didn’t like us much.

Read her bio.

Last night I couldn’t stop thinking about the Van Noates. It’s like that with genealogy once you are seriously bitten by the bug. It’s hard to stop thinking about the people … who they were … how they lived … why they did what they did.

The Van Noates are distinctive for the spelling of their name. There are many other Van Notes, but the “a” is like a special marker. This branch of the extensive New Jersey Van Notes originated with William Van Noate who was born in Monmouth County, New Jersey in 1798. He and his wife, Artless Woolley, moved from NJ in about 1830 or so to Ohio where they remained for the rest of their lives.

William had three wives and eight known children. Some children stayed in the Cleveland area. Some moved to California, and others went to Michigan and Illinois. The daughters were absorbed into their husband’s families and have been somewhat more difficult to trace.

While some groups stayed put for long periods, others were much more restless and each census finds them in a different state.

There are many George W’s too. So many in fact, that it’s easy to mix up which belong to which family.