SIMPLY OVERWHELMED

As I gathered the articles researched for this issue, I was overwhelmed by how much valuable new information had been accumulating at my desk.

Rather than have a few new jewels, I found I was sitting on GOLDMINES of material, heretofore unreported in The Peach Tree. In fact, there is such a vast amount of vital information that it will take several issues to report all of it

I will try to start most of the articles in this issue, which will be continued in the next issue or so. I can't help but be excited about these next few issues.

IRISH PEACHES
Their beginning

Until now, there only has been speculation and some reports of Peaches in Ireland. However, based on an ancient document submitted to me, we can now prove that Peaches were in Ireland as early as 1200 A.D. The following excerpts from this 13-page document highlight the original Peche of Ireland.

LUCAN and its Castle

"After the Anglo-Norman Conquest the lands of Lucan came into the possession of Alard Fitzwilliam, but were granted by him before the year 1204 to Wirris Peche, whose descendants held them for more than a century.

"It is in connection with a confirmation by King John (1199-1215) of this grant to Wirris Peche that the first mention of the lands of Lucan occurs, and the entry records that the confirmation of his title was given to Wirris Peche in consideration of forty marks and a palfrey sent to the King's treasurer.

"The family of Peche....was seated in Essex as early as the reign of Edward the Confessor(1272-1306), & members of it, including Richard Peche, who was *Bishop of Lichfield in the twelfth century, and Bartholomew Peche, who was a favourite minister of Henry III (1216-1271), are afterwards found in various parts of England.

"Wirris Peche appears to have been a native of Hampshire, in which county he paid the fees for confirmation of his title to Lucan, but he was not the only one of his name connected with Ireland about this time.

"In the reign of Richard I (1189-1198), Richard Peche, who was sent in 1180 as a messenger to this county, and was given by (King) Henry II (1154-1188) as provision for his journey 40 horse loads of wheat and 20 hogs, owned Irish lands, of which he gave a large portion to the Archbishop of Dublin, and in a royal grant made at Portsmouth by Henry III (1216-1271) to one **Hamon Peche it is mentioned that he was the son of Gilbert Peche***, who had been in Ireland in the reign of King John (1199-1215).

"On succeeding to Lucan, Wirris Peche appears to have come to reside there, and married a daughter of his neighbour Stephen, son of Sir Adam de Hereford of Leixlip....

*See more about Richard on p.22 of my book, THE PEACH/PEACHEY MIGRATIONS.
**This was Hamon II, whose accomplishments and background are given in MIGRATIONS (p.24), a very powerful man in three counties in England.
***Gilbert II (see p.23 of MIGRATIONS for his accolades, etc.

NO LONGER WITH US

The most difficult part of this Peach Tree project is hearing about and reporting on the loss of loved ones.

Georgia Peach, widow of Donald Peach of the So.Maryland Branch, died in Texas sometime last year. Both Georgia and Donald were ardent supporters of this project and will be missed immeasurably.

John Daniel Peach of Columbia, SC, died on April 26 of last year at 68 years old of lung cancer. His son said, "He enjoyed receiving the newsletter and shared them with other members of the family." Member of S.Carolina Branch.

Robert Hewitt Peach of Victoria, British Columbia, died at 76 on 12/10/1999. He served in the Royal Canadian Airfares and the Black Watch during World War II. He was retired after 30 years of teaching in the Sooke District.

I appreciate Martin Peach of Manitoba for sending us this obituary.

Willa Waunita (Wisehart) Peach died on Oct., 1999, at 89 years old. She was the mother of Tom Peach, who designed the Peach reunion banner and the new "Life's a Peach" tee-shirts. Tom lives in Texas and is of the Indiana Branch. There are 10 surviving children living in both Illinois and Texas.

Tom rejoices in the birth of his first granddaughter: Brooklyn Nicole Peach, born 4/25/1999. She lives in Kentucky with her parents, Stanley Thomas and Rebecca Lynn (Sizemore) Peach.

NEW VIRGINIA BRANCH includes Kansas Branch

Recently, she ran into a Dr. Charles Peach in Gastonia, North Carolina by way of phone. She found he is originally from Grand Junction, Colorado, where, he claims, there are a lot of Peaches. When she received his family tree, she sent me a copy.

This to me has been the greatest discovery made in the year 2000. This tree reveals a new family that I will designate as THE VIRGINIA BRANCH.

On pages 336-341 of THE PEACH/PEACHEY MIGRATIONS, THE KANSAS BRANCH is shown as beginning with Jacob Peach b.1815 in Virginia. This new tree takes us back to Jacob's father, Charles Peach, b.1788 in Virginia, who had 7 more children, along with all their descendants.

This will undoubtedly prove to be the missing link to tying several families together into one branch. The first part of this family tree begins below, quoted verbatim.
Generation No.1

1. CHARLES PEACH was born 1788 in Virginia and died 1864 in Logan Co., Ohio. He married (1) REBECCA. She was born 1780 and died 1844 in Union Co., Ohio. He married (2) SARAH JANE FOSTER HICKS 8/12/1848 in Logan Co., Ohio. She was born 1795 in North Carolina and died 1/20/1882.

Children of CHARLES and REBECCA:

i. ELIZABETH PEACH
ii. LEAH PEACH
iii. PAULINA PEACH m. William Moody
iv. JACOB JOSEPH PEACH b.1825 Virginia (see below for his tree).
v. JOSEPHUS PEACH b.1825 Virginia
    m. Susan Emeline Ballenger, who gave him
    (1) Josephus Peach b.1849 Ohio and
    (2) Thomas Peach b.1857 Ohio
vi. REBECCA PEACH b.1829 Virginia, d.6/17/1883 Union Co., Ohio.
    m. JESSIE WAGNER 6/19/1863 b.6/28/1804 d.10/23/1876 Logan Co., Ohio.

Children of CHARLES and SARAH:

vii. RICHARD FOSTER b.1834 Ohio.
viii. SARAH JANE FOSTER b.1838 Ohio.
    m. David Smith 3/28/1858.

Generation No.2

JACOB JOSEPH PEACH was born 1815 in Virginia. He married (1) Mary Smith 6/25/1836 in Logan Co., Ohio. She was born 1811 in Ohio. He married (2) a lady named AMANDA 1867. She was born in Pennsylvania and died in Alton, Osbourne Co., Kansas.

Jacob and Mary had 10 children, as will be highlighted in the next Peach Tree. Is it any coincidence that this family wound up in Logan Co, Ohio, as did those of the So. Maryland Branch?

SO. MARYLAND BRANCH Penn./Ohio Connection

Highland County, Ohio appears for the first time as one of the residences of the Peaches from Maryland. Based on a query submitted by Coral Draxten for Prince George's County, MD:

"William PEACH mar. Elisabeth Woods 1st Dec 1789 Baltimore. Both the William CHAPLINE family and the William PEACH family moved to Fayette Co., PA ca.1800." They had four sons: William, Joseph, Charles Hugh and John.

"Later William & Sarah CHAPLINE and Joseph PEACH (son of Wm & Elisabeth PEACH) were close neighbors of Isaac WOOD (eldest son of Zachariah & Rebecca WOOD in Highland Co., Ohio)."

Zachariah WOOD was b. ca. 1766 and mar. Rebecca CHAPLINE in Prince George's Co., MD. They also moved to Fayette Co., PA ca.1798.

Joseph was the second son of William Peach and was on the tax records of Fayette Co. from 1820-29. Apparently, he migrated to Ohio after that.

Joseph's older brother, William Peach, I believe is the William who migrated to Harrison Co., Indiana, where he married MARY CAIN 10/2/1822 and became the forefather of the INDIANA BRANCH. (I haven't proven my theory yet - still looking for missing links).

Joseph's younger brothers, Charles Hugh Peach and John Peach, were the forefathers of the Northern Illinois and Western Pennsylvania sub-branches respectively.

Charles Hugh's son, Hugh Peach, moved from Pennsylvania to Champaign Co., Ohio, prior to 1850. Then just prior to the civil war, he hitched up his covered wagon and pioneered Bureau Co., Illinois, near what is now Walnut.

Maureen McGowan-Singer of Florida has been working diligently trying to substantiate all her lineage back to the original immigrant ancestor of this branch, Joseph Peach. If she does this, she will qualify all of William's descendants for membership in the Colonial Dames of the XVII Century. ("This requires one's ancestor to have been here prior to 1701 and to have been 'in service'. Service is defined to include landowner, school teacher, etc.)

Maureen is also hoping to validate her lineage to William Peach, son of Joseph and father of William, Jr. who made the move to Pennsylvania by 1800. Since William, Sr. was a Revolutionary War soldier, she will be able to qualify all his descendants for membership into the DAR.

On another note, I referred to Rose Mullins in the last issue as possibly being of the So. Maryland Branch. Now she has substantiated this. On p. 208, William M. Peach is shown with three wives. However, Rose comes from yet another wife of William, Emma Klotke. Their daughter was the Lillian Peach Bachmann (to be changed from the incorrect Botman on p.208), as Lillian married Frank W. Bachmann. Rose is her granddaughter.

TENNESSEANS
New Connections

William H. Clifford refers to his cousin's (Dorothy Campbell) family being traced back to p.A4 of this book starting with Mattie Peach (daughter of Reuben R.), who married Rainey Andrew Waddy and gave him eight children. Bill spells it "Waddey" and says that Rainey was b. ca.1880 in Williamson Co., TN and d.4/19/1956 in Nashville.

Their Waddey children were 1.Leona b. ca. 1897; 2. Corean b. ca.1900 d. 1997 Nashville; *3. Ollie b.10/4/1903 d.11/20/1991 Nashville; 4. Eddie R. b. ca. 1905; 5. Jennie Lou b. ca.1907; 6. Eunice b. after 1910 d. ca. 1985; 7. George b. Sept 1913 d. ca.1965 and 8. John b. ca.1916 d. ca.1994.

*3. Ollie Arron Waddey m. Thelma Elizabeth Welck 12/20/1924 and had two children: Dorothy Jean and Andrew Burton. Dorothy in turn married Buford Campbell 6/28/1942 & thus became the Dorothy Campbell referred to above.

Wayne & Pamela Peach of Smyrna, TN. just started their family's research. Wayne descended from Benjamin Peach b. 1871 who mar. Luella Pruitt. See next issue.

The PEACH KITH 'N KIN

In 1996, Bobbye Winston published her second edition of The Peach Kith 'N Kin, a detailed genealogy on the South Carolina Branch, especially those who went to the Deep South, esp. Alabama and Mississippi. I believe this book refers to the ancestors of two families who have recently written to me about finding their roots.

Patsy Carpenter Craig wrote, "I am completely at a loss putting my ggggrandfather, John Peach, into any other Peach family. Acc. to the 1845 Tippah Co. Census for Mississippi, John would have been born ca. 1800 in SC. His wife, Mary, was born ca. 1800 in SC. John does not appear on the 1850 Tippah Co., MS census, where Mary is listed as a 47-yr.old widow with four daughters. Bobbye Winston on p. 14 of her book shows this family but says that Monroe was Mary's husband.

A lady who claims to be a descendant of Alfred Peach of Alabama, wrote recently about her family in California. "I was told that Hattie Peach and Marion S. Davis were married in Anderson Valley, CA (ca. 1875), and Marion drove a stage coach from Philo to Cloverdale; also from Philo to Elk, CA. Their daughter, Ida Bell Davis (my great maternal grandmother) was b.3/4/1880 in Coyote Valley, Ukiah, CA.

On p. 19 of Winston's book is a short bio. of this Alfred Peach, but nothing is mentioned about him having any descendants going to California. Alfred and wife Elizabeth had three children. Is it possible that one of these was Hattie Peach of California?

MARBLEHEAD BRANCH

Mabel Peach of O'Fallon, IL turned 100 on Dec.10, 2000. This Marbleheader is the mother of my faithful supporter, Sam Peach, of Kentucky. Fantastic!

Kenneth Roy Peach recently reported his ancestry back to Marblehead, MA. He says, "I was born in Salem, MA. My grandfather is John Widger Peach of Marblehead, and my dad is Kenneth Thomas Peach. I now live in Michigan, and I'm going to start my own Peach family here." You can find his family on p. 114 of The Peach Tree Handbook, Vol. III, The Marblehead Branch.

Words of Encouragement

"I received your book this past week and have been unable to put it down. Fine job putting and coalescing a tremendous amount of data into a very readable form."

Sharon MacCready of the So.MD Branch shares her impressions:

"Your work has enabled me to learn so much about my family - information that I might not have known had it not been for your efforts at researching and writing. I will be forever grateful for what you've done."

MINNESOTA PEACH achieves high honors

He served as Superintendent of Fowler Unified School District 1972-82 until he became Fresno Co. Supt. of Schools from 1982 through 1991 until his retirement. Our hats our off to this man of the year. I want to thank him for all the support John has given to this project over the past 15 years or so.

PEACH TREE PRODUCTS

Sincerely, your captain, -John Harding Peach