As we’re heading South for the winter, we stopped just across the James River from Norfolk. Yesterday Beth said, “Hey, didn’t you say that your ancestors from England landed in Virginia? You should look it up and see if we’re near where they lived.”

Earlier in the trip I did a little basic genealogy. Enough that I knew I’d need to do real research to get “proof” of each relative link, though I was pretty confident about the Bacon family tree. So I looked into my records and found that Edmond Bacon was born in Suffolk England and died in New Kent County, Virginia. Turns out New Kent County is only about an hour North of where we’re staying.

Edmond’s first son, was John born in 1683. John married Suzanna Parks and my records indicated that Suzanna Parks was buried at Saint Peter’s Parish, New Kent County. So I looked up the Parish. It was founded in 1679 and sure enough it’s still around. Turns out George Washington was married there (to Martha Parks Custis... perhaps a “Parks” relation?). Robert E Lee attended there also.

So today, the family went to church in the same church that the first American “Bacon” went to. After the service we looked up to see if any of the Bacon tombstones were still around. On the back wall of the Parish, next to the tombstone of the original parson we found this stone:

This stone

witnesseth to the

lives of good

upright people identified

with Saint Peter’s Parish

for more than 125 years

from its foundation in 1684

Col. George Lydal died Jan 1705

Capt Edmond Bacon his wife Ann Lydal

John Bacon and wife Suzanna Parke

Samuel Bugg and wife Sarah Bacon

Sherwood Bugg born July 8, 1720

Pretty amazing.

(Here’s what I think the lineage looks like)

Arthur / Henry

Dan and Beth

Dan and Sharron (my parents)

Barton Jr and Ruth

Barton and Margaret

John and Jane

Allen and Elizabeth “Betsy”

Drury and Polly

Lyddal and Mary

John and Suzannah

Edmond and Ann