Edwards Genealogy of Colonial Virginia

If you're familiar with the Stafford County Edwards family, you've probably seen something like this: Mary Edwards (c.1713-1767) married Joseph Coombes or Combs (c.1708-1763) of Stafford County (or Loudoun County), Virginia. The dates vary a little, but they are almost always said to be from Stafford, born shortly after the turn of the 18th century.  Mary is usually said to be the daughter of a John Edwards, sometimes John Edwards and Lucy Gray, who were supposedly from the Surry County Edwards line, other times a John Edwards of Stafford County who was supposedly born in 1682 and died April 14, 1747. As you might expect if you've leafed through my blog posts on the Edwards family, this is claim is likely the result of confusion between unrelated people. But thanks to the fantastic genealogical research posted years ago at Combs-Families.org , this mistake is easy enough to clear up. The evidence for the maiden name of Mary Coombes is the family bible of Henry Eves of Kent...

I have run into a lot of Uriah Edwards descendants over the past couple of years. He is universally everyone's "brick wall" ancestor. As far back as 1901, this led Edwards Fortune scammers to sweep him into their genealogical dumpster fire, as I pointed out in a previous post . The truth is, I don't know who his parents were, but I thought I'd try to shed some light on what we do know about him and hopefully lead genealogists in the right direction. What do we know about Uriah Edwards? He first appears in the order books of Spotsylvania County, Virginia in the 1750s.  In an old typed genealogy of unknown origin titled "The Family: From Virginia to the Pacific", dated 1974, Uriah's parents are identified as "John Edwards II and unknown wife." It notes Uriah can be placed in Spotsylvania County, Virginia via public records as early as 1753, when he appears "as a party to an apprenticeship." The author states that Uriah was by trade...