The Lunsford Family

I kept hitting dead end after dead end for Brad's grandmother's line... until last night! I knew it would just take a little time to find the root that leads back hundreds of years. I couldn't find the *end* of this line!

One of Brad's relatives is "Aunt Sister", Mamie Starkes Potter.* Using Google, I typed in her name. There was only a single match. And it happened to be that one exciting puzzle piece that opened up the rich heritage of this line. Take a look at what I found:
"From Mrs. Mamie Starkes Potter, Lake Charles, Louisiana - My father, R.L. Starkes, of Lodge 156, Palestine, Texas, desires to express his sincere thanks to the General Secretary and Treasurer Phillips and to the entire Brotherhood for the payment of his insurance because of his having reached seventy ---. He-"

It's an excerpt from a periodical published by the Brotherhood of Locomotive Firemen and Enginemen (volumes 92-93). Whoever owns the copy this was taken from didn't want the entire volumes to be published online, I suppose, but I'm glad that they allow relevant snippets.

Then I found out this, about R.L. Starkes, from the Library of Congress:

(Click to enbiggen)

From the Palestine Daily Herald, August 2, 1910. Aren't you encouraged to write more letters to the editor? This is the second one in Karen's line so far! It doesn't mention his family relations but I was able to find R.L. Starkes' genealogy from someone related to them! Here is the link:

R.L. Starkes & Sarah "Sallye" P. Lunsford, from the Curtis/Fitzgerald Family Tree Website.

You can keep on clicking on the fathers to get all the way back to a cannibal! But I'll get to that in just a minute. Mamie & Sally Starkes great grandfather, Rev. Uriah Williamson Lunsford, married a gal names Sarah Ansofee Funderburk. I guess Ansofee is meant to sound like "Anne-Sophie", probably. anyhow, here is a website with some really fascinating trivia about the Reverend and here's an excerpt about his wife:

The Lunsfords located about 2 1/2 miles from Brushy Creek. Sarah’s eyesight was impaired and, though totally blind, we are told that she knitted, sewed, spun, and oared for her children: four boys and five girls.

Onto the cannibal!
Sir Thomas Lunsford. "Knight, child-eater, and he who fears neither God nor man."
Of course he wasn't really a cannibal, but I'm sure there are nursury rhymes written about him:

"Because of his history of violence and the attacks on his character over the years, he and his troops, the Roundheads, were said to be cannibals and child-eaters, and Puritans taught their children to fear his very name. Although he was an excellent soldier and gentleman, he was painted as an ogre who “roasted babies and stewed sucklings.” -This paragraph is from a very interesting website all about Sir Thomas. (link)

From Wikipedia:

Sir Thomas Lunsford (c. 1611 – 1656) was a Royalist colonel in the English Civil War. Lunsford committed a murderous assault upon Sir Thomas Pelham in 1633 and was outlawed for failing to appear to receive judgment in 1637. He was pardoned in 1639 and joined Charles I's army. He was made lieutenant of the Tower in 1641. He was removed on petition from the Commons; knighted in 1641; made prisoner during the Battle of Edgehill in 1642 and released in 1644. He went to Virginia in 1649, where he died in 1656.

Random Trivia:
-there is a Sir Thomas Lunsford Drive in Williamsburg, Virginia. It's in a very nice suburban neighborhood - very "white picket fence" kind of place.
- Sir Thomas Pelham, whom he "murderously assaulted" was actually his cousin and neighbor.
- The Pelhams and the Lunsfords' dispute started when one of Pelham's dogs accidentally wandered onto Lunsford property. One of Lunsford's sons shot the dog.
- Aside from child-eater and suckling-roaster, he was also called a debauched creature, a swaggering ruffian, a "reckless, notorious swashbuckler", and a "man of decayed and desperate fortune". Are the British always so colorful with their abuse? (Answer: Yes. This is consistent with Henry Higgins and Simon Cowell.)
-There are distant relations to the Boleyn family
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Ancestry

(patriarchs on left, matriarchs on right, direct descendents in bold)

Sallye Starkes & Mamie Starkes Potter, sisters
R.L. Starkes / Sarah "Sallie" P. Lunsford
Rev. Uriah Williamson Lunsford / Sarah Ansofee Funderburk
Peter Williamson Lunsford / Philitia Dicy Davis
Moses Lunsford / Mary Fox
Isaac Lunsford / Lucy Fauntleroy
Swanson Lunsford / Elizabeth Bassett
John Lunsford / Elizabeth Jenner
Sir Thomas Lunsford / Mary or Anne Hudson
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UPDATE 2/1/2010: I've reached the end here - at the year 970 with the approximate birth of Ingram de Lundresford in Sussex, England.

Other sources:

Sir Thomas Lunsford Wikipedia Entry
Comprehensive Timeline of Sir Thomas, from Google
Southern Roots - A Great Reference
British Civil Wars, Commonwealth
Old Whyly
Sir Thomas Lunsford Regiment of Foote, a reenactment troupe
Rev. Uriah Williamson Lunsford & Sarah Ansofee Funderburk

*Here's a tip for other genealogists = using parenthesis on a google search will find only exact matches, which is important when you're dealing with proper nouns. For example, if you type in the name "Faser", Google will know to omit its matches for Fraser, Frasier, and faster.