Keeping the fiddle and the ghost
Above: An unsourced Quaker image regarding Solomon Rees
(Author's note: Any family historian or genealogist knows you often need an extra set of eyes. This was one of those times.)
As always, unapologetically unedited.
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My recent post of "Pirates, poets, and a ghost or two along the way" (The Last Aha, 27 May, 2025) was a genealogical attempt to connect the Babb family, notably Phillip Babb (1634-1671) of the Isles of Shoals, Maine (and his irreverent and notable ghost), to my friend and client Paige Dunham. To do so, I relied heavily on three works, those of Jean Sargent's Babb families of New England and Beyond, Marshaleigh Orr Bahan's Captain David Rees, Fighting Quaker, a PDF file as published through United Empire Loyalists of Canada, and lastly, Emma Plunkett Ivy's, Ten Thousand Plunketts: A partially documented record of the families of Charles Plunkett of Newberry, South Carolina. Along with extant vital records found at the time, these three published works were what I used to carry this line down from the indomitable old ghost of Philip Babb to Paige Dunham.
By and large, at the time, I felt the line was successfully demonstrated. And before I get too far, let me say that I still do. That being said, Paige recently asked me, "Do I still get to keep Phillip?" I immediately understood "the spirit" in which she was asking this question. Genealogy can be fluid; it can sometimes change according to the narrative or the narrator. It's often dependent on vital records that may or may not exist, and dependent on secondary sources to fill in between the lines. Paige's question was a sweet and valid one, showing she's well aware of the problem behind a false family history occurring along the way. For me, as her friend and her wannabe family historian, it's been important for me to "prove out" even further her line to Phillip Babb to ease her apprehension.
As genealogists, we must always be on the lookout for "extra truth." I would never want what I might relay to Paige to turn out to be nothing more than a fabrication compiled from the above three sources - which in turn could prove out to be only fabrications within themselves.
But how to effectively do this?
I needed some wiggle room to make sure I was looking at the truth of her ancestry.
To do this, or to do it effectively, I needed a third-party verification.
You know, an extra set of eyes to consider at least the Babb portion of the line. The whole crux of it depended on the line of Elizabeth Babb, who married David Rees at The Hopewell Friends Meeting, in Frederick County, Virginia, in January 1761, and then removed to Newberry, South Carolina.
So I reached out to Babb family genealogist Daniel Greig Babb for his take on this. Daniel is the author of a half dozen books on the Babb Family, a blog site on 'all things Babb,' and in general (and in my opinion) the undisputed expert here on the Babb clan. It was a long shot reaching out to him. You never know what sort of reception you will receive from any author or genealogist. Some are as knowledgeable as they are friendly - or not.
Daniel Greig Babb has, however, been great. He's attacked the line of David Rees and Elizabeth Babb of Newberry, South Carolina, and compiled sufficient records (Quaker and otherwise) to confirm that they are one and the same couple who married at the Hopewell Meeting House in 1761. This has been no easy task. The number of men named "David Rees" (and reputed to have married "an" Elizabeth Babb) and the erroneous families attached to them have been extremely hard to unravel. Daniel Greig Babb, however, is a very exacting and thorough researcher. Where I count myself on the side of "family historians," Daniel Greig Babb is definitely a genealogist.
While we seem to differ on the value of secondary accounts, I can tell you that, thus far, Daniel Greig Babb has discounted Marshaleigh Orr Bahan's Captain David Rees, Fighting Quaker as a "narrative compilation" assembled to "tell a story" rather than relay a factual account. While I don't agree on all his points here, DGB believes that the author has the wrong David Rees, and that "our" David Rees was a different man entirely. He believes that our David Rees (the one who married Elizabeth Babb) was not a "fighting Quaker" at all, or perhaps even a royalist. That being said, DGB did at least confirm that "our David Rees and Elizabeth Babb" were the correct couple (the one in Newberry, SC) that I needed to be looking at.
As far as this section of Elizabeth Babb Rees's connection to Phillip Babb from the Isles of Shoals was concerned, the line holds, it is legit per author Daniel Greig Babb.
However, that's as far as DGB would go.
He's the "Babb family" genealogist, and coaxing him forward into helping confirm the names of David Rees and Elizabeth Babb's children for me to continue down the line to Paige, he hasn't been eager to do. And, as I have relied on Marshaleigh Orr Bahan's Captain David Rees, Fighting Quaker for an accounting of those children, and as DGB has discounted that "Fighting Quaker" portion of her work, I have needed to obtain some extra sources on the next generations following Rees/Babb line, their children, and specifically, for their son Solomon Rees who married Jane Murdock.
Now, even DGB will acknowledge that Solomon Rees signed documents with his mother, Elizabeth (Babb) Rees, and that he is listed with her as an administrator of David Rees's estate in 1786. Still, there needed to be more proof of their relationship. (Was it the right Solomon? Was it the correct Elizabeth?) To do this, I went back to Bahan's Captain David Rees, Fighting Quaker, to dissect the sources she had used for the family.
Yes, I went back to a genealogy that the expert DGB deemed a faulty account. You see, even a broken clock is right twice a day. I believe that while Marshaleigh Orr Bahan may have been wrong about a lot of things, that we might be missing out on what Ms. Bahan was right about.
The first source Bahan used was The Heritage of Old Buncombe County, North Carolina, Volume II, 1987, by Old Buncombe County Genealogical Society. Page 306. This book gives a good discussion of David and Elizabeth Babb's son, John Rees. The account even lists the land grant given to John's father, David Rees, and his estate administration papers, with those dates verified by DGB. The account goes on further to give more family history on John's line. Still, this was a derivative or secondary source. As credible as it is, it's also only a narrative. Had they taken vital records and woven their family history around them? I needed something more.
I definitely wanted something more on John's brother Solomon linking him to his parents, David and Elizabeth.
I found it in the sources used for the sketch on John Rees in The Heritage of Old Buncombe County, NC. The sources there referred me to Montez Demonia-Jones' book, "The Jones-Reece and allied families, 1982.
It was here in Demonia-Jones' book that I found the 1861 autobiographical account of the ancestry of John H. Reese, who was the great-grandson of, you guessed it, David Rees and Elizabeth Babb Reese.
It tells the story of David Rees and also the story of his son,
Solomon Rees.
Check it out:
Above: "The Jones-Reece and allied families," 1982, pages 69, 70, and various
So, in light of this 1861 autobiographical account given by a great-grandson of David Rees and Elizabeth Babb and their children, albeit a transcription, and, as some might call it, a derivative or secondary source, I am still calling the line from Phillip Babb of the Isles of Shoals to Paige Dunham as valid. I realize that DGB and perhaps most genealogists won't approve of this. It's, after all, a "secondary source" which is considered by most, without vital records, to be "hearsay."
I'm this instance, I disagree.
Even with any "fluff" in the autobiography, the basic listing out of people and their names by the author seems as valuable as a Biblical account. The author was a reverend, a local religious figure. And while it might have been normal for him to embellish his family's accomplishments or virtues, simply recording who they were doesn't take on any other value than just that.
And yes, the reverend's memory could have been faulty. However, I am going to believe that in 1861 he still had a collective knowledge of his family that had not yet been dissolved by time.
Given that it is an account from someone who would have had informed knowledge of the family at the time (1861), it seems a pretty reliable starting point for leading into Emma Plunkett Ivy's Ten Thousand Plunketts: A partially documented record of the families of Charles Plunkett of Newberry, South Carolina, which leads directly to Paige. This, along with the independent verification by author Daniel Greig Babb of the lives of "David and Elizabeth," in relation to the Babb family, I am once again stating that Paige Dunham "gets to keep the fiddle" that her ancestor Solomon Rees got into trouble for (see above), and that she, Paige Dunham, "gets to keep the ghost" - the ghost of Phillip Babb, her ancestor.
Wink!
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