Ahnentafel......Site Info

Martha Ann left a will recorded May 25th, 1847. She bequeathed fifty dollars each to Parthenia, Sally, Searcy, and Annin; she gave a Searcy a bed & furnishings, bed and furniture to granddaughter Ellen Sparkman, everything else to be divided equally.

Conrad said that she was born in Lunenburg Co., VA and married by a Baptist minister on the Memphis (?) River. She had "heard about Henson and Martha walking the trail."

She married Henson Estes (79) (A98).

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From Blankenship, rep. 1992: "Blankenship" is derived from the "Blenkensop" family of Northumberland. "Apparently all who bore the name 'Blankenship'... in the United States are descended from one immigrant, Ralph, who came to 'James Cittie' County, Virginia in 1640. Ralph Blakinsop was a young adventurer, lured to Virginia by promises of free land. He was not of the gentry but belonged to that great English middle class...Ralph had some education but very little money. His headright would have entitled him to fifty acres of land in 'James Citie' County if he had paid his own passage to America. If not, the he would have to forfeit his land to the ship owner to pay for his passage. Since there is no record to show that his 'head right' was claimed, it is almost a certainty that this is what he did." Ralph built a home on Clearwater Run along the James River and began farming.

Ralph was believed to have had two sons, Ralph and Richard. Ralph the son was married to a Martha and died in 1714; they had five children, including four sons.