I may have found the fields where our Boyce ancestors grazed cattle in the late 1700s, and it wasn’t easy. First, the land in question used to be in the great state of Virginia; now it’s part of West Virginia, near Romney, about two hours from D.C. Cattle still graze the plot that I suspect was once used by my family for raising cattle. If we tested their DNA, I’m sure we’d find they are related to the Boyce cattle that used to occupy this spot. Wait, I don’t have a DNA sample for the Boyce cattle. Oh well.
My search for these sacred, dung-littered ancestral lands was aided by this choice historical document, along with a companion document that lists land transfers way back when. They show that Richard Boyce (1735-about 1790) leased two of the original land grant lots, Lots 3 and 4, along Patterson’s Creek.
The trail led me to Russeldale, near the mouth of Elliber Run, southeast of Lot No. 3. Russeldale isn’t much of a town — all I could see was a derelict white house. But that didn’t matter; I needed to find Patterson’s Creek. I triangulated the location of Lots 3 and 4 using the old maps and current Google Maps. Richard Boyce originally had Lot 3 then traded up to Lot 4. Lot 4 did indeed look like better land for cattle grazing. It was less hilly.
All this assumes that the Richard Boyce who owned the land is my Richard Boyce. I’ve spent more than a decade trying to trace the Boyce line back to West Virginia. The Boyces intersect with the Thompsons through Annie Marie Boyce (1846-1894), who married William Thompson, the son of our first North American relative. After the Civil War, Annie fled to Montana with her father, J.R. Boyce. J.R. was a Confederate major, and the Union wanted his head after the war.
J.R. left behind a genealogy letter containing a lot of vital information — and a few perplexing potential errors. He wrote that his father, Richard Boyce, lived in Logan County, Kentucky, where he ran a plantation and served as a sheriff and judge. I visited the historical society in Logan County a couple of years ago. Richard Boyce definitely owned a plantation. But he was a magistrate, not a judge, and never served as sheriff.
What is really confusing is that J.R. names his grandfather as “Aaron” Boyce from Romney City, Hardy County, Virginia. I’ve spent a decade trying to find an Aaron Boyce in Virginia in the late 1700s. No luck. He’s missing from the 1791 census. The genealogy society could find no mention of him.
But there are several mentions of a Richard Boyce from this time who might have had the middle name Aaron. Moreover, Richard left behind a will that left Kentucky land to his son Richard. And the will names several other sons by the same names J.R. listed in his letter. The coincidences seem overwhelming.
So, for the time being, I’m assuming that the Richard Boyce from Hardy County is my Richard Boyce.