Watkins & Lewis Families of Kemptown, Maryland
| Howard Watkins and Willie Lewis were born and raised in the tiny village of Kemptown in eastern Frederick County, Maryland. They were married there in 1916, in the country church their grandparents helped found.Several years later, they moved to Alexandria, Virginia, where they made their permanent home on East Walnut Street in the Rosemont section. Howard owned a plumbing and heating establishment on King Street (now the site of a bluegrass tavern).He also served on the Town Council and was a member of the George Washington Masonic Lodge.Howard, Willie and their children, among them my father, William Howard Watkins, now deceased, attended the Washington Street Methodist Church in Alexandria. Howard was the son of John Leonard Watkins, a miller who ran a feed and supply store just outside Kemptown on Weller Road(now Mill Bottom Road). His mother was Margaret "Maggie" Flood Watkins, whose parents, a ship carpenter and schoolteacher, immigrated from Ireland to Baltimore during the first half of the 19th century.Willie was the daughter of William Thomas Lewis, cabinetmaker, undertaker and Kemptown postmaster, and Laura Helen Williams, who was born and raised on her parents' farm in nearby Fountain Mills, Maryland. The families researched here include my paternal line:Watkins, Lewis, Williams, Flood, Reyburn, Claggett, Windsor, Fitzgerald, Hood, Hobbs, Beall, Purdum, Darby, Higdon, Belt, Tydings, Warman, Riggs, Griffith, Dorsey, Gassaway, Greenberry, Pierpont, Davis, Middleton, Owen, Wheeler, Todd, Ayres and other early settlers of Maryland and Virginia. I'm currently looking for more information on my great-great-great-grandfather John Williams (born circa 1750-60), father of William A. Williams (1787-1854) of New Market District, Frederick Co, MD. Our John Williams was said to be an early settler of that district, with roots in England. I’m also seeking information on our Flood and Reyburn ancestors, about whom we know relatively little. Research on my maternal lineage is progressing well thanks to the efforts of cousin Elisabeth van Loenen Courtner, and will appear on this site in the future.The Dutch family names we are researching are van Loenen and von Stoutenburg of Amsterdam and van den Akker of Nykirk, The Netherlands. This is a work in progress, and updates and corrections are welcome.Please check this information against original sources.Many family lineages prior to 1600 are speculative, and several later ones are probably full of errors, for example the vast Dorsey family line. I've included them for fun and research purposes, believing some might contain a grain of truth or valuable clues.I prefer to be related to my kin, and will be ruthless about doing away with "ancestors" to whom we are not truly related, no matter how rich or famous (or poor and infamous), they might have been. My heartfelt thanks to my beloved aunt, India "Teeny" Watkins Sigafoes, and my cousin Marianne Engle Browning (both deceased), and to cousins Janice Beall Taylor, Dr. Robert Sigafoes, Kevin Burdette, the Rev. Jackson Day, Ken Burgee, Bill Barber, Carollee Schuegraf, and dozens of others, and to genealogists Robert Barnes, Elise G. Jourdan, Marilyn Roth, William Neil Hurley, Jr., and Robert J.C.K. Lewis, for the invaluable research, photographs and other information they've shared on our mutual ancestors. To the many cousins from whom I have filched and borrowed information, without giving you credit, please e-mail me so I can do so in future updates. This website isn't perfect, but it's a labor of love. Laura Lewis [email protected] | Watkins & Lewis Families of Kemptown, Maryland Updated July 22, 2003 |
| Laura Watkins Lewis Warrenton,VirginiaUnited States | |
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