Welcome to My Family Tree

I began my research in the mid 1980’s after someone gave me a simple little blank genealogy software program on an old 5 ¼ inch floppy disc. I thought it would be fun to fill it out with a bunch of relatives and then add my children to it so they could see who their cousins and aunts and uncles were. One Sunday I sat down with my mother, my brother and my sister and we began to talk about our family tree. We discovered that we had trouble remembering our grandparents’ given names. We knew next to nothing of our great grandparents, and we knew absolutely nothing of any older ancestors. My mother was in her 80’s then and her memory was beginning to fail. She could not even remember her own grandparents’ names. At that point I became very much concerned that the information I was looking for was slipping away and before long would be lost forever. The Internet was in its infancy. Genealogy on the world wide web was almost non-existent.

I have spent over 20 years now, poring through county histories, Census indexes, microfilms, microfiches, visiting cemeteries, having conversations with relatives, going to family reunions, and discovering genealogy on the internet. The information on this website includes a vast amount of research done by relatives who started keeping records long before I did. My research has been educational, addictive and rewarding. It has given me a sense of belonging to and being a part of history. The more I discover, the more I want to discover. It has been like reading a great novel that is hard to put down. Add to that the unbounded joy of reconnecting with long forgotten families and one may get a hint of the experience I have had during these years.

I now know that my branch of the Riddle Family Tree stems from Virginia in the early 1700’s. My earliest ancestor in the American Colonies was very likely an early colonist whose name may have been William Riddle (or possibly “Riddell”) and a Monacan Indian woman, name unknown, who lived near present day Charlottesville, Virginia. Their son, named Moses Riddle (Ridle and other variations in early records), was born about 1715. Our family story begins with Moses Riddle, his wife Mary Gibson, and their son, Captain William Riddle and his wife Harriet "Happy" Rogers Roberts. Capt. Riddle was a Loyalist (Tory) during the American Revolution and led daring raids from Virginia into North Carolina, until his capture and execution about May of 1781. My family descended from one of his seven known children, Isaac William Riddle and his wife, Anna Grizzle/Grizzell. Isaac and most of his family and their children moved to Texas from Kentucky and Tennessee in 1847, when Isaac was 60 years old. We are descended from one of Isaac's sons, Joseph Pierce Riddle and his wife, Nancy Smith. Joseph and Nancy were my great great grandparents. One of their sons, William Nelson Riddle, and his wife, Tennessee Ellen Couch, were my great grandparents. William's oldest child, Jabe Albert Riddle, and his wife, Arrenva Josephine Rhodes, were my grandparents and Jabe's oldest of nine surviving children, Riley Newton Riddle, Sr., and his wife, Hylma Yetive Looney, were my parents. I am the youngest of their four children.

At this time I have listed 2334 individuals spanning 15 generations in my Family Tree Maker database going back almost 400 years. They include almost 600 different family surnames. Most of them are included in the Genealogy Reports on this web site.

At the time that my database begins, about the year 1618:

The Thirty Years War was just beginning in Europe.

Rembrandt van Rijn was a twelve year old Dutch kid just learning to draw.

The King James Bible was being published for the very first time.

The Pilgrims were preparing for their trip to the New World on the Mayflower.

They wouldn’t make the trip for another two years.

The first Africans had already been brought to the New World.

Jamestown, Virginia, had been in existence only 12 years.

It was still the only English speaking town in North America.

The Ming Dynasty still ruled China.

William Shakespeare died just two years ago.

James The First was king of England. He succeeded Queen Elizabeth The First 15 years ago in 1603.

The American Revolution would not be fought for another 158 years.