Fitz Randolph Traditions

Date: [unknown]
Location: Mostly North America
Surnames/tags: FitzRandolph Fitz-Randolph Fitz_Randolph

About the Project

The Fitz_Randolph Name Study project serves as a collaborative platform to collect information on the Fitz Randolph name. The hope is that other researchers like you will join the study to help make it a valuable reference point for other genealogists who are researching or have an interest in the Fitz_Randolph name.

As a One Name Study, this project is not limited to persons who are related biologically. Individual studies can be used to branch out the research into specific methods and areas of interest, such as geographically (England Fitz_Randolphs), by time period (18th Century Fitz_Randolphs), or by topic (Fitz_Randolph DNA, Fitz_Randolph Occupations, Fitz_Randolph Statistics). These studies may also include a number of family branches which have no immediate link with each other. Some researchers may even be motivated to go beyond the profile identification and research stage to compile fully sourced, single-family histories of some of the families they discover through this name study project.

Also see the related surnames and surname variants.

How to Join

To join the Fitz_Randolph Name Study, first start out by browsing our current research pages to see if there is a specific study ongoing that fits your interests. If so, feel free to add your name to the Membership list below, post an introduction comment on the specific team page, and then dive right in!

If a research page does not yet exist for your particular area of interest, please contact the Name Study Coordinator: Thomas Randolph for assistance.

Once you are ready to go, you can also show your project affiliation with the ONS Member Sticker:

Research Pages

Here are the so-called 'research pages' so far included in the study: click on the title of the page to visit that page--it's a link. This is meant to be a collective effort, so please check them out and see if you can contribute however much you can -- even if it is just making corrections. Please, please, please add your proposals and/or take leadership of one that interests you!

• Intro & FAQs: An introduction to Fitz Randolph family history and Frequently Asked Questions
• Resources: Fitz Randolph genealogy resources: an annotated inventory with links and advice
• Fitz Randolph genetic adventures: using DNA to understand our family better - what we know so far and what more we can do
• Fitz Randolphs in America: The Fitz Randolphs in America: what we know about how they dispersed and what we could do to learn more
• The Fitz Randolphs in Canada: Some Fitz Randolphs went north, notably at least one Loyalist who settled there. What could we do to learn more about their fate -- should we appoint our own Truth & Reconciliation Commission and find a way to reunite the families? :) Why did others go and where have their descendants ended up?
• The Fitz Randolphs go South: Early moves to the Carolinas and points south
• Fitz Randolphs in England after Edward: What happened to the Fitz Randolph's who remained in England?
• Our Old World Fitz Randolph Heritage: what is known about the Fitz Randolph line going back from Edward the Pilgrim, including the status of Edward as a gateway ancestor. Any ongoing or needed research of interest?
• Fitz Randolph Brickwalls: Do you have a (suspected) Fitz Randolph, but haven't been able to figure out how he or she links back to the Fitz Randolph family? Please share your brickwall here and what you know about them. Other Fitz Randolph researchers may be able to help you, or maybe we can see what dna can tell us.
• Fitz Randolphs of Note: Some prominent, some just plain interesting
• The Roll Call: Fitz Randolphs who served their country
• Fitz Randolphs in lineage societies: Which lineage societies (e.g. Daughters of the American Revolution) have Fitz Randolph descendants been able to join based on their Fitz Randolph heritage? What is required and which Fitz Randolph ancestors do they recognize?
• Managing the Fitz Randolph family in Wikitree: There are many variants of the Fitz Randolph name adopted by different lines and families, plus there is the issue of tracing Fitz Randolph womenfolk and their descendants, both of which present challenges when doing Fitz Randolph research in Wikitree. Could we figure out a strategy for managing these issues in Wikitree to best support our genealogical research?

Proposals for other topics that merit a 'research page'? Please add here or in the 'comments' section on this page.

How to Communicate

For wikitreers (wikitree members), you should be able to enter 'edit' mode and enter your contributions and corrections directly into any of the pages in this project. If you want to make a comment, suggestion or ask a question, it can be left in the Comment section at the bottom of this page or on the other research pages in this project as listed below. You may also follow up with and contact another Fitz Randolph project member by going to their wikitree profile page (usually their name is hyperlinked to it) and either leaving a comment there or sending them a private email by clicking on the [send private message] link next to their name as Profile Manager in the yellow-shaded bar midway down their profile page.

For non-wikitreers, you should be able to move between the different project pages and read everything, but to contribute or to ask questions, you will need to send an email to Tom Randolph or any other Fitz Randolph project member by going to their wikitree profile page (usually their name is hyperlinked to it like Tom's is just above) and clicking on the [send private message] link next to their name as Profile Manager in the yellow-shaded bar midway down their profile page. That helps keep your and their email addresses private: only the person you contact this way will be able to see your email address and can respond to you, but no one else will see it. You can also ask questions in the message boards on the Fitz Randolph Ancestry Facebook page or at the Spokt Fitz Randolph hub site. We very much encourage you to join wikitree as a member -- it is totally free as well as hassle-free -- you simply have to promise to act like an adult! And you only get the emails you want to get from wikitree and other members. In joining, you create your own profile page in the wikitree one family tree, which you can then connect up into your Fitz Randolph branch and see how you relate to other Fitz Randolph's and what dna tests may be available for comparison. Also importantly, being a member allows you to then have rights to directly add to and edit our project pages (as well as your ancestors' profile pages in your tree in wikitree).

Membership

• Eric Weddington
• Bill Brooks

Related Surnames and Surname Variants

• FitzRandolph
• Fitz-Randolph

It would be tempting to also include the Randolph, Randle, Randall, and other such variants that we know link to the Fitz Randolph line, but that might create confusion in terms of assuming that all Randolphs are Fitz Randolphs, and similarly for the others, so will not 'tag' them for now. It is useful, nonetheless, to identify any such names, i.e. other surnames that have their own separate family trees, but that we know have been adopted by some Fitz Randolphs over time -- and to cite some examples.

Other surnames adopted by Fitz Randolphs over time:

• Randolph: Many Fitz Randolph families have dropped the Fitz for one reason or another and are now known simply as Randolph. As the result, they are sometimes confused with the Virginia and other Randolph lines that are unrelated to the Fitz Randolphs.
• Randall: A direct male-line descendant of Joseph Randall (b. 1803, Union County, South Carolina) discovered through a Y-DNA test his closest matches are, in fact, men with paper-trail ties to Edward Fitz-Randolph. For this particular branch of Randalls, the surname seems to have changed over time from Fitz-Randolph to Randall, probably during the 1700s. The Randall-Fitz Randolph connection seems to be unique to this one (Joseph Randall) line.

Defining our Purpose

Outlines some functions this study could provide, include:

• An overview of the surname, including a FAQ section, e.g. origin of the name
• An inventory of relevant resources and links, and some advice for researchers
• Filling out our Fitz Randolph tree: developing and implementing a strategy for coordinating and targeting our efforts to map out the family using Wikitree
• Summarize the status of genealogy or dna activities relevant to the family and propose our own activities to coordinate and improve our understanding of the family's evolution and distribution
• Discuss how we might better support how the family is handled in Wikitree, including advising wikitree policy and Fitz Randolph profile managers
• Highlight Prominent Fitz Randolph profiles or those of special interest, and our degrees of connection to them