Phil Frasier

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The Gap or Brick Wall:

My family, especially on my maternal side, has been working on her side of the family tree for years and years. Of course, a lot of it is legendary, but there is also a lot of documentation and books that can take my maternal side back to 1033, when Rapheal DuPuy was Chamberlain to Conrad II, Emporer of the Holy Roman Empire, that eventually leads down to Bartholomew Dupuy, who was a Huegonaut and Captain of the Royal Household Guards for Louis XIV. When the Heugonauts fell out of favor in France, old Bart emigrated to Germany, Amsterdam, England, and finally to Virginia (another book about that). So that's not really my question about my maternal ancestors. Now, we are trying to get to the "real" story about my paternal ancestors.

Supposedly, we have an ancestor, Daniel Fraser, born Inverness-shire ~1730, died in Westmoreland County, Virginia ~1754, who came over to Virginia shortly after Culloden 1745 and was somehow related to Thomas Fraser, 10th Lord Lovat, the father of Simon the Fox, 11th Lord Lovat. So far, I haven't found any documentation that even suggests this may be true. In 2005, I was in Scotland and had a long chat with a genealogist in Beauly. He explained that Daniel was not a normal Lovat name and that he was probably illegitimate, common in those days. Regardless, he would be raised with and just as well treated as any other children. I suspect that he was a grandson or nephew or great nephew of Thomas Fraser, 10th Lord Lovat.

In 1745 he, Daniel, went to Virginia at the age of 15, where he was an indentured servant for John Beall. Since Daniel was well educated, evidenced by speaking at least three languages,, Mr. Beall was suitably impressed and made Daniel his secretary. I guess in those days, its like a right-hand man. When his servitude was completed, Daniel had so impressed the Beall family that he married John's daughter, Mary. They produced a son, William Alexander Fraser in 1752. Unfortunately, Daniel died two years later in 1754. Since the official records for Westmoreland County were destroyed by fire around 1800, we have no access to a paper trail. However, some of my distant cousins, whom I had never heard of prior to two years ago, have discovered a DNA match with relatives of Daniel's mother-in-law.

I have two brothers and a cousin who have been working on this paternal family tree diligently for over two years, mostly filling in the blanks for relatives on this side of the pond. To that end, we had a familly reunion, some 2 years ago, for known relatives, more or less provable by either documentation and/or DNA to Daniel's grandson. 140 people showed up (spelling the name Fraser 7 different ways), plus those with maternal links. All had most of the family legend, but there is a giant gap between 1631, Thomas Fraser's birthdate in Scotland, and 1752, William Alexander Fraser's birthdate in Virginia.

I have read several of the old manuscripts like the Wardlaw Manuscript and Mackenzie's History of the Frasers of Lovat and others. These indicate that if we could fill in the gap, 1631 to 1752, we could take our paternal side of the tree all the way back to 916 AD. I don't know if we could ever "prove" the lineage of the manuscripts, but it sure makes a good story. As I work my way thru these old manuscripts, published in the late 1700's and early 1800's, I will probably make more corrections to this story. Stay tuned.

Saw an interesting thing on a Youtube channe, Usefulcharts, the other day, showing that if we have one drop of western European blood, we are probably related to Charlemagne. It seems that I go back around 23 generations, and that works out to 2 raised to the 23rd power. It adds up to 8,388,608 possible ancestors. But, since most in the early days lived in small villages, they wound up marrying cousins, hopefully mostly 2nd, 3rd or so. Anyway, this cuts down the possible ancestors quite a bit.

I am more than a little leary of ID theft and of entering any family tree information less than 250 years old. Our information from present day back to 1754 is solid with lots of documents, paintings, news stories, etc, and I will accept the old Scottish manuscripts as fact. We have a picture of a painting of William Alexander Fraser assisting George Washington in the placement of the cornerstone for the Capitol building. Now, we just need to "mind the gap" between 1631 and 1754 in Scotland. Thanks.