Genealogical Dictionary of the First Settlers of New England

[aghadowey]

If he was living in England and son was living in Virginia, U.S.A. then it's not surprising that the family aren't mentioned in a book covering the first settlers of New England.

[Redroger]

OK, to rephrase things then. Do any records exist in book form of early settlers to Virginia?

[Erato]

Redroger  -  New England is a small and very well defined region of the United States, namely the six states that lie north and east of New York [Connecticut, Rhode Island, Massachusetts, New Hampshire, Vermont, and Maine].  In the colonial period, Maine was a part of Massachusetts and it only became a separate state in 1820 at the time of the so-called Maine Missouri Compromise.

Your ancestor may have been in Virginia, but that state is far removed from New England and so one would not expect any record of him in a book dedicated to early settlers of the northeastern states.

[aghadowey]

There are hundreds, if not thousands, of books dealing with early Virginia history- just go to Google Books and put in "settlers of virginia."

[Genealiza]

Have you looked to see if someone has already done a tree on this man?  If you don't have Ancestry, then you can look at www.rootsweb.com.  It is a free site and sometimes includes the trees that are on Ancestry.  If you find a match, then give us the county in which he is living in Virginia, and maybe we can come up with some information for you.

What was the name of his father?

[Redroger]

The name of the person who went toVirginia was Daniel Loughfman, the date was during the 1650s, his father was James Loughfman who died in London c1665 (probably a victim of the great plague) The alternative spelling of the surname is Luffman. Thanks for sources etc. listed, am ploughing through them.

[nickgc]

Redroger,

I've seen many of your references to "Luffman" in America over the years, but this is the first time I have noticed a specific area (Virginia), name (Daniel, son of James), and timeframe (after 1650s) mentioned.  This does help.  Here are some things you might do:

1) Look at internet for early Virginia settlements.  Nearly all were on the James River and spread out from there.  Henrico County was a major, early population center, but see http://freepages.genealogy.rootsweb.ancestry.com/~harrelld/va__county_chart.htm  County names changed often in the early years as large counties were sliced and dice to form smaller ones.
I have all my earliest (found) paternal ancestors showing up in Virginia in the 1600s, and have found references to them back to 1619 in some cases.

2) If your local library has access to Heritage Quest, one of its databases has local history books with more than 7 million digitized page images from over 26,000 family histories, local histories, and other books.  Search for the county names, or variations of the surname (note that I have seen some "Loughmans" pronounce the surname "Lockman", so that might also be a possible spelling to search.  Search this database for Henrico county, Charles county, etc. and scan through the books, or look at the indexes.   If you don't have access to Heritage Quest, search Google Books for the County names.

3)  If you are a direct descendant of Daniel's father James, check to see if there is a DNA group for likely surnames.  If there is have your Y DNA analyzed so it can be compared to possible US descendants of Daniel.

Regards,

Nick     

[Redroger]

Nick, Many thanks for that. A re reading of the will transcriptions shows 1) James had two sons John and Daniel in Virginia
2) He mentions them as being in "Meriland, Virginia" which I presume means the present state of Maryland? 3) The will is dated 8th July 1665. 4) A third son, John is mentioned who is still in London.

In view of the date of the will and my inability to find a record of the death, my assumption is that James was one of the many victims of the Great Plague.

It is a possibility that I am connected to this line, if so, it will be at a generation or possibly two generations earlier than James, since I have a James in my likely line at a time which would fit his being the grandfather of this James, and it seems as though many of these Luffmans did follow the traditional (eldest son named after grandfather) naming pattern. I have done a quick check on the Virgina and Maryland data bases for Loughfman, and several spelling variants including Lockman and have drawn a total blank.

[Coldham]

I am looking for the surname Luffman in Virginia c1650. It may be spelt Loughfman, and they may have been transported there.

I did check just to make sure and there is no Luffman or any alternative spelling and confirmed those suspicions.