Introduction

Viewed from the beginning of the 21^st Century, the Stoy family of Northern Virginia and its allied lines can be traced more than 200 years to the 1700s in New Jersey. But in only a few cases can we locate an ancestor across the Atlantic in his/her country of origin (for example, the Sayre line in England and the Maffett line in Scotland). The material in this web site focuses on the families in the US, their earliest appearances on the eastern seaboard, and their movements in a fairly narrow geography from the 1700s to the middle of the 20^th Century.

The two tables below (arranged in generation order) describe the primary movements of the families on the paternal and maternal direct lines. Alternate spellings of the surnames are listed in a few cases. Some of these families are explored in other parts of this web site.

For example, the Sayre family has a lengthy history of migration on the paternal direct line. The first Sayre family member appeared on Long Island, then there was migration to New Jersey, then another migration occurred in 1790 to western Pennsylvania, a move of a short distance to Ohio took place in 1830, then another short move to West Virginia (Virginia at the time) in 1839 and then to Virginia (Fairfax County) by 1870. Sayre family members that are allied, but not on our direct line, have remained in New Jersey, Pennsylvania and other states and some moved further west to Ohio and Iowa as new land opened.

The Alley, Rudd and Young families on the maternal side are extensive; the Alley and Young families have been reasonably well-researched but the Rudd family has not faired so well. Although there is some information on the family, there are many mistakes in the records, especially for the Tennessee families. The origin of the Rudd family in Virginia is uncertain and not well-proven before John Rudd (c.1678 - c.1748). There was an interesting comment on four original Rudd immigrants in 2001 on a Rudd Family Genealogy Forum, although no support or sources were cited.

The fact that the families have roots in New Jersey, Pennsylvania, Virginia, North Carolina and other states of the thirteen original colonies helps in locating documents. The state archives in Trenton (New Jersey), Harrisburg (Pennsylvania), Richmond (Virginia) and Raleigh (North Carolina) as well as the National Archives have helped tremendously in uncovering deeds, wills, court documents and military records, not to mention census records. The greatest help in tracing people through the census records has been the Ancestry.com web site - the indexes and images of census pages are invaluable and save untold amounts of time in this area of record examination.

Several locations stand out in the Stoy family history: Loudoun County, Virginia; Fairfax County, Virginia; Washington County, Pennsylvania; McMinn County, Tennessee; Camden County, New Jersey; and Essex County, New Jersey. I've included sections on some locations and try to show not only the family events that took place but also some of the local history that shaped these families and that may have precipitated some of the migrations.

Endnotes

1. Donn Devine, "Evidence Analysis," Professional Genealogy: A Manual for Researchers, Writers, Editors, Lecturers, and Librarians, Elizabeth Shown Mills, editor (Baltimore: Genealogical Publishing Company, 2001), 327-342.

2. Elizabeth Shown Mills, Evidence Explained: Citing History Sources from Artifacts to Cyberspace (Baltimore: Genealogical Publishing Company, 2007).

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