Southampton County VA Genealogy

French Genealogy of Fall River Massachusetts

The Fall River French family here considered springs from the early Rehoboth family of the name, and it, as will be observed further on, according to Savage, perhaps from the Dorchester family. John French, the head of the Dorchester family and the immigrant ancestor, was a native of England, born in 1612. He had land granted him at what became Braintree for five heads Feb. 24, 1639-40. He was admitted to the church in the adjoining town of Dorchester, Jan. 27, 1642, and the births of his first two children are recorded in Dorchester. He became a freeman May 29, 1639. He was active and prominent among the early settlers. His son John was born Feb. 28, 1641.

Nottoway Tribe

Nottoway Indians. A Iroquoian tribe formerly residing on the river of the same name in south east Virginia. They call themselves Cheroenhaka, and were known to the neighboring Algonquian tribes as Mangoac (Mengwe) and Nottoway, i.e., Nadowa, ‘adders,’ a common Algonquian name for the tribes of alien stock. Although never prominent in history they kept up their organization long after the other tribes of the region were practically extinct. As late as 1825 they still numbered 47, with a “queen” on a reservation in Southampton County. Linguistically they were closely cognate to Tuscarora.