This history centers on one line of descendants from George Hodgson (1700/1-1774) and his wife, Mary Thatcher, who were pioneer settlers of what is now Guilford County, North Carolina. For reasons that become apparent as the story unfolds, I have come to call him Orphan George, to set him apart from the host of George Hodgsons before and after.
Growing up in Ohio, I knew nothing of the North Carolina connection or of our Quaker roots, both of which continued with my great-grandfather in his relocation to the North after the Civil War. In my own genealogy presented here, I begin with him, Joshua Francis Hodson, and move back, generation by generation, through George and Mary before offering a plausible ancestry to the 1500s in Cumbria, England.
In addition to Joshua, I present research related to other Quaker Hodgsons in Colonial America – especially the illustrious Robert Hodgson, who arrived on the legendary ship The Woodhouse. Despite published claims to the contrary, there is no evidence of his being related to the Guilford County Hodgsons, who later often spelled the name Hodgin and Hodson as well. Still, those claims prompted a thorough investigation in a biography that deserves to be expanded. In time, we may also discover connections to some of the other lines that I present here to aid future researchers, however it goes.
The postings, generation by generation, in effect create serialized books — one of my direct Hodson/Hodgin/Hodson line, another of my paternal grandmother’s largely Dunker/Brethren roots, and a third of Robert Hodgson. I hope you find these interesting and helpful.
In making this work public, I hope to in some way repay the many generous and patient researchers who shared their information or collaborated in the ongoing investigation. I hope, too, that you find it informative and engaging.
For biographical information about me and my other interests, please go to Jnana’s Red Barn.
Orphan George 
Hello! I just wanted to say that the information you’ve posted is really interesting, and I was wondering how you went about getting to all the documents- have you seen the originals or just internet research? I just started sorting through my genealogical information to make a tree for my son this past year, and I’m trying to back up the clues with documents but it’s difficult when I find a lead which just goes back to hearsay on another tree. Thank you for posting this, and I hope to hear back from, apparently a family member, as I am a 5th great-granddaughter of Solomon Hiatt Mills and Rachel Hodgson. Hope you’re well!
Well, Jess, welcome to the club!
As for your questions, yes, in some cases I have seen the original documents, including the Quaker minutes archived at Guilford College and William Wade Hinshaw’s filing cards at Swarthmore College. In many cases it’s been a matter of swapping hunches and bits of data with other researchers, and you soon learn which ones are solid and which ones play looser with the material. Online material can be all over the map, as you’ve no doubt encountered. Some, like the surviving men’s minutes from Lurgan Meeting in Ireland and the Cumbria parish records from the 1500 and 1600s, are treasure troves of source material. Others, unfortunately, repeat falsehoods.
I happen to find the hearsay worth recording, even when inaccurate, for the simple reason that it’s part of the story. The important part is to note the true (or truer) version as well.
Since many researchers tend to focus on different angles of work — court records or mapping land purchases, say, in contrast to analysis of photographs and letters or church records or Census charts — you can greatly widen your scope when you find solid correspondents.
You happen to be in luck with the Hiatt part of your ancestry, since the family commissioned authoritative genealogist William Perry Johnson to do publish the charts covering 1699-1949. I remember it being in three volumes, although I now see it on Amazon for $75 with no mention of length.
For the more recent generations, the availability of Census records online has been a great boost (although I can caution you about many errors that get repeated there, too … alas). Our local library allows 24-hour access from home computers to the site it uses, and that has been quite the late night blessing.
Hope what I have proves useful. You will no doubt take my suggested connections for Orphan George’s ancestry with all due caution, but I post them with the goal of focusing the research for others who follow.
I’ll be happy to hear what you turn up … even posting some of it, if you wish.
Cheers!
Thanks for the reply (that I hadn’t seen with life upheavals). And thank you for the tips! I’m the only one so far, in my generation, who is interested in genealogy, and I’ve had to start my trees over as I found too many instances of conflicting information as I had added from other people’s trees, instead of just verified sources. But I find that they’re at least good for possible leads. I’m in northern MN trying to finish my bachelor’s degree (history at this college) at long last, so online sources are my main option to follow, save for travelling in the summers.
I had no idea about the Hiatt charts! I will definitely check that out, thank you!
And yes, Census records, or even how Ancestry has transcribed them, are sometimes quite painful in their errors, lol! My mother is almost totally of Norwegian descent, so to see how the names Ragna or Gudrun have gotten butchered– or the last name Kjendalen, is interesting to say the least!!
One of my aunts is a journalist and finds all the cool stories, but as my goal is to get into archaeology, I just want to find as many facts as possible– to see how much I can “dig up” as it were– pun totally intended.
I was wondering if you had found anything further on Rachel Oldham/Christy at this point? I see that someone had posted: https://www.findagrave.com/memorial/150781029 but there’s no marker or any documents added to the listing, and it lists her as a Christy.
Thanks again, and I wish you and yours Happy Holidays and a Happy New Year as well!
-Jess
Hey, Jess, at least you’re not taking this up in your retirement years, as so many ancestry bugs seem to do. You have decades to sift through your findings!
I haven’t done active digging for years now … too many other projects on my plate … but my findings are essentially all up on the blog.
No, there wouldn’t have been a gravestone for Rachel unless it were erected after 1853 or so, when Friends lifted the ban on the practice. I vaguely recall a reference to one for her husband at New Garden, though.
Best of luck on this project. It definitely will give you a different perspective on history!
I just stumbled upon this website, specifically “Generation ten: Joshua Francis Hodson” page — I found this very interesting as I’m one of the grandsons of Leroy Amos Hodson, my father is David Lyon Hodson. I had no idea that my fathers middle name was the last name of my grandmother. Great website and research — I’ve heard of many of these names, but this helps me piece together things!
I didn’t know your dad’s middle name, either!
I can attest that your grandfather was an incredible man. I’m still amazed at what he and my grandfather accomplished with no more than an eighth grade education, too.
Thanks for dropping by and saying hello.
Hello. My name is Terry LITTLETON and I sponsor the Rootsweb LITTLETON site and the FTDNA LITTLETON Project. I have been working off and on with my wifes family line and I came across your HODSON posts this morning. Her name is Vicki Lynn HODSON, daughter of Joseph Leroy HODSON, son of Leroy Amos HODSON who appears to be a brother of James Franklin HODSON who I believe is your grandfather?? I only have a very sketchy tree with names, spouses, dates of birth and death going back to George and Delilah (I also show Georges parents to be another George and Rachel Oldham). I am also obviously missing many children and their descendants for many generations. I’d love to get in touch with you and share info if you are interested. We live in West Palm Beach, FL but are both from Dayton, having gone to high school together in Beavercreek. We are going back to Dayton over Memorial Day weekend for Joe Hodsons 90th birthday. Something that I find very interesting but probably just a coincidence is that her dad’s neighbor and life long friend is a Norman Oldham. Hope to hear back from you or anyone else on here that wants to make contact.
Give Joe and Jean my fondest greetings! And you might also mention Daisy’s … they’ll understand. They introduced my dad to her after my mother’s passing, and we’ve all been blessed by that.
If you haven’t guessed, this blog is Vicki’s ancestry, too. Glad you chanced across it.
If she’d like to have the American flag that draped Uncle Leroy’s coffin, I’ll be happy to send it along. At the moment, it hangs gloriously in the loft of my barn, but I consider these things a matter of family heritage and would like to see them where they best belong.
Hearing from you makes my day!
So glad you replied. Vicki is too and says HI. We plan on talking to Joe and Jean about all this when we are there this weekend. We ran into Daisy and her daughter at Rob’s last year.
Vicki said she would love to have Leroy’s flag so long as no one else in his line wants it. She was surprised that you had it and not Joe, David or his 2 sons. How did you end up with it?
Wish I could remember. As the family historian, I’ve wound up with a number of things that would have otherwise been lost.
Leroy Amos was my father
David Lyon Hodson
And I’m Dave’s son, Doug, which posted over a year ago. Glad to see posts from Terry and Vicki.
I’m glad to see others taking an interest in our roots — and, I’d hope, some pride. Floyd, especially, worked so diligently to preserve much of this for us.
This tFamily ree is a WHOLE lot bigger than what I have. I have been trying to find people mentioned on here but I can’t find a full tree anywhere. Can you tell me lineage of this FLOYD you are talking about? Thanks – Terry
Floyd Hodson was a son of Samuel Hodson, and Samuel was Leroy and James’ half-brother.
Floyd was already working on trying to find the Hodson roots when I joined up on the project with him back in the mid-’80s. Essentially our focus was on Joshua Hodson, his grandfather (and my great-grandfather), and earlier. The fact that Samuel’s mother, Josephine Jones, died shortly after the birth of their second child greatly complicated the research. Vicki and I descend from Joshua’s second wife, Alice McSherry.
Hope that helps you a bit …
Yep thanks. I managed to locate Floyd in Find A Grave and got lots of stuff from there. Off to Dayton tomorrow.
Joe and Jean asked me if I had come across a Charlotte Hodson King in Springfield OH probably in late 80’s of age. Supposedly a relative took her to Michigan after her husband Hugh died probably in Springfield Ohio
Unfortunately, I haven’t kept up on this end of the family. We’ve just scattered too many directions!
Hi Jnana
Terry Littleton (Vicki Hodson) here. I have met 2 Hodsons in the past week on the Dayton board and in tracking them down, it appears they both come from the HUGE Hodson congregation in the Wilmington, Clinton Co, OH area and it appears that group originally appeared with a Joseph Hodson b 1820 and a Sarah Lamb. They were in Highlands Co, OH. I cannot find any reference to the parents of that Joseph. Have you ever worked on figuring where that branch came from? They came from Guilford Co, NC and most were Quakers.
Hope all is well with you.
Terry & Vicki
Hey, Terry, good to hear from you. My mother used to run into other Hodsons from Wilmington, and they’d ask if we were related. She said no, not knowing that we were indeed. Remember that George Hodgson, the first of our line in America,, and his wife Mary Thatcher had four sons who grew to maturity and moved with them to North Carolina. It is from John and Robert’s lines that a cluster of Hodgson/Hodson families moved to Clinton and Highland counties, Ohio — siblings and cousins. When I first started researching the family, I came across books that thoroughly documented John and Robert’s descendants, so combined with the two volumes in the Hinshaw Quaker records for Ohio, this part of the puzzle should be fairly easy. When the weather warms, I’ll see what I have in my files up in the loft of the barn.
Our line, by way of son George, and Joseph’s lines, which especially tended to stay in North Carolina, are more difficult to work.
Thanks – I managed to put all of the Clinton, Highlands Hodsons together and as you said, connect them back to one of Georges other sons. Hope all is well. Will be in Dayton to see Jean the end of Feb.
I worked for a week or so to try and back trace these Clinton and Highlands Co, OH Hodsons. Finally got them done and connected to Georges line. Thanks for the insights.
Well done!
Hello. I am new to all of this so I may not be on the right branch of Hodgsons. My family are Quakers from Lancashire UK. My maiden name is Hodgson and I’ve looked back a few generations. I have Curtis surnames and Salthouse surnames in my line of Hodgsons. I am really looking for more information about them all. My Gt Grandfather is Thomas Curtis Hodgson and I feel there is a connection between my ancestry and the ancestry on this website. Like I say, I am very new to all of this so any information would be greatly received! Thank you!
As you know, Hodgson is a very common surname in northern England, and there are many in the Quaker movement as it takes shape in the late 1600s.
Since my line comes to America around 1710, with likely roots back to Cumbria, we probably have no shared ancestry. But some of the background information on Quakers and related records may help in your search.
Good luck in your project. What you turn up will no doubt be an alternative history to what you’ve been taught in school.
In one of the articles I saw a blog about Levi Baker in Montgomery County, Ohio. Just wanted to post and invite you all with Baker roots and related families as well as Montgomery and Darke Co. Ohio roots to our “Baker Homes Story” this Saturday, November 3 starting at 9am in Arcanum, Ohio.
Bill Baker who descends from Michael Baker as well as Henry Baker Sr. and Elias Baker, will be presenting about these lines and how they basically got into these counties and spread.
Location is 123 W. George Street in Arcanum at the Arcanum Wayne Trail Historical Society. Arrive prior to 9am to register and bring your notes and family tree.
A good time meeting other clan and researchers as well as collecting and sharing information.
Look up our event under AWTHS FB page-The Baker Homes Story.
Is your DNA in this 1900 picture? Come and find out November 3. This picture, containing 400 to 500 people, was created at The Baker Reunion near Pitsburg, Ohio in 1900. The morning will feature pictures, relics and genealogy compiled by Bill and Jean Baker over thirty years. Bill Baker is a direct descendant of two lines of Baker pioneer families that settled much of west central Ohio. You also may be a descendant.
In 1805, the Michael Baker & Catherine Smucker Family arrived near (what would become) Brookville, Ohio. Henry Baker accompanied his uncle, Michael, from Somerset, Pennsylvania. Henry would marry Elizabeth Poe and from these two family roots, Baker pioneers and their relatives would settle much of the land between Brookville and Greenvillle, Ohio.
Perhaps you also have this photo in your family collection. Hopefully we can put some faces with names. Come and share your family history as well as connect with “Baker” ties.
Hope you have a great turnout,
Hello!
First let me thank you for all of your work. It is truly fascinating to read through and learn so much. My last name is Hodgin; however, I am fortunate to have been given a book called Early History of the Quaker Hodgson-Hodson-Hodgin Family which was written by Clay Hodgin and Donald Trivette. From what I have been able to determine, I am a descendant of Elias or Ellis Harper Hodgin; however, I have recently hit a stop since there seems to be be some confusion as to who his parents were. The book that I have states he was the son of Eula Ruth (daughter of George and Delilah). Unfortunately, it also questions who she was married to and/or who his father is. Most of what I have found recently, and as you have listed on your Generation Eight page, is that he was the son of George and Delilah. I have been working hard to figure this out and, again, I want to thank you for everything you have shared.
Happy to be of assistance!
You might find more on Elias in the Quaker meeting indexes for Indiana, if you can find them in a genealogical research library.
I have some serious questions about Clay’s book and some of his assumptions, but the charts he presents have been helpful.
You don’t mention where you grew up or are living now, but that can also provide pointers for the bigger story.
As you can see, there are a lot of gaps in the story for George and Delilah. I hope you’ve been able to download their photos. Somewhere, there are supposed to be a similar set for Pleasant and Eunice.
Feel free to weigh in here anytime, cousin!
Hello Jnana,
I hope all is well with you. I was born and raised in the north Chicago suburbs. My Great Grandfather was Roy Tate (his father was John Alverion) and was born in Greensboro, NC in 1896. From what I know, Roy left NC and came to Chicago somewhere between 1927 and 1930; however, I’m not exactly sure why. Perhaps he went west looking for work. My family and I are still in the Chicago area today. Again, hope all is well with you, cousin!
Welcome! Looking for work was a likely cause for moving north or west.
Hope you find much of interest and relevance here.
That’s my thought as well. My original post to you was from way back in April. My apologies for taking a while to respond. You had asked where I was from and wanted to pass that on to you. I am trying to spend some time digging into the gaps of George and Delilah. I will agree with you that the charts in Clay’s book are helpful but the more investigating I do, the more I feel what he suggests doesn’t completely fit the picture. It truly is like trying to find a needle in a haystack!!