Welcome Family!

Important Notice:

Since composing this article in February 2010, additional research has failed to identify John Holyman (1572 - 1650) of Tring as the father of Christopher Holyman, Sr., the believed first generation of Hollimans in America. My interpretation at this time is that Christopher Holyman, Sr. was born in Bedford, Bedfordshire, England in 1618. We have data that he arrived in Virginia in 1650 and died in 1691. (Last updated April 13, 2014)

This is the story of the Christopher Holyman families from Jamestown, Virginia to the present day. All family members, and those who have married into this family, are invited to join in the exploration.

Through this blog we plan to include interesting facts, family trees, lore, geographical information and first hand memories. This blog is a work in progress. Your comments, insights, corrections, articles, photographs, diaries and old letters are most welcome. In this format we plan to hand off our past, and present, to the future.

Glenn N. Holliman, Complier

Grace A. Hollilman, Editor

Family Lineage
What follows is a baseline genealogy of a Holliman paternal family tree through the life of John Thomas Holliman of Fayette County, Alabama and his sons. John Thomas is the father of six sons (photo below). Most of the persons receiving this email are descendents of two of the sons: James Monroe Holliman and Ulysses (usually spelled and pronounced Ulyss) Selman Holliman.

Jim Monroe Holliman, an attorney, and his wife Anna Elizabeth Baker, had two sons who grew to maturity: Cecil Rhodes and Charles Baker Holliman. Ulyss and his wife, Pearl Caine, had seven children: Melton, Vena Holliman Daly, Euhal, Loudelle Holliman Ferrell, Bishop, Virginia Holliman Cornelius and Ralph Holliman.

All the above, and most of you reading this, are descended from an immigrant from a Bedford, England immigrant with probable additional grandparents from Cuddington and Sherington, Buckinghamshire, England.

Christopher Hollyman (b 1618 Bedford, England – d 1691, Isle of Wight Co., Virginia)

Richard Holyman (b 1660 ca - d 1711)

Samuel Holliman - (b 1707 - 1781), Johnston County, NC.

James Grantson Holliman (b 1750, Johnston Co., North Carolina – d 1836, Mecklenburg Co., North Carolina). Wife was Elizabeth Bryant.

Cornelius Holliman (b 1792, Anson Co., North Carolina - d 1862, Fayette Co., Alabama) First wife and mother of Uriah, Mary Elizabeth Plyler (1793-1835).

Uriah Holliman ( b 1817, Lancaster, Co., South Carolina - d 1862, Okolona, Mississippi after the Battle of Corinth). Wife was Mary Polly Lucas (1819-1913).

John Thomas Holliman (b 1844, Fayette Co., Alabama – d 1930, Fayetteville, Alabama)
Of the marriage to Sarah Corbett, William Perry Holliman (1871-1941) was the surviving child. Of the marriage to Martha Jane Walker, five sons were born: Silas Green Holliman (1876-1943), James Monroe (1878-1938), Thomas Leland (1880-1970), Andrew Eckford (1882-1926) and Ulysses Selman Holliman (1884-1965).

Sons of John Thomas and Martha Jane Walker Holliman

Left to right are: Bill, Green, James Monroe, Leland and Ulysses. The vacant spot is for Eckford who died in 1926.

The photo was taken at Fayette Co., Alabama May 1934 by Cecil Rhodes Holliman with an old bellows Kodak on 120 film. Rhodes Holliman, his son, remembers the photo and observes the following:

I remember the sense of necessity that pervaded the crowd to get this historic family photo. It was made at the annual Holliman reunion and ‘eating on the grounds’. With Eck dead, everyone wanted to preserve the remaining family image. I used to play under this old church while services were in progress. I'm surprised that the building didn't collapse while full of people. The ferruginous rock pilings did not have any mortar! The building was literally balanced on these pilings! Uncle Bill’s son, Grady, played the guitar to accompany the singing. This is where I fell in love with the hymn, "Just a Little Talk with Jesus". 

I remember an over-weight lady whose name was Cousin Maggie Thornton. She came to the reunion in a wagon pulled by a team of mules. She had an old steamer trunk full of food: pies, fried chicken, potato salad, you name it. She was famous for her cooking. I think that she was a spinster. She was distantly related -- collateral family. I think that she is buried at Caine’s Ridge. Uncle Bill could walk to church; his old shack was across the road and a little south, back in the woods. I think that his house site still shows on the USGS Topo maps.

Bishop Holliman (b 1919), a son of Ulyss, was also present at this reunion, and remembers Maggie Thornton. Ulyss, Euhal and Bishop drove from Irondale (a suburb of Birmingham) to Fayette for the day, a major drive in 1934.


Mary Polly Lucas Holliman (1819-1913)

The Story of Her Father and Grandfather

Contributions from Glenda Norris, Rhodes Holliman and S. Emmett Lucas, Jr. Prepared by Glenn Holliman.

Mary Polly Lucas, was the daughter of Charles Daniel Lucas (1778- 1853) and Mary Hastings (9/10/1786 - 1/21/1867), all originally from South Carolina. Polly Lucas became the wife of Uriah Holliman on 8/29/1836 in Tuscaloosa, AL. Uriah and Polly had many children, one being John Thomas Holliman, the direct ancestor of most persons reading this information.

Charles Lucas Sr. (1755 - 1810?) was the grandfather of Polly Lucas. Charles was probably a tailor who lived in Marlboro County, SC, along the Pee Dee River near the North Carolina line. Glenda Norris reports that Charles was married to Dorcus (maiden name unknown) who is thought to have been an American Indian. One of their sons was Charles Daniel Lucas, Polly’s father.

Charles Daniel Lucas (1771-1853) stood six-foot-four and according to Polly, he once killed a panther with his bare hands. In 1819 Charles Daniel moved his family from South Carolina to the new state of Alabama (just as the Holliman family did in 1836).

Rhodes Holliman, a great great great grandson of Charles Daniel, reports that Charles had a fierce temper yet managed to serve as a deacon in the 1830s at the Springhill Baptist Church near Moore’s Bridge, Fayette County. Family lore states that Charles Daniel hit one of his sons causing his wife, Mary Hastings Lucas, to move herself and children from Newtonville to the Bluff Community northwest of Fayette.

Charles Daniel died in 1853 after having served as a Federal Indian agent. He is buried in an Indian burial site seven miles from Fayette toward Newtonville. In death, as in life, Charles Daniel Lucas was not completely at peace. In 1870 grave robbers attempted to disinter him but were scared off in the process.

Charles Daniel’s wife, Mary, is buried in an unmarked grave at the Springhill Baptist Church Cemetery in Fayette Co., along with their daughter, Mary Polly Lucas Holliman, and John Thomas Holliman’s first wife, Sarah E. Corbett.


In the picture below Glenda Norris (Alabaster, AL) and her uncle, Dr. Rhodes Holliman (Dublin, VA), visit the gravesite of Charles Daniel Lucas in Fayette Co., AL near Newtonville in 2007.

Glenda (b 1959), is the daughter of Cecile Eugenia Holliman Youngblood (b 1937), who is the daughter of Cecil Rhodes Holliman, (1902 – 1986), who is the son of James Monroe Holliman (1878 – 1938) who is the son of John Thomas Holliman (1844 – 1930) who is the son of Uriah and Mary Polly Lucas Holliman. Rhodes (b 1928) is the son of Cecil Holliman, the grandson of James Monroe Holliman, and great grandson of John Thomas Holliman.