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Have
questions about Holliman family history? You are invited to join the
Hollyman Email List at Hollyman-Subscribe@yahoogroups.com and the
Hollyman Family Facebook Page located on Facebook at "Hollyman Family".
Post your questions and perhaps one of the dozens Holyman cousins on the
list will have an answer. For more information contact Tina Peddie at
desabla1@yahoo.com, the list and Facebook manager for Hollyman (and all
our various spellings!).
Join your many cousins at MyFamily.com and view an expanded Holliman family tree and many files on the history of the family. Just write to glennhistory@gmail.com for an invitation. Or go to the HOLLYMAN GENEALOGY MyFamily site at http://myfamily.com/group/
Another Holliman blog can be found at http://ulyssholliman.blogspot.com/ .
Join your many cousins at MyFamily.com and view an expanded Holliman family tree and many files on the history of the family. Just write to glennhistory@gmail.com for an invitation. Or go to the HOLLYMAN GENEALOGY MyFamily site at http://myfamily.com/group/
Another Holliman blog can be found at http://ulyssholliman.blogspot.com/ .
Pictured above is Dr. Rhodes Holliman, Dublin, Virginia, photographing a family grave marker in Fayette County, Alabama. Rhodes is a retired research biologist from Virginia Tech and an accomplished scholar. He is the great grandson of John Thomas Holliman, grandson of James Monroe Holliman and son of Cecil Holliman. He has written extensively on the Holliman family and the Civil War. Rhodes died April 2014, born 1928.
Cecil Holliman (1902 - 1986) was a distinguished attorney in Birmingham, Alabama who researched and recorded a great deal of Holliman family history. He is the father of Dr. Rhodes Holliman and the grandfather of Glenda Norris.
Glenda Norris, Alabaster, Alabama, is the great, great grand daughter of John Thomas Holliman. Rhodes Holliman is her uncle. Her daughter, Michelle, is on the right of the photo.
Alison Maxine Roach Jones Wright, Mountain Home, Arkansas, is the daughter of Mamie Holliman and Howard Roach. She was born in Tipton County, Tennessee and is a great, great, great grand daughter of James Grantson Holliman. James Grantson Holliman (b 25 May 1750 - died 7 May 1836) was the father of three brothers - Cornelius, Warren and Charles - who migrated from South Carolina to Fayette County, Alabama in 1836. Maxine is descended from Charles (b abt 1818 - d abt 1842-45) and Barbara Holliman. Both Asa Holliman and Elijah Holliman were two of their sons, and both are Maxine's great grandfathers and Civil War veterans. Maxine's grand parents were first cousins: Charles Marion Holliman, son of Asa and Mary Elizabeth Holliman, daughter of Elijah Holliman. Her mother, Mamie, is the daughter of Charles and Mary Holliman. She continues to research 18th and 17 century Holliman family history for her many cousins. Born 1926 - died 2017.Ron Holliman, Dothan, Alabama is a great grandson of John Thomas Holliman. Green Holliman is his grandfather. Ron is a Federal Program Director with the Southeast Alabama Regional Planning Development Commission (SEARP). (Photo pending)
Walter Orien Holliman, a meticulous family researcher, passed away November 1, 2003. His birthday was May 5, 1927. Walt's father was Moses Holliman, the son of Warren C. Holliman, the son of Charles Holliman, who was the son of James Grantson Holliman (1750-1836), a common grandfather to almost all reading this blog. Walt's son, Bryan Holliman, carries on the family history tradition in his branch of the family tree.
In this 1970s photograph contributor Ralph Holliman is far right. Standing to the left of Ralph are his aunt, Vista Caine Humber Gump, his niece Mary Daly Herrin and brother, Bishop Holliman. Ralph is retired as vice president of operations of American Bakeries. He and his late wife, Motie, had two girls, Pam Holliman, a Ph.D. and professor at Garrett-Evangelical Seminary in Chicago and Kathy Holliman of Philadelphia, a gifted writer of science articles, and mother of Rachel Harbour. Ralph lives in Gulf Shores, Alabama with his wife, Laura.
Clayton Herrin, Irondale, Alabama, is the first born of E.C. and Mary Daly Herrin, also of Irondale and is the baby in the 1953 photo. Mary, top right, is the daughter of Robert and Vena Holliman Daly. Vena, top left was the first born daughter of Ulysses and Pearl Caine Holliman (1888-1955), holding baby Clayton. Lula Hocutt Caine (1861-1957), bottom right, lost her father, Manassas Hocutt, in the Battle of Stones River, Murfreesboro, Tennessee, January 1863, and never remembered him. Clayton has contributed photos and memories of his mother's side of the family and has helped organize several family reunions.
Norman Stephens Holliman of Maryville, Tennessee was raised in Rockdale, Texas. He is the great, great grandson of Polly Lucas Holliman and is pictured here by her Alabama tombstone.
Below Robert R. Holloman of Rye, NY poses at sunset with his wife, Karen. Robert, a graduate of the University of Virginia in history, is a descendant of Christopher Hollyman, Sr. (d 1691). A grandson of Christopher, Christopher Charles, moved to northern North Carolina in the 1700's. A branch of the family has remained there (Bertie and Hertford Counties) for genereations. George Holleman in his history of the Hollyman family confused Richard Hollyman's son Samuel of Edgecome County (#3D4 in George's book) with a son of Christopher Charles, son of Samuel Hollamon (not listed) who married Martha McGlohan. Samuel and Martha were the parents of Samuel Holloman (#4D5) who served in the Hertford County militia during the Revolutionary War (Captain Perry's company) but not Lewis (#4D6, David (4D7 and Richard (#4D8).
Robert's father, Robert A. Holloman III married Lydia Jane Moore of Hertford County. He entered the military during the Korean War and made it a career, retiring with the rank of Brigadier General. Today, he lives near Atlanta, Georgia.
Bishop Holliman is a grandson of John Thomas Holliman, and lives in Avilla, Indiana. His father was Ulysses (b 1884 - d 1965) and his mother, Pearl Caine Holliman (b 1888 - d 1955), both born in Fayette County, Alabama. This photo was taken on his 90th birthday, December 2009 surrounded by his three children, from left - Alice Lynn Holliman Murphy of Trophy Club, Texas, Rebecca Louise Holliman Payne of Cookeville, Tennessee and Glenn Nelson Holliman, Newport, Pennsylvania.
Grace Holliman,Virginia, is the daughter of Glenn Holliman, granddaughter of Bishop Holliman, great granddaughter of Ulysses, and great, great grand daughter of John Thomas Holliman. She helps edit this Weblog and provides continuous technical advice. You may visit her own blog at: http://www.life2seriously.com/.
This photo of Glenn Holliman was taken on the Gettysburg, PA battlefield where Glenn's great, great grandfather, Samuel Walker fought in 1863 for the Confederacy. A resident now of Newport, Pennsylvania, Glenn is a native of Alabama. He and his wife, Barbara, founded Holliman Associates, a fundraising firm in the 1980s. They sold the firm in 2005, and Glenn is now a retired vice president of the New York based Episcopal Church Foundation. He and Barb are authors of several works on capital campaigns and planned giving. Holding an M.A. in American history from the University of Tennessee, Glenn taught history at the Webb School, Bell Buckle, Tennessee and served as the head of a day school in South Carolina earlier in his career. He is a Vietnam War veteran having served with the 1st Infantry Division. His great grandfather is John Thomas Holliman. One of his greatest joys is gathering information on the family and American history and sharing it with the extended family.
There are a number of places to look for additional Holliman family information. One of the most informative, a group chat room, is run by Tina Peddie, a descendant of Christopher Holliman, Sr. One has to ask permission to join. You can find this site at: HOLLYMAN@yahoogroups.com.
Ron Holliman suggests a look at www.poefamilyresearch.net/Holliman/ for lineage information. This site also covers the descendants of Warren Holliman who moved to Arkansas in 1840 after four years in Fayette Co., Alabama.
Roots Web, a service of http://www.ancestry.com/ has some free web sites. Drill down and discover the inputted names of hundreds of Hollimans. Beware not all published internet material is accurate.
A very comprehensive service can be found at http://www.cyndislist.com/. Another great place to discover family is at the Church of the Latter Day Saints (Mormons) site: http://www.familysearch.org/.
For those interested in Isle of Wight County, Virginia, the home of Christopher Holliman, Sr. (d 1691) look to http://myvirginiagenealogy.com/. Also check out http://www.iwchs.com/, the internet home of the Isle of Wight Historical Society. Details of cemeteries are included and an excellent history of the county.
I also have a family tree at Ancestry.com entitled the Holliman-Long Family.
Published Works that have been Helpful Researching Holliman History
The beginning for any Holliman historian is the now classic The Hollyman Family published privately by George Holleman in 1952. While it has some errors and the research is dated, it is still a must have work for the serious Holliman genealogist. The work is available also through The Apple Manor Press, Markham, Virginia. Their web site is http://www.yesterbooks.com/. Tina Peddie (see above) has some copies for sale also with an update addendum.
If one wants detail and a list of wills and deeds, look for John Bennett Boddie's 1938 work, Seventeenth Century Isle of Wight County, Virginia. It has been reprinted by Genealogical Publishing Co., Inc of Baltimore, Maryland. The land purchases of Christopher Holliman, Sr. and his children are listed. For the very serious researcher, Blanche Adams Chapman's Wills and Administrations of Isle of Wight County, Virginia, 1647-1800, Books 1-3, first published in 1938 (evidently a good year of local history publications), has been reprinted. Look to Heritage Books, Westminister, MD for reprints.
Boddie turned out several works on Colonial Virginia, one being Southside Virginia Families, Pacific Coast Publishers, Redwood City, California 1955. In this work he describes many land purchases by Hollimans and Hollomans in the 18th and 19th Centuries.
Martha W. McCartney's Virginia Immigrants and Adventurers, 1607 - 1635 contains snipits of information on those brave souls who ventured to Jamestown in its earliest years. Information on one Thomas Holman (Holeman) is found on p. 396 of the 2007 reprint from Genealogical Publishing, Baltimore, Maryland.
Another Genealogical Publishing work is Early Virginia Families Along the James River. In Volume III by Louise Pledge Heath Foley of this 2007 reprint is (p. 56) a statement that William Hollyman arrived in James City County April 25, 1656. Other Hollymans can be found in both Volumes II and III, including rent rolls.
Also from Genealogical Publishing is Geroge Cabell Greer's very helpful Early Virginia Immigrants, 1623 - 1666 which lists the names of many Hollymans. This is a 1982 reprint of the 1912 edition and contains 25,000 names.
Charles Hughes Hamlin's They Went Thataway, multivolume, has a page on one Joseph Holliman of 1770 Surrey County. Hollimans (Hollemans) spilled over from Isle of Wight County, Virginia to Surrey County by the early 1700s. Again by Genealogical Publishing in Baltimore, 1985 reprint.
Helping to understand the early Colonial Virginia experience is James A. Crutchfield's The Grand Adventure, a Year by Year History. Look for Dietz Press, Richmond, Virginia, published 2005.
There are several indexes that provide the names of Hollimans. The Virginia Marriage Records, compiled from the Virginia Magazine of History and Biogrpahy, the William and Mary Quarterly and Tyler's Quarterly, indexed by Elizabeth Petty Bently and published in 1982 by Genealogical Press is a good place to start. Judith McChan in 1993, same publisher and same publications, did an index entitled Virginia Will Records and while containing Surrey County, it omits Isle of Wight County. In that same genre, Gary Parks indexed Virginia Land Records in 1982. Holliman names can be found in all these works.
Marriages of Some Virginia Residents, 1607 - 1800 by Dorothy Ford Wulfeck, three volumes again by Genealoical Press of Baltimore (2003) lists even more Hollomans and Hollmans. And one will find Hollomans in Virginia Tax Records, again by Genealogical Publishing (1983).
Of course, Nugent's Cavaliers and Pioneers remains a standard work for listings of early residents of Virginia. Her one will find Christopher Holyman and his probable sister, Judith.
Don't overlook published historical works to give tone and texture to any family history. I have been studying some recent publications that are page turners and tell the story of Jamestown and the James River. Benjamin Wolley's Savage Kingdom, The True Story of Jamestown, 1607 and the Settlement of America (HarperCollins 2007) describes the first years at Jamestown, a close run thing. In 1609, survivors were sailing into the Chesapeake when a resupply ship and new colonists chanced to meet them, and convinced the discouraged settlers to turn around and try again.
The River Where America Began, A Journey Along the James (Rowman & Littlefield, 2007) by Bob Deans is a beautifully written tome. This work describes how British, African and Native American cultures collided and 'in a twisted paradox, the seeds of democracy and slavery were sown side by side."
American Slavery, American Freedom, The Ordeal of Colonial Virginia by Edmund S. Morgan was first published in 1976. It won the prestigious Francis Parkman prize and has been reprinted by Norton, 2005.
The still standard work on Bacon's Rebellion is The Governor and the Rebel by Wilcomb E. Washburn. First published in 1957, Washburn presented a balanced and well-researched document on the first American rebellion against governmental authority.
For an understanding of Martin's Hundred, the settlement site of some first Hollimans in Jamestown, Virginia, look for a used copy of Martin's Hundred by Ivor Noel Hume (Alfred E. Knoph, 1988). It is a detective story of one of the most savage Indian uprisings in American History. In a surprise attack in 1622 Native Americans came close to destroying the Virginia colony. Over 1/3rd of the colonists were killed. Fortunately for our DNA, Hollimans had not yet arrived in Jamestown.
A Religious History of the American People by Sydney E. Ahlstrom (Yale, 1972) is a 1,100 page plus volume filled with more religious information than most of us will ever want to know. However, the book does mention our distant cousin Ezikeil Holliman and information on the Anglican and Baptist Churches in Colonial Virginia. There were Quakers, gasp, in the Royal Colony of Virginia in the late 1600s much to the chagrin of the governors and House of Burgess. Later Thomas Jefferson and his insistence on religious freedom in Virginia set the standard for toleration throughout the new United States.
Plain Folk of the Old South is a southern classic, first published in 1949. Historian Frank L. Owsley could have been writing about the Holliman families in North Carolina and Alabama prior to the Civil War. His thesis is that most white southerners were yeoman farmers owning no slaves, and that only a very few planters experienced the Gone with the Wind affluence. As my great grandfather, John Thomas Holliman, said, as reported by Rhodes Holliman, 'It was a rich man's war and a poor man's fight'. Author Owsley would have seconded this statement.
Works Helpful to Understanding our English Roots
Virginia Gleamings in England, again reprinted by Genealogical Publishing of Baltimore, Maryland, 1980, contains that fascinating tidbit of William Holliman of Tring continuing a lease on the Tring parsonage in the 1600s. Lothrop Withington is the author.
The First Elizabeth by Carolly Erickson reads more like a novel than biography. An excellent work that enables one to understand Queen Elizabeth I (1533 - 1603). First published 1983 by MacMillan.
Antonia Fraser is one of the most popular historians writing today. Her The Six Wives of Henry VIII is written from a woman's point of view, and Henry does not come off so well. Written in 1992 and published by Weidenfeld & Nicolson, London.
A valuable tome on Tring, Hertfordshire history is Sheila Richards, A History of Tring, published 1974 by the Tring Urban Council. Contains information on William Holyman in 1444.
Another works I have consulted can be found on the various blogs I have written on the family.
