DNA, Cousins and a Promotion

by Glenn N. Holliman

This writer and another writer, Tina Peddie, both Hollyman family historians, gathered in Tennessee 8 October 2016 to discuss genealogy. Tina has moved recently from California to Tennessee.

Joining us for the 3 hour session on DNA analysis were Glenn's two sisters - Becky Holliman Payne and Alice Holliman Murphy.  Alice has explored her husband's Irish roots, and Becky is seeking DNA analysis of her children's Payne background.

Tina has for decades been a force to research and communicate Hollyman history. In the 1980s, she expanded and reissued George Holleman's 1953 ground breaking history of this American family. In 1999, utilizing the technology of the early Internet era, she opened and directed a Hollyman Yahoo chat room.  Most recently, she is the administrator of the Hollyman Facebook page.  She is the go-to person for DNA guidance and explanation for the family. 

 Becky, who lives near Tina's home in Tennessee, took extensive notes during our 
DNA tutorial courtesy of Tina.

During our discussion, Tina and I reviewed our  Holliman roots.  We, and of course my sisters, are descended from Samuel Holliman (1707-1786) who was born in Surrey County, Virginia and died in Johnston County, North Carolina. James Grantson Holliman was a son of Samuel, and is my generation's 4th GGF.  Tina's ancestor was David Holliman, another son of Samuel, who moved to Georgia and eventually a descendant married a Keene, Tina's maiden name. 

Left, Alice Holliman Murphy, makes Texas her home. Both she and Becky attended the national Christopher Hollyman gathering April 1, 2016 in Isle of Wight, Virginia.  She has been collecting material on the Murphy clan, which included a recent trip to Ireland.

My two sisters and I gathered in Tennessee for the promotion ceremony of Becky's son, Bryan, to the rank of lieutenant colonel in the U.S. Army Reserves.  One of Alice's children, Jonathan, is on active duty as a major in the Army. 

Below, some of the members of the immediate family who are veterans gathered in Tennessee for the swearing in of now Lt. Colonel Bryan Payne. Left to right are Glenn N. Holliman (Vietnam), Paul Payne (Viet Nam era), Bryan Payne (Iraq) and the father of this writer, H. Bishop Holliman, b 1919, Seaman 2nd class, a radioman on destroyers in the Mediterranean and the North Atlantic in World War II.  

Bishop is the father of Glenn and grandfather of Bryan.  Bishop's grandfather, John Thomas Holliman (1844-1930) and great grandfather, Uriah Holliman (1820-1862) fought in the Civil War.  Bishop's second great grandfather, Cornelius Holliman (1796- 1862) was a veteran of the War of 1812 and third great grandfather, James Grantson Holliman (1750-1836) served as a patriot in the American Revolutionary War in the North Carolina militia.

For information on placing an article, please write Glenn N. Holliman at glennhistory.gmail.com.  For manuscripts and materials on Hollymans and other associated families, visit the growing virtual archive at www.bholliman.com/ .  For Hollyman Facebook entrance and DNA assistance, write Tina at Tinapeddie@yahoo.com.

A Holliman History by Walter O. Holliman, Part VII

by Glenn N. Holliman


This is the seventh in a series of a history of the Holliman family written by Walter O. Holliman in 1995 and edited in 1996.


Walt named this generation as the 'Fourth' and began it with my second great grandfather, Uriah Holliman (1818 - 1862), a successful farmer who enlisted in the CSA in 1861, and along with his son, Charles, died of the measles in Okalona, Mississippi after the Battles of Shiloh and Corinth.  A tragic waste that took the Holliman family generations to recover. 

The above represents the extent of information available to Walt in the early 1990s, before the Internet age.  Additions and corrections welcome.

The Hollimans of Alabama

by Glenn N. Holliman

Back to the 19th Century...A Series of Articles on the Hollimans and Related Families of Fayette County, Alabama

One of the more unusual stops on our April 9th, 2011 excursion was a visit to memorial for some Hollimans who fought in the Civil War.  While not a burial spot, a well-meaning distant cousin ordered and set up near the William Bailey Holliman home a series of memorial stones honoring James Franklin Holliman, John Thomas Holliman, Uriah Holliman and Elijah Holliman.  


Future generations, please be aware many of the dates are incorrect and some facts are wrong on the stones.

Surveying the memorial stones are left to right, Joey Holliman, Tommie Holliman Allen, Faye Gardner, Jeanette Holliman and Tyler Duckworth.  A front view of the stones reveals an old barn in a collapsed state in the background.  Pictured below are Bill Holliman and Robert Holliman.

The date on John T. Holliman's stone is incorrect.  He died in 1930.  While these are not grave sites, one notes that several of these persons did not come home.  Elijah Holliman died not at  Petersburg, Virginia, but rather at La Grange, Georgia of typhoid fever. He is buried there having served with the 56th Alabama Partisan Rangers.  Uriah Holliman died in Okalona, Mississippi along with his son, Charles Daniel Holliman.





                                                                James F. Holliman is NOT buried in this plot but in the Stewart-Holliman Cemetery.
                                                                  Uriah Holliman was born on July 6, 1816, in Lancaster County, SC. He married Mary "Polly" Lucas in
Tuscaloosa County, AL on Aug. 31, 1836. Performing the ceremony was the Rev. John Walters. Mary was 17 years old. The couple later settled southwest of Bluff in Fayette County, where government land records show that Uriah received patents for more than 320 acres in the late 1850s. Uriah joined the Confederate Army in 1861 at the age of 45! He was Pvt. Uriah H. Holliman, Co. B of the 9th Alabama
Battalion of Volunteers, 26th Regiment, CSA.

He died of measles and pneumonia at Okolona, Chickasaw County, MS, on May 8, 1862, attended by his wife until death. Their son, Charles Daniel Holliman, same military unit, same place, died on May 12, 1862, of the same diseases. Their grave sites are unknown but probably in the Confederate Cemetery in Okolona, MS. Fayette County, Alabama. - Information provided by Dr. Rhodes Holliman, great, great grandson of Uriah Holliman.


I leave this blog up as a caution to those who stumble on the stones near Bluff, Alabama sometime in the future.  They are not accurate.

Plan now to attend the Holliman and Associated Families Genealogical Round Table at the Fayette County, Alabama Civic Center, 10 am to 3 pm, Saturday, October 15, 2011. For information and reservations for lunch, contact Glenda Norris at gnorris@bcbsal.org or Glenn Holliman at Glennhistory@gmail.com.  Sessions to include Tracing the Holymans from England to Alabama, Holliman Farm Sites in Fayette County and sharing of information on Associated Families.  All invited!


More Holliman sites of Fayette County in the next post.

Our Family's Colonial Era, Part XIII

by Glenn N. Holliman

A Holyman Family from Isle of Wight, Virginia to North Alabama

A Closing Observations as the Old Year Slips Away....

1650 - 2010: 360 Years of American History in one Family

Christopher Holyman, Sr. arrived in Jamestown, Virginia in 1650. He and his immediate descendants lived approximately a century in Isle of Wight County and adjacent counties. However, around 1740, my direct Holliman descendants from this multiple great grandfather began moving south and west searching for land and increased fortune.

For my line of Hollimans, the chronology is approximately this, and of course, sons and daughters were always splitting off and moving to other parts of what is the United States. Many in the late 1700s and early 1800s would move to Tennessee and Kentucky. For the most part, my branch of this colonial family would migrate to the southern states, although there are exceptions.

Prior to 1650 - Origin of American family is England, with Christopher Holliman, Sr. born 1618 in Bedford, Bedfordshire, England with possible other relatives in Tring, Hertfordshire, England.

Research to date does not support the reported John Holyman (d 1650) of Tring, England and Southampton, Virginia as the father of Christopher Sr. The parents of Christopher Sr. appear to be Thomas (b 1576) and Helene Poynard of Bedford.

The map below traces my Holyman family migrations from Isle of Wight, Virginia to Birmingham, Alabama. Numerals are printed adjacent to each 'stop' . Below the map, the numerals are next to copy about each family historic home. As the map is copied from a history book on the westward movement, no part of this map may be used for commercial purposes. Click on the map twice to enlarge. The large red arrows indicate the forced migration of Native Americans from their tribal lands as European - Americans and African -Americans advanced westwardly.

1. 1650 to 1740s - Most of my direct descendants lived in Isle of Wight County and adjoining counties in Virginia. Naturally, many descendants under the names of Holleman, Hollomon, etc. reside in southern Virginia to this day.

2. 1740s to 1790s - Through the parents and relatives of James Grantson Holliman, the Johnston County, North Carolina area became home for my branch of the family.

3. 1790s to 1836 - In the 1790s Anson County, North Carolina and Lancaster County, South Carolina (border counties) became the location of this James Grantson Holliman family.

4. 1836 - 1918 - In 1836, three sons of James Grantson Holliman moved their families to Fayette County, Alabama. The families of Charles and Cornelius Holliman stayed in Alabama and descendants live in the area to this day. Warren Holliman moved with others to Arkansas, and there remain many Hollimans. Others of these extended families moved to Mississippi, Texas, Louisiana and other parts of the southwest and middle Great Plains.

5. 1918 - 1960s - My generation's grandfather, Ulyss S. Holliman (1884 - 1965), a son of John Thomas, grandson of Uriah and great grandson of Cornelius, moved his family from Fayetteville, Alabama to Irondale, Alabama, a suburb of Birmingham. Several other families migrated to the economic attractions of the 'Magic City' also, including James Monroe Holliman, a brother of Ulyss, and his children. Others of Ulyss' brothers scattered throughout North Alabama; one Bill Holliman, remained in Fayette County, dieing there in 1940.

1960s to the present - While many of my first cousins remain in the Birmingham and North Alabama region, and 2nd and 3rd cousins in Fayette Country area, many grand and great grand children of Ulyss and Pearl Caine Holliman, have relocated across the country living in Chicago, Boston, Pennsylvania, South Carolina, Texas, Virginia, North Carolina, Tennessee, Alaska, Arizona and other states. As with many families, advances in education, transportation and career opportunities have led to the dispersion of formally regionally located kinfolk to every part of the country.

Next Posting, a close examination of life in Isle of Wight County in the 17th Century, and its influence on our family today....

Mary Polly Lucas Holliman Part II

Since our February 26, 2010 post we have heard from many members of our extended family. Much thanks to all for writing and passing along new information and photographs about Holliman family history. Your contributions are encouraged and welcome.

The photo below is of Norman S. Holliman of Tennessee taken by the gravesite of his great, great grandmother, Mary Polly Lucas Holliman in Bluff, Alabama. She is a grandmother of almost all reading this story.

A native of Rockdale, Texas, Norman is the son of the late August Harold Holliman, who is the son of Cornelius Elmer, who is the son of Cornelius Holliman, who is the eighth child of Uriah and Polly Lucas Holliman. A genealogy of Uriah and Mary Polly's offspring is listed at the end of this post and has been added to the Family Lineage Page (on the left on this blog).

Feature Story:

Part II –A Compassionate Heroine: The Story of Mary Polly Lucas Holliman
By Dr. Rhodes Holliman, originally published in Southern Times Magazine of Tuscaloosa and West Alabama, issue no. 125.

In May of 1862, Mary Polly in her home in Fayette Co., Alabama heard from some source, that her husband Uriah and son, Charles Daniel, were sick in Okolona, Mississippi, where a very congested camp had been established after the retreat from Corinth (Battle of Shiloh). They were trapped in an epidemic of measles and pneumonia that enveloped the camp. She hitched up the mule to a wagon and traveled the primitive dirt roads and trails to Okolona, a distance in excess of 70 miles to attempt to care for her sick husband and son. Uriah died on May 8, 1862, and Charles Daniel died on May 12, 1862.

She stayed long enough to bury her husband and son, and then drove the wagon back to the home place near Bluff, while suffering the ravages of measles contracted while acting as caregiver to her family. Their graves are among the many ‘unknowns’ in the Okolona Confederate Cemetery. She remained in desperate condition while convalescing at home. One can only imagine the tragedy what would have occurred if she had died, orphaning seven children at home between the ages of 14 and two. She survived this frightening ordeal to become one of the great, compassionate, pioneer ladies of northwestern Fayette County.

In 1865, when James Franklin and John Thomas returned from the war, Mary Polly had nine of her 13 children at home for a short time. James and John, at ages 26 and 21, would soon be married and moving out to start their own families. The remaining children: females aged 17, 11, nine and seven, and boys aged 16, 13 and fiver, were the ‘work force’ on which May Polly depended to handle all the many chores inherent in sustaining a successful farm. She could hitch up a mule to a plow and till the soil as well as any man. As her brood began to mature over the next 12 years, she saw two boys and two girls marry local sweethearts and move away to Texas, the new frontier for patent land. Another daughter would marry a Holliman cousin and move to Oklahoma, leaving only one daughter and one son to assist in maintaining the farm.

As children abandoned the old homestead for ‘greener pastures’, Mary Polly developed a vocational interest that would endear her to the population of northwest Fayette county and enhance the qualities of her character that are engraved on her grave stone: “Pioneer Strength – Integrity – Human Kindness!”

Professional medical services were virtually unknown in post-war Fayette County so, while maintaining her farm, she became the only source of medical assistance in her community as an herb doctor, caregiver and midwife to many of her neighbors. As her reputation of competency spread, her medical ‘practice’ spread geographically. She would accept appeals for help from all over the area, then saddle up a mule and ride out to provide services.

She charged $5 for midwife services, which included prenatal checkups, moving in to the expectant mother’s home and performing the delivery, staying for a week or more of postnatal care of mother and infant, plus cooking for the family, doing the washing and cleaning the house. If ever a grave stone spoke the truth to the memory of the one interred, it is her stone. One of he God’s great compassionate mothers is at rest in Springhill Baptist Cemetery in Bluff Community, Fayette County, Alabama.

Mary Polly finished her days at the home of her youngest son, Joshua Warren Holliman (1860-1944) in Vernon Alabama, Lamar County. This writer had the privilege of talking to Joshua in the 1930s and hunting on his farm as a boy. One of the last recollections that Joshua had of his mother comes from our family archives. She was ‘sitting in a rocking chair on the front porch of an old dog-trot house, smoking a corn cob pipe, dipping snuff and nipping from a quart of Four Roses whiskey that was sitting on the floor beside her chair!” What a unique way to remember a lady whose life-long work ethic brought comfort and support to so many.

There are many tales to tell about Mary Polly Lucas Holliman and her large family. There is a separate, exciting story about each one of them. There are very few cemeteries in Fayette County where you can’t find one or more Hollimans descended from Mary Polly. Her descendants spread out over Mississippi, Oklahoma, Texas and Alabama.

Tombstone of Mary Polly Lucas Holliman

(photo courtsey of Norman Holliman)

In our next post, Dr. Rhodes Holliman continues his story of the Holliman family with a two part biography of John Thomas Holliman (1844-1930).


The Children of Uriah Holliman and Mary Polly Lucas Holliman
compiled by Dr. Rhodes Holliman

1. Mary Elizabeth Holliman, born Sept. 12th, 1837, died Oct. 9th, 1841.

2. James Franklin Holliman, born Jan. 28th, 1839, died 13 May, 1911. 1st Lt., Co. B, 58th Alabama Infantry Regt., captured at Missionary Ridge, TN, on Nov. 25th, 1863. Spent the remainder of the War in Johnson's Island Prison Camp for Confederate Officers, in Erie, Ohio. He was released on June 13th, 1865. He returned to Fayette County to become a teacher and farmer. He married Rebecca Utley Stewart on July 2nd, 1865. They had 4 children (3 boys and a girl). Rebecca died and JFH married one of his former students, Bertha Lee Powell. The had 5 children (3 boys and 2 girls). JFH and both wives are buried at the Holliman-Stewart Cemetery, Bluff, AL.

3, Sarah Jane Holliman, born Oct. 3, 1840 in Fayette County, died Oct. 15, 1915, buried at Cottonwood Cemetery, 6 miles east of Eustace, Texas. She married Charles Stephen Coppell in Fayette County on July 13th, 1864.

4. Charles Daniel Holliman, born May 6th, 1842, died May 12, 1862 of diseases mentioned above while in the Confederate Army. Burial probably in the Confederate Cemetery, Okolona, MS.

5. John Thomas Holliman, born April 23, 1844, died July 12th 1930 in Fayette County. Burial at Caine’s Ridge Cemetery, 4 miles south of Fayette, AL, on Route 159. Was known as "Hico John" to distinguish him from 2 others of the same name in the county. Married (1) Sarah Corbett: one child, William Perry. She died in childbirth. Married (2) Martha Jane Walker: 5 sons. JTH was a Pvt. in Company H. 41st Alabama Infantry Regr., CSA. He surrendered at Petersburg, VA, on Feb. 15th, 1865, near starvation. He took the oath and was paroled to a farmer in Indianapolis, Indiana, where he worked until the fall of 1865 and then walked home to Fayette County, AL.

6. Elijah Holliman, born April 16th, 1846, died July 10th, 1864, from typhoid while serving in the Confederate Army. He was a Pvt. in Company I of the 56th Alabama Partisan Rangers. He died in a Confederate Hospital near Lagrange, GA and his buried in Confederate Cemetery under gravestone that reads E. Holman.

7. Nancy Palestine Holliman, born April 7th, 1848, died Dec. 12th, 1923. Married John Pinion: no issue. She is buried near her mother, Mary Polly, in Springhill Cemetery near Bluff, AL.

8. Cornelius Holliman, born Dec. 16th, 1849, in Fayette County. Married Sarah Elizabeth Smith at Fayette. Moved to Rockdale, Milam County, Texas. Buried Texas Eagle Cemetery. This is Norman S. Holliman's great grandfather.

9. William Perry Holliman, born March 29th, 1852, in Fayette County. Married Sarah Holliman, a distant cousin and daughter of Warren C. Holliman and Mary Blakeney of Newtonville, AL. Moved to Rockdale, Milam County, Texas. Resided near Cameron, Texas.

10. Martha Ann Holliman, born June 27th, 1854, married Rufus Buckner. Resided near Alvord, Texas.

11. Rebecca Drucilla Holliman, born March 4th, 1856. Married John Thomas Holliman, cousin, and son of Warren C. Holliman and Mary Blakeney of Newtonville, AL. Moved to Ardmore, OK. He was called "Black John" due to the color of his hair and to distinguish him from two other John Ts living Fayette County at the same time.

12. Emily Frances Holliman, born March 14th, 1858 in Fayette Co. Married (1) Abner McClung in Fayette County. Moved to Eustace, Texas, where she had relatives and there married Joe Reynolds.

13. Joshua Warren Holliman, born Aug. 26th, 1860, died Jan. 6th, 1944. Married Martha Goulsby, resided in Vernon, Lamar County, AL, until his death. Buried in Vernon. His mother, Mary Polly Lucas Holliman, died at his home in 1913.