I have a curiosity to report. This is one of those things that only I would notice because I’m spent so much time climbing these trees over more than 2 decades. As I was going through Jean A. Sargent’s notes on the Maryland Babbs the name Greenbury jumped out at me.
Cover Photo: Greenbury Point, Annapolis, Maryland.
In her book she listed just one Greenberry Babb. In one of the few mistakes that I’ve found of Jean’s she only recognized the single Greenberry Babb and the records for 2 people were lumped together. Because computers were not a part of her process and due to the fact that genealogy programs were not that advanced in her day, she overlooked this detail. It is no wonder that with 17K pages of records and about 6K Babbs that she didn’t make the connection that in one particular Census Greenberry appears in two different states with two different families.
I wrote about my discovery of this Greenberry v Green B. problem back in 2015. Note that each person bears a slight variation of the spelling and number of words:
Eventually, I realized that there were three such Greenberry’s all with slightly different names. To date, I have 14 such people who ALL descend through Christopher Babb of North Carolina. The name takes many shapes, but the two words together point an arrow directly at Christopher Babb of NC.
Christopher is most widely known as a Revolutionary War hero. He lived a very long time and had many descendants. The name Greenbury (no matter the spelling variation) is equivalent to this branch of the tree and appears nowhere else in the Babb tree.
That was the truth…until today.
As I said earlier, the name Greenbury just jumped off the page and slapped me in the face. The curiosity is that this man is connected to the Maryland Babb tree which made it all the more intriguing.
The Maryland Babb tree starts out just as the VA/NC Babb tree, with data that Jean wasn’t able to match up with any lines that carried forward. These fragments were placed in the notes for each section as a form of prologue. In Jean’s papers she tells a fellow researcher that she had additional data on the Maryland Babbs that didn’t make the book. She continues to recount it for him.
The top 3 people in the Maryland Babb tree all hail from Anne Arundel County, MD. We do not know exactly how they are related, but two of the three lines were confirmed via Y-DNA testing as being from the same tree. It is my impression that the three people at the top of the tree are brothers. William (3-1), James (3-2) and John (3-3). John is significantly younger but could not have been the son of either William or James.
The Greenbury Connection
One of those top-level people is James Babbs (1735-abt. 1802) who is also known as 3-3 in the numbering system. James’ son Thomas (3-3-2) married Rachel Pumphrey on 09 Feb 1799 in Anne Arundel County, MD. Rachel’s father was Greenbury Pumphrey.
In 1807, Thomas and Rachel gave birth to a son Greenbury P. Babbs, who was clearly the namesake of his grandfather. By 1830 the family was living in Knox County, OH where they lived out the remainder of their lives. I find no other Babb(s) lines in this county or those adjacent to it.
While Thomas and Rachel didn’t leave OH, some of their descendants have been found in Coles County, IL with some other Maryland Babb Cousins.
The given name Greenbury is quite unique and has historical significance. Let’s explore its origins and characteristics:
Origin:
Greenbury is an old English given name that was more common in the 18th and 19th centuries.
Popularity and Usage:
Greenbury was not as widespread as other names during its time.
It was more commonly found in rural areas or small communities.
The name has historical associations with English-speaking countries, particularly the United States.
Notable Individuals:
Greenbury Logan (1770–1836): An American politician and lawyer who served as a U.S. Senator from Kentucky.
Greenbury Ridgely (1784–1861): An American merchant and philanthropist from Maryland.
These individuals contributed to the name’s recognition and legacy.
(Source: Microsoft Copilot)
Observations
- A quick search of Newspapers.com reveals that Greenbury Ridgely was quite well known and is mentioned in 139 newspaper entries. All but 2 of them are in Maryland with the others in Pennsylvania. It seems his popularity might have been local in nature.
- Of note, there is also a Greenbury Point, located at the mouth of the Severn River in Anne Arundel Co, MD. It is a Navy property managed by Naval Support Activity (NSA) Annapolis as a mission-supportive natural resources conservation area. It has become a popular hiking destination for nature lovers, runners, walkers, and dog walkers1.
- Greenbury Pumphrey has a single entry in Maryland.
- Thomas and Rachel Married in 1799.
- The first two North Carolina Greenberrys were born in 1801 & 1807.
- The name Greenbury and its equivalents are nowhere to be found in North Carolina’s newspapers of the day.
- While there is no smoking gun here, the Greenbury coincidence should remain in the back of our minds. How did the NC Babbs start using this unusual name Greenberry?