I recently found a .pdf copy of the Lemen Family History (1898) which I’ve appended to the Hester Lemen entry on the family tree. (Hester is Robert Ryland Kearfott’s great-grand-mother.) 

It traces the Lemen family line back through Ireland to Scotland in the first half of the 17th century where some of the Lemen’s were connected to Oliver Cromwell:

“Robert Lemen of Scotland. He and the other members of his father’s family in that country were ardent followers and adherents of Oliver Cromwell, Lord Protector of the Commonwealth of England, and Robert Lemen and his brother, William Lemen, were soldiers under him, and assisted to banish for a time royalty and its attendant tyrannies in England and to place the affairs of that country under the control of their great chieftain; and at the time of Robert Lemen’s marriage in Scotland, Cromwell, who was then in that country and community, attended his wedding and presented Robert’s bride with a beautiful little  box richly inlaid with pearls and silver.”

Pretty interesting times, those were. Not everybody was a Cromwell fan…see https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Oliver_Cromwell.

Right about the time Cromwell died (1658) the Lemen’s relocated to Ireland. In 1708, three young men, James, Robert and Nicholas Lemen settled in Virginia.  The rest of the story starts from there and there are a couple of chapters on Kearfott’s, along with a nice picture of Joseph Baker Kearfott. 

Joseph Baker Kearfott is credited with having compiled a great deal of information on the Virginia branch of the Lemen family. I have to wonder whether any of his records survive? If anyone knows, I’d be very interested to learn where they might be!

Meanwhile, any of the family who are interested are welcome to download the .pdf so you can read the stories for yourselves!

 

 

 

Thanks to Sally’s extraordinary efforts, the reunion was a wonderful gathering of the clan enjoyed by all!

Inspired by seeing so many of the family, we’ll shortly be adding a family tree to this site. It will cover much more than just the Kearfott’s and hopefully will continue to grow with time as the family add members and details.

In order to preserve the privacy of the living members of the family, access will be restricted to family only. Login credentials and editor accounts will be provided on request – just contact us through this page.

Hope to hear from you!

Hi Folks,

In support of the Kearfott/Stone family reunion of 2019, we’ve added a page here with photos, biographical sketches, and miscellaneous images relevant to the Kearfott & Stone family histories.

Please take a look and let us know if you have any additional treasures you might like us to share here. We’d be happy to add to this modest collection!

We acknowledge that there may be the odd error here or there (i.e., we note there’s a photo of RRK’s father and mother with a hand written label showing her name as “Susan” when it is really “Cassandra”) and trust you’ll help us correct any you see. At the end of the day, we’re not trying to claim any thing here is absolute truth, we’re just passing along what has come down to us. As they say on the tech web, YMMV (Your Mileage May Vary)!

Cheers to all and hope you enjoy!

Just wanted to wish  all the  RRK fans out there  a Happy New Year!

2017 is starting  out with a message received from a long, lost relative (well, not  really, but new to me) that there are additional  RRK works that we haven’t seen. We’re hopeful  that  we’ll soon be able to add to the  collection!

Meanwhile, best to all for a great new year!

Well, http://robertkearfott.org is now officially open!

This site is a showcase for “The Life and Work of Robert Ryland Kearfott” the definitive work on the subject created by Lorna Kearfott Stone.

But beyond that, we hope it will be a place where family & friends can share Kearfott stories, add pictures of RRK’s works that might be missing here, and connect with one another. All you need to do is create an account on the site and log in.

Thanks all, most especially to Lorna, and we’ll look forward to hearing from you!