Update: All Farmhouses Look Alike / and new Tabitha Wray information

Update from last post: I discovered looking more closely at the house I thought may have been in a photo shared on Ancestry.com, as a Moses Wray house, that it doesn't match the house in the photo. I knew it wasn't his house, he would have lived in a log house, but thought it could have sat on his land. 

The only house I could find similar to that house, using Google Street View, compared more carefully, can't be the same house in the old photo. When I looked at Google street view from another angle I could see the house didn't have 3 windows on one side. It has only one window on the side. 

Posting about my mistake on Facebook several people identified the house in the photo as being a house on Poff Lane. The house was at one time owned by a Wray family, but the original owners of the house and property were Wrights. This 1906 built house was constructed around a log cabin, likely belonging to the Wrights, sometime before the Civil War. 

Looking more carefully at the Inn it doesn't have 3 windows on the side of the house. The second floor of the house was destroyed by fire and rebuilt. I suppose windows may have been removed when the house was remodeled? An old photo taken in the 50s or 60s also shows only two windows, however I don't know which side of the house the photo was taken on? Also the slope of the land, looking at the right side of the photo is different. 

Someone would have to verify the house in the photo on Poff Lane is the same house. It may not be. Many farm houses were built just like these. The house in the photo may have been torn down, or remodeled? I think we are learning which houses are not the house in the photo. 

Old photo

What we do know is that Moses and Elizabeth Wray owned property on both sides of White Oak Bottom Creek, north of Maggotty Creek. 

Some unanswered questions about the location of their land. Is White Oak Bottom Creek the same as today's White Oak Creek? Has White Oak Creek always followed the same course? Water can always change course and people sometimes change its course. What we do know is the creek existed as early as 1755 when Jester Cox made a survey on that creek. 

Moses and Elizabeth also own land on Maggotty creek. So I'm figuring their land on White Bottom Creek was likely near where White Bottom Creek emptied into Maggotty Creek? 

New Wray Information

I've questioned whether Moses Wray's wife Elizabeth Morris could have been the mother of all 18 of his children. That seems to be more children than possible for one woman to give birth to. It is possible though. It's happened, but not frequently. My ancestor Benjamin Wray was one of Moses Wray's oldest children. So was his mother Elizabeth Morris? 

Robert Grant shared some of his research with me. His research, on the Wright family, can be viewed at FamilySearch. Sorting some of the Wrights of Southern Virginia : part III, 1809 William Wright of Franklin County, his wife Mary (Grant) Wright and his descendants Sorting some of the Wrights of Southern Virginia by Robert Grant contains information about many associated families. 

My ancestor Benjamin Wray had a sister named Tabitha Wray-Wright. 

According to Robert Grant's research Tabitha Wray-Wright's daughter married in 1792. What does this mean? It means she was likely born around 1761 or earlier. I had about 1767 as the approximate year she was born. It's very likely Elizabeth named Tabitha after her mother, her mother's name was Tabitha. My ancestor was born a few years earlier than Tabitha, but she was born much earlier than 1767. This suggests that most of Moses Wray's children were Elizabeth's. So Elizabeth Morris could be my ancestor Benjamin's mother. 

  

The information provided by Robert Grant proves there is more information out there that maybe I've missed? Eventually my questions may be answered.