Last updated on 27 December 2006.
My name is Greg Lavender (Lavinder) and I am a computer science professor at the University of Texas at Austin. I maintain a public web page for my computer science courses, which then gets indexed by various Internet search engines. As a result, I often receive email requests from people beginning to research their genealogy who have found a link to my web pages because of my surname. So, I have put together the following information to tell you what I know and help direct you to other sources of information. There is a reasonably well documented history of my family since the colonial era. However, I can only speculate on those aspects of my family history that predate the written records of early America. I am of course happy to learn more if it can be substantiated.
My father and others with Lavender/Lavinder surnames maintain extensive genealogy files. If you are doing genealogy research and want or have more information on people with Lavender/Lavinder surnames, please send email to me at lavender -at- cs.utexas.edu.
My earliest verifiable American ancestor is John Lavinder, a Virginia planter who is purported to have originally emigrated as a young man to America from England and married his wife Mary Depity. The name Depity is very likely a phonetic mis-spelling of an original French surname and this mistake is perpetuated in genealogy files. The following similar names appear in early American records (e.g., census records): Debity, Debyty, Debety, and Debete. The actual name is most likely Deputy. This kind of variation in the spelling of a surname is often due to illiteracy, both of the person with the name and, often, the person who documented the early records. For example, the spellings Debete, Debyty and Debety all appear in the 1790 and 1800 census records for the same family group in Tidewater Virginia. This kind of challenge leads many amateur genealogists to dead-ends or mistaken connections in chasing down their ancestors.
The original home site and land was deeded to John Lavinder in 1790 and was lived on by a member of the family until the 1990s, when the last resident (Kermit Lavinder) passed away and the land was sold. The land lies on the branch of Story Creek that crosses Beech Mountain Rd just above where the road crosses Rte. 40 between Ferrum and Rocky Mount. Note the slight difference in the spelling of my current surname. I will have more to say about this later. According to Marshall Wingfield, in his book Franklin County Virginia: A History, the area was settled by four distinct groups: German families (e.g., Goode, Jopling) from Pennsylvania, Scotish-Irish families (e.g., Armstrong, McMillian) from the northern colonies, and English and French Huguenot families (e.g., Bacon, LeSueur and Lavinder) from other settled counties in colonial Virginia. Franklin county is hilly and remote; farming life was difficult there because of the terrain even as late as the early 20th century. Poor roads kept the area rural and isolated for well over 100 years after it was first settled.
We do know that John and a brother Thomas showed up at some time in the 1790's in Franklin county, shortly after that county was formed from Bedford county to the north and Henry county to the south by an act of the Virginia Assembly in 1785. Numerous petitions, dating back to 1779, by citizens of southern Bedford and northern Henry counties resulted in the eventual formation of the county because they had to travel too far to their respective county seats, and so Franklin county was formed with a new county seat and courthouse. Both John and Thomas appear in the 1810 census records, with both living in Franklin county (the complete 1790 and 1810 Virginia census records are unavailable---they were burned along with the U.S. Capitol in Washington DC by the British during the war of 1812). The available 1790 census records document Lavender/Lavinder families living in the Virginia counties of Amherst, Albemarle and Northumberland, and Jones county North Carolina and Newberry county South Carolina, but we do not know of any direct American relation at this time. They may be linked further back in history by a most recent common ancestor, which can be verified in the future through genealogical DNA testing. There is a Lavender Family DNA project at FamilyTree DNA, so if you are male and think you are related to the Lavender/Lavinder family, sign up and have yourself tested using the Y-DNA25 marker test by going to the Lavender DNA Project. My DNA has been tested and is part of the growing database.
We have not found the Virginia Lavinders on any ship passenger manifests to know exactly when they emigrated to America. One family story has it that they came to Virginia from Canada, which could explain why we can't find any record on ship manifests at US port cities. Also, Marshall Wingfield in his book on Franklin County mentions that some of the settlers of the county came down the Wilderness road from the north after the Revolutionary War, because the American Indians that had sided with the British during the war had been driven westward, out of southwest Virginia, and so the region was opening up to settlement by farmers. So there may be something to this story. Anyway, John and Thomas Lavinder first appear in Franklin County land deeds in 1797. Prior to this date, they may have settled in the James River area or have come into southwestern Virginia from the Chesapeake Bay area, or from Canada as just mentioned. Of the hundreds of people in the United States with the surname "Lavinder", and perhaps some with the surname "Lavender" with family origins in southwestern Virginia, most are likely descended from John or Thomas Lavinder. The Lavinder "family bible" supposedly documented the family history back to its origins in France, but this family bible was lost in a house fire at the old homeplace in Franklin county Virginia in 1935, which was unfortunately all too common an occurrence in rural households of that period, especially chimney fires.
The Lavinders of Virginia were primarily planters/farmers/millwrights and produced lots of children and, who like their fellow Virginian Thomas Jefferson, owned slaves. The book entitled, Slaves in the Family, by Edward Ball, is a fascinating account of one man's attempt to accurately depict his family heritage and reconcile familial guilt due to the immoral slave owning past of his colonial American ancestors. Interestingly, there is some circumstantial evidence that the Lavinders and the Balls are related through marriage among their English ancestors. Thomas Lavinder founded the first iron works in Franklin County just south of Rocky Mount, the county seat.
To confuse future genealogists, my surname is today spelled Lavender because my father's last name was changed from "Lavinder" to "Lavender" when he became a member of the United States Navy in 1949, as a young 18 year old man who had just recently graduated from high school. He now regrets not correcting what at the time was a bureaucratic mistake. He was easily led to believe that he had been mispelling his surname all his life and did not think to change it at the time, and then for military pension reasons, it became impractical to do so later. The rest of his family have Lavinder as their surname. We may or may not be related to others with the surname Lavender, unless the original spelling was Lavinder. However, we may be related by common English ancestry or by socioeconomic and geographic origins in France, as explained below.
The Lavinders of Virginia maintain an oral history, for the most part unsubstantiated and full of inconsistencies when examined critically, that their forefathers emigrated to England from Normandy, and the original family name was de La Vinder (or perhaps de La Vinter/Vintner). This story has not been verified from authoritative historical sources, so must be considered suspect until more convincing evidence is obtained. The story derives from an oral account given by Emma Grey Lavinder and printed in a book on the history of Henry county, Virginia, published in 1921. It has proven quite difficult to establish clear family lineage prior to the American emigration and there are several seemingly unrelated branches in both America and England. One unverified story has it that the de La Vinder family left France in the late 1500s, with some members going to England and the others to the Dutch Republic (Holland). There is then a 200 year gap in reliable information. Some amateur genealogists have posted files on popular genealogical websites (e.g. ancestry.com) that erroneously directly links people clearly born in the 1700s to people who lived in the late 1500s simply because they have the same last name. That is irresponsible and leads to lots of confusion. There are several generations of missing intermediate links.
For example, it is reported in the family oral history that William Dethick, York Herald, re-issued the French Lavinder coat of arms around 1580 to William Lavinder. It is interesting to compare that John Shakespeare, the father of William Shakespeare, applied for a coat of arms in 1576 at the Office of Heralds in London. In Elizabethan England, when social climbing was rampant, any man could obtain a coat of arms if he could demonstrate that he was a gentleman, meaning that he had a worthy profession, had property, was pious and of good moral character, and most importantly was debt free and could come up with the payment to William Dethick. The Shakespeare coat of arms was paid for (probably by William) and granted in 1596 by William Dethick. The delay was apparently due to financial problems that John Shakespeare encountered, which were not corrected until William made his famous mark in the theater. The Office of Heralds at this time was criticized for selling coats of arms without proper justification, so record keeping was used to document the justification. The records of the Office of Heralds in London (reportedly also available at the Library of Congress in Washington) need to be examined to verify that a Lavinder coat of arms was issued, and if so, the record should describe the qualifications under which the coat was granted (for example, to replace a lost French coat of arms). What is more interesting to me personally, is that my English ancestors may have had the opportunity to attend one of Shakespeare's plays at the Curtain, Rose, or Globe theaters during their lifetime. The population of London in the late 1500's was no more than 175,000 people and there were frequent "visitations" of the plague, resulting in a life expectancy of much less than 40 years for the common man and woman. Today, one of the London Underground tube lines that I have ridden takes a very sharp turn on its route under the city, which is due to a large plague victim burial pit that was discovered when they were digging the Underground subway system. I can not help but wonder if one of my unfortunate ancestors is buried in that pit.
The truth is, we know very little factually about our pre-colonial American ancestry, except that our English ancestors were descended from French Huguenots (Calvinists) who fled religious intolerance in Catholic France for religiously tolerant England and Holland. The dates are unclear, but educated guesses are late 16th century, following the St. Bartholomew's Day Massacre in 1572, or late 17th century following the revocation of the Edict of Nantes by the new Edict of Fontainebleau in 1685 by King Louis XIV. It is almost certain they did not emigrate to England until after the reign of "bloody" Queen Mary, who authorized the murder of English protestants. It seems most plausible that they would have immigrated during the 40-year reign of Queen Elizabeth, when religious tolerance for protestants was supported by the English monarchy. In any case, the cause for fleeing would be to escape religious persecution. There are numerous publications on the plight of the French Huguenots and their contributions to the societies to which they immigrated. They were generally regarded as pious and industrious trades people. For example, see the book entitled, French Huguenots: From Mediterranean Catholics to Anglo-Saxon Protestants, by Dr. Abraham D. Lavender. This is a well-written scholarly book that includes an analysis of how French names changed over time into English names. Family records show that there were a lot of Lavinder men with common English names with French equivalents: John (Jean), Lewis (Louis), Robert, Thomas, and William (Guillaume). For example, the French Huguenot Apollos Rivoire immigrated to the American colony of New York, and anglicized his name to Paul Revere. He passed his anglicized name onto his eldest American-born son, who made the name Revere famous during the American Revolution.
In pre-industrial agrarian societies, it was quite common for people to have surnames derived from the region from whence they came, or from the way they earned their living. For example the name Jean du la Vendée, which would be Jean (John) from the Vendée region. The anglicizing of this French name within a generation of immigrating to an English speaking country might plausibly transliterate to John Lavender. Given the general state of illiteracy at the time, and the propensity when anglicizing French names to either run-together (e.g., du Pont as Dupont and de Lancey as Delancey) or drop the articles 'de' and 'du' makes this quite plausible linguistically, and thus the phonetic English pronunciation of la Vendée as Lavender.
Ignorance, or a bureaucratic mistake, could then result in the spelling Lavinder. In fact, during Elizabethan times, names were often misspelled in birth, marriage and death certificates, deeds, law suits, etc. For example, if you read about the life of William Shakespeare (e.g., see William Shakespeare: The Complete Works, Viking Press), his name appears in various records from the late 16th and early 17th century as "Shackespere", "Shagsper", "Shake-spere", etc. It is interesting to me personally to contemplate that the 20th century bureaucratic mistake that led to the current spelling of my surname as Lavender may in fact be a long overdue correction to a 400 hundred year old bureaucractic mistake.
Having read some history of the Huguenots (e.g., the book by Abraham Lavender and Huguenots in America: A Refugee People in New World Society, by John Butler), and having traveled in France and spoken with educated French colleagues, it seems plausible to me that the original family name may have been du la Vendée rather than de la Vinder, although some of my relatives strongly disagree. The fact is, we don't really know, but if my more general hypothesis is born out through further research, then it would help explain why there is so much confusion among amateur genealogists researching the names Lavender and Lavinder. The fact that there are several seemingly unrelated family branches from different places in colonial America (e.g., Virginia, South Carolina, Florida, Massachusetts) with different family histories may be due to the fact that they are unrelated by blood. Instead, they may all be related by historical events and religious, national, and geographic origins. This is perhaps a more interesting story, and one that amatuer genealogists tend to overlook in their natural quest to learn something unique about their blood-line. I find that the names and dates of my ancestors are for the most part dry facts without a good understanding of the social, economic, and historical context in which they lived, and which no doubt shaped their everyday lives.
If you check a map of France, you will find the Vendée region adjacent to Brittany, along the central western coast of France, not far from Nantes. This area was a hotbed of the Protestant Reformation at the time of King Henry IV of France. Historically, the Vendée and surrounding regions were part of the Roman Province of Gallia Aquitania and later occupied by the Visigoths. Roman DNA might explain the "Roman nose" facial feature common in men of my family---only DNA analysis can tell for sure. I am humorously reminded of a series of portraits I have seen hanging in one of the Great Houses of Europe, in which several generations of noblemen all have the same nose, which is that of the painter, who used his own facial features as the model since the subjects he was commissioned to paint had been dead for generations!
The Edict of Nantes was issued in 1598 ending the French Wars of Religion that had plagued the region. The Révocation de l'Edit de Nantes occured in 1685, and so it would have been natural for the Huguenots of the Vendée to flee to countries without a propensity for state sponsored murder of protestants. In fact, an estimated 200,000 French men, women, and children did just that as part of the Huguenot diaspora, which is well documented. They fled to the Americas, England (London), Switzerland (Geneva), Flanders (Belgium), the Netherlands (Amsterdam), Germany, South Africa (Cape of Good Hope), and other countries were religious tolerance was practiced. I was in Melbourne, Australia in March 1999, and encountered the surname Lavender without searching for it. Given that Australia was not settled by Europeans until the late 1700's, it is an indication that some poor Englishman was deported to the penal colony of Australia for some "criminal act" (e.g., stealing bread, poaching, or other illegal food gathering crimes against the property of a landowner or shopkeeper). At least he survived the odds, which were not good according to Robert Hughes in his book Fatal Shore: The Epic of Australia's Founding.
Authoritative answers about our early French and English heritage may lie in the birth, marriage, and death records of the Huguenot Society at University College London. The records kept there document the earliest Huguenot emigrations to England, which were originally documented in the records of the now destroyed Threadneedle Street Church and other French protestant churches established in England. The churches helped many Huguenot immigrants get a new start and recorded subsequent marriages, births, and deaths. I attempted to visit the Huguenot Society library during a short business trip to London in 1998, but the society at the time was not open to casual visitors, you must make special arrangements to visit and view their archives.
An interesting twist of fate is that I once lived in southcentral London, on Elspeth Road, which is situated on Lavender Hill, in Battersea near Clapham Junction Railway Station. I do not believe there is any connection with my family surname; in fact, I checked and the name is derived from the fact that the hill was once covered with the fragrant lavender plant, which was used as a fragrance to launder clothes during Elizabethan times. Lavender oil extract was known since Roman times to repel fleas. The dreaded bubonic plague was transmitted from rats to humans by fleas, so washing and treating clothes with lavender had important public health implications. Some genealogists believe that the English surname Lavender derives from people who were employed as launderers because this plant was used while doing laundry. There is supporting evidence for this belief. In French, the noun "lavandier" was used to describe someone who cleans clothes. There are many modern French people with Lavandier as a surname (e.g., the French filmmaker Yves Lavandier). In Charles Baird's book, History of the Hugeunot Emigration to America, published in 1885, the surname Lavandier appears among the earliest Huguenot immigrants to the American colonies (e.g., in New York). It is historically well-known that surnames are often acquired based on how someone earned their living.
I am fortunate that the men in my branch of the Lavinder family have very often lived well into their nineties. As a result, my father personally knew his great grandfather, Lewis Marshall Lavinder, who was born in Virginia on 26 September 1853, was married on 20 December 1877 in Virginia, and died on 5 November 1946 (age 93) in Oak Hill, West Virginia. Lewis' father, George Washington Lavinder (b. 1821, m. 1851, d. 7 June 1870), was a son of William Lavinder (b. 1799, m. 1819, death unknown but still living during the 1870 census, and said by Alfred D. Lavinder to have lived to age 103, putting his death sometime in 1902) who was a son of John Lavinder (born probably before 1770), my earliest definitively known American ancestor. During the American Civil War (1861-1865), two grandsons of John Lavinder (Jesse Benjamin and John Peter) served in Company K, the "Franklin Invincibles," of the 42nd Virginia Infantry Regiment, which saw action at Gettysburg in Pennsylvania, among other Civil War Battles in Virginia. I've stood on the Gettysburg battlefield near the battlefield marker where the Virginians of the 42nd Infantry Regiment of Jones' Brigade formed their battle line, and had a very somber feeling trying to imagine what it must have been like to face death on that killing field at the base of Culp's Hill.
My gr-gr-gr grandfather, George Washington Lavinder, was crippled from young age (most likely from rickets) and lived through the Civil War, only to be killed in a melee at the old Courthouse in Franklin county on Monday, 6 June, 1870. The first Monday of each month in Franklin county was known at the time as Court Day and people from all over the county would travel to the courthouse on that day to socialize, peddle, trade, purchase goods, play music, file deeds and wills, settle disputes, and have lawsuits for trespass, debts, etc., adjudicated at the courthouse by a traveling circuit court judge. George Lavinder was killed as the result of such a dispute getting out-of-hand. He was beaten using the cane he used to walk with, that cracked his skull, and he died the next day, June 7th 1870. The fight broke out as a result of an argument between my gr-gr grandfather, Lewis Marshall Lavinder, who was 16 at the time, and a man named Otto (or Otho) Jopling over the killing of a sheep by a dog. The following article that tells part of the story appeared in the Petersburg Index newspaper dated 13 June, 1870
HOMICIDE IN FRANKLIN -- We learn that an old gentleman, named Geo. Lavender [George Washington Lavinder], was killed at Franklin Court-House on Monday last [6 June 1870], by a man named Henderson. Henderson, we learn, was arrested, and also two men named Saunders and Jopling, who are implicated in the killing. The whole affair grew out of the trifling matter of one of the neighbor's dogs killing a sheep belonging to another. These neighbors got into a fight, in which their respective friends took sides, and which resulted so fatally to Mr. Lavender.
A more detailed article appeared in the Salem Ledger newspaper dated Saturday, 18 June, 1870.
FATAL AFFRAY AT ROCKY MOUNT -- On Court-day, 6th inst., at Franklin C. H., a difficulty occurred between Otto Jopling, and a young man named Lavender [Lewis Marshall Lavinder], about a dog which the former had killed some months previous. Various threats had been made by the parties and many had taken side with one or the other. During the dispute a Mr. Bowles approached and took part in the altercation, and finally struck Lavender. This led to a fight, in which Jopling, Geo. Lavender [George Washington Lavinder], and his son, and others participated, the blows being dealt with fists, clubs, or any thing available, and became a desperate affair. Justice Henderson commanded the peace, and proceeded to arrest them, but meeting with resistance used force, and struck Lavender, Sr., so hard a blow as to break his skull, from the effects of which he died during the next night [June 7th, 1870]. Jopling was severely wounded. The others were arrested and afterwards admitted to bail to await trial at the August term. Lavender leaves a wife and six children in very humble circumstances, in fact they were dependent upon him for their daily bread, which makes the affair even sadder than it otherwise would have been.
Three men were charged with murder: Robert C. Henderson, John J. Saunders and Otto Jopling. A jury trial was held the first week of August 1870, and the proceedings are documented in Order Book 13 (Jan 1866-Jul 1877) at the Franklin county Courthouse, resulting in the acquittal of Henderson and Jopling and the dismissal of charges against Saunders. The family oral history has it that an angry young Lewis Marshall avenged the murder of his father by lying in wait for Otto Jopling in an eye-for-an-eye revenge killing. This story is circumstantially confirmed by the court records, as Otto Jopling went missing. Here are excerpts of the record of the Court of Quarter Sessions from Order Book 13, pages 451-469:
Honorable Hugh Nelson Judge of this Court
1 August 1870
[A Grand Jury convenes and returns...] "An indictment against Robert C. Henderson, John J. Saunders and Otho Jopling for murder. A true bill." p. 451
Robert C. Henderson, John J. Saunders and Otho Joplin of this county, who stand indicted of murder appeared at the Bar, and were thereof arraigned and upon their arraignment, they pleaded severally not guilty, and for reasons appearing to the court, this cause is continued till tomorrow.
Ordered that court be adjourned till tomorrow 9 O'clock A. M. p. 458
[...the case is postponed at each session until Thursday, 4 August when arguments are presented to the jury.]
At a Court of Quarter Sessions continued and held for Franklin County at the Courthouse on the 5th day of August 1870.
Present - The Same Judge [Hugh Nelson] as on yesterday.
Robert C. Henderson, John J. Saunders and Otho Jopling late of this County who stand indicted for murder again appeared at the Bar and the Jury sworn in this cause was again brought into Court by the Sherriff according to adjournment, and having fully heard the argument as well of the Attorney for the Commonwealth as of the Attorneys for the defendants upon their oaths do say that the said Robert C. Henderson and Otho Jopling are not guilty of the Murder aforesaid as in pleadings they have alledged, and proclamation being made as the manner is, and orderd by the Court that the said Robert C. Henderson and Otho Jopling be acquitted and discharged of the offence aforesaid and go thereof without day [delay]. And attorney for the Commonwealth with the leave of the Court saith that he will not further prosecute of and upon the premises as to the said John. J. Saunders. Therefore it is considered by the Court that the said prosecution be dismissed as to him. p 468-469.
Fatefully, my family roots then shifted from southwestern Virginia to the recently formed state of West Virginia, as Lewis Marshall left Virginia for a period after this incident. He returned to Virginia to court and marry Emma Jane Goode (b. 1861, m. 1877, d. 1935), whose father was Jacob Fleming Goode (b. 1821, m. 1855, d. 1862) who died during the Civil War while serving in Company B, the "Franklin Sharpshooters", of the 57th Virginia Infantry Regiment. From 1862 through 1863, the 57th Virginia Infantry Regiment was part of General George E. Pickett's Brigade, made famous by Pickett's Charge at the Battle of Gettysburg. Lewis Marshall (age 24) and Emma Jane (age 16) had this wedding picture made in December 1877. They started their large family (5 boys and 7 girls) in Virginia, but moved to Fayette County West Virginia in 1898. By this marriage I am distantly related to the Goode family of Virginia.
The Lavinders of West Virginia have a well documented history as democratic labor activists. In fact, an Ex Parte legal decision, Ex Parte Lavinder, by the West Virginia Supreme Court, resulted from the Coal Mine Wars in West Virginia in the early 1920s. During a violent period of labor unrest in Mingo County, West Virginia, my great-great uncle Alfred D. Lavinder (known as A.D.) was arrested at an ice cream parlor for carrying a pistol, despite having a statewide permit, and badly beaten by the state police before being thrown in jail for violating martial law as the result of his pro-union labor activities against exploitative coal companies at the expense of people's lives. For a depiction of the exploitation of the coal miners of West Virginia in the 1920s, see the excellent independent film Matewan, directed by independent film maker John Sayles.
These historical events are well documented in two New York Times articles: the first dated May 23 1921 details A. D. Lavinder's arrest (incorrectly reported as E. D. Lavender), and the second dated June 15 1921, details his release from custody after A. D. filed a petition for a writ of habeas corpus from jail arguing that his arrest and detention were unlawful. The Ex Parte Lavinder decision affirmed that his arrest and detention were illegal, and in fact the declaration of martial law by Governor Ephraim Morgan was illegal, resulting in A. D. being freed from jail. This ex parte decision is still used in legal proceedings today as part of standard case law regarding illegal arrest and detention. For the rest of his life, A.D. was blacklisted by the West Virginia coal mining companies and had to move to Ohio to find work and earn a living. In his very old age, A.D. would tell the story of having been arrested and thrown in jail for his labor activism, and that he was to be "shot at dawn," but managed to pass a note out the jailhouse window to his lawyer who filed the writ of habeas corpus on his behalf, that saved his life. My father's generation thought he was a senile old man making up stories. The New York Times articles, discovered by me doing research long after his death, show that he was not making it all up. I wish we had paid more attention to his stories while he was alive as he lived an interesting life and was a wealth of useful family and historical information. Fortunately, we have some of his letters.
The ancient writ of habeas corpus dates from well before the official Habeas Corpus Act of 1679, and has been considered a fundamental civil right in western civilization for centuries, and is embodied in Article One, section 9, of the United States Constitution, which states: The privilege of the writ of habeas corpus shall not be suspended, unless when in cases of rebellion or invasion the public safety may require it. In an unprecedented challenge to Article One of the U.S. Constitution, the current Bush Administration has suspended habeas corpus as part of government orchestrated fear mongering in order to gain unprecedented political power for the Executive Branch of Government. Numerous people, including American, British and Canadian citizens, subsequently found to be innocent after years under arrest without the right of habeas corpus, have been imprisoned and sometimes tortured, without the opportunity to hear the evidence against them. This is a gross betrayal of a long-standing American tradition of civil liberties and human rights for all people, not just Americans. I admire my great great uncle for standing up for his rights against the powerful who are able to corrupt the system and use the power of the State against the individual. The United States was founded as a Nation of Laws in an effort to put limits on corrupt men who use the power of the State for their own ends. As Thomas Jefferson said, "When the people fear their government, there is tyranny; when the government fears the people, there is liberty."
A.D.'s passion for organized labor was so great, he named one of his sons Eugene V. Debs Lavinder, after the radical labor union organizer who founded the Industrial Workers of the World international labor organization, and was the Socialist Party of America presidential candidate 5 times (see the book Eugene V. Debs: Citizen and Socialist, by Nick Salvatore). My uncle A.D. was a very interesting character who lived into his late nineties, and I was fortunate to have had a chance to meet him just before his death. In his long life, he had many experiences beyond being a labor activist, including working on the construction of the Panama Canal in the early 1900's, where he survived a near fatal case of malaria. In another twist of fate, I was born at the San Fernando clinic in Panama City, Panama, 45 years after my uncle A.D. helped in the construction of the Panama Canal.
My great grandfather George Washington Lavinder II (b. 1886, m. 1908, d. 1963), who I met as a young child, was Treasurer of the United Mine Workers of America in West Virginia and was also a labor activist alongside his brother A.D. The social history book Kaymoor: A New River Community, (by Lou Athey, Dept. of History, Franklin and Marshall College), contains a photograph of a UMWA document for Kaymoor Local Union No. 2839 that is dated June 26th, 1918, signed by G. W. Lavinder. My own father, Robert Keith Lavinder, was born in the Kaymoor mining community on December 31st, 1930 but escaped the physically arduous and dangerous life of a coal miner by joining the United States Navy in 1949. This old photo of miners at the Kaymoor mine in the early 1920s shows Lewis Marshall Lavinder (standing 3rd from the right) still working in the mines while in his 70s. His son, Clifford Lavinder, who later died from a gunshot wound in the head, is standing 3rd from the left.
It is interesting to me to contemplate that had my French Huguenot ancestors not immigrated, but remained in France and survived religious persecution, they may have suffered the same fate as my more recent relatives, as depicted in the book (and 1993 film) Germinal by Emile Zola about the exploitation of French coal miners in France in support of uncontrolled industrialization. Unrelated to my family history, but historically fascinating is that Zola himself suffered from state sponsored persecution in France, and fled to England, as a result of his famous article J'accuse! in which he denounced the French military of moral bankruptcy in the notorious Dreyfus Affair. This same moral bankruptcy on the part of the French military and government later contributed to the senseless deaths of millions of ordinary Frenchmen in World War I, from which France has not fully recovered even today (see the fascinating book, Aftermath: The Remnants of War by Donovan Webster).
Americans, their ancestry, and their various roles in world history are fascinating topics. I only wish I had more time to devote to the study of the histories of the times in which my relatives and ancestors lived. They were not important or famous people, but lived real lives during interesting times and were ordinary particapants in important historical events as they were happening, that we can only read about in history books. Understanding one's family history and the culture and events that shaped their lives gives a person a sense of place in today's socially, economically, and technologically complex world. The book, The Lost World of Thomas Jefferson, by former Librarian of Congress, Daniel J. Boorstin, is an excellent source for better understanding the ideas and cultural values that shaped the lives of early Americans, and which no doubt underly our lives today, even though we may not be fully conscious of them.
Finally, for those genealogists obsessed with finding some link to a "royal" blood line, consider this: according to the science writer Paul Davies, in his book The Fifth Miracle: The Search for the Origin and Meaning of Life, the late Earl Mountbatten of England used to brag that he could document his blue blood lineage back to before 1066, the date of the Norman conquest of England by William the Conqueror of Normandy. Unfortunately, this kind of pomposity is typical of many class-conscious social climbers. If you consider that a thousand years of history is equivalent to about 40 generations (a generation is 25 years), then if everyone uniquely had two parents, four grandparents, eight great-grandparents, and so on, you alone would have 1,099,511,627,776 (2 raised to the 40th power) ancestors, which is over 1 trillion people! That is of course impossible, since there have not been that many human beings on Earth since the origin of the planet and "modern" human history spans only the last 200,000 years or so. This means that we all have to share common ancestors. In other words, your family tree branches out for a few generations, but must then eventually converge back to fewer and fewer people. In fact, modern DNA analysis is showing that all living humans very likely originated from the same tribal group: see Mitochondrial Eve and Y-Chromosomal Adam.
In fact, recent genetic research into the ancestral origins of Y-DNA indicates that 95% of people of European origin are descended from only 10 distinct chromosomal lineages, meaning that practically all people of European heritage are descended from 10 male homo sapiens. My own genetic testing and Haplogroup identification of my Y-DNA also shows that I am genetically a member of Haplogroup I (M170), which is known to date from the Upper Paleolithic era of Prehistoric Europe. Haplogroup I is found today in the area of Europe that is bounded by southern France, northern Spain, northern Italy and western Croatia. This area was settled 20,000-25,000 years ago by peoples who immigrated into Europe from Central Asia during the Last Glacial Maximum. In fact, like many people of European descent, my Y-Chromosome matches 11 genetic markers also found in a tribe currently located in Central Asia, indicating a distant common ancestor, which is consistent with research results from the Genographic Project that is mapping human migration out of Africa using DNA evidence. However, my Y-DNA25 marker test shows that I am not genetically related to any other people currently in the Family Tree DNA database, including those with the last name Lavender, but we have confirmed exact matches with other branches of Lavinder males directly descended from the sons of John Lavinder (confirming at a minimum that I am not illegitimate :-). This genetic evidence seems to confirm my hypothesis that the Lavinder family of southwest Virginia are not related by blood to others with the many other families with the surname Lavender who settled in other colonies/states in America. However, we need more people with the surname Lavender/Lavinder to be geneticall tested, both in America and Europe, so we can build a better picture of family lines. If you are interested in joining the Lavender DNA Project, please contact Dr. Abraham D. Lavender (abelavender at aol.com).
I recommend you spend your precious genealogy research time wisely and focus on finding some interesting stories about your more immediate ancestors and the time in which they lived, and share that information with your children, grandchildren, relatives, and interested friends. If you have the time and inclination, read more about the history of the times in which your ancestors lived as you will find that an enjoyable way to pay tribute to their lives. For example, it is historically interesting (but complete fiction like the Da Vinci Code) to contemplate the possibility that if my French Huguenot ancestors were indeed from Normandy, could their ancestors have participated in the Battle of Hastings in military service to the Duke of Normandy? It would then be historically ironic that their descendants were subsequently forced to flee Normandy for England 510 years later. Such historical possibilities are fun to contemplate, but impossible to verify due to the passage of almost 1000 years of history concealed by the fog of time.
It is also interesting to consider that following the French Revolution that overthrew the French monarchy and established the First French Republic, a law was passed that allows any descendant of former Huguenots to repatriate to France. The December 15, 1790 Law states that: "All persons born in a foreign country and descending in any degree of a French man or woman expatriated for religious reason are declared French nationals (naturels francais) and will benefit to rights attached to that quality if they come back to France, establish their domicile there and take the civic oath." This concept of French citizenship is based on the right of jus sanguinis (Latin for "right of blood"). Modern French Nationality Law is more complicated and requires, in addition to proof of the jus sanguinis, a residency requirement.
The modern French Civil Code is closely based on the Napoleonic Code that was put into force in 1804 by Napoleon Banaparte and has been used by many other western countries to establish the principle of the rule of law, which is intended to safeguard the public against abuse by their governments and to hold government officials accountable to the laws of the nation. The basis for impeachment (from the French verb empecher) of a U.S. President is based on this long standing legal principle and is embodied in the U.S. Constitution. If a sitting President violates the rule of law, it is the constitutional responsibility of the U.S. Congress to begin impeachment proceedings. If a Congress does not act on its constitutional responsibilities, then the nation is no longer a properly functioning Democracy based on the rule of law. Instead, the nation is a de facto Oligarchy controlled by narrow political and/or economic interests for their own benefit, not the benefit of the citizens of the nation. At that point, it is up to the people of the nation to stand up and assert their rights as citizens against the despots who are not acting in the interest of the majority of citizens of the nation.
