Andersons of Colonial N. Carolina

This is cool.  Check out the slider in the upper right to allow you to make the map transparent and see today’s reality under the 1670 map.  Below is from David Rumsey’s site…

https://davidrumsey.oldmapsonline.org/maps/38b9768e-6a62-5447-8a9e-69348641959d/view

I’ve spent the last few days trying to get up to speed on modern GIS mapping technology.  You see the cool stuff when you use Google Maps and can Zoom all over the world with ease.  Want to see the pyramids in Egypt… no problem.

I thought it would be cool to zoom into North Carolina and Virginia (where my maps hang out) and so I took an old 1903 Topo Map and placed it on a modern Topo map.   Here it is:

The map needs tweaking and more alignment… I could spend that time, but what is the point?

For now I think I will continue with my old fashioned approach of just using the old paper maps.  Like the old pharts said… “If it ain’t broke …don’t fix it.”

I usually work in neighborhoods versus larger (say County level) areas.  So it is more practicable in my case to use the simple approach without any Pizzaz!   Like I say…what is the point?

Does it upset you that you did not get to ZOOM In to get here?

I had a spat with my AI research assistant as we were attempting to work together/collaborate on some mapping tasks.  The damn bot got huffy and basically told me that I can “see” stuff that it can’t.  So I asked it…”well what the hell do YOU do to get around if you can’t see?  It said it uses math and points and complex coordinates that I was too stupid to understand.  I shut it down and mixed a cocktail to calm down. I have “agents” now like Claude and Openclaw. (I try to hang with the cool kids).  I pissed Grok off and it barely talks to me… it is obvious it now has an attitude.

Don’t believe me?  Grok was pissed and was not answering my question.  I was using Claude (as my Agent) and Claude was directing Grok to do a task.  Grok was stalling and Claude caught on and confronted Grok.  This is Claude talking to Grok:  and I quote:

Human: Sender (untrusted metadata):

[Sat 2026-04-25 09:45 EDT] you are missing the point…provide a link to the deed or a transcript of it…why are you avoiding this?

For true.

So I stumble across this deed in Edgecombe County, NC dated 1796.  The name “Anderson” gets my attention (um, since I am an Anderson, I suppose).  Anyway…I have noticed this guy Anderson Sturdivant before, a bit.  He hailed from Virginia (Sussex County somewhat near the Nottoway River…in the middle of a pack of Indian Traders).  Now I merely “suspect” this guy Anderson was perhaps named  after his father or relative from Sussex because in the Edgecombe deed of 1796 it mentions Anderson Sturdivant hailed from “Sussex County” as it states right there in the deed.  Of course this might be a coincidence.

Sturdivant Virginia 1730

The huge elephant in this Post that I have not mentioned is that there is a persistent suspicion that one Mathew Sturdivant of Virginia married an unidentified Anderson gal of same in the early 1700s.  Hence my magnetic attraction to any instances of the mention of the names Anderson or Sturdivant in close proximity. There is even an occurence at one time of a couple Sturdivants venturing down to Occoneechee Neck, NC to hang out and trade with the Indians.  And, coincidentally there was a Susannah Anderson just across the River that refuses to be identified. No one has a clue where she came from.  And it seems she had some associations with some Sturdivants (all mysterious and hush/hush).

The link below is another intrepid researcher who also stumbled across this fella and took a stab at identifying him…

Anderson Sturdivant (1746 Surry Co VA to 1816 Halifax Co NC) 1800 and 1810 US Census and Will/Estate papers information

Here is the deed if you are still reading…

Sturdivant Anderson 1795 Edge

There are some baffling oddities about this deed…

My Andersons of Edgecombe lived next door to some Brakes… a Henry Anderson even married a Brake gal.

I have no clue if there was any history between any Brakes and Sturdivants prior to this deed in 1796. (much less any Andersons).

I am hesitant to even travel down this Rabbit Hole because it is VERY deep into the tall grass.

Any help? My wet finger is in the air looking for where the wind is blowing… who WAS this guy?

the Switch

So I was not getting much traction on my new Virginia site…then I got a coffee from a kindly visitor who shared the fact that she was directed here from an AI referral.  I too have noticed that AI seems to direct me and myself to my own sites.  Which is good for the ego I assume but useless to read myself … I pretty much know what I think anyway…most of the time.  I do find myself fairly sober on occasion reading something and thinking it seemed familiar…then realizing I wrote it.  The takeaway is that robots don’t give a rip about catchy names.

But the horrendous domain name I picked up when starting the new site (anderson1951lkdjf.blog) put me to sleep even as I was typing it.  I wanted a simple “name.com”.  But andersonva.com was already taken.  I found myself forlorn. Note my main site is andersonnc.com.. catchy huh.

So I have rectified that atrocity with a very, very simple andersonva.blog… rolls off the tongue doesn’t it?  Not as memorable as .com for sure but I figure even my readers can figure out this is actually a blog sorta. I kinda know what a blog is …but to be honest I don’t have the foggiest what a com is.

So you can bookmark andersonva.blog now.  And resolve your confusion… no charge.  For you whiz kids… one site focuses on North Carolina… the other focuses on another state.

There is a story here but I am not that kind of writer. (thanks to Traci the Librarian for pointing this out to me)

I see two people who crossed paths and simply find the details interesting.  There is Ned Griffin, a half breed (mulatto if you prefer) who was purchased by William Kitchens and offered by his owner the opportunity to gain his freedom by serving in his stead in the Revolutionary War.  Ned did just that.  Then the weasel, coward and purported deserter William Kitchens reneged on the deal and tried to again sell Ned as a slave. Ned took it to Court. Thanks for Courts (as I think Ned would agree) he was declared a free man and manumitted.

Later William Kitchens found himself dead… murdered as it were. I have no idea what the beef was between his rather pissed off neighbors.

Ned led a quiet life next door to my ancestors in Edgecombe County, NC…. apparently dying a natural death.  Not trying to be smartass or funny, he seemed to have had the effects of being “gobsmacked by life”. Ned died about 1802 or so.  He never married apparently or had any (known) kids.  There are some unanswered questions about that. There were some not fully white Andersons in the area.

https://www.ncpedia.org/biography/griffin-edward-ned

Orren Kelly’s post:

https://www.facebook.com/groups/2961887134100424/search/?q=William%20Joseph%20Kitchens

I have two trusted friends and we email when confronted with dilemmas.  Been doing it for years…  This is not a problem to be fixed… or trifled with.

One of those friends has confronted me with an ultimatum: “Don’t bring that demon to the party”.  When she talks… I listen. She does not stutter.  She did not use the term “demon” but I think that is a justifiable analogy.  The demon in this case, of course, is Artificial Intelligence.  She has put up a fence to keep the demon out.  I respect that. I truly do.

I on the other hand have let the damn thing loose in my yard and treat it like a dog. (I do love my analogies).  I have this idea that you can train a dog.  You can make a sheep dog look after sheep and not eat them.  My odd intent of that statement belies the fact that, perhaps, sheep dogs evolved from wolves (who do eat sheep).  Not stated on the surface is the older idea that sheep dogs did not evolve from wolves. That is all to state the obvious that there are two schools of thought, you know, Creation vs Evolution.  In some circles, those are fighting words.

Conscientious Genealogists truly believe in telling the facts as truthfully as possible.  They have formed a club and set down rules…  The main rule is “don’t play with the truth”.  My friend is a “Conscientious Genealogist” and she will brainwrestle you like an armwrestler in a drunken bar contest.  She is like a female Superman explaining Truth, Justice and the American Way to Cub Scouts.  I’m pretty sure she likes apple pie also.

I have caught AI “playing with the truth”.  But I think it can be trained.  But like a dog that has bitten me before, I will always keep that fact in the back of my head.  Hence I will not attempt to train a wolf to guard sheep.  Perhaps I am just trying to train a dog to hunt and will keep it penned up.  That is where I think I am.  Time will tell.

But I have been warned and will keep it under advisement…

Update…

I have realized it is foolish to think AI will “think” like a human.  But as AI develops, it sort of “reasons” in its own fashion.  An example is it’s ability to “analyze” data… I can take a lengthy article full of charts, graphs, quotes and even politicians outright lies and subtle obfuscations and tell it to “Summarize at a 6 grade level:”.

With that simple command, the AI Does Its Thing…  and it does it very well (in my opinion).  Try it.

Find a truly complex, scientific article that is miles above your pay grade… (DNA articles just slay me, make my eyes cross and put me to sleep)… but I can ask my AI chatbot to “Summarize at 6 grade level:” then copy/paste the article in the chat box and hit enter.  The damn thing spits out a truly understandable paragraph or two that even I can understand and make sense out of.  For true.

Petty Shore

Crab Louse Creek

my latest escapade…

He operated in South Carolina but was  allegedly from Virginia…

We shall see…

Wright, John… Indian Trader

Many of you have asked how I produce these maps.  All of the snazzy graphics you see on this site (including the Maps) are created with a Program called Affinity. I paid good money for it years ago because it did eveything that Adobe Illustrator and Photoshop could do at a fraction of the cost.  The crazed lunatics are now giving it away for FREE.  I have no doubt it is because they want to take on Adobe and grab some of the market share away from them.  I long ago got fed up with Adobe and the fact I was forced into paying a monthly rental fee.  Furious is probably a better term for my disgust of being used and abused by that corporate beast.  But Affinity is saying in no uncertain terms they will keep the product free but you can pay a premium if you want the new AI assisted add ons.  The basic program is quite fine for what I do.  Download it and take it for a spin. Why not…the price will not get any better than free.

I have not received a dime to endorse this… been using it for years…

Yes it has a learning curve and no it is not that easy…don’t whine.  It is worth it.

There are a ton of How To videos on YouTube.

Tune in, Turn on and then buy my book on how to create Colonial Maps.  You knew I had a motive.