Wright Family Genealogies
According to the website
How Many of Me,
the surname "Wright" is the 34th most common surname in America, with over 500,000 living Americans named Wright.
Millions more, like Kevin, descend from ancestors named Wright.
Wright was a common lastname in England, Scotland and Ireland, often taken by craftsmen who made machinery using wood.
It was used by builders of windmills, watermills, ships and more.
Many of the earliest colonial settlers carried the name Wright with them when they came to America.
Wright Family Migration
The early history of our family gets very murky because of the number of Wrights in colonial Virginia.
We're relatively certain that we descend from John Wright, born in Hanover County Virginia on October 25, 1761.
His wife's first name was Phoebe (Phebe?) and her last name may have been Lea or Lee.
John moved to Caswell County, NC after the Revolutionary War, where he met and married his wife.
He sold his property there in 1787 and moved with his wife (and possibly eldest son to Chester County, SC.
Seven or eight of their eight children were born in Chester between 1787 and 1801.
All or most members of their family later moved to Hart County, KY in about 1807.
In the early 1850s, many of their descendants moved to Macoupin, IL. Many moved again to Bronson County, Kansas in the 1860s.
Entwined Family Relationships
Many early American families developed overlapping relationships over time. It was very common for two brothers from one family to marry two sisters from another, and so on.
Our Wright ancestors, though, are more entangled than many others.
Wright Reseearchers