·Wingos before America
Some emigrants to the new world were given or acquired English
sounding equivalents of their name by official record keepers. Also,
some changed their names after arriving in the new world thereby
making a completely new start.
If anyone knows when the first
Wingo entered the North American continent, please let me know. Where did
the Wingos come from? They probably arrived by ship from a
port in England, an English possession or possibly Holland. What was
their nationality? I have seen English, Dutch, French, German, Irish, Portuguese,
Italian and Czech.
·Wingos in America
Due to the destruction of many records, their lack of availability or the fact that records for some early emigrants never existed, it has been hard to place the original date for the first Wingo in America. However, we do have some information. Amelia County, Virginia was created in 1735 from parts of Prince George County (a county formed in 1703) and Brunswick County (a county formed in 1732). Many of the early records for Amelia County remain and have been made available for research.
Amelia County, located just southwest of present day Richmond, was the western frontier when it was created, but as its population increased and the frontier moved ever westward, government changes took place. Since its creation, the original area called Amelia County has been divided into three counties and a portion of a fourth. In 1754, Prince Edward County was created and in 1789 Nottoway County was created. In 1845, portions of Prince Edward County were placed with portions of Buckingham, Campbell and Charlotte Counties to form Appomattox County.
Thomas Wingo's name shows up in Amelia County documents in
1736 and his brother William (I assume) in 1745. William is later found in King
William County, Virginia. Their father John and younger
brother James are listed in documents in Amelia County starting in 1746.
John Wingo left
a will listing three sons and three
daughters. I decend from the John Wingo who died in Amelia County,
Virginia in 1755.
In 1800, almost all of the Wingos in America lived in Virginia although beginning around 1785 several families, including my ancestor Abner Wingo, Sr., moved to Spartanburg District, South Carolina.
In 1900 Virginia held a considerable lead in the number of Wingo families located within its borders. South Carolina and Missouri had approximately the same number of families and tied for second place. Fourth place was a tie between Mississippi and Texas. Georgia and Tennessee tied for sixth place. Kentucky, Alabama, Illinois and Ohio held approximately the same number of Wingo families and tied for eighth place. Sixteen other states had small numbers of Wingo families within their borders. Also, several Wingo servicemen were stationed overseas.
By the year 2000 the top three states inhabited by Wingos were Texas, Georgia and Virginia. Other states with significant Wingo populations in 2000 were:
- Alabama
- Florida
- California
- Oklahoma
- Missouri
- Tennessee
- South Carolina
- North Carolina
Top of Page
Wingo
Family
Web Site
·Welcome
I am Bill Wallace and I live in Birmingham, Alabama. I am a retired State of Alabama employee taking advantage of the Senior discount program (free tuition) available for people over 62 at Alabama's Community Colleges.
I am presently taking Computer Information Systems courses in Web Technology at Jefferson State Community College here in Jefferson County, Alabama. This is my continuing attempt at creating a Wingo Family Web Site. I will initially be concentrating on Abner Wingo, Jr. and his decendents. Please help.
·Research
Thanks to Moneka Wingo Landreth, Larry Wingo, Rose Wingo Peterson, Elizabeth Wingo and numerous other Wingo reserchers, I received a head start. Through their efforts and the efforts of many others, a great deal of research has already taken place. My brother and I have also done our own original research.
With the internet and other technological advances, research is much easier these days. Two good examples are Genforum and the Rootsweb archives.
Larry Wingo has researched and/or edited eight or nine books on the Wingo Family and there are books available by other researchers. If you know of books or are doing a book on the family, let me know.
If you wish to send me copies of Wingo family data, please don't send originals unless you do not want them returned. I do not want to be responsible for any document that might be lost or damaged. If you have documents I can copy with a digital camera, I would be glad to discuss visiting you at some date in the future. I will make all of the Wingo family information available for other researchers.
Any conclusions, omissions or other errors found on these pages are mine alone and all should be brought to my attention. My e-mail address is: jbwallace@centurytel.net.
I have taken several Genealogy courses at Wallace State Community College in Hanceville, Alabama and have enjoyed every minute, including trips to Washington, D.C. and Chicago-Fort Wayne. Robert "Bob" Scott Davis, Jr. has an excellent program that I highly recommend. Wallace State has acquired an extensive collection of genealogical data. The program occupies two floors of the six story campus library. Take advantage of these programs now before Wallace State becomes a University and costs go up.
Samford University, here in the Birmingham area, has a genealogy library and hosts the Institute of Genealogy and Historical Research every summer. Other sources of genealogical information are the Alabama State Archives in Montgomery and the Birmingham Public Library which has a very impressive Southern History Collection. In a recent (October 2002) issue of Family Tree Magazine the Birmingham Public Library was listed as one of the top ten public libraries in America "to research your roots".
·Warning
Identity theft is a common occurrence in America today; therefore, I will use 1930 as an approximate cut off for birth data in order to keep information concerning living individuals at a minimum on this web site.
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