Gay Family Research
.
Samuel Gay
Progenitor
In
Virginia
{West} Virginia

This Site Hosted by: Eldon and Rennie Johnson

“ Parent Directory”

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The journey from beginning the research of this accumulation of information to the present format has taken a few years. We have researched several of our connected family surnames. When we completed my father’s family nameline and bloodline the Johnston/Johnson we wanted to learn more about my mother’s family surname the GAY’S.

There is no explaining the compulsion one has for genealogy research, there is always the need to find an earlier date or connection to yet another ancestor, the reward is in the discovery . There are frustrating times and impossible missions, but, you find you are driven to perserve.

You know there has to be that one special person that knows the answer to a question, knows the information, the clue that leads you forward and backward in time. You become somewhat of a nuisance asking the questions to anyone you can find with the name you are researching.

Some family members have chosen not to participate, the results for missing “pieces”, and their wishes to be omitted were respected.

A special thanks to all who were so generous with their time in completing our genealogy family charts and returning them, sharing their photos and taking a personal interest in our endeavor.

We do not claim or presume perfection herein, we know that such can never be. That having been said, we offer no excuse or apologies.

We appreciate and thank all of our “connected kinfolk” without whom we could not have gathered their personal family info. If your important piece of history information is not represented herein, we are sorry. Any imput you might have will be whole heartedly accepted for future updates.

We dedicate this book to all who have contributed to it’s pages.   { Eldon E. Johnson}

Rt.1 Box 150A, Sand Fork, WV 26430
Ph# 1-304-462-7553
e-mail gsa00350@mail.wvnet.edu

A STORY OF THE GAY FAMILY

"A people which takes no pride in the noble achievements of their remote ancestors, will never achieve anything worthy of being remembered with pride by their remote descendants".

In olden times in Gloucester
A family lived named Gay
A home and lands they did acquire
Also a crest they say
Goldsworthy was their Manors name
And in that early day
It gave them quite a little fame
As did the crest of Gay
Now this device or coat of arms
They say it was unique
It sometimes told of war's alarms
Before the war would break
That is, it seemed to brighter grow
It was a flame of fire
And flames must rise, at least must try
For flames must “do or die”.
There was a motto for the crest,
It caused the Gays to try
It put a feeling in their breast
That they should “do or die”.
In times of peace it seemd subdued
The color seemd to pale
But war or peace, that signet crude
Did dominate the vale.
But after while, religion brought
Two factions into life
One creed was new the other not
But all engaged in strife.
They fought about their God, their King
And Christ their Savior too
Both sides besought their God to bring
The others to their view.
To Carolina's sunny clime, (1770-71)
They went and all seemed right
But soon the crest begain to shine
In fact it grew quite bright.
The revolutions war was on (1776)
The Gay's said "I will go"
In seven years the war was done (1783)
The crest then ceased to glow.
For British hatred then was rife
And English emblems were
Such recent cause of deadly strife
They made our people swear.
The family crests were laid away
And since the Civil war
The proudest emblem for them today
Is the flag of the USA
The New England Branch of the Gay Family
This branch of the Gay family was founded in 1630, when John Gay of Gloucester came to America with a colony of about one thousand Puritans. They were called the Massachusetts Bay Colony. Our American historian, Gordy, says of this colony, "They settled at Boston, Charlestown, Roxbury and Watertown. Unlike the Pilgrims who came ten years earlier, they were men of wealth and culture. Some of them were relatives of the greatest men of the day in England. They were not Separatists in England as the Pilgrims had been, yet they established the Independent Congregational church in America".
When young John Gay the Puritan
To Massachusetts came
He went to work right there and then
To make himself a name.
There were one thousand Puritan’s
Some of them men of fame
They brought their flocks and herds with them
And stores of every name.
They settled at old Watertown
Boston and Charlestown too
Unlike their friends of near renown,
They came prepared to do.
They marked their impress on the state
They would a nation try
To build a nation was their fate
For they would “do or die”.
John Gay, a worker in that band
We know that he made good
And his descendants in the land
Are better understood.
For scholars, statesman, ministers
And business men galore
Who claim him and his anscestors
Are found from shore to shore.
One grand old soldier from that band
Did long in Quincy dwell
No doubt there's many in the land
Our records do not tell
But tis a fact with justice done
It often has been said
That all the Gays have always won
Respect with fame or bread.
We cannot prove all Gays are kin
For records fail to show
But family ways are much the same
We find, where'er we go.
“Samuel Gay”
Tis of Samuel Gay, of Virginia
His lines of life we try to trace.
Born of a hardy rugged race
By industry won an honored place
He was a true son of the soil
He plowed his ground, chopped his wood
And grew his crops as farmers should
And took delight in doing good.
He was just and true, brave and kind
These maxims learned, he lived them too
And never quit till tasks were done
At seventy-seven Sam was gone
Tis sometimes said that blood will tell
Tho generations run
Sam Gay’s kin have proved him well
As ancestors begun.
Samuel never served in any war
But worked with might and main
And grew the crops that have thus far
Been thought the best for gain.
He bore hardships that we feel
We hardly need to know
Like building fires with flint and steel
Or with a string and bow.
We do believe that blood did tell
The way generations run
God in his goodness willed us well
It has since we begun.
Exerts from the works of Wm. H. Gay, 1920
Presented to the
Library  of  Memorial  Continental  Hall  Rockport, Illinois by  Old  Belfrey  Chapter, February 1924

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