NELMS Genealogy

Nelms
Family History

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Martha "Polly Nelms

GGG-Grandmother of James Daniel Mims, Sr.

Martha "Polly" Nelms was born Bet. 1770 - 1780 in GA. She married Robert S. Sayer, who was born Bet. 1770 - 1780 in Cork, Ireland, and died 1827 in Pendleton Co., SC.
This information came from other researchers. There is no documentation other than their son's census record.
See Sayer Surname.

Nelms research data has been difficult to obtain. The only documented early ancestry was obtained from the book, "The Thomas Nelms Family and other Nelmses" by Ella Frances Mainer Dodd (This book is about the descendants of Thomas Nelms who came from NC to Wilkes Co., GA in 1788 (VA to NC - 1776) - "... it has always been thought that Thomas Nelms came from VA to GA, we now know that he was in Bute Co., NC (later Franklin) from 1776 until 1788 when he made his first purchase in Wilkes Co., GA."

"The Nelms name, contrary to general opinion, is not an uncommon name. Many families came from England and Scotland in early days of the American Colonization. We have not traced this family to the European sources, but Mrs. J.O. O'Connell of Dade City, FL, says: "One of my correspondants said the Nelmses were of Norwegian descent where the name was spelled 'NELMJ'. An early emigrant to Wales changed the spelling to 'NELMS'. Early progenitors of the family immigrated to the Isle of Skye, Scotland, thence to England." Mrs. O'Connell said she could authenticate this.
Sgt. Charles Nelms, veteran of the American Revolution, says he was born on the Isle of Skye. Richard Nelms, in VA in 1638, was mentioned in the will of "Simon Alston, grocer in London as receiving 10 pounds to make account of Shopp". Bardsley in his Dictionary of English and Welch Surnames says, P.552, "Nelmes, Melms - Local 'Atten elms' - i.e. at the elms. .. The name is Latinized into de Ulmo in the Hundred Rolls." The following records of Nelmses are found:
1604/5 - Christopher Foster married Casandra Nelme in St. Diones Back Church in London.
1639 - Buried: Marye, daughter Jasper Mellmes, St. Mary Aldermary (London)
1714 - Married: Charles Byne and Elizabeth Nelms, St. Dionis Back Church, London.
1803 - Thomas Degory and Eleanor Nelmes, St. George Han Sq. London, Oxford.
In Currer-Briggs: Virginia Settlers and English Adventurers: Thomas Nelmes was one of the Jurors at the Inquisition Post Mortem on Richard Carter, dec'd in the County of Hertford, England, 8 Nov 1558. (page 164)
#212 - In the will of Edward Kirbie, Gloucester Co., March 16, 1612/13, "William Woodcock and Robert Nelme of Upton, Overseers".
#351 - Francis Nelmes was witness to the will of Robert Carter, 8 Oct 1635, in London.
It is evident that most of these Nelmses were in the vacinity of London, England.

Virginia was the original Colonial home of the Nelmses for perhaps a century. As early as 1619, we read of Christopher Columbus Nelms, who came on the "Good Ship of Bristol called Margaret".
Richard Nelmes was in VA in 1618 and received large acreages of land in Northumberland Co., VA, for transporting other people from England to the Colonies. Northumberland County records are resplendent with records of these early Nelmes immigrants, such as William, Richard, Thomas, Charles, Robert, etc., who arrived in the early 1600s. T.N. Mainer wrote in his unpublished story of the family:
"We find numerous Nelmes wills from about 1706 in the Counties of Northumberland, Isle of Wight in VA, and later in Granville, Halifax, and other counties in NC.
"North Carolina was first permanently colonized after 1630 by settlers from VA. In 1663, the grant of Charles II to 8 proprietors was made larger so that it included all the land in what is now North and South Carolina, Georgia and states west of them.
"In 1729 the King took over the Colony and divided it into North and South Carolina. So it is not surprising that a large number of Nelms families are found to have migrated to Granville, Bute, Franklin and Halifax Counties in the early 1700s. "Mrs. Bowen, a reliable historian of the early days of Wilkes Co., GA, says that a party of Virginians settled in 1773 in the town of Washington, GA., in Wilkes Co. There were also immigrants from NC to this vicinity."
Wilkes was made a county in 1777. It was a large district and afterward six counties were formed from it: Greene in 1786; Elbert in 1790; Oglethorpe in 1793; Warren in 1793; Lincoln in 1796; and Taliaferro in 1825. It is in these counties that we find records of many Nelms families."

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