The earliest record we are tracking for the Wise family has them in Accomack County, Virginia around 1681 with the birth of William Wise. He later married Ledether Wyse of Surry County. Interestingly Wyse is an alternative spelling of Wise, so it could be that she was related, or that researchers have not be able to uncover her correct maiden name. We know that there were Wise (Wyse) families in Ireland, so it is likely that the Wise family were emigrants from the British Isles. We do not know if they emigrated directly into Virginia or another port.

Accomack County, Virginia was and is a peninsula county off the eastern shore of mainland Virginia. It shares a boundary with Maryland on the north, and Northampton County, Virginia on the south. The area is surrounded by water, with the Chesapeake Bay on its western shores and the Atlantic Ocean on the eastern shores.

The descendants of William and Ledether Wise migrated down through Virginia to North Carolina, and then into Georgia. They first settled in Wilkes County. It was Sherwood Wise and his wife Sarah Patton who first settled in Georgia shortly after the Revolutionary War. Sherwood served in the War, and it is possible that he received a land grant for service, although we do not have records to that account. Sherwood and Sarah Wise died in Wilkes County, but their son, Patterson Wise continued his westward migration and moved into Clarke County around 1800.

Elmina Wise's mother was Mary Lacey, daughter of Noah Lacey and Elizabeth Mary Wilson. This family was also from Virginia and migrated to Oglethorpe County, Georgia about the same time as the Wise family arrived.

Researchers place the Lacey family in Virginia in the late 1600s or early 1700's. Their immigrant ancestor was a Thomas Lacey who came to America from Wales.

So this connection also places our family in the British Isles and is one more connection to that region of the world. It might also give us a hint as to the departure point of both the Wise and Whitehead families to America.

The "Migration Path" link below the map on the right hand side of this page will show the path these two families took to Oglethorpe County.

Elmina Ann Wise was one of eleven children born to John Patterson Wise and Mary Lacy. She was the fifth child and third daughter. Census information indicates that she was born in Georgia, but since her parents migrated from Wilkes County to Clarke County, we have no exact birth location.

Census records would also indicate that the Wise family had considerable lands and wealth in the Clarke, Jackson, and later Oconee County area. We know this from declaration of assets in early census data and from slave records. We might also deduce that marrying into the Wise family was desirable since the children would have inherited considerable land at the death of John and Mary Wise.

Elmina Wise was touched by the Civil War in many ways. Her husband and three sons served in the Confederate Army. It is likely that only one of her brothers served in the war because most of her brothers would have been too old for service. But she had at least nineteen nephews who served and several who died. So for her the war was very personal.

Sandford and Elmina Whitehead had six boys and four girls. We are descended from James Edward Whitehead, their sixth child and fourth son.

Sandford and at least three of his sons served in the Confederate Army. Sandford was too old for service and returned home after a brief service. One son, John Parks Whitehead, died at the siege of Petersburg, Virginia. After Sandford returned from the war he served as the executor for the estates of many Whiteheads in the area, indicating that there was at least a perceived or real connection between the families.

We know the death location of eight of their children. Six of the eight died in Oconee County, John Parks Whitehead died in Virginia during the Civil War, and Simeon H. Whitehead died in Bartow County in northwest Georgia. So the family did not migrate outside of Georgia in the next generation and this permanence in north Georgia lasted for many generations.