Genealogy of the Bott(s) and Kegley Families of Western and Central, Virginia: 1653–2005
Updated: Aug 8
I’ve been working on my genealogy in fits and spurts since an eighth grade class project got me started. Without the internet, things were a lot harder back then, and I got most of my information by interviewing aunts and uncles, parents and grandparents, and from, especially, a massive black leather-bound book belonging to my grandmother Sue, chronicling her Heiskell lineage. I’ve picked up the hunt on three occasions since then, each time benefitting from advancements in technology, as well as the work of others to whom I am indebted and, at some distance point in our pasts, related.
In this current push, which is far from all consuming, I am chiefly concerned with data accumulation, and, above all, resources I can obtain for free. This is limiting work, but without more time I can’t justify the subscription fees to unlock materials that will take my research to the next level. Much to my pleasure, my wife, Megan, has been a spirited ally. When the time comes to cross-reference multiple, and often contradictory, sources; decipher documents with antiquated penmanship; and untangle complicated centuries-old genealogical lines, here, as with many things, two heads are better than one.
It is with this spirit in mind that Megan got me Bryan S. Kegley’s Genealogy of the Bott(s) and Kegley Families of Western and Central, Virginia, a slight, self-published paperback volume now in its second edition (2005). Aside from a brief foreword and preface, the book is ostensibly divided equally between the two families with six chapters devoted to the Botts and five to the Kegleys. The reality is very different, however. This is first and foremost a Botts book, their history being told within the context of early settlement of the area and, of course, within the events leading up to and including the Civil War. The Kegleys, on the other hand, are chronicled much more perfunctorily, with little more than genealogies detailed and only the occasional anecdote included.
From all indications, this is the first book to tell the Botts story, while numerous works by and about the Kegleys have been written, including Frederick B. Kegley’s comprehensive Kegley’s Virginia Frontier, originally published in 1938. It’s understandable, then, that Bryan S. Kegley should devote his energies to his mother’s untold family line, and leave the Kegley details to other well-established and oft-cited books. This is great for the Botts, but since I have no Botts heritage it’s not so great for me—the author reveals no family ground I haven’t uncovered elsewhere.
The most unfortunate aspect of the book isn’t that the Kegleys get short shrift, but that the author’s reach thoroughly exceeds his grasp. There is no doubting his enthusiasm for genealogy, his research efforts, or his desire to share the fruits of that labor. But the book is poorly written and poorly proofread (I knew there would be trouble when the first typo appeared in the foreword), which serves only to diminish the story he aims to tell. Bryan S. Kegley’s weaknesses as a writer are present throughout, but having just read the exceptional The Personal Memoirs of Ulysses S. Grant, they are frequently brought into garish focus, especially in his chapters covering the Civil War. For interested Botts relations none of this will matter. They will thrill at the mere existence of these words. As for us Kegleys, we can simply turn elsewhere—to Frederick B. Kegley, to Mary B. Kegley—for better, more complete accounts of our people and their arrival, settlement, and life in the New World.
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