the Bandy Families in the USA
Being in a family is like being a link in a long chain stretched through time, each generation interlinked with those who came before and those to come. In our lifetime, we only have a chance to see a few links. Learning of the links who came before helps us understand who we are. The record we can leave behind is a gift to those who come after.
After my Mother’s death in 1991, my Father moved back to his boyhood home in Carroll County, Arkansas. Even though he had been away for fifty years, he found friends from the early days, and began to wonder about earlier generations who had lived there. One day, he stopped by the old county courthouse in Berryville, now the county history museum, and asked what information they had. They gave him a copy of genealogical records left there in the early 1980's by Barbara Bandy Jones of Ardmore, Oklahoma. Barbara had traced her family through the area and back to William Bandy who I now believe is our common ancestor. William was born in South Carolina about 1780, lived in South Carolina, North Carolina, and Tennessee before making his way to Missouri around 1847 and moving across the border to Arkansas sometime in the 1850's.
My Father passed a copy of Barbara's records on to me. My wife, JoAnne, mentioned that the Orlando library has a very good genealogy section. I found many records in the library, and in time contacted others individuals who were studying the family. I found that others had been studying Bandy family history since at least 1902.
This book summarizes the results of a century long effort to create a history of the Bandy family in America. It is an attempt to list and relate every American named Bandy who lived during the 1600's, 1700's, and early to late 1800's. The effort remains incomplete. Frankly, because some critical records are missing or destroyed, the task may be impossible. A task, however, is not a challenge if it is easy. Any input that you may have that adds to the record leads us closer to the completion of the project. I would greatly appreciate any such information you might have. I know that some of the records are out there. Family Bibles, local records, documents, and files pieced together can weave apparently unrelated facts into a detailed account that completes the story.
I must make it clear that this work represents more than just my attempt to write the family history. It is a compilation of the efforts of many individuals, and it draws heavily from earlier works in an on going attempt to establish relationships between more than one thousand individuals with the name who lived in early America.
Some of major sources relied on in the creation of this work include Jane and Burt Eubank's Bandy Gallimaufry (1994) a comprehensive work that emphasizes descendants of Richard of Virginia. Allen Bandy's History of the Bandy Clan (1980) focuses on descendants of George of North Carolina. Robert Scott Davis, Jr.'s "The Early Bandys of Georgia," appeared in The American Genealogist in 1992 and looks at Lewis and John who moved to Georgia from North Carolina in the late 1700's. Carrie E. Allen's A Record of the Family of Isaac VanNuys of Harroldsburg, Kentucky (1916) includes information on John Bandy who was born in Virginia, married Mary VanNuys (probably in Kentucky), and moved to Indiana and eventually Iowa. Although limited to John and Mary’s family, it is the oldest known written account of Bandys in America.
I must say that I cannot understand how these writers were able to assemble some of the information that is included in their major works.
All of us, however, owe thanks to John McDowell “Mac” Ballard who, beginning in 1902, wrote letters to anyone who he thought might have information regarding the Bandy family. He received some 160 responses from about 60 correspondents. Some of the responses came from elderly individuals who reported childhood recollections of names, relationships, dates, and places that became the foundation of family traditions that would have otherwise been lost forever. Mac inspired his nephew Allen Bandy to carry on the effort and write his account. In the History of the Bandy Clan, Allen Bandy recalled that in 1956 Mac Ballard, at the age of 94, sat on his porch and rattled off information from memory. Allen wrote down the details in a composition notebook. Allen added details by reading Mac’s correspondence, visiting libraries, and working carefully to piece together the information. Finally, in 1980 he completed The History of the Bandy Clan.
Burt and Jane Eubank added extraordinary details and analysis that amazes me every time I read their more than 1,000 page work. Their work is the source of much of the information reported here. Burt was generous enough to share his database that has information on some 14,000 individuals. I probably would not have undertaken this effort had I not had the advantage of their exceptional work.
This book summarizes accounts found in these important predecessor works, and adds many details regarding individuals found in early Virginia, Maryland, North Carolina, South Carolina, and Georgia. The discussion in this book is organized on a geographic basis. Generally, individuals are discussed in connection with the geographic area, usually the state, where they, or known ancestors, are first found. An effort has been made to minimize the duplication of information reported in the above cited works, but many portions of these earlier works are repeated in order to link individuals who are discussed here with those who are discussed in the other sources. Also, the discussion repeats yarns and traditions to entice readers to work their way through the long lists of names, dates, locations, and other details which may prove useful, but which do not peak interest.
Family tradition says that many, perhaps most, American Bandys can trace their ancestry to Richard who was born in Liverpool, England around 1720 (some say around 1700) and moved to Virginia. This second edition of the book generally adds two or three generations to the account found in the first edition. Because so many individuals seem to be descendants of Richard Bandy (born around 1720), his family is discussed in Chapter 2, as in the previous edition, but his four sons about whom information is available, are separately discussed in four new chapters (7 -10).
Information presented here does not contradict the tradition regarding Richard Bandy, but does identify several Bandys who lived in Virginia, Maryland, and North Carolina before or at the same time as Richard. These individuals probably are the ancestors of Bandys who do not descend from Richard.
An alternative theory that contradicts family tradition is that Richard also descended from the earlier American Bandys. There is little evidence to confirm either the family tradition or this alternative theory.
Although this book does draw heavily from earlier studies of the Bandy family, it also contributes several new details and offers alternative theories as to several relationships. Details regarding the earliest individuals named Bandy in America discussed in Chapter 1 were not widely known. Jerry Bandy of Azale, Texas suggested that I look at this possibility. Similarly, information regarding David, Bryant, and Jesse Bandy and their descendants has not previously been published. These families are discussed in Chapters 3 and 4. Relationships between Lewis Bandy and John Bandy and their respective descendants are revisited and in some cases revised in Chapter 5. The inclusive census listings found after Chapter 12 are also new. Occasional facts presented here and there are new.
The Bandy family is somehow tied to the Banning family first found in Talbot County, Maryland beginning in the late 1600's. Records from the early 1700's alternatively refer to several individuals by both names. It is unclear whether reporters recorded two distinct variations of one family’s name or, alternatively, two families lived in the same vicinity and their names became confused by reporters. For decades, Bandys and Bannings moved at more or less the same time from Maryland to the same vicinities in Virginia, North Carolina, Kentucky, and Illinois.
This work identifies multiple individuals with the names John, Thomas, Bryant, David, and George who lived at the same time. If you have identified an individual with one of these names as an ancestor you may want to review records presented here that describe others with the same name to be sure that the correct ancestor has been established.
A final word of thanks to the dozens of correspondents who provided information over the years. I must confess that I often did not note who sent me useful information that I was excited to receive. Too often this book does not indicate who provided the details that make it so interesting. I apologize for the omissions. Here are just a few of the names of family members, friends, and kind strangers without whom this book would not have been possible: Carrie E. Allen, Carol Anderson, Shirely Atkins, Howard L. Baine, Jr., John McDowell “Mac” Ballard, James M. Bayne, Allen Bandy, Bob and Nell Bandy, Bryan and Lorie Bandy, Claire E. Bandy, Clarence L. Bandy, Dan Denali Bandy, Derek Bandy, Everett Bandy, Kate DeBurger Bandy, Jack Bandy, Jerry L. Bandy, John R. Bandy, Lynn Bandy, Mary Ann Bandy, Rebecca Bandy, Roy Black, Sharon Hogue Boyer, Ralph E. Britt, Robert Burnett, Claude Casteel, Jesse Casteel, Vera Casteel, Bonnie Cernosek, Deborah Lee Bandy Chappell, Burt and Jane Eubank Joyce Filyaw, John and Kay Fox, Mary Ann Craig Franklin, Robert Haviland, Gordon DeWayne Haye, Anna Heath, Barbara Jean Rodes Herring, Lula Hankins Hunter, Selina Rose Johnson, Barbara Bandy Jones, Judith Evans Keller, James Kendall, Kay P. Lamb, Carolyn Malmberg, Roy McCrory, Bertie G. O’Quin, Lynn Purcell, Michelle Rawlings, Bill Reisor, John and Susan Reynolds, Jay Rogers, W.L. Robertson, Cheri Robinson, Kathryn L. Roller, Ella Rose, Al Rosenfield, Connie Sheets, Jeffrey W. Simmons, Scott Sparks, Nina Strickland, Morris Monroe Steward, Mary Ester Bandy Tretheway, Doris Troyer, Denise Waterworth, Margaret F. Bandy Williams, and Megan Zurawicz. To everyone whose name is omitted from the list, my sincere, apologies.
The person who deserves the most thanks is my wife JoAnne who suggested that I become involved in genealogy, and who allowed me to spend evenings and weekends for years working on this project.
Dale Bandy
Winter Springs, Florida
1999