Paul, interesting family to choose for a post. I've often wondered about them. Particularly the Joseph Bunch of Nansemond County who emancipated his 15 slaves by will and sent them to Liberia. They travelled on the *Sophia Walker* and arrived in Liberia on 30 July 1854.
One of these slaves was one Randall Bunch who changed his name to Kilby after his arrival in Liberia, and who wrote several letters to John Richardson Kilby of Nansemond, an attorney and member of the Secessionist convention (who voted NO on the first vote.) These letters are within the Kilby Papers available through the manuscripts room at LVA. I used these letters as part of an article I wrote for the *Bulletin of the Northumberland County Historical Society* in 2008.
Can you fill in some more information about this Joseph Bunch?
Craig Kilby
>
> In a message dated 11/15/2012 11:38:09 A.M. US Mountain Standard Tim,
> [log in to unmask] writes:
>
> The Bunch family also descended from a white woman who had children by a
> slave in Virginia, probably about 1630. I had no way of knowing this when I
> researched the family many years ago because they lived in New Kent and
> Hanover counties which have few surviving records. However, DNA testing as
> well as significant additional research by Ancestry.com and the Core Melungeon
> Project has proved the family descend from a West African man. A few
> months ago this information was published by Ancestry.com as the Obama Bunch
> Descendancy since Samuel Bunch (born about 1720) was one of the president's
> ancestors. The only indication from the records that Samuel had some measure
> of African ancestry is the fact that he was indicted, along with several
> of the other mixed-race heads of household in the area, by the Louisa County
> Court in 1745, apparently for failure to list his wife as a tithable.
>
> http://c.mfcreative.com/offer/obama_bunch/PDF/descendancy_final.pdf . See
> also http://www.familytreedna.com/public/coremelungon (Y-DNA Results)].
>
> What is interesting about the Bunch family is that Samuel Bunch's brother
> William was called "Mr. William Bunch" by the "Gentleman" merchants with
> whom he had an account in Orange County for purchases of a silk handkerchief,
> paper and ink, and an ivory knife and fork. William had excellent
> handwriting, so that might indicate he was relatively well educated. And his
> education might explain why he was so well regarded [Orange County Judgments,
> February-March 1742, LVA microfilm reel no. 84, frames 644-9; July
> 1742-February 1742, reel no. 86, frames 427-32; September 1742-March 1743, reel no.
> 88, frames 369-371; June-December 1743, reel no. 90, frames 532-5; Judgments
> May (K-Z)-July 1744, frames 283-6]. Samuel's other brother James was called
> "Mr. James Bunch" in Louisa County court documents in 1773.
> Paul
>
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