Rhem Family  

INTRODUCTION TO THE RHEM FAMILY

Under no circumstance should the researcher of this family consider this a concise history as it is not. This is not one of my lines but few people appear to be researching the family and yet an incredible amount of information has come to light on the Rhems in the past two years and I just pulled together some of that information mostly out of curiosity. There are numerous other sources that should be consulted ? additional deeds in Craven and Jones Counties, all the abstracted Craven County Court Records by Haun, and other wills that may relate to the family. At this writing I have been unable to find the original will for Jacob Rhem although Heritage Place has a copy of it so it must exist. Also, Sandy said there is an existing Bible for the John and Mary Emily Rhem family that she is trying to locate. When that is located it will be posted. There are copies of all the original wills both at Heritage Place and at the Kellenberger Room.

For those of us who work Lenoir and Greene Counties, this family is the rare exception to the usually painful research with almost nothing to go on. It appears they lived mostly on Moseley Creek on both sides so records are found in Craven County. What is so incredible are the number of re-registered deeds in Lenoir County and most of those are Deeds of Gift, the number of NC Supreme Court Equity Cases, and the large Rhem Cemetery in Sand Hill Township. Most of us are not so lucky. There are today numerous descendants of the Rhems still in Lenoir County but most carry the West or Perry surnames.

We thank Victor Jones for supplying a copy of a Craven County Court case, to David French who has collected many Rhem records especially as they relate to the French family and especially to Sandy Girton who is a direct descendant and has made many corrections and additions. Sandy re-surveyed the old Rhem Cemetery in the Sand Hill section of Lenoir Co and the records used are from her work. Both Sandy and David will be posting additional records in their files in the future. There are a number of holes and questions still to be filled and answered but we hope these records will assist the future researcher. In the meantime, additions and corrections are welcome and will be posted. Thanks also go out to Jeanne French Jenkins who shared a great deal of information on the Rhem family as she is a direct descendant via William Joseph French who married Virginia Isler Rhem. Martha Mewborn Marble

Descendants of Melcher RHEM

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