Philip Stoy, my third great-grandfather, was possibly the immigrant of my direct line, and was said to be from Sweden and his surname spelled Stoydja. This from an interview with his great-grandson at age 85 in 1945 - perhaps this is true and perhaps not - there are many inconsistencies. More on this and the results of research in May 2008 in the section on the Stoy family of New Jersey.

This web site provides some of the family history of my paternal line (the Stoy and Caylor families of Northern Virginia) and my maternal line (the Young and Rudd families of Georgia and Tennessee).

This history ranges over several of the original thirteen colonies and some of the families can be traced to original settlers in the 1600s, although there remain many dead ends and unexplored family members. Germans, English, Irish and Scots are all represented, some arriving in the colonies in the 1700s and some in the early 1800s.

Other families that are part of our history are: Sayre, Simpson, Winget, Oatyar, Maffett, Edwards, Primm, Simmons, Morrison and Fleming. There are others listed in the surname index but these are the families about which most is known. Since the spelling of some of these names has changed over time, it's useful to look at the Introduction page to understand the original and derivative spelling.

I owe my cousin Ann Arnold Hennings tremendous thanks for her original research on the Stoy family beginning some 40 years ago. She created a manuscript of her work in 1981, which she shared with all the cousins, and this eventually got me interested in following her lead. We consulted each other, shared our findings, and found the time to make genealogy research trips every two years until her death in 2020.

This is a work in process and I make additions and corrections frequently. To help understand the changes, I've set aside a page where updates are listed on an Update Page. Most importantly, the information should be used as a guide for research and should not be used without verifying the information from original source material. I have included sources for most of the material; some of it is original material and much is derivative. County court houses and state archives in Virginia, Ohio, Pennsylvania, Tennessee, North Carolina and New Jersey have provided much of the source material as has the Family History Library in Salt Lake City. Family members - distant cousins - have also been invaluable, providing written material as well as photographs that document many family members. The Internet has also been useful where copies, sometimes transcribed and sometimes digital, of original material are available but some of the data are not verifiable because few sources (that are accessible) are given. All data from the family history web sites I use as sources should be viewed with a healthy amount of skepticism (I use this material as a guide and usually back it up with other evidence). Please contact me for any source questions.

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