Notes for: James Berdine
All this information on the Berdines is quite suspect and does not seem to have been researched well. So take anything here with a grain of salt.
I have a lot of children listed here for James Bodine and Hester Houch. I don't think it is possible that they had all these children. The dates alone are difficult to believe. Much more research on this family needs to be done.
Susan Koehler has had correspondence with Jim Berdine: His ggggrandfather was James Berdine, born 1726-27. He was married to a Hester Houch. Records exist of their membership in the Evangelical Lutheran Church in Frederich, Maryland. The names of children are recorded by LDS. This James may have been the brother of Nicholas Berdine, Sr. (the father of Susan's ancestor, Nicholas) but the dates don't seem to support this.
Here is a message from Joan Best in response to a message by Jim Berdine.
----- Original Message -----
From: "Joan Best" (joanbest1 at earthlink.net)
Sent: Sunday, March 17, 2002
Subject: Re: [Bodine] Fw: Ancie may be Nancy
James, I have been looking at your Berdine Family. I think that James Berdine was the son of John Bodine who is found in the 1800, 1810, 1820 census in Whitley. Levi is in the 1820 census also as Levi Bodine, living next to his father-in-law, Joseph Fox. I think Levi's father James Bodine had already died. This is what I think happened. James brother Samuel, about 1817 moved to Wayne Co. Ohio. In about 1823 Levi dies and his wife, Rebecca Fox Bodine, stays next to or with her parents. The rest of the Bodine clan move to Ohio: John, Sr., Thomas, John, Jr. The only Bodines left are Levi's children, brought up in the Fox family. The name is changed at this point from Bodine to Berdine, perhaps as a result of southern dialect. I have noticed that this changed has happened more often in the south. I understand the Joseph Fox family was from Virginia. By the way, Samuel Bodine was also married to one of Joseph Foxes daughters. John Bodine, Sr. applied for a Rev. War pension from Wayne Co. Ohio. There is a marker there for him. It is on the internet.
Joan
From: James Berdine
To: Joan Best
Sent: Friday, March 08, 2002
My grandfather moved to Hundred, WV about 1905 from New Freeport, Greene County, PA. All of the children were born in Greene co. The lineage is as: James Burdin and Hester Houch, I have from the loical LDS that they came from Ireland, another LDS source says she was born in Aleppo township, Greene. They had John, James (KIA Rev) Levi-my gggfa, Hester Ann, and some more. Levi married an Indian ,had two children, then married Rebecca Fox, my gr.gr fa was James Berdine, then James Milton Berdine, my fa Fred and then me James Milton-also. I have found about 16 different spellings of Berdine. The James Burdin was taxed in Bedford co in 1771, then Westmoreland the next year and then I have lost him. The area where most of the decesdants were born is Whitely township, Aleppo, Springhill (my father and his siblings) We have a reunion again this July in Washington, Washington County. PA. I now live in NC but go north pretty regular. Still some family there. Jim