For years I incorrectly assumed that Robert P. Rhodes was the son of Matthew Rodes and Nancy Ann Blackwell in Albemarle County, VA. New information (including the will of John W. Rhodes - Albemarle County, VA, 1846 - and the numerous chancery suits that followed) now proves beyond a doubt that Robert P. Rhodes was the son of John W. Rhodes.

John Rhodes married (first) Tabitha Pearson in May 1793. While the evidence is somewhat circumstantial, I am convinced that Robert P. Rhodes was the son of John & Tabitha given that (1) Robert P. Rhodes named his first daughter Tabitha and (2) Tabitha Pearson's father was named Robert Pearson. I think it is entirely plausible that Robert P. Rhodes' full name was Robert Pearson Rhodes.

The wife of Robert P. Rhodes, Mildred Rhodes Marshall, was the daughter of William Marshall, Jr. and his first wife, Sarah Rhodes.

Moving this back a generation, John W. Rhodes was a son of Epaphroditus Rhodes. Sarah Rhodes, first wife of William Marshall, Jr., was a daughter of Epaphroditus Rhodes! This means that Robert P. Rhodes and his wife, Mildred Rhodes Marshall Rhodes, were first cousins.

To add to the intertwining of my Rhodes family "tree," after the death of Tabitha Pearson Rhodes, John W. Rhodes married Mary Ann "Molly" Martin in 1815. Molly had a sister named Mildred Martin--and Mildred was the second wife of William Marshall, Jr.!

Robert P. Rhodes and Mildred Rhodes Marshall Rhodes lived along Rockfish River Road in Nelson County, just east of the Rockfish Depot on Rt. 617. Prior to moving to Nelson County in 1848, they lived in Fredericksville Parish. This was in the northeast section of Albemarle County, VA.

The unmarked grave stones are to the left of a roadway that led to the site where the Rhodes home was before it was destroyed by fire sometime after 1878.