The Grigsby Family

Grigsby Coat of Arms/Family Crest

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This surname GRIGSBY is of Greek origin GREGORIOS, which is a derivative of Gregorein, meaning to be awake or watchful, but at an early date the Latin form GREGORIUS was associated by folk etymology with Grex, meaning flock or herd. This corresponded with the Christian image of the good shepherd, and several early bishops adopted this name as appropriate to their calling. The name has numerous variant spellings which include GRIGOREY, GREGGOR, GRIGOR, GREGORIO, GROGER, GERGELY, GORINI, REHOREK, RIHANEK, GORACCI and GRGIC, to name but a few. The Greek name was borne in the early Christian centuries by two fathers of the orthodox church, St. Gregory Nazianzene (c.325-90) and St. Gregory of Nyssa (c.331-95). Another eminent member of the name was Saint Gregory (240-332) the 'Illuminator', said to have been of the royal Persian race of Arsacidae, who became patriach of Armenia. Surnames became necessary when governments introduced personal taxation. In England this was known as Poll Tax. Throughout the centuries, surnames in every country have continued to "develop" often leading to astonishing variants of the original spelling.

The name Grigsby is of Lincolnshire background and derives from oe of the "lost" medieval villages in the area called Grebby or Girsby, a developed form of the Old Norse-Viking "Griot-byr", the farm of Gryt. "Grebby" is recorded as" Grebi" in the 1086 Domesday Book & this spelling carried forward into the original surname. Neither the name spelling hange to Grigby, nor the addictive Grigsby occured in Lincolnshie & it would seem to be Sourthern dialectal forms whose recordings include that of Bethia Grigsby. Bethia was the daughter of John & Lucey Grigsby. This is believed to also be the same person on April 2, 1732 is recoreded as Grigby with his wife Lucey & may well be the origination of the spelling Grigsby.

Nathaniel Grigsby

John Grigsby

Grigsby lived through a national argument that killed 618,000 men. In that war, Grigsby fought as a 53-year-old Indiana cavalryman. He lost one son. He lost boyhood friends. There was one boyhood friend in particular.

He was great, he was good and he was very wise. He told funny stories. And even as a boy, he talked politics with Grigsby, as Grigsby later said, "until we wore the subject out." When he was killed in 1865, as one of the last casualities of the Civil War, it was widely regarded as the ultimate national betrayal. His name was Abraham Lincoln, and to Nathaniel Grigsby, he was more than a boyhood friend. He was family. Lincoln's sister (Sarah) married Grigsby's older brother.

Lincoln and Grigsby. They met again one day just before the war, in 1861, when Grigsby walked intio Lincoln's law office in Springfield, Illinois. His friend looked up with delight. "Nattie," Lincoln said. Grigsby and Lincoln spent several days together as Lincoln prepared to move his family to Washington. As they parted, Lincoln offered to appoint Grigsby and his sons to government postal jobs. "No," Grigsby replied. "We are going to have a war, and I have myself and three [sic] sons to offer for the country's service."

The consequences caught up with Lincoln on April 14, 1865. When he heard the news back in Indiana, Grigsby fell down in a faint. Twenty years later, Grigsby and several of his sons moved to farms near Attica, Kansas. Grigsby, on his deathbed, asked a son to see to the carving of the message on the stone. It was a parting shot — at treason, at Democrats, at those he thought had helped kill family and friends.

John Grigsby 1623–1730. Most Grigsbys in the United States of America trace lines of descent from this 17th-century landowner, in Stafford County, Virginia John Grigsby was born in England and immigrated to America, perhaps around 1665, when he received a grant of land in Stafford County, VA. He also died at the age 107 & was often called Old John. In 1834, Old John’s great-great-great-great-great-granddaughter (5 greats), Frances Mitchell Grigsby, married George Washington Smyth, perhaps the most illustrious known person in our ancestry. The grandson of a German immigrant and born in North Carolina in 1803, George moved with his family through Tennessee to Alabama. In 1830, against his family’s wishes, he set off from Alabama to become a surveyor in East Texas, around Nacogdoches and Jasper. It was there that he met Miss Grigsby. Note the timing of all this: just six years after he arrived in Texas, George Smyth helped lead Texas towards independence from Mexico. Indeed, he signed the Texas Declaration of Independence on March 2, 1836 with 57 others. He later served as the Texas Land Commissioner; was a delegate to the Convention of 1845 (when Texas joined the US); and served a single term in the US House of Representatives 1853-1855 (he declined to run for re-election).John Grigsby, who died in 1730, is the common ancestor of the majority of the members of the National Grigsby Family Society. The earliest records of John Grigsby are found in Stafford County, Virginia, where he purchased land. John Grigsby and his (traditional) wife, Jane Prosser, had 6 children:

Mary Ann, John, Charles, James, William, & Thomas

All have descendants except Thomas, who died without issue.

Early Origins

First found in Lincolnshire where they held a family seat as Lords of Manor. The Saxon influence of English history diminished after the Battle of Hastings. The language of the court was French for the next three centuries and the Norman ambiance prevailed. But the Saxon surname survived and was first referenced to in the twenty century. With the spelling of "Grigsby" around nineteenth century.

Andrew J. Grigsby

Andrew was born November 2, 1819 & died December 23, 1895. He served in the Confederate States Army. During 1861 he was Major of the 27t Virginia Infantry, and later that year he became Lieutenant Colonel. He also served under Stonewall Jackson in the Valley Campaign, fighting at the First Battle of Winchester. Also served under Jackson in the Seven Days Battle & the Second Bull Run. He led the Stonewall Brigade in August 30, 862 to November 6, 1862 (Battle of Antietam). Stonewall Jackson decided not to promote him to permanent command of the Stonewall Brigade and the colonel resigned his commission in protest. November 14,1862 served in the CSA House of Representatives for the Kentucky Delegation.

The Great Migration

Many of the Grigsby's settled in the United States in the nineteenth & twentieth century

19th Century

• Enoch Grigsby arrived in Texas in 1835
• Emily Grigsby, age 18, settled in America in 1896

20th Century

• Carrie A. Grigsby, age 40, emigrated to America in 1908
• Francis Herbert Grigsby, age 31, landed in America from Mickleham, England in 1918.

These are just some of the immigrants that have the present spelling. One of the earliest spellings was Kent.

Contempory Notables of the Grigsby Name

• James Harvey "Boomer" Grigsby (b. 1981) American football linebacker/fullback
• Hugh Blair Grigsby (1806-1881) American historical scholar
• Tamara D. Grigsby (b. 1974) American Democratic Party member of Wisconsion State Assembly.
• John Grigsby (b. 1971) English aurthor of books on myth & the Grail Legends & the Old English poem "Beowulf"

The Grigsby Family

Family Immigration