Hairston, Elizabeth Seawell Hairston, 1855-1945.

Elizabeth Seawell Hairston Hairston was a Virginia genealogist.

There were many Hairstons, and identifications of individuals in the family is frequently difficult because of the numerous intermarriages of Hairstons with other Hairstons and with their neighbors, the Penns and Wilsons, and because of the repetition of given names in succeeding generations and among contemporaries in different Hairston lines. Elizabeth Seawell Hairston's The Hairstons and Penns and Their Relations (available in the North Carolina Collection, UNC-Chapel Hill), while helpful, should be used with great caution.

Elizabeth Seawell Hairston (1855-1945), genealogist, honorary president of the Virginia United Daughters of the Confederacy and member of the Daughters of the American Revolution and the Colonial Dames, married her first cousin, Judge Nathaniel H. Hairston (b. 1851) on 17 September 1874. Most of the 19th century letters in the collection are to and from Elizabeth's mother Eliza Penn Hairston (b. 1826), who married Samuel William Hairston (fl. 1826-1866) on 21 October 1848. There are, however, many other correspondents, including Eliza Penn Hairston's parents, Thomas Penn (fl. 1818-1866) and Mary Christian Kennerly Penn (fl. 1818-1866); her brother, George Penn (fl. 1840-1861); her sisters, Martha Ann Catherine Penn (fl. 1820 1866), who married John N. Zentmeyer (fl. 1840-1863), and Sarah Ruth Penn (fl. 1829-1847); and her son, John Tyler Hairston (fl. 1850-1861), who was named after her brother. Eliza Penn Hairston's uncle, George Penn (fl. 1818-1826), also appears in the earlier correspondence. A number of Eliza and Samuel's children and grandchildren were named Eliza or Elizabeth, Samuel, George, William, Nicholas, or Ruth.

Amongst the Hairston correspondence, there are letters from Samuel Hairston's mother, Louisa Hardyman Hairston (fl. 1811-1847), and his brother, Nicholas Perkins Hairston (fl. 1791-1846). There are also letters to and from a George Hairston, who may be either Samuel's father (1750-1827), his brother (1784 1863), or Elizabeth Seawell Hairston's son. There were also several George Hairstons in other branches of the family.