Joseph Vick Family of America

The Joseph Vick Family of America (JVFOA) is a non-profit association dedicated to the genealogy of Joseph Vick, who was a planter, of Lower Parish, Isle of Wight County, Virginia. His exact place of birth is unknown; he was probably born about 1640 and immigrated to America in Virginia in the mid-to-late 1660s. He died in Isle of Wight County, Virginia, before 1704. The organization maintains a database of Joseph Vick descendants, sponsors family reunions, and publishes a quarterly newsletter. We are a Non-Profit Corporation with a 501(c)(7) US Internal Revenue filing code and incorporated in the State of North Carolina in the United States of America.

History of the Organization
In July 1972, Sam Vick of Panola County, Mississippi, hosted a gathering of 170 descendants of Joseph Vick at the John Kyle State Park. It was the culmination of months of working to track down as many descendants as he could through his genealogical connections. After the success of this gathering. other family members sought to organize an association. Finally, a dozen years later, Mary Jo McCrary and James M. Perrin (both descendants of Newit Vick, founder of Vicksburg, Mississippi) organized the Joseph Vick Family of America and started the quarterly newsletter

In 1990, Gailen Vick and O. Richard Wright had the Association formally incorporated in the State of North Carolina. The extended family organization meets together each year at a location identified with the Vick family, at these annual meetings, members along with the community are educated in classes on family genealogy, family research and DNA testing. Members receive the quarterly newsletters as their main means of communicating and sharing information. The JVFOA Board meets together annually and via teleconference quarterly.

There are currently about 200 members of the organization. Everyone interested in the descendants of Joseph Vick is encouraged to join. Contact Laura Lynn Wikey at ("Membership Section") for more information.

On 20 Dec 1673 Hodges Council made a gift of land as follows: "I Hodges Councill of the Lower Parish do give.... to Joseph Vick of ye said Parish, 50 acres on Beaver Dam Swamp, adjacent to Robert Lawrence... and furthermore it is agreed that if the said Joseph Vicks have any other child beside this his present daughter, going by and bearing the name of Lucy, she shall after the decease of her father enjoy the land for her and her heirs, but if the aforesaid Jos. Vicks shall have any more children by this, his present wife, sonne or daughter, neverthe less the above Lucy shall enjoy ye land, but if the said Lucy shall decease without heirs, then the said land shall fall to either brother or sister, but if the said Joseph Vicks and his daughter Lucy shall both decease without heirs, then the aforesaid shall fall unto ye said Hodges Councill and his heirs again."
Signed Hodges Council
Witnesses: John Brown, Rowland Buckley, & Richard Booth
This deed was recorded on 9 March 1681/2 (IOW DB1, p.480)

Y-DNA Project
Have you hit a brick wall in your research? Can you prove your lineage just so far and then the trail ends? Well, two Vick family members have started a project to identify direct line (patrilineal) male descendants of Joseph Vick through genetic testing.  As is usually the case with the surname, a son got his Y-DNA from his father.  The son's father got his Y-DNA from his father, and so on back through time.  Y-DNA is passed from father to son virtually unchanged generation after generation.  Occasionally, there are very small changes in the Y-DNA signature.  These changes can be helpful in tracing a man’s Vick pedigree.

If you are interested in the VICK Y-DNA Surname Project, go to http://worldfamilies.net/surnames/v/vick/index.html for more information and test results.  Over 100 Vicks (including Vicks from other clans and countries) have been tested - more than 80 of them are descendants of Joseph.  We have test results from all five of Joseph’s sons.

If you have questions, you can contact Gailen Vick or James Larry Vick at the following e-mail addresses gailenvick@gmail.com or jameslvick@yahoo.com.  They can suggest the best level of testing and give you additional information.  Their addresses are below:

Gailen Vick                                     James Larry Vick
441 W. Main Street                        5843 Bay Hill Cir
Lehi, UT 84043                               Lake Worth, FL 33463-6568
USA                                                USA