Rebecca Taylor Oliver was the daughter of Thomas Andrew Jackson Oliver and Elizabeth Lewis Riley. T. A. J. Oliver was the son of Morgan Oliver and deMildred Brown. Morgan Oliver was the son of William P. Oliver, who was the son of Thomas Oliver. deMildred Brown was the daughter of Samuel Brown and Mildred Carr. Samuel Brown was the son of Samuel and Susannah Brown. Elizabeth Lewis Riley was the daughter of John M. Riley and Caroline Foster. John M. Riley was the son of Louis F. Riley and Elizabeth Soles. Caroline Foster was the daughter of Augustine Foster and Elizabeth Pew.

Thomas Oliver (d. 1787) & William P. Oliver (1778-1824)

Thomas Oliver, Sr. of Abingdon Parish, Gloucester County, Virginia, was listed as owner of 266 acres in Piney Swamp in 1782. In 1787, this land descended to his sons, Thomas, John, and William P. Oliver. Thomas received 100 acres; John and William received 83 acres each. Slaves were also divided among the three sons. Thomas Oliver, Sr. died in 1787.

According to a Gloucester deed of 1823, William P. Oliver’s children were William P., Jr., Morgan W., Maria, Thomas, James, and John. (All the information about William P. Oliver and his father, Thomas Oliver, is based on research done by Winona Hogge of Wicomico, Va. Much of the information is based on deeds of property and wills.) Apparently, Rebecca Oliver Emerson’s ancestors were in Gloucester well before the Revolutionary War.