Kedar is an Unusual Name

Has anyone ever heard of the name Kedar? His army payroll records spell it many different ways...Kadar, Cato, Keader, Cader. Apparently, he couldn't spell it and it was left up to the writer to figure it out.

When I arrived home from my Virginia trip, I googled on the word Kedar and discovered quite a lot! Kedar was the second son of Ishmael and the surname of an important tribe of nomads of Arabian origin. They lived near Mt. Gilead in Jordan.

This part is interesting...in the 1740 Census of Virginia, I found a Gillead Dobbs. Could this be Kedar's father? It is much to coincidental that there would be two very unusual biblical names that are significant to each other in Norfolk, VA!

In the past, our genealogist cousins who preceded us in this task tried to tie Kedar into the Arthur Dobbs clan of North Carolina. Was he the illegitimate son of Arthur? Was he the son of the Reverend Doctor Richard Dobbs, Arthur's brother? Who was his mother??? Nobody could figure it out.

Kedar could have been just another hard working, but talented peasant, from the Dobbs clan that was imported by Arthur Dobbs to fill up his colony. From examining census records, I know that many of them were carpenters and built houses and ships. In 1740, many workers moved to Norfolk to help build an infrastructure. It was a boom time for building and my bet is that the Dobbs clan were right there with their hammers, nails, and artfully designed architectural plans, but tragedy was to follow in the Revolutionary War and the War of 1812 when most of the town was destroyed along with our precious genealogy records in the fires that were intentionally set by the British.

This skill for designing and building things has made it's way through the generations. Many of you have reported that it has spontaneously erupted in you or your children. I'm pretty good with a saw and hammer myself, although I prefer designing something and delegating the physical work to my husband.