Are you a descendant of John and Lucretia Burnett of Picataway Creek, Old Rappahannock County (now Essex County), Virginia? You are not a descendant of John Burnett, Merchant of Aberdeen.

Recently I attended the East Coast Genetic Genealogy Conference in Maryland. While there I was talking to another attendee and he mentioned he descended from an Isham Burnett. I have an Isham Burnett in my Burnett family and I said I'd get back to him after the Conference. In examining my Burnett line I found that the often followed ancestry for John Burnett and Lucretia Burnett back to Aberdeen, Scotland, appears to be incorrect.

According to research published in 2020, by Mary Neil Burnett and Susan Kromer Hunt, in "John & Lucretia Burnett of Essex County Virginia", John Burnett of Old Rappahannock County was an indentured servant claimed in a land patent dated in 1653 and released from indenture in 1656/7 and who acquired land in Lancaster County (later Old Rappahannock, and now Essex County), while John Burnett, Merchant of Aberdeen/Edinborough, acquired land in Old Norfolk County in 1637. Details with supporting documents and citations are in the referenced article above.

I find the evidence in the article to be very well presented and I agree with the conclusion. I look forwaard to their further research.