it having now been granted that the dead communicate to those among the living with ears to hear, and knowing that those whose blood and bones are tied to the land do testify therefrom, we now find and accept the historical evidence of one John Bird whose descendants establish their estate at Powhatan in the Virginia Company, colony, and commonwealth (from Wikipedia):

John Bird (c. 1620–1677) was a goldsmith, and raised his family in the Shadwell section of London, although his family’s ancestral roots were in Cheshire. He had a son named William Byrd.

William Byrd I (1652 – December 4, 1704) was an English-born Virginia colonist and politician. (In Virginia, the spelling Byrd became standard). Born circa 1649 or 1652 in London. His mother was Grace Stegge, and her politically connected merchant uncle, Thomas Stegge urged young Byrd try trading in the Virginia colony across the Atlantic Ocean. In March 1669, William Bird/Byrd immigrated to Virginia, two years before Stegge’s death in March 1671, after which he would inherit Stegge’s significant landholdings. On October 27, 1673, Byrd was granted 1,200 acres (5 km²) on the James River, including at the fall line, where in this era Native Americans were becoming increasingly distressed at colonists’ incursions into their territory, particularly land grabs to cultivate tobacco. Byrd established a trading post for furs and became well-connected with not only this Native American and frontiersman customers, but the landed gentry of the Tidewater region further downstream. Some of Byrd’s landholdings became (after his death) part of the site of modern-day Richmond, Virginia. His first recording patent was issud on October 27, 1673, for 1200 acres of land on the James River and Shockoe Creek, near the falls of the James River and what became Richmond.

William Byrd II (March 28, 1674 – August 26, 1744) was an American planter, lawyer, surveyor, and writer. Born in the English colony of Virginia, Byrd was educated in London, where he practiced law. Upon his father’s death, Byrd returned to Virginia in 1705. He served as a member of the Virginia Governor’s Council from 1709 to 1744. Byrd was also the House of Burgesses‘s colonial agent in London during the 1720’s. His life reflected aspects of both the British colonial gentry and an emerging American identity. Byrd led surveying expeditions of the border of Virginia and North Carolina. He is considered the founder of Richmond, Virginia. […] He may be known best for writing his diary and narratives of his surveying, of which some excerpts have been published in American literature textbooks. Byrd recorded his exploits, which are notable for its openness on issues such as sex and Byrd’s brutal treatment of his slaves. […] [In his early life, h]e was an apprentice in London and Rotterdam for two years for tobacco trading companies, where he learned about commerce. During that time, he acquired the social graces of a gentleman. He then studied law at Middle Temple from 1692 to 1695, when he was admitted to the bar to practice law. The following year he was elected as a Fellow in the Royal Society with the support of Sir Robert Southwell, his father’s friend. By this time, Byrd spent much of his childhood in England, but born in Virginia, where he was expected to return, he was not accepted as an Englishman. This made it difficult for him to marry into an aristocratic family or become a politician in England.

Evelyn Byrd was the elder daughter of of William Byrd II and his first wife Lucy Parke. When she was 18, Evelyn was sent to London and presented at court, and sometime thereafter, she fell in love with a englishman, some say a Catholic. Her father, William Byrd II, disapproved of the match AND brought his daughter home to Virginia, where she died of a broken heart. She is buried next to her grandmother and grandfather (William Byrd I) in the cemetery ¼ mile upriver and to the west of the house (visitors can enjoy the lovely walk up there and view the graves). Evelyn Byrd had an agreement with her friend, Anne Harrison of Berkeley, that the first one of them to die would try to return to visit the other, but in a way not to frighten anyone. Evelyn died first and over the years has been seen in and near the house by many visitors. She is friendly! (https://historicwestover.com/evelyn-byrd.htm)

Colonel William Byrd III (September 6, 1728 – January 1/2, 1777) was son of William Byrd II and Maria Taylor Byrd, and the grandson of William Byrd I. Byrd inherited his family’s estate of approximately 179,000 acres of land in Virginia and continued their tradition of serving as a member of the Virginia House of Burgesses. He chose to fight in the French and Indian War rather than spend much time in Richmond. In 1756 he was colonel of the Second Virginia Regiment. At age 18, Byrd was sent to London to study law. There, he began to build a reputation as a notorious gambler. In 1752, he imported a chestnut horse from England, Tryall. That year, he initiated what was said to have been the first major horse race in the New World, involving fellow Virginia planters John Tayloe II, Francis Thornton, and Samuel Ogle & Benjamin Tasker Jr. of Maryland. […] By 1755, Byrd was in a dire financial situation. After he squandered the Byrd fortune on building a magnificent mansion at Westover Plantation, gambling, and bad investments, Byrd parceled up much of the land he had inherited from his father and sold it off to raise money to pay his debts. He also sold the enslaved African laborers who had worked on his estate plantation. Despite his debts, Byrd continued horseracing. […] Although his sale of property in assets of land, and enslaved, generated a huge sum, it still was not enough to pay off his creditors. Later, Byrd resorted to a lottery, the prizes of which would come from his estate, Belvidere, at the falls of the James River. However the lottery failed to generate sufficient revenue. Byrd was unable to retire his debts. Despondent and nearly broke, Byrd killed himself on January 1 or 2, 1777. This Byrd and Elizabeth Hill Carter they had five children, 4 sons and 1 daughter, including John Carter Byrd Sr.

Richard Evelyn Byrd Sr. (August 13, 1860 – October 23, 1925) was a Virginia lawyer, politician and newspaperman. He was the first son born to Jennie (Rivers) and her husband William Byrd, who had become an adjutant general of the state of Texas, and born in Austin, Travis County, Texas, months after the American Civil War had begun. After the war, his parents returned to Virginia, and lived with his grandparents. His grandfather and namesake, also Richard E. Byrd (1801-1872), was a politician and by then former slaveholder (the elder Richard E. Byrd owned 26 enslaved people in Frederick County in 1860, and possibly more in neighboring Clarke County). […] His great grandfather was Thomas Taylor Byrd, who used enslaved labor to work plantations, mostly in what became Clarke County after it was split from Frederick County. His great-great grandfather William Byrd had served in the British army during the American Revolutionary War, then moved to northwestern Virginia. This Richard E. Byrd graduated from the University of Virginia and later received a law degree from the University of Maryland. This Richard E. Byrd married Eleanor Bolling Flood, also descended from the First Families of Virginia, in Martinsburg, West Virginia, on September 15, 1886. They would have sons Harry Flood Byrd (1887–1966); Richard Evelyn Byrd (1888–1957) and Thomas Bolling Byrd (1890–1968).

Richard Evelyn Byrd Jr. (October 25, 1888 – March 11, 1957) was an American naval officer, and pioneering aviator, polar explorer, and organizer of polar logistics. Aircraft flights in which he served as a navigator and expedition leader crossed the Atlantic Ocean, a segment of the Arctic Ocean, and a segment of the Antarctic Plateau. He is also known for discovering Mount Sidley, the largest dormant volcano in Antarctica. He was born in Winchester, Virginia, the son of Esther Bolling (Flood) and Richard Evelyn Byrd Sr. He was a descendant of one of the First Families of Virginia. His ancestors include planter John Rolfe and his wife Pocahontas, William Byrd II of Westover Plantation, who established Richmond, as well as William Byrd I and Robert “King” Carter, a colonial governor. He was also descended from George Yeardley, Francis Wyatt and Samuel Argall. […] To finance and gain both political and public support for his expeditions, Byrd actively cultivated relationships with many powerful individuals, including President Franklin Roosevelt, Henry Ford, Edsel Ford, John D. Rockefeller Jr., and Vincent Astor. As a token of his gratitude, Byrd named geographic features in the Antarctic after his supporters. […] Byrd was an active Freemason. He was raised (became a Master Mason) in Federal Lodge No. 1, Washington, D.C., on March 19, 1921, and affiliated with Kane Lodge No. 454, New York City, September 18, 1928. He was a member of National Sojourners Chapter No. 3 at Washington. In 1930, Byrd was awarded a gold medal by Kane Lodge.

Sir Samuel Argall (b. c. 1572 or 1580 – d. 1626) was an English sea captain, navigator, and Deputy-Governour of Virginia, an English colony, who is best known for his diplomacy by force with the Chief of the Powhatan Confederacy. He abducted the Chief’s daughter, Pocahontas, on 13 April 1613, and held her as a captive at Henricus as security against the return of English captives and property held by Powhatan. Pocahontas had long been a friend of the English and was treated with great respect according to her rank, as the English considered her an Algonquian princess.

Sir George Yeardley (b. 1587 – d. November 13, 1627) was a planter and colonial governor of the colony of Virginia. He was also among the first slaveowners in Colonial America. A survivor of the Virginia Company of London‘s ill-fated 1609 Third Supply Mission, whose flagship, the Sea Venture, was shipwrecked on Bermuda for ten months, he is best remembered for presiding over the initial session of the first representative legislative body in Virginia in 1619. With representatives from throughout the settled portion of the colony the group became known as the House of Burgesses and continued to meet, becoming the Virginia General Assembly.

Sir Francis Wyatt (b. 1588 – d. 1644) was an English knight and government official. He was the first royal governor of Virginia. Wyatt sailed for the New World on August, 1621. He became governor shortly after his arrival in November, taking with him the first written constitution for an English colony. In 1622 he rallied the defence of Jamestown which was attacked by Native Americans, during which the lives of some 400 settlers were lost and he then oversaw the contraction of the colony from scattered outposts into a defensive core. Governor Wyatt spearheaded trading and expansion of the Virginia colony. Described as an ancient planter, Wyatt owned several parcels of land.

[as an aside, Jeffrey Edward Epstein was born on January 20, 1953, in Brooklyn, a borough of New York City. He also died in New York City.]

I, Dams Up Water of Powhatan, remember in my spirit, my blood, and my bones, my extensive dealings with these white people here upon my own homeland. I have returned into the living body to settle our business and to remedy the injury which they have wrought upon me and my people.