The Virginia Harrisons comprise two branches, both with origins in northern England. One branch was led by Benjamin Harrison I, who journeyed from Yorkshire by way of Bermuda to Virginia before 1633 and eventually settled on the James River at Berkeley Plantation; Benjamin and his descendants are often referred to as the James River Harrisons. Successive generations of this part of the family served in the legislature of the Colony of Virginia. Benjamin Harrison V also served in the Continental Congress, was a signer of the Declaration of Independence, and later was Governor of Virginia.

The James River branch produced President William Henry Harrison, Benjamin V’s son, and President Benjamin Harrison, William Henry’s grandson, as well as another Virginia governor, Albertis Harrison.

The second branch of the Harrisons was led by Isaiah Harrison, who immigrated in 1687 from Durham, England and settled in the Shenandoah Valley of Virginia in 1737. Isaiah was likely the son of Rev. Thomas Harrison, the chaplain of the Jamestown Colony. Isaiah’s granddaughter Bathsheba married Captain Abraham Lincoln and they were President Lincoln’s grandparents.

Also among the Valley Harrisons were founders of the Virginia towns of Harrisonburg and Dayton. These Harrisons are my Harrisons.

The Harrison family moved to the Valley of Virginia in 1737 via Alexandria, and camped in the Luray area while waiting for their land grants to be finalized. Isaiah died in 1738 and was buried on the banks of the Shenandoah River. Son John settled at Great Spring, and Samuel settled at nearby Linville. Elvis Presley, through his father Vernon, descended from John and wife Phoebe’s daughter Elizabeth and her husband Tunis Hood (Elvis’ great-grandparents).

Isaiah’s son Daniel made the family’s first Virginia land acquisition in 1739 in Rockingham County, and he and brother Thomas founded the towns of Dayton and Harrisonburg respectively. Daniel used the “Durham arms” as his seal for the legal documents in Rockingham.

Abigail Harrison and her husband Alexander Herring settled at Linville also. Their daughter Bathsheba (1742–1836) married Captain Abraham Lincoln (1744–1786), also of Linville, and they had a son Thomas (1778–1851) who married Nancy Hanks (1783–1818). They gave birth to Abraham Lincoln (1809–1865) who became president in 1860. In his brief autobiography, Lincoln had his own take on his Virginia family roots: “My parents were both born in Virginia of undistinguished families… [m]y paternal grandfather, Abraham Lincoln, emigrated from Rockingham County, Virginia….”

add more here about all members of the Isaiah clan….