Welcome to Paceroots
Dedicated to research and discussion of Pace Genealogy, Family History, and Lineage

Browse Surnames · Browse Photos · Browse Sources · Browse Notes · Places List
Dates & Anniversaries · Histories & Documents · Cemetaries & Headstones
View Reports · What's New · Tree Statistics

Search the Database [Advanced Search]
Last Name	First Name

Thank you for visiting Paceroots.com. This site is dedicated to the genealogical research of the Pace Families believed to be descended from Richard Pace of Jamestown. The databases are still a work in progress, starting with my immediate lineage (Pace: John Ashley, Ashley, Twitty, John, Francis, Richard, James, Richard, George, Richard). Surnames currently include: PACE, BURGE, BROWN, CONNELL, CALLIER, COTHRAN, DAVIS, DUNCAN, FOSTER, FREEMAN, GILBERT, HARRISON, LEONARD, MCCULLOGH, MCKEAN, NEWSOME, RIVERS, RODRIGUES, ROGERS, RUSSELL, SCALES, SMITH, SMYTHE, TURNER, WALL, WOODLIEF, YOUNG, and ZIMMERMAN. More will be added as the database continues to grow.

Data Sources - Most of the information on this website is from: (a) recollections and records of immediate family, (b) original sources such as census records, and/or (c) published family histories of other individuals, focusing on those with detailed notes and identified sources. This site will eventually include source references for most all the information contained in the databases, citing either another researcher or an original source. You will also find links to other informative websites elsewhere on this site.

Getting all the source information posted to the website is still a work in progress. Information will continue to get uploaded to the database, with source information as I acquire it. If you have information you would like to share, please register a username and post your questions, comments, or family information to the discussion forums. Please include your source references so others may use that information as well.

If you are connected to the Pace family and want to get involved, Contact Me or leave a message in our Forums.

The first known Pace Family in America was Richard Pace and his wife Isabella Smythe. The first definite record is of their marriage in Stepney, then a suburb on the eastern side of London, 5 October 1608. Richard and Isabella were both from Wapping, another suburb. Both Wapping and Stepney are now part of Greater London. The first record of this family we have in America is in 1620 when Richard and Isabella received grants of 100 acres each. The original patents do not exist, but Isabella's renewal of her patent in 1628, when she was married to William Perry, states that she received the land as an "Ancient Planter".

Their son George Pace also renewed his father's patent in that year, and his patent states that his father Richard received 100 acres based on "personal adventure", or in other words, for coming here himself. These documents would suggest that the Paces were here before 1616, as that was the requirement set forth in the "Greate Charter" of 1618 for an Ancient Planter. However, no one knows for certain when Richard and his family arrived in America but many years of research suggest he arrived sometime between 1611 and 1619. His land was located four miles from Jamestown and across the river on the south side and during that time was called "The Territory of Tappahama, over against James' Cittie". Richard named his estate Pace's Paines and the area grew into a community of plantations, all of which went by the name of Pace's Paines.

The coat of arms depicted on this site is used as a symbol only. It came from the Pace Society of America. It is also displayed on the Pace Network and Gordon Pace's Homepage. Read more about it at the Pace Network.

Here's what the English College of Arms has to say about "Family or Surname coat of arms":

There is no such thing as a 'coat of arms for a surname'. Many people of the same surname will often be entitled to completely different coats of arms, and many of that surname will be entitled to no coat of arms. Coats of arms belong to individuals. For any person to have a right to a coat of arms they must either have had it granted to them or be descended in the legitimate male line from a person to whom arms were granted or confirmed in the past.

Coats of arms have been and still are granted by Letters Patent from the senior heralds, the Kings of Arms. A right to arms can only be established by the registration in the official records of the College of Arms of a pedigree showing direct male line descent from an ancestor already appearing therein as entitled to arms, or by making application through the College of Arms for a grant of arms.